Epidemiological studies suggest sex-specific trends in the prevalence and mortality of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that are distinct for each disease. While the expression of numerous immune and extracellular matrix (ECM) genes in the lung have been well characterized in these diseases, associations elucidating their sex-specific expressi...

Phospholipase C δ1 (PLCD1) encodes an enzyme involved in energy metabolism, calcium homeostasis and intracellular movement. It is located at 3p22 in a region that is frequently deleted in multiple cancers, and the PLCD1 enzyme is a potential tumour suppressor in breast cancer that inhibits matrix metalloprotease (MMP) 7, but the detailed mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we found that P...

Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2, MMP7 and MMP9 are important members of the MMP family. Four polymorphisms in the promoter region of these MMPs, which are MMP2 -1306 C>T, MMP2 -735 C>T, MMP7 -181 A>G and MMP9 -1562 C>T, have been reported to be functional and may contribute to genetic susceptibility to cancers. However, the associations between these polymorphisms and cancer risk remain inconc...

Molecular beacons are FRET-based target-activatable probes. They offer control of fluorescence emission in response to specific cancer targets, thus are useful tools for in vivo cancer imaging. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cell-killing process by light activation of a photosensitizer (PS) in the presence of oxygen. The key cytotoxic agent is singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)). By combining these two p...

Gastric cancer (GC) develops through deregulation of gene expression and accumulation of epigenetic abnormalities, leading to tumor cell acquisition of malignant features. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in cancer development where they can act as oncogenes or oncosuppressors. To identify miRNAs that are associated with some clinicopathologic features of GC and/or participate in tumor p...

Objective: Proteins of the matrix metalloproteinases family play a vital role in extracellular matrix maintenance and basic physiological processes in tissue homeostasis. The function and activities of matrix metalloproteinases in response to compression therapies have yet to be defined. Here, a swine model of hypertrophic scar was used to profile the transcription of all known 26 matrix metall...

Pancreatic cancer cell invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis are major challenges for the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Protein kinase D (PKD) isoforms are involved in controlling tumor cell motility, angiogenesis, and metastasis. In particular PKD2 expression is up-regulated in pancreatic cancer, whereas PKD1 expression is lowered. We report that both kinases control pancreatic...

BACKGROUND Many studies have shown that colon cancer is an estrogen-dependent carcinoma. This study explored the efficacy of endocrine therapy in colon cancer cells with high metastatic potential (HT29). We investigated the proliferation of HT29 cells after exposure to endocrine therapy (tamoxifen) and 5-FU. METHODS Apoptosis was evaluated using flow cytometry. The expression of matrix metall...