The present study was designed to determine whether progesterone might have a role in gonadotrophin-induced pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (Pacap) gene expression in rat ovary. Northern blot analysis revealed that treatment of pregnant mare's serum gonadotrophin (PMSG)-primed immature rats with the progestin antagonist RU486 or an inhibitor of 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogen...

Systems capable of targeting genetic manipulations to keratin-positive airway basal cells are more poorly developed than systems targeting other airway epithelial cell populations and this has likely hindered development of animal models of diseases such as lung squamous cell carcinoma. Although keratin promoter driven-Cre recombinase constructs are potentially useful for targeting these cells,...

The hypothesis that circulating cortisol levels influence the outcome of social interactions in rainbow trout was tested. Juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were given a single intraperitoneal (i.p.) implant containing either cortisol (110 mg kg(-1) fish), or cortisol plus the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486 (mifepristone; 1100 mg kg(-1) fish), and sampled after 5 days of socia...

A girl who developed Cushingoid features in peripuberty, but was eucortisolemic, was previously reported to have markedly elevated lymphocyte glucocorticoid receptor sites per cell with normal binding affinity as a potential cause of her phenotype. Her circadian rhythm of cortisol and pituitary-adrenal axis were initially intact, but later proved to be dysregulated. The patient presented at age...

BACKGROUND Progesterone-withdrawal (WP)-induced endometrial breakdown occurs in both physiological and pathological processes such as menstruation and abortion. However, the underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. As the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway has been proposed to play a role in endometrial breakdown, we tested this hypothesis using RU486-induced mouse menstruation-like mod...

BACKGROUND Estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) are key players in the maturation of the human endometrium. The corresponding steroid hormone modulators, tamoxifen (TAM) and mifepristone (RU486) are widely used in breast cancer therapy and for contraception purposes, respectively. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Gene expression profiling of the human endometrial Ishikawa cancer cell line treate...

OBJECTIVES Dexamethasone (Dex) causes neurodegeneration in developing brain. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and -II (IGF-II) are potent neurotrophic and differentiation factors and play key roles in the regulation of growth and development of CNS. Current project evaluated the effects of Dex on IGF-I and -II in developing rat brains. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sprague-Dawley rat pups in each ...

Colorado Denver. The inducible head-and-neck specific knockout system consists of two mouse lines, the K14.CrePR1 or K5.Cre*PR1 mice, in which Cre recombinase can be activated in head-and-neck epithelia by RU486 (1, 2), and the Smad4f/f mice, in which the Smad4 gene is floxed (3). These mouse lines were crossbred to generate compound mice, allowing for homozygous Smad4 deletion (Figure S1A). Li...

Uterine leiomyoma is the most common tumor of the female genital tract and the leading cause of hysterectomy. Although progesterone stimulates the proliferation of uterine leiomyoma cells, the mechanism of progesterone action is not well understood. We used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-cloning approach to identify progesterone receptor (PR) target genes in primary uterine leiomyoma smoo...