Prostate apoptosis response 4 (par-4) is a recently identified gene that encodes a transcription factor, Par-4, with a leucine zipper domain. Par-4 protein is constitutively expressed in various cell lines and is functionally required but not sufficient for apoptosis. Induction of Par-4 in cultured cells is found exclusively during apoptosis, and ectopic overexpression of Par-4 enhances the pot...

RATIONALE Recent studies suggest that host immune responses to environmental fungi may play an important role in the development of allergic diseases, such as human asthma. Epithelium is considered an active participant in allergic inflammation. We previously reported that aspartate protease from Alternaria induces the activation and degranulation of human eosinophils that are mediated through ...

Proteinases such as thrombin and trypsin can affect tissues by activating a novel family of G protein-coupled proteinase-activated receptors (PARs 1-4) by exposing a 'tethered' receptor-triggering ligand (TL). Work with synthetic TL-derived PAR peptide sequences (PAR-APs) that stimulate PARs 1, 2 and 4 has shown that PAR activation can play a role in many tissues, including the gastrointestinal...

Protease-activated receptors (PARs) mediate cellular responses to a variety of extracellular proteases. The four known PARs constitute a subgroup of the family of seven-transmembrane domain G protein-coupled receptors and activate intracellular signalling pathways typical for this family of receptors. Activation of PARs involves proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain, resulting in for...

We recently reported the caspase3-dependent cleavage of Par-4 resulting in the accumulation of a 25kDa cleaved-Par-4 (cl-Par-4) fragment and we investigated in the present study the mechanisms regulating this fragment using cl-Par-4-expressing stable clones derived from ovarian and endometrial cancer cell lines.Cl-Par-4 protein was weakly express in all stable clones despite constitutive expres...

Percent area reduction (PAR) after 4 weeks of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) treatment has been suggested as a clinical monitoring parameter to distinguish DFUs that will heal within 12 weeks from those that will not despite standard wound care. The purpose of this post-hoc analysis of control DFU treatment outcomes from two published, randomized, controlled studies was to assess the relationship be...