BACKGROUND The ubiquitin-editing cytosolic enzyme A20, the major negative regulator of toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated cellular inflammatory responses, has tight genetic linkage with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Because recent studies implicate endogenous ligand-driven TLR signaling in SSc pathogenesis, we sought to investigate the regulation, role and mechanism of action of A20 in skin fibrobla...

alzheimer’s disease (ad) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive and other cns impairments which is increasing worldwide and poses a major public health problem, yet no effective treatments are found and available drugs only alleviate the symptoms temporarily. postmortem analyses on the brains of ad patients and observed lower risk of ad in nsaids users among other studies hav...

BACKGROUND Although TGF-ß and the transcription factor Egr-1 play an important role in both kidney fibrosis and in response to acute changes of renal medullary osmolarity, their role under sustained hypo- or hyperosmolar conditions has not been elucidated. We investigated the effects of chronic hypertonicity and hypotonicity on the renal medullary TGF-ß and Egr-1 expression. METHODS Male adul...

Transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) signaling is implicated in the pathogenesis of fibrosis in scleroderma or systemic sclerosis (SSc), but the precise mechanisms are poorly understood. The immediate-early gene Egr-1 is an inducible transcription factor with key roles in mediating fibrotic TGF-ß responses. To elucidate Egr-1 function in SSc-associated fibrosis, we examined change in gene expre...

Aging promotes endothelial dysfunction, defined as a reduction in bioavailable nitric oxide (NO) produced by the endothelial isoform of nitric oxide synthase (NOS3). This enzyme is critically regulated by phosphorylation by protein kinase B (Akt), which in turn is regulated by the lipid phosphatase, PTEN. The present series of studies demonstrated a reduction in bioavailable NO as the age of ra...

The nuclear orphan receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ) is expressed in multiple cell types in addition to adipocytes. Upon its activation by natural ligands such as fatty acids and eicosanoids, or by synthetic agonists such as rosiglitazone, PPAR-γ regulates adipogenesis, glucose uptake and inflammatory responses. Recent studies establish a novel role for PPAR-γ s...

The aim of this study to evaluate the expression Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), TGF- ß, and IL-10 in placental tissue aborted women correlation with Toxoplasma.gondii (T. gondii) these cytokines each other toxoplasmosis, during an abortion. samples have been processed used for immunohistochemistry PDL-1, IL-10, TGF-β. There was increase TGF-β, infected T.gondii, results showed that residence p...

Keloids are characterized by excessive extracelluar matrix (ECM) deposition such as collagen, fibronectin, elastin, and proteoglycans in the dermis. Recently, the use of botulinum toxin A (BTXA) in the treatment of keloids have had good results. To investigate the therapeutic effect of BTXA on the keloids, we evaluated the mRNA expression of collagen type I, type III, MMP (matrix metalloprotein...

background: it has been documented that cytokines play important roles in the induction of normal functions of the placenta. it has been hypothesized that abnormal expression of the cytokines may be associated with unsuccessful pregnancy. objective: the aim of this study was to compare the serum levels of interleukin-17a (il-17a) and tumor growth factor (tgf-ß) in pre-term, term neonates, and t...