Rationale: Glomerular capillaries are lined with a highly specialized fenestrated endothelium and contribute to the glomerular filtration barrier. The Notch signaling pathway is involved in regulation of barrier, but its role has not been investigated due embryonic lethality animal models genetic modification components endothelium. Objective: To determine effects aberrant activation underlying...

E26 transformation-specific-1 (ETS-1), an ETS family transcription factor, has been reported to play an important role in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, but clinical implications of ETS-1 expression in prostate cancer (PCa), particularly high-risk cases, including response to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) have yet to be elucidated. We examined the expression of ETS-...

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1) is a marker for endothelial-specific gene expression. We previously reported that the human VEGFR1 promoter (between -748 and +284) contains information for expression in the intact endothelium of transgenic mice. The objective of this study was to dissect the cis-regulatory elements underlying VEGFR1 promoter activity in vitro and in vivo....

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that can generate various microenvironment components in bone marrow, ensuring a precise control over self-renewal and multilineage differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells. Nevertheless, their spatiotemporal correlation with embryonic hematopoiesis remains rudimentary, particularly in relation to the human being. Here, we reported tha...

Spi-C is an E26 transformation-specific family transcription factor that is highly related to PU.1 and Spi-B. Spi-C is expressed in developing B cells, but its function in B cell development and function is not well characterized. To determine whether Spi-C functions as a negative regulator of Spi-B (encoded by Spib), mice were generated that were germline knockout for Spib and heterozygous for...

Aberrant expression of the secreted protein, acidic, cysteine-rich (osteonectin) (SPARC) gene, which encodes a matricellular protein that participates in normal tissue remodeling, is associated with a variety of diseases including cancer, but the contribution of SPARC to malignant growth remains controversial. We previously reported that SPARC was among the most upregulated genes in cytogenetic...