The Plant Hormone Cytokinin Confers Protection against Oxidative Stress in Mammalian Cells.

Modulating key dynamics of plant growth and development, the effects of the plant hormone cytokinin on animal cells gained much attention recently. Most previous studies on cytokinin effects on mammalian cells have been conducted with elevated cytokinin concentration (in the μM range). However, to examine physiologically relevant dose effects of cytokinins on animal cells, we systematically analyzed the impact of kinetin in cultured cells at low and high concentrations (1nM-10μM) and examined cytotoxic and genotoxic conditions.

IR and IGF-1R expression affects insulin induced proliferation and DNA damage.

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is in its prediagnostic and early phase characterized by hyperinsulinemia. Previously, we pointed out hyperinsulinemia as a potential link between diabetes mellitus and the increased cancer risk that is associated with this disease through its induction of oxidative stress and DNA damage. In the present study, we address the relationship between the induction of proliferation and genomic damage in vitro in cell lines with different expression of the insulin and the IGF-1 receptors after treating the cells with insulin and the insulin analog glargine.

Metformin Protects Kidney Cells From Insulin-Mediated Genotoxicity In Vitro and in Male Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats.

Hyperinsulinemia is thought to enhance cancer risk. A possible mechanism is induction of oxidative stress and DNA damage by insulin, Here, the effect of a combination of metformin with insulin was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The rationales for this were the reported antioxidative properties of metformin and the aim to gain further insights into the mechanisms responsible for protecting the genome from insulin-mediated oxidative stress and damage.

Signaling steps in the induction of genomic damage by insulin in colon and kidney cells.

Diabetes mellitus (DM), a disease with almost 350 million people affected worldwide, will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. Diabetic patients develop various types of complications, among them an increased rate of malignancies. Studies reported the strong correlation between DM and several cancer types, of which colon and kidney cancers are the most common.

Immune stimulation and malaria infection impose reproductive costs in Anopheles gambiae via follicular apoptosis.

The employment of defense mechanisms is recognized as a costly life-history trait. In the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, reproductive costs have been associated with both humoral and cellular innate immune responses and also with malaria infection. The resorption of developing oocytes associated with malaria infection is preceded by the programmed cell death, or apoptosis, of follicular cells.

Evaluation of a possible role of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP-1) in the pathogenesis of hydatid disease.

Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1), in the serum levels of 27 patients was significantly higher and almost a double of that measured in healthy patients. Considerably higher TIMP-1 levels were recovered in patients with higher specific antibody titers and those with hepatic cysts in relation to low-titer patients and pulmonary cysts respectively, reflecting an immunologic dose-dependent and cell type-specific regulation of TIMP-1 production. Yet, these higher TIMP-1 levels stop short to be statistically significant in both groups.

Relation of parasitic infection to blood group in El Minia Governorate, Egypt.

148 patients attending the outpatient Tropical Medicine clinic, El Minia University Hospital were studied for parasitic infections in relation to ABO blood groups. There was a statistically significant relationship between G. lamblia infection (69.