Asphyxia during delivery produces long-term deficits in brain development, including hippocampus. We investigated hippocampal plasticity after perinatal asphyxia, measuring postnatal apoptosis and neurogenesis. Asphyxia was performed by immersing rat fetuses with uterine horns removed from ready-to-deliver rats into a water bath for 20 min. Caesarean-delivered pups were used as controls. The animals were euthanized 1 week or 1 month after birth. Apoptotic nuclear morphology and DNA breaks were assessed by Hoechst and TUNEL assays. Neurogenesis was estimated by bromodeoxyuridine/MAP-2 immunocytochemistry, and the levels and expression of proteins related to apoptosis and cell proliferation were measured by Western blots and in situ hybridization, respectively. There was an increase of apoptosis in CA1, CA3, and dentate gyrus (DG) and cell proliferation and neurogenesis in CA1, DG, and hilus regions of hippocampus 1 week after asphyxia. The increase of apoptosis in CA3 and cell proliferation in the suprapyramidal band of DG was still observed 1 month following asphyxia. There was an increase of BAD, BCL-2, ERK2, and bFGF levels in whole hippocampus and bFGF expression in CA1 and CA2 and hilus at P7 and P30. There was a concomitant decrease of phosphorylated-BAD (Ser112) levels. The increase of BAD levels supports the idea of delayed cell death after perinatal asphyxia, whereas the increases of BCL-2, ERK2, and bFGF levels suggest the activation of neuroprotective and repair pathways. In conclusion, perinatal asphyxia induces short- and long-term regionally specific plastic changes, including delayed cell death and neurogenesis, involving pro- and antiapoptotic as well as mitogenic proteins, favoring hippocampal functional recovery.
Tumor cells principally exhibit increased mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨ(m)) and altered metabolic pathways. The therapeutic targeting and delivery of anticancer drugs to the mitochondria might improve treatment efficacy. Gallic acid exhibits a variety of biological activities, and its ester derivatives can induce mitochondrial dysfunction. Four alkyl gallate triphenylphosphonium lipophilic cations were synthesized, each differing in the size of the linker chain at the cationic moiety. These derivatives were selectively cytotoxic toward tumor cells. The better compound (TPP(+)C10) contained 10 carbon atoms within the linker chain and exhibited an IC50 value of approximately 0.4-1.6 μM for tumor cells and a selectivity index of approximately 17-fold for tumor compared with normal cells. Consequently, its antiproliferative effect was also assessed in vivo. The oxygen consumption rate and NAD(P)H oxidation levels increased in the tumor cell lines (uncoupling effect), resulting in a ΔΨ(m) decrease and a consequent decrease in intracellular ATP levels. Moreover, TPP(+)C10 significantly inhibited the growth of TA3/Ha tumors in mice. According to these results, the antineoplastic activity and safety of TPP(+)C10 warrant further comprehensive evaluation.
Abstract. The inhibitory effect of a specific small EGR-1 interfering RNA (siRNA) on cell proliferation and the expression of EGR-1 in human prostate carcinoma cell lines PC-3 and LNCaP was investigated. To knockdown Egr-1 expression, a siRNA targeting against Egr-1 was synthesized and transfected into PC-3 and LNCaP cells. The downregulation of Egr-1 expression at both mRNA and protein levels were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. The transcription activity was determined by luciferase expression. Cell proliferation inhibition rates were determined by soft agar and methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The effect of Egr-1 siRNA on cell cycle distribution and cell apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry (FCM). RNA interference efficiently suppressed the Egr-1 expression in PC-3 and LNCaP cells. At 96 h after transfection, the expression inhibition rate was 44.52% at mRNA level detected by RT-PCR and 40.17% at protein level by Western blot analysis. The cell proliferation inhibition rates at 24, 48, 96 and 120 h after Egr-1 siRNA and non-silencing siRNA transfection, were 5, 25.06, 65.61 and 78.36%, respectively for PC-3 cells and 23, 40.3, 75.9 and 67.4%, respectively for LNCaP cells. The apoptosis rate was similar for both PC-3 and LNCaP and the number of cells was increased in G 0 /G 1 phase from 38.2 to 88.6%, and decreased in S and G 2 /M phase at 96 h after transfection. Down-regulation of Egr-1 results in significant inhibition of tumor growth in vitro. The inhibition of Egr-1 expression can induce apoptosis of PC-3 cells. The use of Egr-1 siRNA deserves further investigation as a novel approach to cancer therapy.
We have characterized the regulation of nuclear factors involved in transcriptional control of the interleukin-2 (IL-2) promoter-enhancer activity in Jurkat T cells stimulated with superantigen presented on HLA-DR transfectants combined with the ligands LFA-3 (CD58) and B7-1 (CD80). Gel shift analyses showed that NF-AT was strongly induced in LFA-3-costimulated Jurkat T cells, suggesting that NF-AT is a key target nuclear factor for the CD2-LFA-3 pathway. Studies using HLA-DR-B7-1-LFA-3 triple transfectants showed that the LFA-3-induced NF-AT DNA binding activity was negatively regulated by B7-1 costimulation. In contrast, induction of a CD28 response complex containing only c-Rel proteins was seen after B7-1 costimulation. Both LFA-3 costimulation and B7-1 costimulation induced the AP-1 and NF-B nuclear factors. Distinct compositions of the NF-AT complexes were seen in B7-1-and LFA-3-costimulated cells. LFA-3 induced primarily Jun-D, Fra-1, and Fra-2, while B7-1 induced June-D-Fos complexes. In contrast, AP-1 and NF-B complexes induced in B7-1-and LFA-3-costimulated T cells showed similar contents. Transient transfection of Jurkat T cells with a construct encoding the IL-2 enhancer-promoter region (position ؊500 to ؉60) linked to a luciferase reporter gene revealed that B7-1 costimulation was required to induce strong transcriptional activity. Combined B7-1-LFA-3 costimulation resulted in a synergistic increase in IL-2 transcriptional activity. Multimers of the AP-1, NF-AT, NF-B, and CD28 response elements showed distinct kinetics and activity after LFA-3 and B7-1 costimulation and revealed that B7-1 and LFA-3 converge to superinduce transcriptional activity of the AP-1, NF-AT, and CD28 response elements. Transcriptional studies with an IL-2 enhancerpromoter carrying a mutation in the CD28 response element site revealed that the activity was reduced by 80% after B7-1 and B7-1-LFA-3 costimulation whereas the transcriptional activity induced by LFA-3 was unaffected. Our data strongly suggest a selectivity in induction of nuclear factors by the CD2-LFA-3 and CD28-B7-1 pathways. This selectivity may contribute to regulation of the levels of IL-2 induced by LFA-3 and B7-1 costimulation and favor autocrine and paracrine T-cell responses, respectively.
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