Time dependent effects of prolonged hyperglycemia in zebrafish brain and retina.

Prolonged hyperglycemia causes long-term vision complications and an increased risk of cognitive deficits. High blood sugar also confers an osmotic load/stress to cells. We assessed behavioral and neurochemical changes in zebrafish brain and retina following prolonged hyperglycemia for 4-weeks or 8-weeks.

Anti-Fn14-Conjugated Prussian Blue Nanoparticles as a Targeted Photothermal Therapy Agent for Glioblastoma.

Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) are effective photothermal therapy (PTT) agents: they absorb near-infrared radiation and reemit it as heat via phonon-phonon relaxations that, in the presence of tumors, can induce thermal and immunogenic cell death. However, in the context of central nervous system (CNS) tumors, the off-target effects of PTT have the potential to result in injury to healthy CNS tissue. Motivated by this need for targeted PTT agents for CNS tumors, we present a PBNP formulation that targets fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14)-expressing glioblastoma cell lines.

Vitamin D levels reverberate in monocytes modulation in hemodialysis patients.

Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a severe vitamin D deficiency and increasing epidemiological data suggesting that this deficiency may play a role in overall morbidity and mortality associated with CKD. It is known that vitamin D regulates the immune system, however, in dialysis patients this deficiency and the modulation of proinflammatory cells is unclear. Among these, monocytes arouse interest considering they constitutively express vitamin D receptors.

Inhibition of HGF/MET signaling decreases overall tumor burden and blocks malignant conversion in Tpl2-related skin cancer.

Tumor progression locus 2 (Tpl2) is a member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K) family of serine/threonine kinases. Deletion of the Tpl2 gene is associated with a significantly higher number of papillomas and cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs). Overexpression of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor MET is abundant in cSCC and can lead to increased proliferation, migration, invasion or resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Indoxyl Sulfate, a Uremic Toxin, Stimulates Reactive Oxygen Species Production and Erythrocyte Cell Death Supposedly by an Organic Anion Transporter 2 (OAT2) and NADPH Oxidase Activity-Dependent Pathways.

It is hypothesized that the uremic toxin indoxyl sulfate (IS) plays a role in the pathogenesis of renal anemia. To further explore that hypothesis, we examined the effects of IS on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, levels of reduced glutathione (GSH), and erythrocyte death (eryptosis) in red blood cells (RBC) from healthy controls (CON-RBC) and hemodialyzed patients (HD-RBC), respectively. RBC were incubated either in either TRIS-Glc-BSA buffer or IS at concentrations of 0.

p-Cresyl sulfate affects the oxidative burst, phagocytosis process, and antigen presentation of monocyte-derived macrophages.

Immune system dysfunction is a common condition in chronic kidney disease (CKD). The present study investigated the effect of p-Cresyl sulfate (pCS) on human cell line U937 monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) activity. MDM (1×10 cells/mL) were incubated with pCS (10, 25, or 50μg/mL), with or without lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 25ng/mL) and then evaluated NO production, phagocytosis and antigen-presenting molecules expression (HLA-ABC, HLA-DR, CD80 and CD86).

Adipocytes contribute to the growth and progression of multiple myeloma: Unraveling obesity related differences in adipocyte signaling.

The prevalence of obesity over the last several decades in the United States has tripled among children and doubled among adults. Obesity increases the incidence and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), yet the molecular mechanisms by which adipocytes contribute to cancer development and patient prognosis have yet to be fully elucidated. Here, we obtained human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) from twenty-nine normal (BMI = 20-25 kg/m(2)), overweight (25-30 kg/m(2)), obese (30-35 kg/m(2)), or super obese (35-40 kg/m(2)) patients undergoing elective liposuction.

Uremic Toxicity-Induced Eryptosis and Monocyte Modulation: The Erythrophagocytosis as a Novel Pathway to Renal Anemia.

Background: We tested the effect of uremia on red blood cell (RBC) eryptosis, CD14++/CD16+ monocytes and erythrophagocytosis.

Design: RBC and monocytes from chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3/4 (P-CKD3/4) or hemodialysis (HD) patients and healthy controls (HCs) cells incubated with sera pools from patients with CKD stages 2/3 (S-CKD2/3) or 4/5 (S-CKD4/5) were evaluated to assess eryptosis, monocyte phenotypes and reactive oxygen species (ROS) by cytometer. Erythrophagocytosis was evaluated by subsequent co-incubation of preincubated HC-monocytes and autologous-RBC.

The lectin BJcuL induces apoptosis through TRAIL expression, caspase cascade activation and mitochondrial membrane permeability in a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line.

It has been demonstrated that the cytotoxic effect of BJcuL, the lectin isolated from Bothrops jararacussu venom, on human gastric carcinoma is accompanied by the inhibition of extracellular matrix adhesion, cytoskeleton disassembly and apoptosis induction. The present study aimed to evaluate the apoptosis mechanisms triggered by the BJcuL interaction with specific glycans on the surface of HT29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells. The results demonstrated that BJcuL interacts with glycoligands targets on the cell, which were inhibited in the presence of d-galactose.