Publications by authors named "Alexandra Denk"

Empirical findings demonstrate gender differences in attitudes toward meat consumption and actual meat-eating behavior. Furthermore, several studies have found that men score higher on all three Dark Triad personality dimensions (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy). In this study, we investigated whether these personality differences mediate the association between gender and meat-eating justification, which in turn was expected to predict meat consumption.

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The repellent factor family of Slit molecules has been described as having a repulsive function in the developing nervous system on growing axons expressing the Roundabout (Robo) receptors. Recent studies determined the effects of Slit molecules on the migratory and invasive potential of several types of tumor cells but also on synovial fibroblasts (SFs) derived from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. To optimize a potential therapeutic application we aimed at generatingfragments of Slit3 showing the same functional ability as the full-length molecule but having the advantage of a smaller size.

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The repellent factor family of Slit molecules has been described to have repulsive function in the developing nervous system on growing axons expressing the Robo receptors. Alterations of the Slit/Robo system have been observed in various pathological conditions and in cancer. However, until today no detailed studies on Slit function on melanoma migration are available.

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Introduction: The repellent factor family of Slit molecules has been described to have repulsive function in the developing nervous system on growing axons expressing the Robo receptors. However, until today no data are available on whether these repellent factors are involved in the regulation of synovial fibroblast (SF) activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: mRNA expression in primary synovial fibroblasts was quantified by quantitative reverse transcription PCR and protein expression was measured by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis.

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Deregulation of protease expression and activity is known to play an important role in tumour progression of malignant melanoma. The serpin maspin, a tumour suppressor in breast and prostate cancer was described as an inhibitor of cell migration and inducer of cell adhesion between the basement membrane and extracellular matrix resulting in inhibition of tumour metastasis. In contrast, overexpression of maspin is correlated with poor prognosis in other cancers.

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