Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.10.1 (ERK)
95,504 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Stem cells are self-renewing multipotent progenitors with the broadest developmental potential in a given tissue at a given time. Normal stem cells in the adult organism are responsible for renewal and repair of aged or damaged tissue. Adult stem cells are present in virtually all tissues and during most stages of development. In this review, we introduce the reader to the basic information about the field. We describe selected stem cell isolation techniques and stem cell markers for various stem cell populations. These include makers for endothelial progenitor cells (CD146/MCAM/MUC18/S-endo-1, CD34, CD133/prominin, Tie-2, Flk1/KD/VEGFR2), hematopoietic stem cells (CD34, CD117/c-Kit, Sca1), mesenchymal stem cells (CD146/MCAM/MUC18/S-endo-1, STRO-1, Thy-1), neural stem cells (CD133/prominin, nestin, NCAM), mammary stem cells (CD24, CD29, Sca1), and intestinal stem cells (NCAM, CD34, Thy-1, CD117/c-Kit, Flt-3). Separate section provides a concise summary of recent clinical trials involving stem cells directed towards improvement of a damaged myocardium. In the last part of the review, we reflect on the field and on future developments.
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PMID:Adult stem cells and their trans-differentiation potential--perspectives and therapeutic applications. 1862 66

Glioblastomas often show activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and loss of PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10) tumor suppressor, but it is not known if these two genetic lesions act together to transform cells. To answer this question, we infected PTEN-/- neural precursor cells with a retrovirus encoding EGFRvIII, which is a constitutively activated receptor. EGFRvIII PTEN-/- cells formed highly mitotic tumors with nuclear pleomorphism, necrotic areas, and glioblastoma markers. The transformed cells showed increased cell proliferation, centrosome amplification, colony formation in soft agar, self-renewal, expression of the stem cell marker CD133, and resistance to oxidative stress and ionizing radiation. The RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) pathways were activated, and checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), the DNA damage regulator, was phosphorylated at S280 by Akt, suppressing Chk1 phosphorylation at S345 in response to ionizing irradiation. The PTEN-/- cells showed low levels of DNA damage in the absence of irradiation, which was increased by EGFRvIII expression. Finally, secondary changes occurred during tumor growth in mice. Cells from these tumors showed decreased tumor latencies and additional chromosomal aberrations. Most of these tumor lines showed translocations of mouse chromosome 15. Intracranial injections of one of these lines led to invasive, glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive, nestin-positive tumors. These results provide a molecular basis for the occurrence of these two genetic lesions in brain tumors and point to a role in induction of genomic instability.
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PMID:EGFRvIII expression and PTEN loss synergistically induce chromosomal instability and glial tumors. 1881 21

The contractile-synthetic phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is a key event during atherosclerosis progression. Although many studies have reported possible cytokines and growth factors implicated to this process, the critical factors affecting the VSMC phenotype remain unclear due to the lack of early de-differentiation marker identifications. In this study, we showed that nestin, an intermediate filament protein, is expressed in primary cultures of rat VSMCs representing the synthetic phenotype and its expression is diminished as these cells re-differentiate after serum deprivation. However, the regulation of nestin expression was never reported despite its common usage as an early differentiation marker. Herein, we showed that nestin expression is regulated by epidermal growth factor (EGF) via de novo RNA and protein synthesis. Furthermore, signaling analyses revealed that the EGF-induced nestin re-expression is mediated through the activation of the Ras-Raf-ERK signaling axis. This is the first report to show that nestin expression is regulated by an extracellular signaling molecule.
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PMID:Epidermal growth factor up-regulates the expression of nestin through the Ras-Raf-ERK signaling axis in rat vascular smooth muscle cells. 1885 44

A newly established GM7 cell line was derived from the tumor tissue of a 65-year-old man surgically treated for a relapse of glioblastoma multiforme that occurred 10 months after first surgery following radiotherapy. GM7 cells exhibit spindle or glia-like morphology, and multinucleated giant cells are also present in the culture. The cells proliferate rapidly (PDT is about 18 h) and tend to grow in multilayer without contact inhibition. Using G-banding and SKY, the GM7 cell line was identified as near-triploid with a large number of structural and numerical abnormalities. Repeated karyotyping during long-term cultivation confirmed a chromosome number of 70+/-3 chromosomes per cell. Special attention was paid to the immunocytochemical analysis of protein markers in this cell line; GM7 cells showed strong positivity for CD133, vimentin, nestin, NF-160 and S-100 protein and weak positivity for GFAP and NSE, but were negative for synaptophysin. The most important features of the GM7 cell line are its stable phenotype CD133+/nestin+, which are accepted as stem cell markers in neural stem/progenitor cells, and especially unusual intracellular localization of the IF protein nestin, which was detected and repeatedly confirmed both in the cytoplasm and cell nucleus. For this reason, the new GM7 glioblastoma cell line represents an important model suitable not only for further studies on glioblastoma biology and cancer stem cells, but particularly for the detailed investigation of the role of nestin in transformed cells.
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PMID:Characterization of a GM7 glioblastoma cell line showing CD133 positivity and both cytoplasmic and nuclear localization of nestin. 1908 52

