Homeobox protein Hex facilitates serum responsive factor-mediated activation of the SM22alpha gene transcription in embryonic fibroblasts.

Objective: Hex (hematopoietically expressed homeobox), a member of homeobox family of transcription factors, has been implicated in the vascular development because of its expression in hemangioblast, a hypothetical stem cell that gives rise to both angioblasts and hematopoietic lineages. In the present study, we examined the role of Hex in the differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells.

Methods And Results: We constructed adenovirus expressing Hex, to which we refer to as AxCA/Hex, and transduced murine embryonic fibroblasts, 10T1/2 cells.

Transcriptional activation of the BNP gene by lipopolysaccharide is mediated through GATA elements in neonatal rat cardiac myocytes.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has a profound effect on cardiac performance through a collapse of the vasculature. In this study, we determined whether LPS has a direct effect on the cardiac myocytes by examining the expression of the BNP gene in cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes. Northern blot analysis showed that LPS induces the expression of the BNP gene.