内源性CO对内皮素促大鼠主动脉平滑肌细胞增殖及MAPK活性的影响

血红素加氧酶（ｈｅｍｅ ｏｘｙｇｅｎａｓｅ,ＨＯ）是血红素分解代谢过程中的限速酶,它能使细胞内的血红素降解成胆绿素和一氧化碳（ｃａｒｂｏｎｍｏｎｏｘｉｄｅ,ＣＯ）,近来资料表明内源性一氧化碳对生理和病理状态下的血管张力有重要的调节作用,目前尚不不禁内源性ＨＯ／ＣＯ刘否参与平滑肌细胞增殖过程的调节,本实验在体内培养的大鼠主动脉平滑肌细胞模型上,用血色素加氧酶抑制剂卟啉锌－９（ｚｉｎｃ ｐｒｏｔｏｐｏ     

Characterization of the human diacylglycerol kinase epsilon gene and its assessment as a candidate for inherited retinitis pigmentosa

Human diacylglycerol kinase epsilon (hDGK epsilon) displays high selectivity for arachidonate-containing substrates and may be essential in the termination of signals transmitted through arachidonoyl-diacylglycerol and/or the synthesis of phospholipids with defined fatty acid composition. We herein report the genomic structure, chromosomal mapping, and mutation screening of hDGK epsilon gene. hDGK epsilon gene contains at least 12 exons spanning approximately 30 kb of genomic sequence and was mapped to chromosome 17q22 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. A search for disease gene linkage revealed that a locus for autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP) known as RP17 resided in that region, and Northern blot analysis showed that hDGK epsilon was expressed in human retina. The hDGK epsilon gene was then localized to one of the YAC clones containing a STS marker for the RP17 locus by YAC contig mapping. Direct sequencing following PCR amplification of two affected DNA samples from that type of adRP patients, however, did not reveal any mutation in hDGK epsilon exons.     

血管发生和发展的分子机制

血管生长是胚胎发育的必然生理过程,也在损伤修复,缺血,肿瘤,炎症,类风湿和糖尿病视网膜病等情况中起重要作用。血管生长首先从内皮细胞增生开始,内皮细胞的增生受许多因素的影响,在不同条件下以不同的生长方式,不同来源生长。平滑肌细胞是血管壁的重要组成成分,影响其发生的因素也很多,维持血管正常生长是由促进和抑制两种机制相互协调而共同控制的,一旦此平衡被破坏,即引起一些病理变化。     

肾上腺髓质素受体及其信号转导

肾上腺髓质素（Ａｄｍ）是新近发现的一种生物活性多肽,在体内有着广泛的分布,参与机体多种生理功能的调节。Ａｄｍ可与两种受体结合：ＣＧＲＰ受体和Ａｄｍ特异受体。Ａｄｍ与体结合后,通过ｃＡＭＰ－ＰＫＡ等信号转导通路发挥舒长血管、降低血压、利尿利钠和抑制细胞增殖等作用。     

Association of active caspase 8 with the mitochondrial membrane during apoptosis: potential roles in cleaving BAP31 and caspase 3 and mediating mitochondrion-endoplasmic reticulum cross talk in etoposide-induced cell death

It was recently demonstrated that during apoptosis, active caspase 9 and caspase 3 rapidly accumulate in the mitochondrion-enriched membrane fraction (D. Chandra and D. G. Tang, J. Biol. Chem.278:17408-17420, 2003). We now show that active caspase 8 also becomes associated with the membranes in apoptosis caused by multiple stimuli. In MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells treated with etoposide (VP16), active caspase 8 is detected only in the membrane fraction, which contains both mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER), as revealed by fractionation studies. Immunofluorescence microscopy, however, shows that procaspase 8 and active caspase 8 predominantly colocalize with the mitochondria. Biochemical analysis demonstrates that both procaspase 8 and active caspase 8 are localized mainly on the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) as integral proteins. Functional analyses with dominant-negative mutants, small interfering RNAs, peptide inhibitors, and Fas-associated death domain (FADD)- and caspase 8-deficient Jurkat T cells establish that the mitochondrion-localized active caspase 8 results mainly from the FADD-dependent and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated death domain-dependent mechanisms and that caspase 8 activation plays a causal role in VP16-induced caspase 3 activation and cell death. Finally, we present evidence that the OMM-localized active caspase 8 can activate cytosolic caspase 3 and ER-localized BAP31. Cleavage of BAP31 leads to the generation of ER- localized, proapoptotic BAP20, which may mediate mitochondrion-ER cross talk through a Ca(2+)-dependent mechanism.     

Characterization of a human Sec14-like protein cDNA SEC14L3 highly homologous to human SPF/TAP

Supernatant protein factor (SPF) and alpha-tocopherol-associated protein (TAP) both belong to a widespread lipid-binding Sec 14-like protein family. All the members of the family have the lipid-binding motif called CRAL_TRIO. SPF is showed to stimulate the conversion of squalene to lanosterol and enhance cholesterol biosynthesis. TAP is identified to be involved in the intracellular distribution of alpha-tocopherol. Recently TAP is identified as SPF though they have very different functions. Here we report a human SPF/TAP homology SEC14L3 with 2082 base pairs in length and contains an open reading frame encoding a 400 amino acids protein. Analysis shows that SEC14L3 is mapped to 22q12 and expresses only in the liver among the used sixteen tissues in the test.