background: the mitogen-activated protein kinase (mapk) pathway is one of the major signaling pathways that transmit intracellular signals initiated by extracellular stimuli to the nucleus. the stress-activated protein kinase (sapk)/c-jun nh2-terminal kinase is a subfamily of map kinases implicated in cytokine and stress responses. objective: in this study, we have examined total and phosphoryl...

PURPOSE The purpose of this research was to determine whether a correlation exists between the levels of activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Src kinases and the progression from normal to malignant endometrium. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We measured total and phosphorylated levels for extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, p38, stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun NH(2)-termin...

Candidiasis, in its mucocutaneous form as well as in an invasive form, is frequently associated with high morbidity. PGE(2), which is generated by enzymatic activity of cyclooxygenases (COXs) 1 and 2, has been shown to trigger morphogenesis in Candida albicans. In the present study, we investigated whether C. albicans altered COX-2 expression in HeLa cells. RT-PCR and Western blot analyses reve...

The transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/Smad signaling pathway is involved in hepatocellular carcinoma development. Smad2 and Smad3 are phosphorylated following TGF-β1 stimulation and subsequently oligomerize with Smad4 to form the Smad2/3/4 complex, which translocates into the nucleus and regulates target genes, including plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI1). Importin (Imp)7 and Imp8 a...

BACKGROUND Animal models show us that specific activation of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) may be a pivotal step in lidocaine neurotoxicity, but this has not been investigated in the case of two very widely used local anesthetics, bupivacaine and ropivacaine. We investigated the hypotheses that these drugs (A) are less neurotoxic than the prototype local anesthetic, lidocaine ...

Delayed cytoprotection (preconditioning) occurs 24 h after sublethal simulated ischaemia and reperfusion (SI/R) in neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes. SI/R was used to investigate the role of activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), stress-activated protein kinases (SAPKs) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent protein kinase B (PKB)/Akt in cytoprotection. SI resulted in t...

The upregulated kinin B1 receptors exert a pivotal role in modulating inflammatory processes. In isolated human umbilical veins (HUVs), kinin B1 receptor is upregulated as a function of in vitro incubation time and proinflammatory stimuli. The aim of this study was to evaluate, using functional and biochemical methods, the involvement of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5), p38 mitog...

Quinazoline derivatives are multitarget agents with a broad spectrum of biological activity. 3-(5-nitro-2-thienyl)-9-chloro-5-morpholin-4-yl[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-c]quinazoline (NTCHMTQ) is a new synthetically prepared derivative, which in our previous studies showed antiproliferative and apoptosis inducing activities towards murine L1210 leukemia cells. The aim of this study was to provide the in...

MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathways are among the most frequently deregulated signalling events in cancer. Among the critical targets of MAPK activities are members of the AP-1 (activator protein 1) transcription factor, a dimeric complex consisting of Jun, Fos, Maf and ATF (activating transcription factor) family DNA-binding proteins. Depending on the cellular context, the composi...

Effects of inhibitors of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK/MAPK) cascade have been examined in relation to paclitaxel-induced apoptosis in human monocytic leukemia cells (U937). Cells treated with paclitaxel (250 nm; 6 h) followed by PD98059 [corrected] exhibited a significant increase in mitochondrial dysfunction (e.g., cytochrome c release), cas...