Targeted ablation of PINCH1 and PINCH2 from murine myocardium results in dilated cardiomyopathy and early postnatal lethality.

Background: PINCH proteins are 5 LIM domain-only adaptor proteins that function as key components of the integrin signaling pathway and play crucial roles in multiple cellular processes. Two PINCH proteins, PINCH1 and PINCH2, have been described in mammals and share high homology. Both PINCH1 and PINCH2 are ubiquitously expressed in most tissues and organs, including myocardium.

Novel expression of PINCH in the central nervous system and its potential as a biomarker for human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurodegeneration.

Particularly interesting cysteine histidine-rich (PINCH) protein functions as a shuttling protein in Schwann cells after peripheral nerve damage, during repair and remodeling, and in maintaining neuronal polarity. However, the presence of PINCH in the human CNS during disease has not been addressed. Because HIV-associated damage to cells of the CNS involves dysregulation of neuronal signaling and white matter damage, we hypothesized that PINCH may play a role in neuropathological processes during the course of HIV infection.

Expression of the focal adhesion protein PINCH in normal and alkali-injured corneas and the role of PMNs.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine-rich protein (PINCH) in corneal wound healing and early neovascularization and to assess the influence of granulocytes.

Methods: A standardized corneal alkali wound was inflicted under general anaesthesia to the right eye of 14 New Zealand White rabbits. Seven of the rabbits received i.

Pinch1 is required for normal development of cranial and cardiac neural crest-derived structures.

Pinch1, an adaptor protein composed of 5 LIM domains, has been suggested to play an important role in multiple cellular processes. We found that Pinch1 is highly expressed in neural crest cells and their derivatives. To examine the requirement for Pinch1 in neural crest development, we generated neural crest conditional Pinch1 knockout mice using the Wnt1-Cre/loxP system.

Stromal staining for PINCH is an independent prognostic indicator in colorectal cancer.

Particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine-rich protein (PINCH), a LIM domain adapter protein that functions in the integrin and growth factor signal transduction pathway, is upregulated in stroma associated with many common cancers. The finding suggested that PINCH may be involved in promoting tumor-stromal interactions that support tumor progression, and, if so, tumors with abundant PINCH stromal staining may have a worse prognosis. To test this hypothesis, 174 primary colorectal adenocarcinomas with 39 distant normal mucosa samples and 26 metastases in the lymph nodes were studied by immunohistochemistry, and 7 additional colon tumors were studied by Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence.

Preferential humoral immune response in prostate cancer to cellular proteins p90 and p62 in a panel of tumor-associated antigens.

Background: Cytoplasmic p90 autoantigen was recently cloned from a cDNA expression library using serum antibody from a cancer patient. The humoral immune response to p90 in prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was examined.

Methods: An antigenic fragment of recombinant p90 protein and several other tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) were used in ELISA and Western blotting to detect antibodies in sera from patients with prostate cancer, BPH, and other controls.

Identification of PINCH in Schwann cells and DRG neurons: shuttling and signaling after nerve injury.

Particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine rich protein (PINCH) is a double zinc finger domain (LIM)-only adapter protein that functions to recruit the integrin-linked kinase (ILK) to sites of integrin activation. Genetic studies have shown that PINCH and ILK are required for integrin signaling. Since integrin activation is associated with Schwann cell migration, neurite outgrowth and regeneration, this study examined PINCH in the normal peripheral nervous system and after chronic constriction injury (CCI) in adult Sprague-Dawley rats.

The signaling adapter protein PINCH is up-regulated in the stroma of common cancers, notably at invasive edges.

Background: PINCH is an LIM (double zinc finger domain) protein that functions as an adapter at a key convergence point for integrin and growth factor signal transduction. Because no information is available regarding its expression in vivo in human tissues, this study evaluated the distribution and abundance of PINCH in patients with breast, prostate, lung, colon, and skin carcinomas.

Methods: A polyclonal antibody was raised to a purified 6-histidine PINCH fusion protein and used to evaluate 74 cases comprising 33 breast carcinomas (21 ductal carcinomas, 6 lobular carcinomas, 4 ductal carcinomas in situ, 2 lobular carcinomas in situ), 22 prostate carcinomas, 5 colon carcinomas, 6 lung carcinomas (3 adenocarcinomas and 3 squamous carcinomas), and 8 skin carcinomas (4 basal cell carcinomas and 4 squamous cell carcinomas) by immunoperoxidase histochemistry of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues.