Actins play essential roles in cellular morphogenesis. In mice, the t-actin 1 and 2 genes, which encode actin-like proteins, are specifically expressed in haploid germ cells. Both T-ACTIN 1/ACTLB and T-ACTIN 2/ACTL7A have also been cloned as orthologous genes in humans; they are present on chromosome 9q31.3 as intronless genes. Defects of germ cell-specific genes can introduce infertility witho...

Acetylcholine (ACh) is the primary parasympathetic neurotransmitter in the airways. Recently, it was established that ACh, via muscarinic receptors, regulates airway remodeling in animal models of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The mechanisms involved are not well understood. Here, we investigated the functional interaction between muscarinic receptor stimulation and t...

objective(s):fuzheng huayu recipe (fzhy) exerts significant protective effects against liver fibrosis by strengthening the body’s resistance and removing blood stasis. however, the molecular mechanisms through which fzhy affects liver fibrosis are still unclear. in this study, we examined the expression levels of factors involved in the inhibitor κb kinase-β (ikk-β)/nuclear factor-κb (nf-κb) an...

Abstract The monomeric (G-actin) and polymer (F-actin) forms of actin play important role in muscle development contraction, cellular motility, division, transport processes. Leiomodins 1–3 (Lmod1–3) are crucial for the sarcomeres. Unlike tropomodulins that localize only at pointed ends, striated specific Lmod2 shows diffuse distribution along entire length thin filaments. G-actin-binding profi...

BACKGROUND Quantitative real time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) is one of the most important techniques for gene-expression analysis in molecular based studies. Selecting a proper internal control gene for normalizing data is a crucial step in gene expression analysis via this method. The expression levels of reference genes should be remained constant among cells in different tissues. Ho...

Although SWI3-related gene (SRG3), a chromatin remodeling factor, is critical for various biological processes including early embryogenesis and thymocyte development, it is unclear whether SRG3 is involved in the differentiation of CD4+ T cells, the key mediator of adaptive immune responses. Because it is known that experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) development is determined by t...

Reference proteins (RP) or the total protein (TP) loaded is used to correct for uneven loading and/or transfer in Western blotting. However, the signal sensitivity and the influence of physiological conditions may question the normalization methods. Therefore, three widely used reference proteins [β-actin, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and α-tubulin], as well as TP loaded me...

Chronic high glucose (HG) inflicts glucotoxicity on vulnerable cell types such as pancreatic β cells and contributes to insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion in diabetic patients. To identify HG-induced cellular aberrations that are candidate mediators of glucotoxicity in pancreatic β cells, we analyzed gene expression in ERoSHK6, a mouse insulin-secreting cell line after chronic HG...