Background. Chemerin and retinol binding protein-4 (RBP-4) are adipokines which may play a role in the progression of NAFLD. It has been also suggested that cytokeratin-18 (CK-18) could be a marker of hepatocyte caspase-directed death while transgelin-2 production could reflect stage of liver fibrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of the above adipokines in sera of patients ...

The immunological synapse (IS), a dynamic and organized junction between T-cells and antigen presenting cells (APCs), is critical for initiating adaptive immunity. The actin cytoskeleton plays a major role in T-cell reorganization during IS formation, and we previously reported that transgelin-2, an actin-binding protein expressed in T-cells, stabilizes cortical F-actin, promoting T-cell activa...

Transgelin (TAGLN), also known as smooth muscle protein 22 (SM22), is a highly conserved protein found in smooth muscle tissues of adult vertebrates. Abolition of transgelin gene expression by the oncogenic Ras may be an important early event in tumor progression and a diagnostic marker for breast and colon cancer development. Transgelin contains a single calponin homology (CH) domain. However,...

Surgical resection supplemented with adjuvant chemotherapy is the current preferred treatment for Stage III colorectal cancer (CRC). However, as many as 48% of patients who undergo curative resection eventually suffer from incurable distant recurrence. To investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in Stage III CRC post-surgical distant recurrence, we identified a total of 146 differentially ...

The influence of spinal cord injury (SCI) on protein expression in the rat urinary bladder was assessed by proteomic analysis at different time intervals post-injury. After contusion SCI between T9 and T10, bladder tissues were processed by 2-DE and MALDI-TOF/MS at 6 hr to 28 days after SCI to identify proteins involved in the healing process of SCI-induced neurogenic bladder. Approximately 1,0...

Activated Ras but not Raf can transform RIE-1 and other epithelial cells, indicating the critical importance of Raf-independent effector function in Ras transformation of epithelial cells. To elucidate the nature of these Raf-independent activities, we utilized representational difference analysis to identify genes aberrantly expressed by Ras through Raf-independent mechanisms in RIE-1 cells. W...

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) caused by NF1 gene mutation is a commonly inherited autosomal dominant disorder. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs), a type of aggressive sarcoma, are a major cause of mortality in NF1 patients. The malignant transformation of benign plexiform neurofibromas (PNs) to MPNSTs is a marked peculiarity in NF1 patients, yet the pathogenesis remains poorly ...

Coronary atherosclerosis, the main condition predisposing to acute myocardial infarction, has an inflammatory component caused by stimuli that are yet unknown. We molecularly investigated the nature of the immune response within human coronary lesion in four coronary plaques obtained by endoluminal atherectomy from four patients. We constructed phage-display libraries containing the IgG1/kappa ...

Human vascular wall-resident CD44+ multipotent stem cells (VW-MPSCs) within the vascular adventitia are capable to differentiate into pericytes and smooth muscle cells (SMC). This study demonstrates HOX-dependent differentiation of CD44(+) VW-MPSCs into SMC that involves epigenetic modification of transgelin as a down-stream regulated gene. First, HOXB7, HOXC6 and HOXC8 were identified to be di...