Regulation of osteoblast development by Bcl-2-associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1).

BCL-2-associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1) is expressed by osteoblast-lineage cells; early embryonic lethality in Bag-1 null mice, however, has limited the investigation of BAG-1 function in osteoblast development. In the present study, bone morphogenetic protein-2/BMP-2-directed osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) of Bag-1(+/-) (heterozygous) female mice was decreased significantly. Genes crucial for osteogenic differentiation, bone matrix formation and mineralisation were expressed at significantly lower levels in cultures of Bag-1(+/-) BMSCs supplemented with BMP-2, while genes with roles in inhibition of BMP-2-directed osteoblastogenesis were significantly upregulated.

Isolation of a novel thioflavin S-derived compound that inhibits BAG-1-mediated protein interactions and targets BRAF inhibitor-resistant cell lines.

Protein-protein interactions mediated through the C-terminal Bcl-2-associated athanogene (BAG) domain of BAG-1 are critical for cell survival and proliferation. Thioflavin S (NSC71948)-a mixture of compounds resulting from the methylation and sulfonation of primulin base-has been shown to dose-dependently inhibit the interaction between BAG-1 and Hsc70 in vitro. In human breast cancer cell lines, with high BAG-1 expression levels, Thioflavin S reduces the binding of BAG-1 to Hsc70, Hsp70, or CRAF and decreases proliferation and viability.

Axl promotes cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma survival through negative regulation of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members.

Expression of Axl, a receptor tyrosine kinase, is increased in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Examination of a series of cutaneous SCC tumors revealed positive phospho-Akt (P-Akt) staining accompanied by weak TUNEL staining in Axl-positive tumors, suggesting an anti-apoptotic role for Axl in SCC survival. The role of Axl in UV-induced apoptosis was investigated in a cutaneous SCC cell line using retroviral short hairpin RNA sequences enabling stable Axl knock-down.

The regulation of Bax by c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) is a prerequisite to the mitochondrial-induced apoptotic pathway.

The signaling mechanism by which JNK affects mitochondria is critical to initiate apoptosis. Here we show that the absence of JNK provides a partial resistance to the toxic effect of the heavy metal cadmium. Both wild type and jnk-/- fibroblasts undergoing death exhibit cytosolic cytochrome c but, unlike wild type cells, the JNK-deficient fibroblasts do not display increased caspase activity and DNA fragmentation.

Targeted deletion of mek5 causes early embryonic death and defects in the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5/myocyte enhancer factor 2 cell survival pathway.

To elucidate the physiological significance of MEK5 in vivo, we have examined the effect of mek5 gene elimination in mice. Heterozygous mice appear to be healthy and were fertile. However, mek5(-/-) embryos die at approximately embryonic day 10.