Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.11.24 (mitogen-activated protein kinase)
 95,810 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have examined the role of MAP kinase during mesoderm induction and axial patterning in Xenopus embryos. MAP Kinase Phosphatase (MKP-1) was used to inactivate endogenous MAP kinase and was found to prevent the induction of early and late mesodermal markers by both FGF and activin. In whole embryos, MKP-1 was found to disrupt posterior axial patterning, generating a phenotype similar to that obtained with a dominant inhibitory FGF receptor. Overexpression of either constitutively active MAP kinase or constitutively active MAP kinase (MEK) was sufficient to induce Xbra expression, while only constitutively active MEK was able to significantly induce expression of muscle actin. When MAP kinase phosphorylation was used as a sensitive marker of FGF receptor activity in vivo, this activity was found to persist at a low and relatively uniform level throughout blastula stage embryos. The finding that a low level of MAP kinase phosphorylation exists in unstimulated animal caps and is absent in caps overexpressing a dominant inhibitory FGF receptor provides a basis for our previous observation that overexpression of this receptor inhibits activin induction. These results indicate that FGF-dependent MAP kinase activity plays a critical role in establishing the responsiveness of embryonic tissues to mesoderm inducers.
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PMID:Role of MAP kinase in mesoderm induction and axial patterning during Xenopus development. 778 77

SH-PTP2, the vertebrate homolog of Drosophila corkscrew, associates with several activated growth factor receptors, but its biological function is unknown. We assayed the effects of injection of wild-type and mutant SH-PTP2 RNAs on Xenopus embryogenesis. An internal phosphatase domain deletion (delta P) acts as a dominant negative mutant, causing severe posterior truncations. This phenotype is rescued by SH-PTP2, but not by the closely related SH-PTP1. In ectodermal explants, delta P blocks fibroblast growth factor (FGF)- and activin-mediated induction of mesoderm and FGF-induced mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase activation. Our results indicate that SH-PTP2 is required for early vertebrate development, acting as a positive component in FGF signaling downstream of the FGF receptor and upstream of MAP kinase.
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PMID:The SH2-containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase SH-PTP2 is required upstream of MAP kinase for early Xenopus development. 785 88

MAP kinase (MAPK) is activated in animal cap explants from Xenopus embryos in response to mesoderm induction by FGF. This activation is rapid, appearing within 1 min of treatment with FGF, and prolonged, lasting for at least 2 hr. By immunoblot analysis, this activation of MAPK is coupled with an electrophoretic shift to the slowly migrating, phosphorylated form of MAPK. Activin-stimulated mesoderm induction also results in the activation of MAPK, but only upon prolonged exposure. However, activin can potentiate the activation of MAPK by FGF as early as 1 min after administration. These findings suggest that MAPK is involved in the early signaling events of FGF-mediated mesoderm induction, and this involvement is modulated by other mesoderm inducers such as activin.
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PMID:MAP kinase is activated during mesoderm induction in Xenopus laevis. 820 Apr 85

In Xenopus, normal mesoderm formation depends on signaling through the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) tyrosine kinase receptor. An important signaling pathway from receptor tyrosine kinases involves Ras/Raf/MAP kinase. However, the downstream pathway that occurs in the nucleus to finally trigger gene expression for mesoderm formation remains unknown. We report here that a high level of activator protein-1 (AP-1)-dependent transcriptional activity is detected during the early development of Xenopus embryos. Injection of a dominant negative mutant jun (DNM-jun or TAM67) RNA into the two-cell stage embryos inhibited endogenous AP-1 activity and blocked normal embryonic development with severe posterior truncation in tadpoles. The inhibition of AP-1 activity and the phenotypic change induced by TAM67 was rescued by co-injection of wild-type c-jun RNA, but not by the control beta-galactosidase RNA. The FGF-stimulated mesoderm induction was markedly inhibited in animal cap explants from the embryos injected with TAM67. Activin induction of mesoderm, on the other hand, was normal in the embryos injected with TAM67 RNA. These findings suggest that AP-1 mediates FGF, but not activin, receptor signaling during mesoderm induction and the AP-1/Jun is a key signaling molecule in the development of posterior structure.
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PMID:AP-1/jun is required for early Xenopus development and mediates mesoderm induction by fibroblast growth factor but not by activin. 862 31

Murine P19 embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells can be differentiated into various germ layer derivatives. The addition of retinoic acid (RA) to P19-EC cell aggregates results in a transient activation of receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase-alpha (RPTP alpha). Subsequent replating of these aggregates leads to neuronal differentiation. P19-EC cells expressing constitutively active RPTP alpha (P19-RPTP alpha) show extensive neuronal differentiation upon RA treatment in monolayer. P19-RPTP alpha cells thus provide a suitable in vitro model for studying neuronal differentiation. We used P19-RPTP alpha cells to study the effects of activin and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on neurogenesis. We show that P19-RPTP alpha cells express mRNA for types I and II activin receptors. RA addition causes an up-regulation of receptor type IIA expression. Complexes of type I and II receptors were detectable by cross-linking assays both before and after RA treatment. Receptor complexes were functional as determined by transient transfection assays with activin responsive reporter constructs. Undifferentiated as well as differentiated P19-RPTP alpha cells express also the FGF receptors (FGFRs) FGFR-1 and FGFR-2 but not FGFR-3 and FGFR-4. Their functionality was established by bFGF induced mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation. Activin and bFGF appeared to exert differential actions on RA-induced neuronal differentiation. Although activin irreversibly changes the differentiation fate into nonneuronal directions, bFGF does not affect initial neurogenesis but regulates axonal outgrowth in a concentration-dependent way; low concentrations of bFGF enhance axonal outgrowth, whereas high concentrations inhibit this process. These results strengthen the notion that activin and bFGF are important regulators of neurogenesis in the mammalian embryo.
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PMID:Activin and basic fibroblast growth factor regulate neurogenesis of murine embryonal carcinoma cells. 895 36

In this report, we have used mRNA injection to study the action of mutants of XrelA, a Xenopus homolog of the RelA (p65) component of NF-kappaB, on the induction of mesoderm in Xenopus embryos. A region of the rel homology domain of XrelA was deleted to create XrelA deltaSP, which retains the dimerization and activation domains, but no longer binds to DNA. We also made an analogous derivative of mammalian NF-kappaB1 (p50). We show that both constructs have dominant inhibitory activity. When message encoding either is injected into eggs or oocytes, DNA binding of rel family members is suppressed, as is transactivation of a kappaB-dependent promoter in embryos. Expression of XrelA deltaSP in animal caps blocks the induction of mesoderm by bFGF. In addition, this mutant prevents elongation movements generated by activin, but has little effect on posterior dorsal cytodifferentiation, which in marked contrast is blocked by inhibition of the FGF signal transduction pathway between the receptor and MAP kinase. The specificity of the XrelA deltaSP effect on FGF signaling is shown by rescue of mesodermal marker expression when XrelA deltaSP is co-expressed with a specific rel inhibitor. The target of these dominant negative constructs seems to be neither XrelA itself, nor p50, but rather some other molecule with which XrelA, rather than NF-kappaB1, heterodimerizes. We show that XrelA deltaSP blocks FGF induction of mesoderm downstream of MAP kinase and Xbra expression. Thus it prevents the maintenance of Xbra expression by inhibiting its autoregulation by embryonic FGF (eFGF). We suggest that XrelA deltaSP differs from other reported inhibitors of FGF signaling because it inhibits only gastrula stage FGF signaling and not the maternally programmed signaling at the blastula stage. Our results therefore suggest that zygotic FGF action is required for cell movements rather than dorsal differentiation.
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PMID:Involvement of NF-kappaB associated proteins in FGF-mediated mesoderm induction. 949 88

A function for FGF-type peptide growth factors has been implied for early mesodermal patterning events in Xenopus laevis. FGF signalling operates via the MAP kinase cascade that can directly activate the transcription of organizer-expressed genes, such as Xbra and Xegr-1. We have recently provided evidence for a critical role of Ets-type transcription factors in FGF mediated Xegr-1 transcription activation. Here, we report on the identification of the Xenopus Ets-type protein ER81 that is expressed in a pattern overlapping with the ones of Xegr-1 and Xbra during gastrulation. Microinjection in XER81 encoding mRNA into ventral blastomeres of Xenopus embryos results in the induction of ectopic, tail-like protrusions, whereas dorsal overexpression results in disturbed eye development. In the animal cap assay, ectopic expression of XER81 is found to interfere with activin mediated induction of Xegr-1 and gsc, but not with the Xbra response to activin.
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PMID:Characterization of the Ets-type protein ER81 in Xenopus embryos. 1009 64

The EGF-CFC gene family encodes a group of structurally related proteins that serve as important competence factors during early embryogenesis in Xenopus, zebrafish, mice and humans. This multigene family consists of Xenopus FRL-1, zebrafish one-eyed-pinhead (oep), mouse cripto (Cr-1) and cryptic, and human cripto (CR-1) and criptin. FRL-1, oep and mouse cripto are essential for the formation of mesoderm and endoderm and for correct establishment of the anterior/posterior axis. In addition, oep and cryptic are important for the establishment of left-right (L/R) asymmetry. In zebrafish, there is strong genetic evidence that oep functions as an obligatory co-factor for the correct signaling of a transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta)-related gene, nodal, during gastrulation and during L/R asymmetry development. Expression of Cr-1 and cryptic is extinguished in the embryo after day 8 of gestation except for the developing heart where Cr-1 expression is necessary for myocardial development. In the mouse, cryptic is not expressed in adult tissues whereas Cr-1 is expressed at a low level in several different tissues including the mammary gland. In the mammary gland, expression of Cr-1 in the ductal epithelial cells increases during pregnancy and lactation and immunoreactive and biologically active Cr-1 protein can be detected in human milk. Overexpression of Cr-1 in mouse mammary epithelial cells can facilitate their in vitro transformation and in vivo these Cr-1-transduced cells produce ductal hyperplasias in the mammary gland. Recombinant mouse or human cripto can enhance cell motility and branching morphogenesis in mammary epithelial cells and in some human tumor cells. These effects are accompanied by an epithelial-mesenchymal transition which is associated with a decrease in beta-catenin function and an increase in vimentin expression. Expression of cripto is increased several-fold in human colon, gastric, pancreatic and lung carcinomas and in a variety of different types of mouse and human breast carcinomas. More importantly, this increase can first be detected in premalignant lesions in some of these tissues. Although a specific receptor for the EGF-CFC proteins has not yet been identified, oep depends upon an activin-type RIIB and RIB receptor system that functions through Smad-2. Mouse and human cripto have been shown to activate a ras/raf/MAP kinase signaling pathway in mammary epithelial cells. Activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and Akt are also important for the ability of CR-1 to stimulate cell migration and to block lactogenic hormone-induced expression of beta-casein and whey acidic protein. In mammary epithelial cells, part of these responses may depend on the ability of CR-1 to transactivate erb B-4 and/or fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 through an src-like tyrosine kinase.
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PMID:The EGF-CFC family: novel epidermal growth factor-related proteins in development and cancer. 1117 44

Activin, a member of the TGFbeta family inhibits cell growth in various target tissues. Activin interacts with a complex of two receptors that upon activation phosphorylate specific intracellular mediators, the Smad proteins. The activated Smads interact with diverse DNA binding proteins and co-activators of transcription in a cell-specific manner, thus leading to various activin biological effects. In this study, we investigated the role and mechanism of action of activin in the human breast cancer T47D cells. We found that activin treatment of T47D cells leads to a dramatic decrease in cell growth. Thus activin appears as a potent cell growth inhibitor of these breast cancer cells. We show that activin induces the Smad pathway in these cells but also activates the p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, further leading to phosphorylation of the transcription factor ATF2. Finally, specific inhibitors of the p38 kinase (SB202190, SB203580, and PD169316) but not an inactive analogue (SB202474) or the MEK-1 inhibitor PD98059 completely abolish the activin-mediated cell growth inhibition of T47D cells. Together, these results define a new role for activin in human breast cancer T47D cells and highlight a new pathway utilized by this growth factor in the mediation of its biological effects in cell growth arrest.
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PMID:The p38 MAPK pathway is required for cell growth inhibition of human breast cancer cells in response to activin. 1127 44

The urinary collecting duct system of the permanent kidney develops by growth and branching of an initially unbranched epithelial tubule, the ureteric bud. Formation of the ureteric bud as an outgrowth of the wolffian duct is induced by signalling molecules (such as GDNF) that emanate from the adjacent metanephrogenic mesenchyme. Once it has invaded the mesenchyme, growth and branching of the bud is controlled by a variety of molecules, such as the growth factors GDNF, HGF, TGFbeta, activin, BMP-2, BMP-7, and matrix molecules such as heparan sulphate proteoglycans and laminins. These various influences are integrated by signal transduction systems inside ureteric bud cells, with the MAP kinase, protein kinase A and protein kinase C pathways appearing to play major roles. The mechanisms of morphogenetic change that produce branching remain largely obscure, but matrix metalloproteinases are known to be necessary for the process, and there is preliminary evidence for the involvement of the actin/myosin contractile cytoskeleton in creating branch points.
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PMID:Intracellular and extracellular regulation of ureteric bud morphogenesis. 1132 19


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