Background: Mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy is known to have the potential to induce angiogenesis. However, there are still some limitations regarding their clinical application. Photomodulation/photobiomodulation is non-invasive and non-toxic phototherapy able to stimulate cell viability, proliferation, differentiation, and migration, when the right irradiation parameters are applied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInhibition of the phospholipid phosphatase and tumor suppressor PTEN leads to excessive polarized cell growth during directed cell migration and neurite outgrowth. These processes require the precise regulation of both the actin and microtubule cytoskeleton. While PTEN is known to regulate actin dynamics through phospholipid modulation, whether and how PTEN regulates microtubule dynamics is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn neuronal cultures, glycogen synthase kinase 3(GSK3) is truncated at the N-terminal end by calpain downstream of activated glutamate receptors. However, the in vivo biological significance of that truncation has not been explored. In an attempt to elucidate if GSK3 truncation has a pathophysiological relevance, we have used intraperitoneal injections of kainic acid (KA) in rats and intra-amygdala KA microinjections in mice as in vivo models of excitotoxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCalpain produces a truncation of GSK3β that removes the N-terminal inhibitory domain. Here we analyze the effect of that truncation on protein-protein interaction. We pulled down GST-tagged proteins in the presence of full length GSK-3β and calpain-cleaved GSK-3β.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeregulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) activity is believed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). GSK-3 activity is regulated by phosphorylation and through interaction with GSK-3-binding proteins. Previously, we demonstrated that calpain activation produces a truncation of GSK-3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGSK-3 activity can be regulated by phosphorylation and through interaction with GSK-3-binding proteins. In addition, we have recently demonstrated that calpain activation produces a truncation of GSK-3 that removes the N-terminal inhibitory domain (Goñi-Oliver et al. [2007] J.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlycogen synthase kinase (GSK3) activity present in one cell is the consequence of the sum of the activities of two different proteins called GSK3alpha and GSK3beta. These isoenzymes are coded by two different genes and share an almost identical sequence at their catalytic domain, but differ in the sequence of putative regulatory regions. In this review, we propose that glycine repeats present only in GSK3alpha may result in the different cleavage of both isoenzymes by the protease calpain, a cleavage that modifies GSK3 activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this work is to review the changes that take place in the microtubule associated protein tau during neuronal development, aging and neurodegeneration. Human tau protein is expressed from a single gene located on chromosome 17. The DNA is transcribed into nuclear RNA and this RNA, by alternative splicing, yields different mRNA species which are developmentally regulated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough GSK-3 activity can be regulated by phosphorylation and through interaction with GSK-3-binding proteins, here we describe N-terminal proteolysis as a novel way to regulate GSK-3. When brain extracts were exposed to calcium, GSK-3 was truncated, generating two fragments of approximately 40 and 30 kDa, a proteolytic process that was inhibited by specific calpain inhibitors. Interestingly, instead of inhibiting this enzyme, GSK-3 truncation augmented its kinase activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) has been proposed as the main kinase able to aberrantly phosphorylate tau in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies, raising the possibility of designing novel therapeutic interventions for AD based on GSK-3 inhibition. Lithium, a widely used drug for affective disorders, inhibits GSK-3 at therapeutically relevant concentrations. Therefore, it was of great interest to test the possible protective effects of lithium in an AD animal model based on GSK-3 overexpression.
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