MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are short, endogenous non-coding RNA molecules, demonstrating abnormal expression in cancer initiation and progression. In this study, we profiled 18 differentially regulated miRNAs, including miRNA‑31, using miRNA array. Kruppel (or Krüppel)-like factor 4 (Klf4) is a transcription factor and putative tumor suppressor. Both were found to be significantly downregulated...

RATIONALE Myeloid-derived C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP), an effector of the endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced unfolded protein response, promotes macrophage apoptosis in advanced atherosclerosis, but the role of CHOP in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in atherosclerosis is not known. OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of CHOP in SM22α(+) VSMCs in atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULT...

Proliferation inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is governed by the activity of a transcription factor network. Krüppel-like factor 4 (Klf4), retinoic acid receptor (RAR ), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) are expressed in VSMCs and are components of such a network. However, the relationship among them in the regulation of VSMC proliferation remains unknown. H...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. While our understanding of the molecular events in the lung cancers are poor. In this report, we reviewed the current studies on a transcription factor named Krüppel-like Factor 4(KLF4) in lung cancer. Tissue studies showed that KLF4 expression was significantly decreased in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while significant ove...

Adriamycin-based combination chemotherapy is the standard first-line treatment for osteosarcoma, but tumor recurrence and metastasis occurs in most cases. Recent evidence suggests that microenvironmental stress such as chemotherapy can lead to the enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs), which result in cancer metastasis, recurrence, and drug resistance. However, the exact mechanisms underlying ...

BACKGROUND Mouse krüppel-like factor 4 (Klf4) is a zinc finger-containing transcription factor required for terminal differentiation of goblet cells in the colon. However, studies using either Klf4(-/-) mice or mice with conditionally deleted Klf4 in their gastric epithelia showed different results in the role of Klf4 in epithelial cell proliferation. We used zebrafish as a model organism to ga...

Maintenance of vascular integrity in the adult animal is needed for survival, and it is critically dependent on the endothelial lining, which controls barrier function, blood fluidity, and flow dynamics. However, nodal regulators that coordinate endothelial identity and function in the adult animal remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that endothelial KLF2 and KLF4 control a large segment...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of Krüppel-Like factor 4 (KLF4) in cisplatin resistance in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells, which may eventually help to improve the treatment efficacy. MATERIAL AND METHODS Human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell line CaEs-17, TE-1, EC109, KYSE510, KYSE140, KYSE70, and KYSE30 were selected to detect their s...

DNA methylation, especially CpG methylation at promoter regions, has been generally considered as a potent epigenetic modification that prohibits transcription factor (TF) recruitment, resulting in transcription suppression. Here, we used a protein microarray-based approach to systematically survey the entire human TF family and found numerous purified TFs with methylated CpG (mCpG)-dependent D...

The reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotency using defined transcription factors holds great promise for biomedicine. However, human reprogramming remains inefficient and relies either on the use of the potentially dangerous oncogenes KLF4 and CMYC or the genetic inhibition of the tumor suppressor gene p53. We hypothesized that inhibition of signal transduction pathways that promote diffe...