Publications by authors named "Guo-fu Hu"

Increased de novo lipogenesis (DNL) in white adipose tissue is associated with insulin sensitivity. Under both Normal-Chow-Diet and High-Fat-Diet, mice expressing a kinase inactive Cyclin-dependent kinase 6 (Cdk6) allele (K43M) display an increase in DNL in visceral white adipose tissues (VAT) as compared to wild type mice (WT), accompanied by markedly increased lipogenic transcriptional factor Carbohydrate-responsive element-binding proteins (CHREBP) and lipogenic enzymes in VAT but not in the liver. Treatment of WT mice under HFD with a CDK6 inhibitor recapitulates the phenotypes observed in K43M mice.

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Overweight or obesity poses a significant risk of many obesity-related metabolic diseases. Among all the potential new therapies, stem cell-based treatments hold great promise for treating many obesity-related metabolic diseases. However, the mechanisms regulating adipocyte stem cells/progenitors (precursors) are unknown.

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Stress is a trigger for the development of psychiatric disorders. However, how stress trait differs in schizophrenia patients is still unclear. Stress also induces and exacerbates immune activation in psychiatric disorders.

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Prostate specific antigen screening has resulted in a decrease in prostate cancer-related deaths. However, it also has led to over-treatment affecting the quality of life of many patients. New biomarkers are needed to distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and to predict aggressiveness of the disease.

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Background: Angiogenin is a multifunctional secreted ribonuclease that is upregulated in human cancers and downregulated or mutationally inactivated in neurodegenerative diseases. A role for angiogenin in glioblastoma was inferred from the inverse correlation of angiogenin expression with patient survival but had not been experimentally investigated.

Methods: Angiogenin knockout mice were generated and the effect of angiogenin deficiency on glioblastoma progression was examined.

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Paternal environmental inputs can influence various phenotypes in offspring, presenting tremendous implications for basic biology and public health and policy. However, which signals function as a nexus to transmit paternal environmental inputs to offspring remains unclear. Here we show that offspring of fathers with inflammation exhibit metabolic disorders including glucose intolerance and obesity.

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Objective: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play essential roles in maintaining gut health and are associated with IBD. This study is to elucidate the effect of angiogenin (ANG), an intestine-secreted AMP, on gut microbiota and its relevance with IBD.

Design: The effect of ANG on microbiota and its contribution to colitis were evaluated in different colitis models with co-housing and faecal microbiota transplantation.

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Communication between myeloid cells and epithelium plays critical role in maintaining intestinal epithelial barrier integrity. Myeloid cells interact with intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) by producing various mediators; however, the molecules mediating their crosstalk remain incompletely understood. Here, we report that deficiency of angiogenin (Ang) in mouse myeloid cells caused impairment of epithelial barrier integrity, leading to high susceptibility to DSS-induced colitis.

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Introduction: The myofibroblast is a gastrointestinal stromal cell that is a target of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine strongly implicated in colitis-associated cancer. Crosstalk between TNF-α and other pro-inflammatory mediators amplify inflammatory signaling but the mechanism is unknown. Angiogenin (ANG) is a 14-kDa angiogenesis protein that is regulated in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

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Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are an obstacle in cancer therapy and are a major cause of drug resistance, cancer recurrence, and metastasis. Available treatments, targeting proliferating cancer cells, are not effective in eliminating quiescent CSCs. Identification of CSC regulators will help design therapeutic strategies to sensitize drug-resistant CSCs for chemo-eradication.

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Angiogenin (ANG) is a secreted ribonuclease (RNase) with cell-type- and context-specific roles in growth, survival, and regeneration. Although these functions require receptor-mediated endocytosis and appropriate subcellular localization, the identity of the cell surface receptor remains undefined. Here, we show that plexin-B2 (PLXNB2) is the functional receptor for ANG in endothelial, cancer, neuronal, and normal hematopoietic and leukemic stem and progenitor cells.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) frequently invade the bones of the facial skeleton. Semaphorin 4D (Sema4D) is an axon guidance molecule produced by oligodendrocytes. Sema4D was also identified in the bone microenvironment and many cancer tissues including HNSCC.

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Neamine, an inhibitor of angiogenin (ANG), is a new investigative anticancer drug currently in preclinical stage. Here we report the 90-day sub-chronic toxicity of neamine in SD rats and its anti-liver cancer activity in vitro and in vivo. Neamine has a No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) of 12 and 16mg·kg·d for female and male rats, respectively.

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Mechanism and Function of Angiogenin in Apoptosis Regulation.

Zhongguo Sheng Wu Hua Xue Yu Fen Zi Sheng Wu Xue Bao

December 2015

Angiogenin (ANG), a secreted ribonuclease, has been characterized recently as an anti-apoptosis factor involved in a variety of cellular anti-apoptosis process. ANG regulates intrinsic pathways-related major molecules such as anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, as well as extrinsic signaling pathways. Moreover, ANG regulates p53-regulated apoptosis, a process considered to be important in regulating both the extrinsic and the intrinsic pathways.

