We have shown cardiac protection by metallothionein (MT) in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) via suppression of cardiac cell death in cardiac-specific MT-overexpressing transgenic (MT-TG) mice. The present study was undertaken to define whether diabetes can induce cardiac endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and whether MT can prevent cardiac cell death via attenuating ER stress. D...

The p38 kinases mediate cell adaptation to stresses and play varying roles in tumorigenesis. However, the isoform-specific cutaneous melanoma (SKCM), particularly context of clinically important driver mutations, remain elusive. We used bioinformatic tools analyze isoform expression TCGA SKCM subtypes defined by presence BRAF or NRAS mutations. found that p38β, p38γ p38δ levels were increased, ...

Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP/ABCG2) is a novel member of ATP- binding cassette transporters, which induce multidrug resistance in cancer cells. We found that a high level of BCRP expression in CD4+ T cells conferred cellular resistance to human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The cell line MT-4/DOX 500 was established through the long...

Summary Understanding the molecular basis for proper cell division requires a detailed functional analysis of microtubule (MT)-associated proteins. MT-associated protein 1S (MAP1S), the most ubiquitously expressed MAP1 family member, is required for accurate cell division. Here, using quantitative analysis of MT plus-end tracking, we show that MAP1S knockdown alters MT dynamics throughout the c...

To clarify the role of metallothionein (MT), an antistress protein, induced by psychological stress, we carried out an experiment to determine whether hepatic MT synthesis induced by restraint stress can be classically conditioned by an olfactory odor cue of camphor. Mice were conditioned by exposure to the odor of camphor 1 hr before restraint stress and partly during restraint stress. Althoug...

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) is involved in the first step in glycerolipid synthesis and is localized in both the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. To clarify the functional differences between ER-GPAT and mitochondrial (Mt)-GPAT, we generated both GPAT mutants in C. elegans and demonstrated that Mt-GPAT is essential for mitochondrial fusion. Mutation of Mt-GPAT caused...

Metallothionein (MT) is a ubiquitous protein with a low molecular weight of 6-7 kDa weight and it was first identified in the kidney cortex of equines as a cadmium (Cd)-binding protein responsible for the natural accumulation of Cd in the tissue. The mammalian MT contains 61 to 68 amino acid residues, in which 18 to 23 cysteine residues are present. The expression of MT starts by binding of met...

Metallothionein (MT) is a cysteine-rich protein that binds to and is inducible by heavy metals such as cadmium and zinc. However, the precise mechanism of MT induction by other metals remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism of MT induction by manganese, focusing on the involvement of cytokine production. Administration of MnCl(2) to mice resulted in the induction of...

Acetyl-CoA (AcCoA) synthetase (Acs) catalyzes the conversion of acetate into AcCoA, which is involved in many catabolic and anabolic pathways. Although this enzyme has been studied for many years in many organisms, the properties of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Acs and the regulation of its activity remain unknown. Here, the putative acs gene of M. tuberculosis H37Rv (Mt-Acs) was expressed as a f...

INTRODUCTION MT PROTEINS In historical reports, a protein with high affinity for heavy metals and unusual cysteine abundance was discovered in 1957 in the equine kidney, and the protein was named metallothionein (MT) due to its high content of metals and sulfur (Kägi and Vallee, 1960; Margoshes and Vallee, 1957). Over the years, it was shown that MT constitutes a superfamily of quite unusual pr...