The phenotypic changes of increased motility and invasiveness of cancer cells are reminiscent of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) that occurs during embryonic development. Snail, a zinc-finger transcription factor, triggers this process by repressing E-cadherin expression; however, the mechanisms that regulate Snail remain elusive. Here we find that Snail is highly unstable, with a short half-life about 25 min. We show that GSK-3beta binds to and phosphorylates Snail at two consensus motifs to dually regulate the function of this protein. Phosphorylation of the first motif regulates its beta-Trcp-mediated ubiquitination, whereas phosphorylation of the second motif controls its subcellular localization. A variant of Snail (Snail-6SA), which abolishes these phosphorylations, is much more stable and resides exclusively in the nucleus to induce EMT. Furthermore, inhibition of GSK-3beta results in the upregulation of Snail and downregulation of E-cadherin in vivo. Thus, Snail and GSK-3beta together function as a molecular switch for many signalling pathways that lead to EMT.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exists in the nucleus of highly proliferative cells where it functions as a transcription factor. Although EGFR has transactivational activity, it lacks a DNA binding domain and, therefore, may require a DNA binding transcription cofactor for its transcriptional function. Here, we report that EGFR physically interacts with signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) in the nucleus, leading to transcriptional activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). In breast carcinomas, nuclear EGFR positively correlates with iNOS. This study describes a mode of transcriptional control involving cooperated efforts of STAT3 and nuclear EGFR. Our work suggests that the deregulated iNOS/NO pathway may partly contribute to the malignant biology of tumor cells with high levels of nuclear EGFR and STAT3.

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BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition and explore the somatic, psychological, functional, and social or lifestyle characteristics linked to malnutrition in elderly people at a hospital in Turkey.Material/MethodsThis study included 1030 patients older than 65 years of age who were seen at the internal medicine and geriatrics outpatient clinics of the study centers in Istanbul, Ankara, Duzce, Corum, Mardin, Malatya, and Diyarbakir provinces between January and December 2014. All patients underwent Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) tests via one-on-one interview method. The demographic properties of the patients were also recorded during this interview.ResultsAmong 1030 patients included in this study, 196 (19%) had malnutrition and 300 (29.1%) had malnutrition risk. The malnutrition group and the other groups were significantly different with respect to mean GDS score, income status, educational status, the number of children, functional status (ADL, IADL), the number of patients with depression, and the number of comorbid disorders. According to the results of the logistic regression analysis, age (OR=95% CI: 1.007–1.056; p=0.012), BMI (OR=95% CI: 0.702–0.796; p<0.001), educational status (OR=95% CI: 0.359–0.897; p=0.015), comorbidity (OR=95% CI: 2.296–5.448; p<0.001), and depression score (OR=95% CI: 1.104–3.051; p=0.02) were independently associated with malnutrition.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates that age, depression, BMI, comorbidity, and the educational status were independently associated with malnutrition in an elderly population.

We studied, for the first time, the age structure of Eremias strauchi strauchi (Kessler, 1878) from a sample (18 adults) of a population living in the vicinity of Iğdır (eastern Turkey) using the skeletochronological method. The maximum observed longevity was 7 years for males and 5 years for females. The age of males ranged from 4 to 7 years (mean 4.91, n = 12), while that of females ranged from 4 to 5 years (mean 4.66, n = 6). The average snout-vent length (SVL) was 61.10 mm in males and 60.82 mm in females. The differences in mean age and SVL between sexes were not statistically significant. Intersexual differences in body size were male-biased, but this state was not statistically significant. Age and SVL were positively correlated in both sexes.

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