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Physiological stem cell function is regulated by secreted factors produced by niche cells. In this study, we describe an unbiased approach based on the differential single-cell gene expression analysis of mesenchymal osteolineage cells close to, and further removed from, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) to identify candidate niche factors. Mesenchymal cells displayed distinct molecular profiles based on their relative location.

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Regulation of stem and progenitor cell populations is critical in the development, maintenance, and regeneration of tissues. Here, we define a novel mechanism by which a niche-secreted RNase, angiogenin (ANG), distinctively alters the functional characteristics of primitive hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) compared with lineage-committed myeloid-restricted progenitor (MyePro) cells. Specifically, ANG reduces the proliferative capacity of HSPC while simultaneously increasing proliferation of MyePro cells.

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Mechanism and Function of Angiogenin in Prostate Cancer.

Zhongguo Sheng Wu Hua Xue Yu Fen Zi Sheng Wu Xue Bao

December 2015

Angiogenin (ANG), the fifth member of the vertebrate-specific ribonuclease (RNase) A superfamily, is a secreted angiogenic ribonuclease strongly up-regulated in human prostate cancers. ANG is translocated to the nucleus in both prostate cancer epithelial cells and endothelial cells to exert its role in prostate cancer progression by mediating tumor angiogenesis, cancer cell survival and proliferation through rRNA biogenesis. ANG-stimulated rRNA is required not only for prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) formation, but also for androgen-independent growth of prostate cancer cells.

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Background/aim: Head and neck cancers are the fifth most common cancer type worldwide, affecting more than half a million patients annually. Development of effective therapeutic drugs is, therefore, required for this type of disease. This study assessed the effects of synthetic terrein on head and neck cancer.

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Mechanism and Function of Angiogenin in Hematopoietic Malignancy.

Zhongguo Sheng Wu Hua Xue Yu Fen Zi Sheng Wu Xue Bao

December 2015

Angiogenic factors have been widely implicated in the formation and progression of solid tumors. A number of angiogenic mediators have been recently appreciated as having equivalent function in non-solid tumors, such as leukemia. One such factor, angiogenin (ANG), promotes tumor cell growth and angiogenesis in solid cancers; however its precise function(s) in hematological disorders are not fully understood.

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Neamine, a non-toxic derivative of neomycin, has recently been shown to have antitumor activities in various types of cancers. However, its effect on pancreatic cancer is still unknown. The study aimed to investigate its antitumor activity on pancreatic cancer and the underlying mechanisms.

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Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is involved in the pathophysiology of kidney disease and aging, but the molecular bases underlying the biologic outcomes on the evolution of renal disease remain mostly unknown. Angiogenin (ANG) is a ribonuclease that promotes cellular adaptation under stress but its contribution to ER stress signaling remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the ANG-mediated contribution to the signaling and biologic outcomes of ER stress in kidney injury.

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Hormone therapy is the most commonly used treatment for prostate cancer, but for androgen-independent cancer, few effective treatment methods are available. Therefore, the requirement to develop novel and effective anti-prostate cancer drugs is extremely urgent. Angiogenin has been suggested as a molecular target for prostate cancer treatment; its overexpression contributes to androgen-dependent prostate cancer growth and castration-resistant growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • Angiogenin promotes cancer progression by enhancing blood vessel growth and the proliferation of cancer cells, which can happen in both endothelial and cancer cells.
  • The study investigates the antitumor effects of neamine, a substance that blocks angiogenin's movement into the nucleus, on oral cancer.
  • Results show that neamine inhibits the growth of specific oral cancer cells and reduces tumor blood vessel formation in mouse models, suggesting its potential as a treatment for oral cancer.
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Article Synopsis
  • Adaptation to changes in extracellular tonicity is crucial for cell survival, but chronic hyperosmotic stress can trigger apoptosis through cytochrome c (Cyt c) release and apoptosome formation.
  • The study finds that angiogenin treatment increases the survival of stressed mouse embryonic fibroblasts by promoting the accumulation of tRNA halves (tiRNAs) and inhibiting apoptosome formation.
  • Analysis reveals that a complex formed between Cyt c and tiRNAs enhances interaction, reducing apoptosis in stressed cells, and this effect is also observed in primary cortical neurons.
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Angiogenin (ANG) and ribonuclease 4 (RNASE4), two members of the secreted and vertebrate-specific ribonuclease superfamily, play important roles in cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. The ANG and RNASE4 genes share genetic regions with promoter activities, but the structure and regulation of these putative promotes are unknown. We have characterized the promoter regions, defined the transcription start site, and identified a mechanism of transcription regulation that involves both RNA polymerase III (Pol III) elements and CCCTC binding factor (CTCF) sites.

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