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)

RET 1 is a binding site for retinal nuclear proteins located at -136 to -110 bp in the rat opsin promoter, as defined by DNase protection assays. A similar sequence is found in the upstream flanking regions of many other photoreceptor genes in mammals and other species, including Drosophila. A 7-base consensus sequence, CAATTAG, is found in these genes and has the binding activity of the longer RET 1 element. A 40-kDa protein that binds to RET 1 has been purified over 2 x 10(5)-fold to apparent homogeneity by affinity chromatography. The RET 1 binding activity is first detectable at E18 and increases during the first two postnatal weels, At embryonic ages the retarded bands show an altered mobility and at early postnatal ages two bands are detected, with the adult band increasing and the embryonic band decreasing in intensity. Treatment of early postnatal retinas with bFGF increased the binding activity in nuclear extracts and caused a shift in migration of the retarded band to a position characteristic of the embryonic form of the complex. The results support the hypothesis that RET 1-like elements play an important role in rod photoreceptor development.
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PMID:Characterization and regulation of the protein binding to a cis-acting element, RET 1, in the rat opsin promoter. 757 68

The immunohistochemical localizations of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF and bFGF) were investigated in the striatum and midbrain of Huntington's disease (HD) and control cases using specific antibodies. In the striatum of control cases, the ependymal cell layer was stained for aFGF and bFGF. In addition, a few subependymal astrocytes were positive for aFGF, and some neurons stained weakly for bFGF. In HD striatum, many astrocytes and remaining neurons were strongly stained for aFGF. aFGF-positive astrocytes were particularly conspicuous in the subependymal region of the caudate but appeared throughout the caudate and putamen. The number of bFGF-positive astrocytes was slightly increased. In contrast to the caudate/putamen, the globus pallidus, nucleus of the oculomotor nerve and substantia nigra showed very similar patterns for both aFGF and bFGF in control and most HD brains. Reports that FGF can protect against glutamate neurotoxicity, and that the FGF receptor (FGFR3), with its gene located in the HD region on chromosome 4, appears in striatal neurons, make it tempting to speculate on a possibly important role for FGF-FGFR3 interactions in HD pathology.
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PMID:Acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor-like immunoreactivity in the striatum and midbrain in Huntington's disease. 768 78

Signals transmitted from mesenchyme to epithelia or vice versa constitute the basis of reciprocal epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. As a first step toward understanding epithelial-mesenchymal interactions on the ocular surface where the transit amplifying cell-containing corneal epithelium is anatomically separated from the stem cell-containing limbal epithelium, we sought to characterize the expression patterns of cytokines and their receptors by primary epithelial and early-passaged fibroblast cultures of human cornea and limbus. Northern hybridization with oligonucleotide and cDNA probes to a total of 25 cytokines and 12 of their receptors revealed that the positively expressed cytokines could be divided into the following four patterns. Type I: TGF-alpha, IL-1 beta, and PDGF-B were expressed exclusively by epithelial cells but their respective receptors EGFR and IL-1R were predominantly and PDGFR-beta was exclusively expressed by fibroblasts. Type II: IGF-I, TGF-beta 1, -beta 2, LIF, and bFGF, and their receptors were expressed by both epithelial cells and fibroblasts. FGFR-1 (flg) and FGFR-2 (bek) were expressed more by fibroblasts and bFGF was expressed more by corneal than limbal epithelial cells. Type III: keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) were expressed exclusively by fibroblasts and their respective receptors, KGFR and c-met, were predominantly expressed by epithelial cells. Combined with RT-PCR, the quantity of KGF and KGFR transcripts was highest in limbal fibroblasts and epithelial cells, respectively. In contrast, the quantity of HGF and HGFR (c-met) transcripts was highest in corneal fibroblasts and epithelial cells, respectively. Type IV: M-CSF and IL-8 were expressed by fibroblasts and/or epithelial cells but their receptors were not expressed by epithelial cells nor fibroblasts, but by immune or inflammatory cells. In addition to these potential paracrine actions, autocrine actions mediated by TGF-alpha/EGFR, IL-1 beta/IL1-R, and bFGF/FGFR-1 were more expressed by corneal than limbal epithelial cells. Immunofluorescence staining on human corneoscleral cryosections confirmed that EGFR and bFGF were not expressed by the limbal basal epithelium, but expressed strongly by the corneal epithelium, a pattern consistent with Northern hybridization. These results indicate that ocular surface epithelial cells and fibroblasts can express a myriad of cytokines, among which the first three patterns constitute the network of potential epithelial-mesenchymal cytokine dialogues. The difference of certain cytokine expression between corneal and limbal regions suggests that this network participates in normal epithelial growth and differentiation, and plays an important role in wound healing.
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PMID:Three patterns of cytokine expression potentially involved in epithelial-fibroblast interactions of human ocular surface. 789 1

