For directional cell migration to occur cells must interpret guiding cues present in their environment. Chemotaxis based on negative or positive signals has been long thought as the main driving force of guided cell migration. However during collective cell migration cells do receive information from external signals but also upon interactions with their direct neighbours. These multiple inputs...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is noncytopathic, hepatotropic and cause acute and chronic necroinflammatory liver diseases. Many chemokine and yours receptors are involved in the HBV pathogenesis, with a role at the infection capacity and the host response. Sequence analysis of a common variant revealed a G→A transition at position 801 (counting from the ATG start codon) in the 3’ untranslated region ...

Stromal cells within the tumor microenvironment are essential for tumor progression and metastasis. Surprisingly little is known about the factors that drive the transcriptional reprogramming of stromal cells within tumors. We report that the transcriptional regulator heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is frequently activated in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), where it is a potent enabler of mali...

Changes in histone methylation status regulate chromatin structure and DNA-dependent processes such as transcription. Recent studies indicate that, analogous to other histone modifications, histone methylation is reversible. Retinoblastoma binding protein 2 (RBP2), a nuclear protein implicated in the regulation of transcription and differentiation by the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein,...

CD34 /CD133 circulating adult progenitor cells (PCs) play an important role in tissue repair in metabolic disease. PCs have a certain plasticity to differentiate into cells with tissue-specific phenotypes (1–3). In diabetic mice, therapeutic use of PCs in models of hindlimb ischemia and wound healing was particularly effective, suggesting a diabetes-dependent defect in PC function (4,5). Accord...

For several tumor entities, a significant correlation between the chemokine stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF1) and its receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), metastasis and tumor proliferation, as well as prognosis, has been described. In this study, a series of 105 renal cell carcinoma patients were analyzed in terms of expression of SDF1α and SDF1β and infiltration by CD4+ and CD...

A major issue in regenerative medicine is the role of injury in promoting cell plasticity. Here we explore the function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced through lesions in adult zebrafish. We show that ROS production, following adult fin amputation, is tightly regulated in time and space for at least 24 hours, whereas ROS production remains transient (2 hours) in mere wound healing. In ...