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ETD Archive

2010

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Biology

The Role Of Ceruloplasmin In Colitis, Bakytzhan Bakhautdin Jan 2010

The Role Of Ceruloplasmin In Colitis, Bakytzhan Bakhautdin

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Ceruloplasmin (Cp) is an acute phase, plasma protein with multiple enzymatic activities consistent with both pro- and anti-inflammatory functions. Our laboratory has recently reported the presence of Cp in intestinal epithelial cells. To determine the potential role of Cp in intestinal inflammation, we induced colitis in Cp-deficient mice by continuous administration of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) ad libitum in the drinking water. The Cp-null mice rapidly lost weight and all were moribund by day 14, while about 90 of the wild-type (WT) mice survived at least 20 days. Higher amounts of TNF-alpha, and neutrophil (KC) and macrophage (MCP-1) chemokines, were …

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Genetics And Genomics Of Complex Diseases;Mouse Atherosclerosis Modifier Genes And Human Gene Expression After Bariatric Surgery, Stela Z. Berisha Jan 2010

Genetics And Genomics Of Complex Diseases;Mouse Atherosclerosis Modifier Genes And Human Gene Expression After Bariatric Surgery, Stela Z. Berisha

ETD Archive

The overall goal of our research was to study and identify genes involved in the development of complex diseases in mice and humans through integrative genetic/genomic approaches. Two complex diseases were the focus of research, atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes. Mouse models of atherosclerosis, in which the genetic background and the environment can be controlled for, were used to identify and validate atherosclerosis modifier genes. We studied an atherosclerosis quantitative trait locus (QTL) on the distal end of chromosome 5, called Ath24, and generated interval-specific congenic mice on the atherosclerosis resistant AKR and susceptible DBA/2 apoE-deficient strains. To date we …

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Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (Tgfβ)-Mediated Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transdifferentiation (Emt), Arindam Chaudhury Jan 2010

Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (Tgfβ)-Mediated Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transdifferentiation (Emt), Arindam Chaudhury

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TGF├ƒ induces epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation (EMT) accompanied by cellular differentiation and migration, a process fundamental during embryonic development and one that is reactivated in a variety of diseases including fibrosis and cancer. Despite extensive transcriptomic profiling, identification of TGF├ƒ-inducible, EMT-specific genes has met with limited success. Here, we report a novel post-transcriptional pathway by which TGF├ƒ modulates expression of EMT-specific proteins and EMT itself. We show that heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein E1 (hnRNP E1) binds a structural, 33 nucleotides (nt) TGF-beta-activated translation (BAT) element in the 3'-untranslated regions (UTRs) of disabled-2 (Dab2) and interleukin-like EMT inducer (ILEI) transcripts, and repress their translation. …

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The Role Of Sigirr In Innate And Adaptive Immunity, Muhammet Fatih Gulen Jan 2010

The Role Of Sigirr In Innate And Adaptive Immunity, Muhammet Fatih Gulen

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Single immunoglobulin IL-1R-related receptor (SIGIRR) is a transmembrane protein, which belongs to interleukin 1 receptor (IL-1R)/Toll like receptor (TLR) superfamily (Toll-IL-1R superfamily). SIGIRR has been identified as a negative modulator for IL-1R/TLR signaling. Recently, detailed structural and functional analysis of SIGIRR has been published, however physiological function of SIGIRR has not been studied. To asses the physiological function of SIGIRR, the expression of SIGIRR mRNA in different mouse tissues was analyzed. Although SIGIRR is expressed in many tissues, its expression in different cell types was more restricted, with extremely high expression in primary kidney, colon epithelial cells and T cells, …

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Ligand-Induced Conformations Of Extracellular Loop 2 Of At1r, Hamiyet Unal Jan 2010

Ligand-Induced Conformations Of Extracellular Loop 2 Of At1r, Hamiyet Unal

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Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) and an important regulator of blood pressure. It is a target for drug development, because abnormalities in its function are linked to hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. AT1R is composed of seven transmembrane helices connected by three extracellular loops and three intracellular loops. The extracellular loop 2 (ECL2) of AT1R directly interacts with the ligands. This loop is targeted by autoantibodies that activate AT1R in several pathologies such as preeclampsia, malignant hypertension and vascular allograft rejection. Therefore, we proposed that the conformation of ECL2 in AT1R is …

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Characterization And Evolution Of The Serh Immobilization Antigen Genes In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Christopher Thomas Mcginness Jan 2010

Characterization And Evolution Of The Serh Immobilization Antigen Genes In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Christopher Thomas Mcginness

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Tetrahymena thermophila express a major cell surface protein known as the immobilization (i-) antigen which coats the entire cell surface including the cilia. T. thermophila has several different i-antigens which are expressed in a mutually exclusive manner under varying environmental conditions. When the genes for these i-antigens were sequenced it was found that they encode proteins consisting of imperfect repeats with cysteine periodicity. The best characterized of these i-antigens are those specified by alleles at the SerH i-antigen locus. The H proteins all contain a section of 8-cysteine containing imperfect repeats. The presence of repeats allows for the possibility that …

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Transforming Growth Factor - Beta (Tgfß) Stimulated Isoform Specific Activation Of Akt2 Via Ras Mediates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (Emt), Praveen Chander Jan 2010

Transforming Growth Factor - Beta (Tgfß) Stimulated Isoform Specific Activation Of Akt2 Via Ras Mediates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (Emt), Praveen Chander

ETD Archive

TGFß induces epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation (EMT) accompanied by cellular differentiation and migration. EMT has emerged as a fundamental process governing embryonic development, adult tissue homeostasis and metastatic progression. Our lab had earlier identified a post-transcriptional pathway by which TGFß modulates expression of EMT-specific proteins. It was shown that heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein E1 (hnRNP E1) binds a structural, 33 nucleotides (nt) TGF beta-activated translation (BAT) element in the 3'-UTR of disabled-2 (Dab2) and interleukin-like EMT inducer (ILEI)transcripts, and repress their translation. This inhibition is removed following hnRNP E1 phosphorylation by activated Akt2. We now show that specific activation of Akt2, and not …

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Characterization Of A Microrna Harboring Intron For Pre-Mrna Splicing And Microrna Processing, Neha Aggarwal Jan 2010

Characterization Of A Microrna Harboring Intron For Pre-Mrna Splicing And Microrna Processing, Neha Aggarwal

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Nuclear pre-mRNA splicing is an important step in eukaryotic RNA processing and can yield a variety of transcripts. Further, it is known that nuclear pre-mRNA introns are of two types, U2-dependent and U12-dependent. Recently discovered, microRNAs (miRNA) are short, endogenous, 20-22 nucleotide long, non-coding RNA molecules that base pair with target mRNAs to modulate translation. Current evidence suggests that processing of intronic miRNA does not affect the splicing. Since, intronic miRNAs are involved in essential cellular processes, we surmised if splice sites of miRNA coding introns are flexible to support productive precursor and mature miRNA processing. We constructed a minigene …

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Targets Of Hsa-Mir-488* In Human Prostate Carcinoma Cells, Jinani E. Slaibi Jan 2010

Targets Of Hsa-Mir-488* In Human Prostate Carcinoma Cells, Jinani E. Slaibi

ETD Archive

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer among men in America and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer-related deaths in men. Recent epidemiological study shows that one in every six men over the age of forty five is at risk of PCa. Androgen receptor (AR) plays a causative role in the development of PCa. Hormonal blockade therapy which inhibits the expression of AR eventually fails and disease progresses to fatal androgen-refractory stage from androgen-dependent stage. Therefore, novel molecular approaches which can target and block the expression of AR are required. …

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