Basic (b) fibroblast growth factor (FGF) mediates various biological responses including mitogenesis and angiogenesis by binding to specific cell surface receptors of the tyrosine kinase family. The bFGF receptor-1 FGFR1) exists in short and long isoforms due to alternate RNA splicing. Minor alterations in the amino acid sequence have also led to reports of different FGFR1 isoforms in different tissues even in the same species. In the absence of any sequence for heart FGFR1 and accumulating evidence for a role of bFGF in heart growth and differentiation, we cloned FGFR1 from embryonic mouse hearts. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to generate full-length short (2259 base pairs) and long (2526 base pairs) forms of FGFR1 cDNAs which generated 86 and 102 kDa proteins, respectively, following in vitro translation. Embryonic mouse heart FGFR1 differed by seven amino acids from the reported sequence for mouse neuroepithelial FGFR1 and appeared more similar to human placental FGFR1. A single FGFR1 transcript of approximately 4.3 kb was seen in RNA isolated from embryonic as well as adult mouse hearts. There was a decrease (approximately 8.5-fold) in FGFR1 RNA levels in the adult. The majority of FGFR1 transcripts in the adult as well as embryonic heart contained exon IIIc (FGFR1-IIIc) which is associated with isoforms that display the highest affinity for bFGF. However, the relative ratio of short versus long FGFR1 RNA expression was 0.5 in the embryonic heart compared to 5.9 in the adult heart. These results indicate that: (i) structurally distinct short and long FGFR1 isoform RNAs are expressed in the embryonic and adult heart; (ii) FGFR1-IIIc is the major form of receptor expressed in the embryonic as well as adult heart; (iii) the transition from the embryo to the adult stage is associated with a decrease but not absence of FGFR1 RNA expression; and (iv) long FGFR1-isoforms are more abundant in the embryo while short FGFR1 isoforms predominate in the adult.
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PMID:Cloning and expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 isoforms in the mouse heart: evidence for isoform switching during heart development. 789 69

Malignant astrocytomas are highly invasive, vascular neoplasms that comprise the majority of nervous system tumors in humans. A strong association has previously been made between malignancy in human astrocytic tumors and increased expression of certain fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family members, including basic and acidic FGF. The influence of endogenous basic FGF on glioblastoma cell growth in vitro was evaluated using basic FGF-specific antisense oligonucleotides. These studies indicated that human glioblastoma cell growth in vitro, can be inhibited by suppressing basic FGF expression. Human astrocytomas also exhibited changes in FGF receptor (FGFR) expression during the course of their progression from a benign to a malignant phenotype. FGFR2 (bek) expression was abundant in normal white matter and in all low grade astrocytomas, but was not observed in glioblastomas. Conversely, FGFR1 (flg) expression was absent or barely detectable in normal white matter, but was significantly elevated in glioblastomas. Glioblastomas also expressed an alternatively spliced form of FGFR1 containing two immunoglobulin-like disulfide loops (FGFR1 beta), whereas normal human adult and fetal brain expressed a form of the receptor containing three immunoglobulin-like disulfide loops (FGFR1 alpha). Intermediate grades of astrocytic tumors exhibited a gradual loss of FGFR2 and a shift in expression from FGFR1 alpha to FGFR1 beta as they progressed from a benign to a malignant phenotype. The underlying cytogenetic changes that contribute to these alterations are not entirely understood, but abnormalities in the p53 tumor suppressor gene may influence expression of bFGF as well as the FGFR. These results suggest that alterations in FGFR signal transduction pathways may play a critical role in the malignant progression of astrocytic tumors.
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PMID:Basic fibroblast growth factor and fibroblast growth factor receptor I are implicated in the growth of human astrocytomas. 796 81

