The aim of this study was to analyze the variations of the main mediators of the four cytokine and growth factor families involved in inter-cellular exchanges during radiation-induced tissue degeneration in skin and muscles. An animal model of radiation-induced tissue degeneration was used for this purpose. The expression of proinflammatory, profibrotic, proangiogenic and stem cell mobilizing cytokines was analyzed using Western blot and the Bio-PlexH protein array technology. Additional histology and immnunochemistry studies were performed. Radiotherapy-induced late normal tissue injury within the irradiated field is a significant cause of morbidity and decrease quality of life in cancer patients. This justifies the evaluation of biomarkers predictive of late toxicity of radiation. The present study was performed in a model of late tissue radio-induced degeneration, enabling the assessment of histological changes and dysregulation of molecular mediators in irradiated tissues. Despite monodose irradiation, the histological and macroscopic modifications observed in this study were very similar to those observed after radiotherapy in humans. In our model, inflammation was maximal at 30 days, followed by fibrosis starting at 6 weeks, stabilizing at 3 months but sometimes continuing through successive stages. However, the main problem with the histological analysis of irradiated tissues is that radiation-induced injuries are focal so that analysis might miss some aspects of radiation-induced degeneration. Intra-and inter-observers reliabilities were good, but it clearly PCI-32765 appeared to us that histological analysis was not sufficient for precisely evaluating radio-induced tissular degeneration. In this context, the analysis of cytokine and mediator expression appeared to be an attractive method of evaluation of tissular changes after irradiation. Very often, the analysis of expression of cytokines and growth factors is based on immunochemistry or mRNA expression analyses. This gives an insight into the production of proteins, but without quantifying their real concentration in the tissue, which is determinant for the actions of the mediators studied. In this study, the methodology was based on the direct analysis of protein using the Bio-PlexH cytokine array. Indeed, the determined levels of expression of the key mediators in this study were coherent, and the expected correlations between pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators could be identified. This confirms the reliability of the methodology. Expression levels of the key mediators studied were consistent with the current model of radio-induced tissular degeneration. Similarly to other works, particularly in the skin, a high level of TGF-b1 was found throughout the study. TGF-b1 is known to control the regulation and inhibition of cell growth and the homeostasis of the extracellular matrix. Dysregulation of TGFb1 is involved in the development of fibroproliferative diseases. The increased expression of TGF-b1 was already present 6 weeks after irradiation, so that the initiation of this process was certainly earlier. Indeed, several authors found an induction of TGF-b1 during the first 24 hours after irradiation. In this study, a significant relation was found between TGF-b1 expression and histological scoring.

Our laboratory has identified a protein with NAGase activity in a GlcNAc and chitin-binding fraction of P. brasiliensis yeasts, which was named paracoccin. Paracoccin was initially described as a lectin that promotes P. brasiliensis adhesion to the extracellular matrix and induces strong and persistent production of TNF-a and nitric oxide by macrophages ; it was only very recently shown to be involved in fungal growth and morphogenesis and to possess NAGase activity. In this study, we have investigated whether N-glycans are involved in the cell growth and morphogenesis of P. brasiliensis and the impact of underglycosylation on the activities of fungal proteins. We found that N-glycans are important for the growth and morphogenesis of yeasts and for the NAGase and macrophage-activating functions of yeast proteins. This study shows that N-glycans are required for the normal growth and morphogenesis of P. brasiliensis yeasts, as demonstrated by tunicamycin treatment of yeast cells. In addition to the effects on the whole yeast, the TM-induced underglycosylation inhibited most of the known biological activities of the fungal protein paracoccin. Paracoccin, which is normally secreted by yeasts, was found to accumulate at intracellular sites in TM-treated yeasts. Tunicamycin has been used extensively for studies of the roles of N-glycans in protein secretion and function. TM treatment prevents the first step in the N-glycosylation of proteins, i.e., the transfer of the lipid-linked oligosaccharide precursor to an asparagine residue immediately after the nascent protein chain has entered the lumen of the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Because all further steps of N-glycosylation are based on the transfer of a pre-made oligosaccharide to the protein backbone, in principle TM blocks all N-glycosylation. Its NVP-BEZ235 PI3K inhibitor profound effect on this post-translational protein modification makes the impact of TM on a particular experimental design somewhat unpredictable. TM treatment may also inhibit protein biosynthesis, although to a lesser degree than the inhibition of glycosylation for the majority of systems, and it is necessary to consider this effect when designing and interpreting experiments using TM treatment. In our study, the intracellular accumulation of the yeast glycoprotein paracoccin in TM-treated organisms strongly suggests that the protein synthesis was not significantly affected. On the other hand, the accumulation of these proteins in what appears to be the endoplasmic reticulum compartment could indicate a profound alteration of protein secretion that may be attributed to the absence of Nglycosylation. As more than half of all proteins in nature, including those from fungi, are estimated to be glycosylated, and three-quarters of all glycoproteins are thought to contain N-linked glycans, it is not surprising that some cellular processes are altered in P. brasiliensis yeasts exposed to TM. The TM-induced disruption of subcellular protein localization that we observed was also demonstrated to occur in a study on the importance of glycosylation for the subcellular localization of 2 mitochondrial glycoproteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition, we have demonstrated that yeast growth and morphogenesis were also affected relative to the control by TM at concentrations.

