Drinking water contaminated with arsenic, a human carcinogen, is a worldwide health issue. An understanding of cellular signaling events in response to arsenic exposure and rational designing of strategies to reduce arsenic damages by modulating signaling events are important to fight against arsenic-induced diseases. Previously, we reported that activation of the Nrf2-mediated cellular defense...

The antioxidant response element (ARE) is a transcriptional control element that mediates expression of a set of antioxidant proteins. Nrf2 is a transcription factor that activates ARE-containing genes. In endothelial cells, the ARE-mediated genes are upregulated by athero-protective laminar flow through a Nrf2-dependent mechanism. We tested the hypothesis that activation of ARE-regulated genes...

Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), the transcriptional master regulator of the stress-induced antioxidant response, plays a key role in neuronal resistance to oxidative stress and glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. Nrf2-mediated neuroprotection is primarily conferred by astrocytes both in vitro and in vivo, but little is known about physiologic signals that regulate neuronal and...

Specific regions of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain are burdened with extracellular protein deposits, the accumulation of which is concomitant with a complex cascade of overlapping events. Many of these pathological processes produce oxidative stress. Under normal conditions, oxidative stress leads to the activation of defensive gene expression that promotes cell survival. At the forefront o...

Caloric restriction (CR) is the most potent intervention known to both protect against carcinogenesis and extend lifespan in laboratory animals. A variety of anticarcinogens and CR mimetics induce and activate the NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway. Nrf2, in turn, induces a number of antioxidative and carcinogen-detoxifying enzymes. Thus, Nrf2 offers a promising target for anticarcinogenesis...

Recent genetic studies in Drosophila identified a novel non-canonical Wnt pathway, the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway, that signals via JNK to control epithelial cell polarity in Drosophila. Most recently, a pathway regulating convergent extension movements during gastrulation in vertebrate embryos has been shown to be a vertebrate equivalent of the PCP pathway. However, it is not known whe...

The antioxidant response element (ARE) is a transcriptional control element that mediates expression of a set of antioxidant proteins. NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that activates ARE-containing genes. In endothelial cells, the ARE-mediated genes are upregulated by atheroprotective laminar flow through a Nrf2-dependent mechanism. We tested the hypothesis that activatio...

The nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that responds to oxidative stress by binding to the antioxidant response element (ARE) in the promoter of genes coding for antioxidant enzymes like NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 and proteins for glutathione synthesis. The Nrf2/ARE pathway has nutritional interest owing to its activation by phytochemicals such as sulforap...

Oxidative stress is known to play an important role in oral cancer development. In this study we aimed to examine whether a chemical activator of NRF2, sulforaphane (SFN), may have chemopreventive effects on oxidative stress-associated oral carcinogenesis. We first showed that Nrf2 activation and oxidative damage were commonly seen in human samples of oral leukoplakia. With gene microarray and ...

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by inflammatory lung disease that significantly contributes to morbidity and mortality. Airway epithelial cells play a role in the inflammatory signaling in CF and have been reported to exhibit a number of dysfunctions in signaling cascades that modulate inflammation. Previously, we reported that the activity of nuclear factor erythroid-derived-like 2 (Nrf2...