Hypoxia activates autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved cellular catabolic process. Dysfunction in the autophagy pathway has been implicated in an increasing number of human diseases, including cancer. Hypoxia induces upregulation of a specific set of microRNAs (miRNAs) in a variety of cell types. Here, we describe hypoxia-induced MIR155 as a potent inducer of autophagy. Enforced expression of...

microRNA-155 (miR155) is a central regulator of immune responses that is induced by inflammatory mediators. Although miR155 is considered to be a pro-inflammatory microRNA, in vitro reports show anti-inflammatory effects in lipid-loaded cells. In this study we examined the role of miR155 in atherosclerosis in vivo using bone marrow transplantation from miR155 deficient or wildtype mice to hyper...

Arginine, a semiessential amino acid implicated in diverse cellular processes, is a substrate for two arginases-Arg1 and Arg2-having different expression patterns and functions. Although appropriately regulated Arg1 expression is critical for immune responses, this has not been documented for Arg2. We show that Arg2 is the dominant enzyme in dendritic cells (DCs) and is repressed by microRNA-15...

miR155 is a regulator of immune cell development and function that is generally thought to be immunostimulatory. However, we report here that genetic ablation of miR155 renders mice resistant to chemical carcinogenesis and the growth of several transplanted tumors, suggesting that miR155 functions in immunosuppression and tumor promotion. Host miR155 deficiency promoted overall antitumor immuni...

OBJECTIVE microRNA-155 (miR155) plays a critical role in immunity and macrophage inflammation. We aim to investigate the role of miR155 in atherogenesis. APPROACH AND RESULTS Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that miR155 was expressed in mouse and human atherosclerotic lesions. miR155 expression in macrophages was correlated positively with proinflammatory cytokine expre...

Noncoding RNAs are emerging as regulators of inflammatory and metabolic processes. There is evidence to suggest that miRNA155 (miR155) may be linked to inflammation and processes associated with adipogenesis. We examined the impact of global miRNA-155 deletion (miR155-/-) on the development of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. We hypothesized that loss of miR155 would decrease adipose tissue...

OBJECTIVE We herein examine the role of endogenous miR155 in the development of systemic manifestations in pristane induced lupus. MATERIALS AND METHODS Systemic lupus in miR155-deficient and wild type mice was induced upon injection of pristane and analyzed after 8 months, PBS-injected mice served as controls. Glomerulonephritis and pneumonitis were quantified using the kidney biopsy score a...

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by EGF promotes cervical cancer progression; however, the mechanisms underlying the EGF-induced EMT remain unclear. In this study, we reported that miR155 overexpression suppressed EGF-induced EMT, decreased migration/invasion capacities, inhibited cell proliferation and increased the chemo-sensitivity to DDP in human Caski cervical cancer cel...

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a common disease in postmenopausal women, in whom the estrogen deficiency aggravates the pathology. In this study, we have found that estrogen deficiency due to ovariectomy aggravates the inflammation in the hearts of diabetic mice, as depicted by excessive proinflammatory type 1 macrophages (M1) over anti-inflammatory type 2 macrophages (M2). Accordingly, an addition...

Ubiquilin (UBQLN) proteins are adaptors thought to link ubiquitinated proteins to the proteasome. However, our lab has recently reported a previously unappreciated role for loss of UBQLN in lung cancer progression. In fact, UBQLN genes are lost in over 50% of lung cancer samples examined. However, a reason for the loss of UBQLN has not been proposed, nor has a selective pressure that could lead...