The growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) system plays an important role in regulating the cellular growth and organ development. The present study investigated the seasonal expressions of growth hormone receptor (GHR), IGF-1 and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) ...

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a common malignant tumor of bone, of which clear understanding of molecular pathologic process is not yet possible. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a hormone that plays vital role in development and function of many tissues. Unfortunately, IGF-1 and its receptor (IGF...

In order to achieve effective bone regeneration, the architectural/structural and biological environment must be considered. In this study, we investigated the influence of structure of extracellular matrix-mimicking electrospun poly (l-lactic acid) (PLLA) fibrous scaffolds and incorporated grow...

SummaryFollowing ocular trauma or in diseases such as glaucoma, irreversible vision loss is due to the death of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) neurons. Although strategies to replace these lost cells include stem cell replacement therapy, few differentiated stem cells turn into RGC-like neurons. Un...

BackgroundGrowth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is markedly increased in end-stage kidney disease and has been related to increased mortality in patients on dialysis. We hypothesized that kidney transplantation would decrease both GDF15 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP...

BackgroundCurrent assessment tools for patients with acute chest pain are either traumatic (coronary angiography) or unreliable (measurement of cardiac troponin concentrations). We investigated whether the novel cardiovascular stress markers, serum growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), Krü...

The subapical endocytic collar is a prominent feature of hyphae of Neurospora crassa. It comprises a dynamic collection of actin patches associated with a number of proteins required for endocytosis, namely, ARP-2/3 complex, fimbrin, coronin, etc. We presently show that MYO-1 is another key comp...

The Jun dimerization protein 2 (JDP2) is part of the family of stress-responsible transcription factors such as the activation protein-1, and binds the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetateresponse element and the cAMP response element. It also plays a role as a histone chaperone and participates...

A temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant of the BHK21 cell line derived from golden hamsters, tsBN462 has a mutation in the gene encoding the largest subunit of the TFIID complex, TAFII250/p230/CCG1, and arrests in the G1 phase at the nonpermissive temperature, 39.5°C. We found that tsBN462 cells un...

A novel human protein factor CIB (C̄CG1-īnteracting factor B̄) was isolated using the yeast two-hybrid system. CIB was purified and subsequently crystallized using the vapor-diffusion method. Dynamic light-scattering studies of CIB revealed this protein to be monodispersive and present as a mon...

The CCG1 cDNA encoding a general transcription factor, TAFII250, complements a thermosensitive (ts) cell cycle mutant, tsBN462, of the BHK21 cell line, which arrests in the G1 phase at the restrictive temperature. In order to clarify whether the CCG1 is mutated in tsBN462 cells or a suppressor o...

The human CCG1 gene, encoding CCGl/TAFII250/p250, was isolated by complementing tsBN462, a mutant BHK21 cell line that shows cell-cycle arrest at high temperature. Using the cDNA as a probe, the locations of exon-intron junctions were determined in the genomic DNA. Thirty-eight exons ranging fro...

Drosophila ELAV is the founding member of an evolutionarily conserved family of RNA-binding proteins considered as key inducers of neuronal differentiation. Although several ELAV-specific targets have been identified, little is known about the role of elav during neural development. Here, we rep...

SummaryAlternative polyadenylation (APA) has been implicated in a variety of developmental and disease processes. A particularly dramatic form of APA occurs in the developing nervous system of flies and mammals, whereby various developmental genes undergo coordinate 3′ UTR extension. In Drosoph...

The 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) function as platforms that can determine the fate of each mRNA individually and in aggregate. Multiple mRNAs that encode proteins that are functionally related often interact with RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and noncoding RNAs...

Currently available antidepressant drugs often fail to achieve full remission and patients might evolve to treatment resistance, showing the need to achieve a better therapy of depressive disorders. Increasing evidence supports that post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression is important...

elav, a gene necessary for neuronal differentiation and maintenance in Drosophila, encodes the prototype of a family of conserved proteins involved in post-transcriptional regulation. We identified found in neurons (fne), a gene encoding a new ELAV paralogue. We showed that FNE binds RNA in vitr...

SummaryFUS is an RNA-binding protein associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Previous reports have demonstrated intrinsic roles of FUS in synaptic function. However, the mechanism underlying FUS’s regulation of synaptic morphology has re...

Increased levels of SOD1 mRNA have been observed in sporadic ALS patients (SALS) compared to controls. Hence, the understanding of the mechanisms by which SOD1 gene expression is modulated may shed new light on SOD1 involvement in ALS. Of interest, some adenine/uracil-rich elements (AREs) in SOD...

SummaryMany metazoan genes express alternative long 3′ UTR isoforms in the nervous system, but their functions remain largely unclear. In Drosophila melanogaster, the Dscam1 gene generates short and long (Dscam1-L) 3′ UTR isoforms because of alternative polyadenylation (APA). Here, we found th...