Postsynaptic expression of an epidermal growth factor receptor regulates cholinergic synapse formation between identified molluscan neurons.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) family members are conserved in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Recent studies suggest that EGF ligands in invertebrates may have neurotrophic actions that possibly compensate for the apparent absence of neurotrophins in these species. In this study, we have cloned an EGF receptor from the mollusk Lymnaea stagnalis (L-EGFR), and shown that L-EGFR is the receptor for a previously identified EGF-like peptide in Lymnaea, named Lymnaea EGF (L-EGF).

Expression of the human glucocorticoid receptor splice variants alpha, beta, and P in peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes in healthy controls and in patients with hyper- and hypocortisolism.

Context: The effects of cortisol are mediated by the alpha-isoform of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). GR-alpha levels and activity are modulated by alternative splicing of the common pre-mRNA into mRNAs for the GR-beta and GR-P isoforms.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether chronic hypercortisolism, chronic hypocortisolism, or acute, relative hypocortisolism influences the expression levels of the GR splice variants in mononuclear leukocytes.

A 3'-UTR variant of the inducible porcine hsp70.2 gene affects mRNA stability.

Large individual differences were observed in the abundance of transcripts from the hsp70.2 gene in primary fibroblast cultures sampled from 15 different pigs. While previously described functional promoter variants of this gene can partly account for the high variability of heat-induced increased abundance of transcripts, they are unrelated to the observed highly variable absolute amounts of hsp70.