Soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is a heterodimeric enzyme constituted by two subunits, α1 and β1. Previously we have shown that 17β-estradiol (E2) exerts opposite effects on these subunits by increasing α1 and decreasing both β1 expression and enzymatic activity. To date, the physiological relevance of E2-induced sGC subunits’ imbalance has not been addressed. Also, increased levels strongly correlate with E2-induced proliferation in E2-dependent tissues. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of sGCα1 in proliferation, survival, and migration in two E2-responsive and non-responsive tumour cell lines. Here we showed that E2 stimulated sGCα1 expression in ECC-1 endometrial cancer cells. sGCα1 knock-down significantly reduced E2-dependent cell proliferation. Moreover, sGCα1 silencing caused G1 arrest together with an increase in cell death and dramatically inhibited cell migration. Surprisingly, disruption of sGCα1 expression caused a similar effect even in absence of E2. Confirming this effect, sGCα1 knock-down also augmented cell death and decreased proliferation and migration in E2-unresponsive HeLa cervical cancer cells. Our results show that sGCα1 mediated cell proliferation, survival, and migration in ECC-1 and HeLa cells and suggest that sGCα1 can not only mediate E2-tumour promoting effects but can also be involved in hormone-independent tumour progression.
Water quality assessment of the Burgos stream micro-basin (San Pedro, Buenos Aires Province) impacted by rural activities. The Pampas region (Argentina) have suffered profound changes in the agroecosystems as a result of many pollutants generated by agricultural and livestock activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the water quality of a microbasin belonging to the Burgos stream (San Pedro, Province of Buenos Aires) through the application of water quality indexes (ICAs), faecal contamination indicators and algae bioassays. Three samplings were carried out in 2015 and six sampling sites were selected, four along the tributary stream of order 1, and two in the stream. Two ICAs were used: ICA 1 , whose variables were temperature, OD and NH 4 + , and ICA 2 , whose variables were pH, OD, temperature, nitrates, PRS and faecal coliforms. According to the ICA 1 , water quality ranged from slight to very high pollution, and according to the ICA 2 , from regular to dreadful quality. The concentration of faecal indicators microorganisms was similar in all the samples, while significant differences were observed in the concentrations of Salmonella spp. According to the correlation analysis, precipitation would participate in the transport of coliform microorganisms to surface waters through surface runoff processes. On the other hand, the inhibition of algal growth would not be related to glyphosate, whose concentrations were between 0.35 and 13.57 µg/L. The results suggest that the application of different indicators could be a very useful tool to evaluate the environmental quality of surface waters from the Pampas plain, in particular the use of indexes including coliform microorganisms in the calculation equation.
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