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of electrospun poly(epsilon)-caprolactone (PCL) scaffolds treated with alternating paly-electrolytes as a controllable three-dimensional adhesive substrate for neuronal progenitors. Unmodified PCL surfaces were generally not supportive of mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) colony adhesion. However, scaffolds surfaced using layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition of heparin/poly-L-lysine encouraged better local adhesion of mESC colonies, and networking of monolayers containing nestin-positive presumptive neurons, similar to laminin coated controls, as observed by immuno-fluorescence microscopy. Confocal microscopy further revealed depth-wise penetration of mESC nestin-positive cell populations, and orientation along grass topographical features in the LbL scaffolds. LbL deposition therefore appears to provide a satisfactory adhesive substrate for contact and mechanical guidance of neuronal outgrowth in three-dimensions.
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PMID:Biomaterials for spinal cord regeneration: outgrowth of presumptive neuronal precursors on electrospun poly(epsilon)-caprolactone scaffolds microlayered with alternating polyelectrolytes. 1916 37

Autologous and gene-modified bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) have shown a bright future in clinical applications. However, does a gene-modified MSC still maintain its stem cell-like properties? To answer this question, human IGF-1 was introduced into rat MSCs using a recombinant retroviral vector and the effects of the gene manipulation on the cells' behaviors were investigated. The MSCs transfected with hIGF-1 could secrete 6.7-fold higher IGF-1 than the native cells. These MSCs had an elevated baseline activity of ERK signaling, an enhanced proliferation, increased accumulative numbers of cell doublings, and a reduced apoptosis; they showed upregulated expressions of OCT-4, CYP51, and SM22alpha, and a downregulated expression of nestin. This indicates that the overexpressed IGF-1 enhances the MSCs' self-renewal, endodermal and mesodermal differentiation, but weakens their neuronal potential. Although a puromycin selection after hIGF-1 gene transfection could produce a purer transfected MSC population with stronger ability to express functional hIGF-1, it induced premature senescence of the selected cells by activating oncogene Ras, leading to a shortened replicative life span and a weakened multipotency.
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PMID:Introduction of hIGF-1 gene into bone marrow stromal cells and its effects on the cell's biological behaviors. 1917 43

Regulation of nestin gene expression is largely unknown despite that it is widely used as a progenitor cell marker. In this study, we showed that nestin expression is regulated by the thrombin-mediated EGFR transactivation in serum-deprived primary cultures of rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). This resulted from the direct binding of thrombin to PAR-1 rather than indirectly affecting through the binding to thrombomodulin, as demonstrated by thrombomodulin RNAi. In this process, the PAR-1-induced c-Src plays a critical role through two routes; one was the direct intracellular phosphorylation of EGFR and the other was the extracellular activation of the MMP-2-mediated shedding of HB-EGF. The transactivated EGFR then led to the downstream Ras-Raf-ERK signaling axis, but not the p38 or JNK pathways. In addition, the EMSA experiment showed that the transcriptional factor Sp1 is critical for the thrombin-induced nestin expression in rat VSMCs. Furthermore, RNAi of nestin attenuated the thrombin-induced cell proliferation, indicating that thrombin-induced nestin expression and cell proliferation share the same EGFR transactivation mechanism. This study also suggested that nestin may play an important role in cell proliferation induced by the thrombin-mediated EGFR transactivation.
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PMID:Thrombin induces nestin expression via the transactivation of EGFR signalings in rat vascular smooth muscle cells. 1924 30

Directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) has generated much interest in the field of regenerative medicine. While subpopulations of hESCs within pluripotent cultures have been identified based on expression of specific surface antigens, their significance and fates are not well understood. To determine whether such subpopulations indicate specific tissue fates or represent stochastic antigen distributions within proliferating cultures, we isolated CD133(+) or CD135(+) hESCs from proliferating cultures constitutively expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP), and co-cultured these with unselected GFP(-) hESCs. After passage in culture, GFP(+) hESCs reanalyzed for the persistence of CD133 or CD135 expression, as well as other surface antigens (Tra-1-60, SSEA-4, FGFR-1), demonstrated that these two subpopulations continued to express CD133 or CD135 over serial passage, and that CD133(+) hESCs were enriched for SSEA-4 expression as well. Upon differentiation in vitro, CD133(+)GFP(+) hESCs gave rise solely to ectoderm, as detected by expression of nestin. Tissues representing endoderm (alpha-fetoprotein(+)) and mesoderm (smooth muscle actin(+)) were not seen among GFP(+) tissues. In contrast, selection against CD133 gave rise almost exclusively to mesoderm and endoderm. In contrast, CD135(+)GFP(+) hESCs gave rise to tissues representing all three embryonic germ layers, and were virtually indistinguishable from CD135(-)-derived tissues. Similar results were obtained by in vivo differentiation in teratomas. These data establish that subpopulations of proliferating hESCs whose tissue fate is predetermined exist, and challenge the notion that all cells within proliferating hESC cultures are truly "pluripotent." This co-culture approach also will enable identification of other distinct hESC subpopulations, and selection for these should prove valuable in generating tissue-specific reagents for cell-based therapy.
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PMID:Subpopulations of human embryonic stem cells with distinct tissue-specific fates can be selected from pluripotent cultures. 1925 77

