Mercury induces multidrug resistance-associated protein gene through p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase

Quercetin inhibits expression of inflammatory cytokines through attenuation of NF-κB and p38 MAPK in HMC-1 human mast cell line

“…The 3(4,5-dimethyl thiazolyl-2)2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT, Sigma) cytotoxicity assay was used to measure the cytotoxic response to quercetin, as previously described [19]. HMC-1 cells were seeded at 1 × 10 5 cells/well in 96-well microplates (Falcon, Becton-Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA).…”

TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE NAD(P)H:QUINONE OXIDOREDUCTASE 1 AND GLUTATHIONES-TRANSFERASE YA GENES BY MERCURY, LEAD, AND COPPER

“…In the nucleus, Nrf2 dimerizes with bZIP protein, which in turn transactivates the ARE on the promoter region of Nqo1 and Gst ya genes and, hence, initiates their gene transcription. In this respect, heavy metals have been shown to activate mitogen-activated protein kinases and protein kinases via the production of reactive oxygen species, which in turn activate the Nrf2-ARE pathway (Huang et al, 2002;Jonak et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2005).…”

Elevated Reactive Oxygen Species but not Glutathione Regulate Mercury Resistance to AML-2/DX100 Cells

“…(6) To further verify the resistance of cells to mercury exposure, we compared the resistance of the MRP1 overexpressing AML-2/DX100 cells generated by a step-wise selection in doxorubicin with AML-2/WT cells to mercury using MTT assay. The AML-2/DX100 cells were more resistant to mercury than the AML-2/WT cells after 4 days of mercury exposure (Table 1).…”

“…(6) The protein concentrations in the cell lysates were determined by a Bio-Rad (Richmond, CA, USA) protein assay. Western blot analysis was performed on 50-70 μg of the protein described previously.…”

“…(4) There is evidence suggesting that MRP1 exports toxic metals especially mercuric and arsenate ion out of the cells. (5)(6)(7) Moreover, MRP1 is overexpressed in human heavy metal-selected tumor cells, and cells overexpressing MRP1 are more resistant to metal toxicity. (2) Mercury is highly toxic and moderate levels of exposure can cause immune system alterations ranging from immunosuppression to immunostimulation such as increasing the susceptibility to a variety of viruses, autoantibody formation, and autoimmune diseases.…”