Filopodia play a central role in proper cell navigation; they extend from the cell surface and scan the local environment to guide the cell to its proper destination. These dynamic events require precise mechanisms for the turnover of key molecules which determine the morphology of filopodia. As of yet, such...
IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine involved in both immune and non-immune functions. In the immune system, IL-6 induces terminal differentiation of B cells into plasma cells, thereby promoting antibody production. IL-6 stimulates growth of T cells by enhancing the expression of the IL-2 receptor, and IL-6 also causes differentiation of...
Actin polymerization is responsible for the protrusion of filopodia and lamellipodia in immune, cancer, and other motile cells, as well as for propulsion of some intra cellular pathogens. Protrusion of a lamellipodium by the very filaments supporting the membrane load operates by the Brownian ratchet mechanism, with overall organization governed...
A primary limitation of non-viral gene therapy is the low level of expression achieved. One of the reasons that higher expression is not achieved is that there are many physical obstacles that prevent the DNA from reaching the nucleus to be expressed. A plasmid must cross the cell membrane, traverse...
The perinucleolar compartment is a nuclear substructure that is associated with, but structurally distinct from the nucleolus. Previous studies have shown that the PNC preferentially forms in cancer cells and PNC prevalence (% of non-mitotic and non-apoptotic cells in a population with one or more PNC) is a prognostic in...
Cellular interactions are important for the development and maintenance of tissue structural integrity. In the developing neuroepithelium, the adherens junction proteins, N-cadherin and β-catenin, are highly enriched at the apical surface of the proliferative ventricular zone and have been suggested to have critical functions in ensuring the proper development of...
MHC class II-restricted T cell responses are a common driving force of autoimmune disease. Numerous therapeutic strategies target CD4+ T cells hoping to attenuate autoimmune responses and restore self-tolerance. We have previously reported that i.v. treatment with antigen-pulsed, ethylenecarbodiimide (ECDI)-fixed splenocytes (Ag-SP) is an efficient protocol to induce Ag-specific tolerance...
Early-life seizures increase susceptibility to seizures in adulthood. However, mechanisms by which seizures in the developing brain lead to increased vulnerability to seizures and exacerbation of neurological injury in adulthood remain unknown. We test the hypothesis that upregulation of proinflammatory cytokine levels and chronic glial activation following early-life seizures result...
HspB2 was discovered as a chaperone of muscular dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK) and originally named, DMPK binding protein (MKBP) and presently called HspB2. Functionally, MKBP binds to DMPK and stabilizes its kinase activity, thereby accelerating the progression of muscular dystrophy. Although other binding partners of HspB2 have been found, the...
Although non-viral gene therapy has great potential for use in the lung, several problems including inefficient gene transfer and expression and the relative lack of cell-specific targeting have limited its applications. The two approaches that have been used to target genes to desired cell types are through specific ligand-receptor interactions...