Endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis.

Cell death is an essential event in normal life and development, as well as in the pathophysiological processes that lead to disease. It has become clear that each of the main cellular organelles can participate in cell death signalling pathways, and recent advances have highlighted the importance of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in cell death processes. In cells, the ER functions as the organelle where proteins mature, and as such, is very responsive to extracellular-intracellular changes of environment.

[Fibroblast growth factor-2].

Fibroblast growth factor-2 is a member of a large family of proteins that bind heparin and heparan sulfate and modulate the function of a wide range of cell types. FGF-2 occurs in several isoforms resulting from alternative initiations of traslation: an 18 kDa cytoplasmic isoform and four larger molecular weight nuclear isoforms (22, 22.5, 24 and 34 kDa).

Increased expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 in CD34+ BCR-ABL+ cells from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Previously, we showed that expression of myeloma-associated (proto)oncogene fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR-3) is increased in white blood cells from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The abnormal expression was returned back to the normal levels as soon as these patients reconstituted their hematopoiesis following transplantation of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cells. The aims of this study were: (1) to define population(s) of cells overexpressing FGFR-3, and (2) to determine the expression of FGFR-3 during the clinical course of the disease.