This study investigated the effect of cilostazol on proangiogenesis functions in human early endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in vitro and the therapeutic implication of hybrid therapy with cilostazol and human early EPCs in vivo. Cilostazol significantly increased colony-forming units and enhanced differentiation of EPCs toward endothelial lineage. Treatments resulted in antiapoptotic effec...

Phosphodiesterase is an enzyme that degrades the phosphodiester bond in second messenger molecules cAMP and cGMP, regulates localization, duration, amplitude of cyclic nucleotide signaling within subcellular domains. Sildenafil a potent selective inhibitor type 5 cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase used clinically to treat erectile dysfunction pulmonary arterial hypertension. In this study, we exam...

A major consequence of microbial infection is the tissue injury that results from the host inflammatory response. In acne, inflammation is due in part to the ability of Propionibacterium acnes to activate TLR2. Because all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) decreases inflammation in acne, we investigated whether it regulates TLR2 expression and function. Treatment of primary human monocytes with ATRA l...

Patients with widespread neuroblastoma (NB) frequently have elevated serum ferritin levels, and recently anti-NB effects of the iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO) have been reported. We have investigated the effect of DFO on human bone marrow NB cells from two untreated children with Evans Stage IV disease. DFO treatment caused dose- and time-dependent cytotoxicity of NB cells, with maximal killi...

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer often have severe side effects that limit their efficacy. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are frequently used as cotreatment because they may have potent proapoptotic properties and reduce nausea, hyperemesis, and acute toxicity on normal tissue. In contrast to the proapoptotic effect of GCs in lymphoid cells, resistance toward cancer therapy-mediated apoptos...