SHSST-cyclodextrin complex inhibits TGF-β/Smad3/CTGF to a greater extent than silymarin in a rat model of carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury.

At present, cirrhosis is an incurable liver disease. Transforming growth factor β (TGF‑β) is important in myofibroblast induction during the cirrhosis initiation process. The current approach in the development of hepatoprotective drugs depends on TGF‑β inhibition.

Endothelin-1 enhances cell migration through COX-2 up-regulation in human chondrosarcoma.

Background: Chondrosarcoma is a type of highly malignant tumor with a potent capacity of local invasion and distant metastasis. The effect of endothelin-1 (ET-1) on migration activity in human chondrosarcoma cells is not clearly understood. Here, we found that ET-1 increased the migration and expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in human chondrosarcoma cells.

RANKL increases migration of human lung cancer cells through intercellular adhesion molecule-1 up-regulation.

Invasion of distant tissues by tumor cells is the primary cause of therapeutic failure in the treatment of malignant lung cancer cells. Receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) and its receptor, RANK, play a key role in osteoclastogenesis and tumor metastasis. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, also called CD54), a member of the immunoglobulin supergene family, is an inducible surface glycoprotein that mediates adhesion-dependent cell-to-cell interactions.

Leptin increases motility and integrin up-regulation in human prostate cancer cells.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in men and shows a predilection for metastasis to distant organs. Leptin, an adipocyte-derived cytokine that is closely associated with obesity, has recently been shown to be involved in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. The aim of this study was to investigate whether leptin is associated with the motility of prostate cancer cells.

Porphyromonas gingivalis-related cardiac cell apoptosis was majorly co-activated by p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathways.

Background And Objective: Little is known about the pathogenesis of apoptosis caused in cardiac tissues by periodontitis pathogens. The purpose of this study was to determine the related effect of periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis on cardiac cell apoptosis.

Methods: DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation and activated apoptotic caspases were measured by agarose gel electrophoresis, nuclear DAPI (4',6-diamidine-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride) stain and western blotting analysis following the surrounding medium of P.

Impaired IGF-I signalling of hypertrophic hearts in the developmental phase of hypertension in genetically hypertensive rats.

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) signalling is reported to contribute to the modulation of blood pressure and set survival and hypertrophic responses in cardiac tissue. However, whether IGF-I signalling normally acts in cardiac tissues of hypertensive rats is unknown. In this study, using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SPSHR), both with early blood pressure increases, and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats as controls, we measured the hypertrophic and IGF-I signalling activity changes in rat hearts at 4, 6 and 12 weeks of age.