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents an extremely chemoresistant tumour type. Here, authors analysed the immunophenotype of GBM tumours by flow cytometry and correlated the immunophenotypic characteristics with sensitivity to chemotherapy. The expression of selected neural and non-neural differentiation markers including A2B5, CD34, CD45, CD56, CD117, CD133, EGFR, GFAP, Her-2/neu, LIFR, nestin, NGFR, Pgp and vimentin was analysed by flow cytometry in eleven GBM (WHO gr.IV) patients. The sensitivity of tumour cells to a panel of chemotherapeutic agents was tested by the MTT assay. All tumours were positive for A2B5, CD56, nestin and vimentin. CD133, EGFR, LIFR, NGFR and Pgp were expressed only by minor tumour cell subpopulations. CD34, CD45, CD117, GFAP and Her-2/neu were constantly negative. Direct correlations were found between the immunophenotypic markers and chemosensitivity: A2B5 vs lomustine (r(2) = 0.642, P = 0.033), CD56 vs cisplatin (r(2) = 0.745, P = 0.013), %Pgp(+) vs vincristine (r(2) = 0.846, P = 0.008), and %NGFR(+) vs daunorubicine (r(2) = 0.672, P = 0.047) and topotecan (r(2) = 0.792, P = 0.011). In contrast, inverse correlations were observed between: EGFR vs paclitaxel (r(2) = -0.676, P = 0.046), CD133 vs dacarbazine (r(2) = -0.636, P = 0.048) and LIFR vs daunorubicine (r(2) = -0.878, P = 0.004). Finally, significant associations were also found among sensitivities to different chemotherapeutic agents and among different immunophenotypic markers. In conclusion, histopathologically identical GBM tumours displayed a marked immunophenotypic heterogeneity. The expression of A2B5, CD56, NGFR and Pgp appeared to be associated with chemoresistance whereas CD133, EGFR and LIFR expression was characteristic of chemosensitive tumours. We suggest that flow cytometric imunophenotypic analysis of GBM may predict chemoresponsiveness and help to identify patients who could potentially benefit from chemotherapy.
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PMID:Flow cytometry analysis of neural differentiation markers expression in human glioblastomas may predict their response to chemotherapy. 1928 88

Type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) signaling in neuronal development was studied in mutant mice with blunted igf1r gene expression in nestin-expressing neuronal precursors. At birth [postnatal (P) day 0] brain weights were reduced to 37% and 56% of controls in mice homozygous (nes-igf1r(-/-)) and heterozygous (nes-igf1r(-/Wt)) for the null mutation, respectively, and this brain growth retardation persisted postnatally. Stereological analysis demonstrated that the volumes of the hippocampal formation, CA fields 1-3, dentate gyrus (DG), and DG granule cell layer (GCL) were decreased by 44-54% at P0 and further by 65-69% at P90 in nes-igf1r(-/Wt) mice. In nes-igf1r(-/-) mice, volumes were 29-31% of controls at P0 and, in the two mice that survived to P90, 6-19% of controls, although the hilus could not be identified. Neuron density did not differ among the mice at any age studied; therefore, decreased volumes were due to reduced cell number. In postnatal nes-igf1r(-/Wt) mice, the percentage of apoptotic cells, as judged by activated caspase-3 immunostaining, was increased by 3.5-5.3-fold. The total number of proliferating DG progenitors (labeled by BrdU incorporation and Ki67 staining) was reduced by approximately 50%, but the percentage of these cells was similar to the percentages in littermate controls. These findings suggest that 1) the postnatal reduction in DG size is due predominantly to cell death, pointing to the importance of the IGF1R in regulating postnatal apoptosis, 2) surviving DG progenitors remain capable of proliferation despite reduced IGF1R expression, and 3) IGF1R signaling is necessary for normal embryonic brain development.
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PMID:Type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling is essential for the development of the hippocampal formation and dentate gyrus. 1943 43


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