Tissue-Specific Cultured Human Pericytes: Perivascular Cells from Smooth Muscle Tissue Have Restricted Mesodermal Differentiation Ability.

Microvascular pericytes (PCs) are considered the adult counterpart of the embryonic mesoangioblasts, which represent a multipotent cell population that resides in the dorsal aorta of the developing embryo. Although PCs have been isolated from several adult organs and tissues, it is still controversial whether PCs from different tissues exhibit distinct differentiation potentials. To address this point, we investigated the differentiation potentials of isogenic human cultured PCs isolated from skeletal (sk-hPCs) and smooth muscle tissues (sm-hPCs).

Over-accumulation of nuclear IGF-1 receptor in tumor cells requires elevated expression of the receptor and the SUMO-conjugating enzyme Ubc9.

The insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) plays crucial roles in tumor cell growth and is overexpressed in many cancers. IGF-1R's trans-membrane kinase signaling pathways have been well characterized. Very recently, we showed that SUMOylation mediates nuclear translocation of the IGF-1R, and that nuclear IGF-1R (nIGF-1R) binds to enhancer regions and activates transcription.

Growth inhibition by microRNAs that target the insulin receptor substrate-1.

We have examined several microRNAs (miRs) indicated by the databases as targeting the signaling pathway of the type-1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR). Most of the miRs tested had multiple targets, as expected, leading to cell death. However, miR145 seemed to affect its tumor suppressor activity largely by downregulating the docking protein of the IGF-IR, the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1).

Mechanism of growth inhibition by MicroRNA 145: the role of the IGF-I receptor signaling pathway.

MicroRNA 145 (miR145) has been proposed as a tumor suppressor. It was previously shown that miR145 targets the 3' UTR of the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and dramatically inhibits the growth of colon cancer cells. miR145 also targets the type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR).