Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.11.11 (AMPK)
 12,425 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The sterol 4,4-dimethyl-5-cholesta-8,14,24-trien-3-ol (follicular fluid meiosis-activating sterol [FF-MAS]) isolated from human follicular fluid induces resumption of meiosis in mouse oocytes cultured in vitro. The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that differential signal transduction mechanisms exist for FF-MAS-induced and spontaneous in vitro resumption of meiosis in mouse oocytes. Mouse oocytes were dissected from ovaries originating from mice primed with FSH 48 h before oocyte collection. Mechanically denuded germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes were in vitro matured in medium supplemented with hypoxanthine and FF-MAS or allowed to mature spontaneously; both groups were exposed to individual compounds known to inhibit specific targets in the cell. After 20-22 h of in vitro maturation, resumption of meiosis was assessed as the frequency of oocytes in GV breakdown (GVBD) stage. Pertussis toxin (2.5 microg/ml) did not influence resumption of meiosis in either group. Dibutyryl cyclic GMP (320 microM) inhibited FF-MAS-induced GVBD, but not spontaneous GVBD, whereas the subtype 5 phosphodiesterase-inhibitor zaprinast (50 microM) inhibited GVBD in both groups. Microinjection of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase into oocytes inhibited spontaneous GVBD, but not FF-MAS-induced GVBD. An inhibitor of cytoplasmic polyadenylation, cordycepin (80 microM), inhibited or retarded spontaneous GVBD to a further extent than it did FF-MAS-induced GVBD. Spontaneous GVBD was more sensitive to the histone H1 kinase-inhibitor olomoucine (250 microM) than was FF-MAS-induced GVBD. Addition of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-inhibitor PD 98059 (50 microM), phospholipase C-inhibitor U-73122 (10 microM), p21(ras)-inhibitor lovastatine (250 microM), and the src-like kinase inhibitor PP2 (20 microg/ml) inhibited FF-MAS-induced GVBD, but not spontaneous GVBD. Both MAPKs, extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) 1 and ERK2, were phosphorylated under FF-MAS-induced meiotic resumption, in contrast to spontaneous meiotic resumption, in which ERK1 and ERK2 phosphorylation occurred 2 h after GVBD. In the present study, we show that FF-MAS acts through an MAPK-dependent pathway, and we suggest that src-like kinase, p21(ras), and phosphoinositide signaling lie upstream of MAPK in the FF-MAS-activated signaling pathway. Clearly, striking pathway differences are present between spontaneous versus FF-MAS-induced meiotic resumption.
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PMID:Resumption of meiosis induced by meiosis-activating sterol has a different signal transduction pathway than spontaneous resumption of meiosis in denuded mouse oocytes cultured in vitro. 1171 37

Pituitary tumors are among the most common human neoplasms. Although these common lesions rarely become clinically manifest and they are almost never malignant, they are the cause of significant morbidity in affected patients. The genetic causes of common pituitary tumors remain for the most part unknown; progress has been limited to the elucidation of the molecular etiology of four genetic syndromes predisposing to pituitary neoplasias: McCune-Albright syndrome, multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, Carney complex and, most recently, familial acromegaly and prolactinomas and other tumors caused by mutations in the GNAS, menin, PRKAR1A, AIP, and p27 (CDKN1B) genes, respectively. Intense molecular studies of sporadic pituitary tumors from patients with negative family histories and no other neoplasms have yielded interesting findings with abnormalities in growth factor expression and cell cycle control dysregulation. To add to the difficulties in understanding pituitary tumorigenesis in man, good murine models of these neoplasms simply do not exist: pituitary tumors are common in rodents, but their histologic origin (mostly from the intermediate lobe), age of presentation (late in murine life) and clinical course make them hardly models of their human counterparts. The present report reviews the clinical and molecular genetics of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase pathway in human pituitary tumors; it also reviews briefly other pathways that have been involved in sporadic pituitary neoplasms. At the end, we attempt a unifying hypothesis for pituitary tumorigenesis, taking into account data that are also discussed elsewhere in this issue.
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PMID:Molecular genetics of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase pathway and of sporadic pituitary tumorigenesis. 1761 52