This is so far the most significant genetic finding associated with AD. FLG is important for the structural SU5416 204005-46-9 integrity of the skin, and other functions are attributed to acidic degradation products of FLG, e.g. urocanic acid and pyrrolidone carboxylic acid. These are components of natural moisturizing factors and contributes to maintaining a low pH in the stratum corneum . In addition to FLG dysfunction, it has previously been demonstrated that the molecular background to the pathogenesis of AD is complex, and that several clusters of genes, including inflammatory and epidermal differentiation are altered in lesional AD skin. We set out to study whether the functional and molecular alterations in AD and IV skin depend directly on FLG loss-of-function variants, and whether the FLG genotype determine the type of downstream molecular pathways affected. Many of the potential AD candidate genes significantly altered in our study were located in chromosomal regions previously linked to AD , further highlighting these regions as interesting loci for potential candidate genes involved in AD susceptibility. The distributions of these differentially expressed genes in our study depended on FLG genotype, where several clusters were unique for each group, and others overlapped. Genes from these groups are mapped to significantly altered pathways in each patient group. The functional alterations evident from the significantly higher TEWL and pH such as inflammatory response following a more permeable barrier, as well as enzymatic activity where the pH level is important. The importance of changes in TEWL and pH has recently been highlighted in FLG deficient skin; where reduced levels of FLG degradation products are proposed to increase TEWL and pH; decreasing stratum corneum hydration and altering enzymatic activity. This may account for alterations in corneocyte and lipid organization within the SC. Given the frequent phenotypic overlap between dry skin, IV and AD; it is proposed that these functional alterations are important for the pathogenesis in both IV and AD skin with FLG deficiency. In support of this hypothesis, our AD patients without FLG mutations displayed lower functional barrier impairment measured by TEWL, lower pH and significantly lower mean SCORAD than AD patients with FLG mutations. In addition, the lowest number of significantly altered genes was detected in our AD FLG+/+ group. This suggests a correlation between number of affected genes, barrier impairment and disease severity among included AD patients. Of the many genes previously associated to AD several were also dysregulated in our array data, such as serine protease inhibitor kazal-type 5, mast cell chymase . Any discrepancies regarding expression of inflammatory mediators commonly found in AD may at least in part be due to lower expression of these genes in non-lesional skin. CD28 and STAT2 are two inflammatory markers that were confirmed to be altered also by qPCR.

