Loss of hepatic Mboat7 leads to liver fibrosis.

Objective: The rs641738C>T variant located near the membrane-bound O-acyltransferase domain containing 7 (MBOAT7) locus is associated with fibrosis in liver diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcohol-related liver disease, hepatitis B and C. We aim to understand the mechanism by which the rs641738C>T variant contributes to pathogenesis of NAFLD.

Design: Mice with hepatocyte-specific deletion of MBOAT7 (Mboat7) were generated and livers were characterised by histology, flow cytometry, qPCR, RNA sequencing and lipidomics.

Peptidyl prolyl / isomerase activity on the cell surface correlates with extracellular matrix development.

Interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) dictate cell fates. However, the complexity of dense ECM network and cell-surface molecules prevent the study of their dynamic interaction at the molecular level on living cells. Here, we focus on peptidyl prolyl isomerases (PPIases) to dissect prolyl isomerization from other dynamic events.

Breast cancer cells compete with hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells for intercellular adhesion molecule 1-mediated binding to the bone marrow microenvironment.

Adhesion-based cellular interactions involved in breast cancer metastasis to the bone marrow remain elusive. We identified that breast cancer cells directly compete with hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) for retention in the bone marrow microenvironment. To this end, we established two models of competitive cell adhesion-simultaneous and sequential-to study a potential competition for homing to the niche and displacement of the endogenous HSPCs upon invasion by tumor cells.

Pharmacokinetics and cellular uptake of imatinib and its main metabolite CGP74588.

Despite the remarkable clinical response rates to imatinib in the treatment of bcr-abl leukemic patients, pharmacokinetic data on this relatively novel substance are needed to improve our understanding of the emergence of resistance, the interindividual variations of clinical response and the clinical and biologic relevance of its main metabolite N-desmethyl-imatinib. We present here pharmacokinetic data obtained with a newly designed HPLC approach in 97 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia or acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) under treatment with imatinib that allowed us to calculate the AUC (39.5 microg.