HMGN2 represses gene transcription via interaction with transcription factors Lef-1 and Pitx2 during amelogenesis.

The chromatin-associated high mobility group protein N2 (HMGN2) cofactor regulates transcription factor activity through both chromatin and protein interactions. Hmgn2 expression is known to be developmentally regulated, but the post-transcriptional mechanisms that regulate Hmgn2 expression and its precise roles in tooth development remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that HMGN2 inhibits the activity of multiple transcription factors as a general mechanism to regulate early development.

Oxysterols and EBI2 promote osteoclast precursor migration to bone surfaces and regulate bone mass homeostasis.

Bone surfaces attract hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells, such as osteoclasts (OCs) and osteoblasts (OBs), and are targeted by bone metastatic cancers. However, the mechanisms guiding cells toward bone surfaces are essentially unknown. Here, we show that the Gαi protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) EBI2 is expressed in mouse monocyte/OC precursors (OCPs) and its oxysterol ligand 7α,25-dihydroxycholesterol (7α,25-OHC) is secreted abundantly by OBs.

A model for the molecular underpinnings of tooth defects in Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome.

Patients with Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome (ARS) present various dental abnormalities, including hypodontia, and enamel hypoplasia. ARS is genetically associated with mutations in the PITX2 gene, which encodes one of the earliest transcription factors to initiate tooth development. Thus, Pitx2 has long been considered as an upstream regulator of the transcriptional hierarchy in early tooth development.

Expression of proto-oncogene cFMS protein in lung, breast, and ovarian cancers.

We performed immunohistochemistry for macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (also known as c-fms proto-oncogene product) on tissue microarrays of human nontumor lung, pulmonary squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and adenocarcinomas (ADC), and breast and ovarian carcinomas using a commercially available anti-cFMS antibody. The specificity of the antibody was validated by Western blot and mass spectrometry analysis. Staining of cFMS was restricted to stromal fibroblasts in pulmonary SCC and ADC specimens and was not identified in tumor epithelium or epithelium and stromal cells of nontumor lung.

Reduction of AHSP synthesis in hemin-induced K562 cells and EPO-induced CD34(+) cells leads to alpha-globin precipitation, impairment of normal hemoglobin production, and increased cell death.

Objective: alpha-Hemoglobin stabilizing protein (AHSP) binds alpha-hemoglobin (Hb), avoiding its precipitation and its pro-oxidant activity. In the presence of betaHb, the alphaHb-AHSP complex is dismembered and betaHb displaces AHSP to generate the quaternary structure of Hb. The relationship between Hb formation and alterations in AHSP expression, which may affect human erythropoiesis, has not yet been described in human cells.