Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We examined alpha-actin and an angiogenic factor, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis in four angiofibromas (AFs) and a connective tissue nevus (CTN) obtained from two patients with tuberous sclerosis (TS). There was an increase of alpha-actin-positive microvessels in the papillary and the upper reticular dermis of AFs and a CTN as compared to those in normal skin. The main localization of alpha-actin in the microvessels of AFs was considered to be pericytes. Many microvessels and a few interstitial fibroblast-like cells in frozen sections of AFs and a CTN were positively stained for bFGF, and most of the bFGF-positive microvessels corresponded to those containing alpha-actin as determined by double immunostaining. These data suggested a possible role of increased bFGF in stimulating angiogenesis and/or mainitaining vessels in AFs, although augmentation of mitotic activity was not noted by staining with Ki-67. Further investigations on the identification of the bFGF-producing cells and biological function of bFGF in AFs may be a clue to elucidate pathomechanisms of AFs.
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PMID:[Increase in alpha-actin and basic fibroblast growth factor in angiofibromas in patients with tuberous sclerosis]. 165 17

Treatment of bovine thyroid with the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100 extracts most of the cell protein and leaves insoluble residue. This Triton-insoluble cytoskeleton consists of five major polypeptides on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels. One of these polypeptides is actin. Based on DNase inhibition assay, 30% of the total actin is associated with the cytoskeleton as the filamentous form. Thyroid actin from the cytoskeleton has been solubilized by dialysis against a low ionic strength buffer at pH 8.0 and purified to homogeneity by a polymerizing-depolymerizing cycle. The overall purification was about 144-fold with a yield of 10%. Bovine thyroid actin is very similar to actins from other tissues on the basis of: (1) comigration with rabbit skeletal muscle actin during gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate, (2) its amino acid composition, which includes about 1 mole of 3-methylhistidine per 42,000 g, (3) its ability to bind and inhibit pancreatic deoxyribonuclease I, and (4) its ability to form 7-8 nm microfilaments which is similar to that of skeletal filamentous actin. Thyroid actin contains beta- and gamma-isoactins, with isoelectric points more alkaline than the alpha-actin of rabbit skeletal muscle.
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PMID:Actin in Triton-insoluble cytoskeleton of thyroid. 628 13

Smooth muscle alpha-actin (SMA) is a cytoskeletal protein expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells, pericytes, hair follicle dermal sheaths and myofibroblasts which appear in the process of wound healing and tumor growth. To examine the effect of malignant melanoma on the expression of SMA in these non-neoplastic cells, we carried out immunohistochemical staining and a cell culture study. Conditioned medium prepared from a melanoma cell line M14 was incubated with a rat fibroblastic cell line 3Y1, which had been shown to express SMA. Human cells that had migrated from nevus tissue were also cultured either with or without M14 conditioned medium. Immuno-histochemical staining of human melanoma tissues suggested that the expression of SMA was low in the vicinity of the tumor as well as within the tumor nodules. The conditioned medium from melanoma, but not the medium from control non-neoplastic cells, suppressed the expression of SMA both in the 3Y1 cells and human cells that migrated from the nevus. Preincubation of the medium with anti-platelet-derived growth factor allowed 76% recovery of SMA expression. These data thus imply that melanoma cells release a platelet-derived growth factor-like substance which has a suppressive effect on the contractile elements in non-neoplastic cells.
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PMID:Human malignant melanoma cells release a factor that inhibits the expression of smooth muscle alpha-actin. 1095 42