The competence and sporulation factor (CSF) of Bacillus subtilis is an extracellular pentapeptide produced from the product of phrC. CSF has at least three activities: (i) at low concentrations, it stimulates expression of genes activated by the transcription factor ComA; at higher concentrations, it (ii) inhibits expression of those same genes and (iii) stimulates sporulation. Because the acti...

OBJECTIVE Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is used to boost granulocyte counts in immunocompromised patients, but its effects on the immune system may be counterproductive. We tested the hypothesis that G-CSF-mobilized peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) products are immunologically downregulated based on gene microarray analysis. METHODS Ten peripheral blood samples from normal do...

Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1; M-CSF) is a growth factor required for growth and differentiation of mononuclear phagocytes. The effects of CSF-1 are mediated through binding to specific, high-affinity surface receptors encoded by the c-fms gene. CSF-1 and c-fms gene expression was investigated in fresh human acute myeloblastic leukemic cells by Northern blot hybridization using cD...

In vitro studies have indicated that the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene expression is regulated at the posttranscriptional level by the AU-rich element (ARE) sequence present in its 3' untranslated region (UTR). This study investigated the importance of the ARE in the control of GM-CSF gene expression in vivo. For this purpose, transgenic mice bearing GM-CSF gene...

Granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is produced by T cells, but not B cells, in response to immune signals. GM-CSF gene activation in response to T-cell stimulation requires remodelling of chromatin associated with the gene promoter, and these changes do not occur in B cells. While the CpG methylation status of the murine GM-CSF promoter shows no correlation with the abili...

The macrophage and granulocyte colony-stimulating factors, M-CSF and G-CSF, act in vitro to induce proliferation and differentiation of monocyte and granulocyte progenitor cells, respectively. We show here that both of these CSFs can be produced by stimulated human blood monocytes, but the M-CSF and G-CSF genes are independently regulated. Recombinant human interleukin-3 (IL-3) and GM-CSF prima...

The EGR-1 gene is an immediate early response gene encoding a zinc finger DNA-binding protein. The present studies have examined the regulation of EGR-1 gene expression in human U-937 monocytic leukemia cells treated with granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF). The results demonstrate that GM-CSF rapidly and transiently increases EGR-1 gene expression in U-937 cells. Similar f...

Mice lacking granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) were generated by targeted disruption of the G-CSF gene in embryonal stem cells. G-CSF-deficient mice (genotype GCSF-/-) are viable, fertile, and superficially healthy, but have a chronic neutropenia. Peripheral blood neutrophil levels were 20% to 30% of wild-type mice (genotype G-CSF+/ +) and mice heterozygousfor the null mutation had ...