Total Mineral Content in Raw Materials of Ten Medicinal Plants from Roadside Biotopes of Voronezh Oblast.

The total mineral content was studied in medicinal plants from roadside and railside biotopes of the Voronezh region. Pharmacopoeial plant raw materials of 10 species were evaluated: roots of Taraxacum officinale F.H.

CRABP1 provides high malignancy of transformed mesenchymal cells and contributes to the pathogenesis of mesenchymal and neuroendocrine tumors.

CRABP1 (cellular retinoic acid binding protein 1) belongs to the family of fatty acid binding proteins. Retinoic acid binding is the only known functional activity of this protein. The role of CRABP1 in human carcinogenesis remains poorly understood.

Alternative production of Bcl-2 and Bax by tumor cells determines the rates of in vivo tumor progression: suggested mechanisms.

The hypothesis tested in the study suggests that mechanisms of the earlier described delayed or accelerated tumor progression may be regulated by the antiapoptotic and proapoptotic cellular programs activated in stress reactions of transformed cells to the host normal cellular environment. Therefore, spontaneously transformed hamster cell line STHE, its bcl-2-transduced line STHE-Bcl-2, and 64 of their descendant tumor cell variants naturally selected in two in vivo regimes (local tumor growth versus dissemination) were examined. The role of Bcl-2 and the possible activation of endogenous death-signaling Bax, Ras, and HSP90/HSP70 stress proteins in STHE (Bcl-2+/-) tumor cell variants were studied in dynamics of in vivo tumor progression.

High expression of shMDG1 gene is associated with low metastatic potential of tumor cells.

Metastasis is the primary cause of mortality associated with cancer. Molecular mechanisms leading to metastatic spread are poorly studied. To get a better understanding of this process, we compared the gene expression pattern of two isogenic cell lines, HET-SR and HET-SR1 (Rous Sarcoma Virus-transformed embryo hamster fibroblasts) with different metastatic activity using the differential display technique.

The small G-protein RalA stimulates metastasis of transformed cells.

RAS oncogenes play a critical role in oncogenic transformation and metastases formation. Here we show that Ha-ras greatly stimulates spontaneous metastatic activity of transformed cells through the Ras/RalGDS/RalA intracellular signaling pathway. Introduction of RalA alone leads to a drastic increase of metastatic activity of transformed cells.