Introduction: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a heterodimer made up of an oxygen-regulated HIF-1α subunit and a constitutively expressed HIF-1β subunit. Under hypoxic conditions, HIF-1α is stabilized and binds to hypoxia response elements that act as transcriptional controls of several genes. Among the 70 target genes of HIF-1 known so far, several are involved in angiogenesis, cell proli...

adenoviruses are used extensively to deliver genes into mammalian cells, particularly where there is a requirement for high-level expression of transgene products in cultured cells, or for use as recombinant viral vaccines or in gene therapy. in spite of their usefulness, the construction of adenoviral vectors (adv) is a cumbersome and lengthy process that is not readily amenable to the generat...

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) has been shown to influence energy metabolism. Hence, we explored a strategy to target PGC-1α expression to treat metabolic syndromes. We developed a high-throughput screening assay that uses the human PGC-1α promoter to drive expression of luciferase. The effects of lead compound stimulation on PGC-1α expression in muscle cel...

DNA methylation at CpG rich regions often occurs at tumor suppressor gene promoters, resulting in reduced gene expression and final carcinogenesis. Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes, including DAPK-1 and RASSF-1α genes, have been found in patients with bladder carcinoma (BC) in some western countries. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) was reported to play a causative role in gene hypermeth...

The transcription factor HIF-1α activity is increased in adipose tissue to contribute to chronic inflammation in obesity. However, its upstream and downstream events remain to be characterized in adipose tissue in obesity. We addressed this issue by investigating adipocyte HIF-1α activity in response to obesity-associated factors, such as adipogenesis, insulin, and hypoxia. In adipose tissue, b...

background: leishmaniasis is a worldwide disease prevalent in tropical and sub- tropical countries in the world. characterization of inflammatory responses produced in cutaneous leishmaniasis has not yet been completed. methods: the specific primers were designed for ten pro-inflammatory genes including ccl4, ccl3, tnf-α, il-1α, il-12p35, il-12p40, ccl5, ccr5, il-1β and ifn- γ and their express...

Mucus secretion is often uncontrolled in many airway inflammatory diseases of humans. Identifying the regulatory pathway(s) of mucus gene expression, mucus overproduction, and hypersecretion is important to alleviate airway inflammation in these diseases. However, the regulatory signaling pathway controlling mucus overproduction has not been fully identified yet. In this study, we report that t...

The dopaminergic neuron degeneration and loss that occurs in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been tightly linked to mitochondrial dysfunction. Although the aged-related cause of the mitochondrial defect observed in PD patients remains unclear, nuclear genes are of potential importance to mitochondrial function. Human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1α) is a mul...