In cultures of embryonic and adult mouse striatum, we previously demonstrated that EGF induces the proliferation of putative stem cells, which give rise to spheres of undifferentiated cells that can generate neurons and astrocytes. We report here that the spheres of undifferentiated cells contain mRNA and protein for the FGF receptor (FGFR1). Indirect immunocytochemistry demonstrated that many of the cells within the EGF-generated spheres were immunoreactive for FGFR1. Exogenous application of bFGF to the EGF-generated cells induced the proliferation of two progenitor cell types. The first, a bipotent progenitor cell, gave rise to cells with the antigenic and morphological properties of neurons and astrocytes; the other gave rise to cells with neuronal characteristics only. bFGF-generated cells with neuronal morphology exhibited electrophysiological properties indicative of immature central neurons. These results support the hypothesis that sequential actions of growth factors play a role in regulating the generation of neurons and astrocytes in the developing CNS.
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PMID:bFGF regulates the proliferative fate of unipotent (neuronal) and bipotent (neuronal/astroglial) EGF-generated CNS progenitor cells. 824 Aug 16

Basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) are structurally related fibroblast growth factors, yet they exhibit distinct receptor binding specificity. Basic FGF binds with high affinity to FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR4, whereas KGF does not interact with these receptors and can only bind an isoform of FGFR2 known as the KGFR. Basic GFG binds KGFR but with lower affinity than KGF. In order to identify domains that confer this specificity, four reciprocal chimeras were generated between the two growth factors and were analyzed for receptor recognition and biological activity. The chimeras are designated BK1 (bFGF1-54:KGF91-194), BK2 (bFGF1-74:KGF111-194), KB1 (KGF31-90:bFGF55-155), and KB2 (KGF31-110:bFGF75-155). The two BK chimera similarly interacted with FGFR1 and FGFR4 but differed from each other with respect to KGFR recognition. BK1 displayed a slightly better affinity for KGFR than BK2 and induced a higher level of DNA synthesis in keratinocytes compared with bFGF and BK2. A neutralizing monoclonal antibody directed against bFGF specifically neutralized the biological activity of the BK chimeras. The reciprocal chimeras, KB1 and KB2, exhibited KGF-like receptor binding and activation properties. However, KB2 displayed higher affinity for KGFR and was significantly more potent mitogen that KB1. Altogether, our results suggest that the amino-terminal part of KGF and bFGF plays an important role in determining their receptor binding specificity. In addition, the results point to the contribution of a segment from the middle part of KGF (residues 91-110) for recognition and activation of the KGFR, as the two chimeras containing these residues (BK1 and KB2) displayed an enhanced interaction with the KGFR.
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PMID:Chimeric molecules between keratinocyte growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor define domains that confer receptor binding specificities. 853 Mar 75