Our data suggest that Tfh cells facilitate immune homeostasis by increasing the number of regulatory B cells and the production of IL-10 via the stimulation of IL-21 in SLE patients. All together, we define a novel role of Tfh cells in immune regulatory actions to promote production of the immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10, which extends the existing recognization that Tfh cells merely induce humoral responses and augment autoimmunity. Furthermore, IL-21 may serve as a potential upstream promoter for Breg cell differentiation and IL-10 production in SLE. These findings suggest that particular emphasis should be given to the regulatory function of Tfh cells and IL-21 in the treatment of SLE. Activating mutations in the Wnt and Ras signaling pathways are common in many epithelial cancers. Colorectal cancer, for example, usually starts with mutations in APC, a negative regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway followed, in,50% of CRC patients, by the oncogenic activation of K-Ras, an event that correlates with the onset of malignancy. This process can be reproduced in mouse models for CRC, where the conditional deletion of APC in the intestinal epithelium imposes a stem/progenitor-like phenotype, leading to massive crypt hyperproliferation and formation of benign MK-1775 abmole tumors known as adenomas. In turn, expression of K-Ras gain of function alleles in Apc mutant tumor cells induces the development of large, aggressive adenocarcinomas. However, whereas this genetic events leading to CRC have been well established, the precise genetic programs that these alterations impose, which role play in tumor progression and how they disrupt intestinal homeostasis remain poorly characterized. It has been shown that the removal of APC specifically in the intestinal stem cells, but not in their progeny, leads to the formation of lesions that progress to adenomas in less than three weeks, suggesting that ISCs may represent the cell of origin of CRC. Mammalian ISCs are located at the base of the intestinal crypts, where they self-renew and generate a transient amplifying population. Finally arrest and differentiate towards enterocytes, enteroendocrine cells or goblet cells. Interestingly, there are many relevant similarities between mammalian and Drosophila intestines. The adult Drosophila midgut epithelium is also maintained by a population of ISCs that regenerate the stem cell pool or become quiescent progenitor cells, which ultimately differentiate towards enterocytes or enteroendocrine cells . The Wg/Wnt signaling pathway is required for both mammalian and fly intestinal stem cell homeostasis, and its constitutive activation in Drosophila through mutations in the APC homologues, Apc and Apc2, results in ISC hyperproliferation and midgut hyperplasia. Moreover, EGFR/Ras signaling pathway activity also promotes ISC division and is therefore required for ISC proliferation. Drosophila has been widely used to recapitulate key aspects of human cancer. Here, we generated clones that combined the loss of Apc with the expression of the oncogenic form of Ras, RasV12.

To this end we developed a novel bilateral renal ablation model that was staged by the level of proteinuria. In order to differentiate hypertensive effects of superoxide and H2O2, we studied acute effects of the SOD mimetic Tempol or PEG-catalase on blood pressure and renal hemodynamics in rats with established CKD and agematched sham-operated control rats. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of both these interventions on oxidative stress in CKD and control rats. The main novel finding of this study is that in established CKD, MAP and RVR do not depend on ROS. This was demonstrated by the failure to alter MAP in CKD rats by acute scavenging of superoxide with Tempol. Reducing H2O2 with PEG-catalase did not normalize MAP in CKD rats. Furthermore, in CKD rats, Tempol had no effect on TBARS excretion while PEG-catalase reduced it. Parameters of oxidative stress are increased and antioxidant enzyme activities are decreased in patients with various degrees of CKD. Important endogenous antioxidant enzymes are SOD that convert superoxide to H2O2, which is in turn disposed of by two other enzymes, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. In experimental CKD a marked down-regulation of hepatic and renal cytoplasmic and mitochondrial SOD was found as well as down-regulation of renal catalase and glutathione peroxidase protein abundance and catalase activity. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with chronic evolution, and its etiological agent is the intracellular bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Toll-like receptor 2 is the main receptor for mycobacterial constituents, recognizing lipoarabinomannan; its precursor, phosphatidylinositol mannoside; and 19-kDa lipoprotein. TLR4 is a receptor for exogenous ligands, such as LPS from Gramnegative bacteria, and can recognize endogenous ligands, such as heat shock protein 60/65, which is released by mycobacteria. Studies have shown that the recognition of mycobacterial products by TLRs leads to NF-kB activation and BAY 73-4506 consequently to gene transcription that produces pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-12, TNF-a, IL-1b and nitric oxide. The recognition of M. tuberculosis by TLRs induces phagocytosis by alveolar phagocytes and the production of IL-12 by macrophages and dendritic cells. IL-12 stimulates natural killer cells and Th1 responses that produce IFN-c. Which in synergy with IFN-c, acts to increase phagocytosis and microbicidal activity through the production of reactive nitrogen and oxygen intermediates involved in the growth inhibition and death of mycobacteria. TNF-a is also essential for forming and maintaining granulomas. Studies have suggested that protective immunity against M. tuberculosis and Th1 responses require Th17, mainly at the start of infection. IL-17 has proinflammatory properties that induce the expression of cytokines, chemokines and metalloproteinases, which are important in neutrophil recruitment, activation and migration. Despite the protective effect of Th1 and Th17 responses against tuberculosis, the elevated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines is related to disease immunopathogenesis.