The novel hematopoietic growth factor FLT3 ligand (FL) is the cognate ligand for the FLT3, tyrosine kinase receptor (R), also referred to as FLK-2 and STK-1. The FLT3R belongs to a family of receptor tyrosine kinases involved in hematopoiesis that also includes KIT, the receptor for SCF (stem cell factor), and FMS. the receptor for M-CSF (macrophage colony- stimulating factor). Restricted FLT3R expression was seen on human and murine hematopoietic progenitor cells. In functional assays recombinant FL stimulated the proliferation and colony formation of human hematopoietic progenitor cells, i.e. CD34+ cord and peripheral blood, bone marrow and fetal liver cells. Synergy was reported for co-stimulation with G-CSF (granulocyte-CSF). GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage CSF), M-CSF, interleukin-3 (IL-3), PIXY-321 (an IL-3/GM-CSF fusion protein) and SCF. In the mouse, FL potently enhanced growth of various types of progenitor/precursor cells in synergy with G-CSF, GM-CSF, M-CSF, IL-3, IL-6, IL-7, IL-11, IL-12 and SCF. The well-documented involvement of this ligand-receptor pair in physiological hematopoiesis brought forth the question whether FLT3R and FL might also have a role in the pathobiology of leukemia. At the mRNA level FLT3R was expressed by most (80-100%) cases of AML (acute myeloid leukemia) throughout the different morphological subtypes (MO-M7), of ALL(acute lymphoblastic leukemia) of the immunological subtypes T-ALL and BCP-ALL (B cell precursor ALL including pre-pre B-ALL, cALL and pre B-ALL), of AMLL (acute mixed-lineage leukemia), and of CML (chronic myeloid leukemia) in lymphoid or mixed blast crisis. Analysis of cell surface expression of FLT3R by flow cytometry confirmed these observations for AML (66% positivity when the data from all studies are combined), BCP-ALL (64%) and CML lymphoid blast crisis (86%) whereas less than 30% of T-ALL were FLT3R+. The myeloid, monocytic and pre B cell type categories also contained the highest proportions of FLT3R+ leukemia cell lines . In contrast to the selective expression of the receptor, FL expression was detected in 90-100% of the various cell types of leukemia cell lines from all hematopoietic cell lineages. The potential of FL to induce proliferation of leukemia cells in vitro was also examined in primary and continuously cultured leukemia cells. The data on FL-stimulated leukemia cell growth underline the extensive heterogeneity of primary AML and ALL samples in terms of cytokine-inducible DNA synthesis that has been seen with other effective cytokines. While the majority of T-ALL (0-33% of the cases responded proliferatively; mean 11%) and BCP-ALL (0-30%; mean 20%) failed to proliferate in the presence of FL despite strong expression of surface FLT3R, FL caused a proliferative response in a significantly higher percentage of AML cases (22-90%; mean 53%). In the panel of leukemia cell lines examined only myeloid and monocytic growth factor- dependent cell lines increased their proliferation upon incubation with FL, whereas all growth factor-independent cell lines were refractory to stimulation. Combinations of FL with G-CSF, GM-CSF, M-CSF, IL-3, PIXY- 321 or SCF and FL with IL-3 or IL-7 had synergistic or additive mitogenic effects on primary AML and ALL cells, respectively. The potent stimulation of the myelomonocytic cell lines was further augmented by addition of bFGF (basic fibroblast growth factor), GM-CSF, IL-3 or SCF. The inhibitory effects of TGF-beta 1 (transforming growth factor-beta 1) on FL- supported proliferation were abrogated by bFGF. Taken together, these results demonstrate the expression of functional FLT3R capable of mediating FL- dependent mitogenic signaling in a subset of AML and ALL cases further underline the heterogeneity of AML and ALL samples in their proliferative response to cytokine.
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PMID:Expression of FLT3 receptor and response to FLT3 ligand by leukemic cells. 861 33

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are involved in the transmission of signals between the epithelia and connective tissue, and influence epidermal growth and differentiation. They are thought to be important in the restoration of normal tissues after injury and aberrant expression may also play a role in tumorigenesis. However, no information is available on the nature of cells within oral mucosa which synthesise and/or respond to FGFs. We have screened normal oral mucosa and oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) for expression of bFGF by immunohistology and northern analysis and used RT-PCR to look for transcripts for KGF and the high-affinity FGF receptors FGFR1 and FGFR2. Transcripts for bFGF were detected in normal and malignant oral mucosa and KGF within connective tissue elements. The predominant FGF receptor detected in the epidermis and oral mucosa was FGFR2 which binds KGF with greater affinity than bFGF. Production of KGF by connective tissue components and synthesis of the high-affinity KGF receptor, FGFR2, by oral keratinocytes provides circumstantial evidence for a paracrine growth control loop with KGF synthesised within the lamina propria or tumour stroma influencing the proliferation and maturation of both normal oral epithelium and SCC.
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PMID:Expression of bFGF, KGF and FGF receptors on normal oral mucosa and SCC. 873 68

Different mitogens elicit similar effects on growth and differentiation of skeletal muscle, suggesting that potential overlap exists in the signaling cascades activated by such factors. To investigate this possibility, we examined the status of STAT and ERK proteins in C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes following stimulation with bFGF or LIF. Both STAT1 and STAT3 as well as ERK1 and ERK2 proteins were detectable in extracts of myoblasts. LIF stimulation of myoblasts lead to rapid phosphorylation on tyrosine of STAT3 and of ERKs 1 and 2. Similarly, bFGF stimulation of myoblasts resulted in the tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT3. However, unlike LIF, the bFGF induced tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT3 appeared cyclical, with recurrent peaks of phosphorylation even after prolonged exposure. By contrast, STAT1 remained unphosphorylated in myoblasts treated with bFGF or LIF. In differentiated myotubes, LIF treatment resulted in the tyrosine phosphorylation of both STAT3 and STAT1, but ERK phosphorylation was not detectable, and bFGF treatment did not lead to STAT1 or STAT3 tyrosine phosphorylation. Therefore these observations suggest that disparate mitogens car activate similar downstream effectors in proliferating myoblasts.
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PMID:bFGF and LIF signaling activates STAT3 in proliferating myoblasts. 890 46


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