Ho Jae Han

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) agonists ameliorate renal fibrotic lesions in diabetic nephropathy. However, the effects of the agonists on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) linked to membrane transport dysfunction are unknown. The present study aimed to verify the effects of the PPARγ agonist troglitazone on high glucose (HG)-induced EMT in primary cultured renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTCs). HG (25 mM) as well as hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and trans

Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of renal diseases such as diabetic nephropathy. The metabolism of excessive intracellular glucose may involve a number of processes. One consequence of excessive intracellular glucose levels is an increased rate of oxidative phosphorylation under hyperglycemic conditions, whereas another consequence is an increase in the metabolism of glucose to sorbitol by aldose reductase. In addition, hyperglycemia may result in the activation of NA

The accumulation of uric acid, an end-product of purine metabolism, is responsible for the many deleterious effects observed in gouty arthritis, including renal injury. Here, we present evidence that under conditions of hyperuricemia (>10(-4) M uric acid) [(3)H]thymidine incorporation into primary renal proximal tubule cells (PTCs) is inhibited, and we delineate the signaling pathways involved. Elevated uric acid was observed to stimulate MAPK phosphorylation. The uric acid induced p38 MAPK phos

Oxidative stress is a pathogenic condition that causes cellular damage and, in a normally functioning cell, several transcription factors respond to this threat by modulating expression of genes whose products ameliorate the altered redox status in some way. We have isolated a novel macrophage scavenger receptor-like gene, CSR (cellular stress response), whose transcription in normal fibroblasts was significantly elevated by exposure to UV radiation or hydrogen peroxide, and pre-treatment with a

The involvement of caveolin-1 in the regulation of embryonic stem (ES) cell growth by epidermal growth factor (EGF) is by no means clear cut. Thus we examined the relationship between EGF and caveolin-1 in mouse ES cell migration and proliferation. The results revealed that EGF increased Src, caveolin-1, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), Akt, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK) phosphorylation levels. Especially, phosphorylation of caveolin-1 is attenuated by AG1478, herbimycin A (tyr

It is known that bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP-4) has a diverse effect on ESCs. However, its precise mechanism in mouse ESCs is not fully understood. We evaluated the effect of BMP-4 on ESC proliferation and its related signal cascades in this study. BMP-4 significantly increased the level of [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation in time- (> or =8 hours) and dose- (> or =10 ng/ml) dependent manners. Additionally, BMP-4 increased cyclin D1 and decreased p27(kip1) expression values in a time-dependen

Neurons are particularly vulnerable to mitochondrial dysfunction due to high energy demand and an inability to proliferate. Therefore, dysfunctional mitochondria cause various neuropathologies. Mitochondrial damage induces maintenance pathways to repair or eliminate damaged organelles. This mitochondrial quality control (MQC) system maintains appropriate morphology, localization, and removal/replacement of mitochondria to sustain brain homeostasis and counter progression of neurological disorder

The effects of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) on diabetic wound healing were investigated using an excisional skin wound model in 110 diabetes-induced rats. We transplanted a clonal population of ESCs (5 × 10(6)) by topical injection into full thickness skin wounds. Four study groups were used; nondiabetic rats as a control, non-insulin controlled diabetic rats not treated with ESCs, insulin controlled diabetic rats not treated with ESCs, and insulin controlled diabetic rats treated with ESCs. Five

Cultured black rockfish, Sebastes schlegeli, suffered mass mortalities during winter 2008 and spring 2009 in Korea, showing clinical signs of ulcer lesions and haemorrhages over their body surface. The aetiological agent was identified as Aeromonas salmonicida (strains RFAS-1, -2 and -3), which is a non-pigmented, slow-growing bacterium. Phenotypes of RFAS strains showed variation, while 16S rRNA, gyrB, rpoD, dnaJ and recA gene sequences of all the strains were affiliated to A. salmonicida. In p

Melatonin, a circadian rhythm-promoting molecule, has a variety of biological functions, but the functional role of melatonin in the motility of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has yet to be studied. In a mouse skin excisional wound model, we found that transplantation of umbilical cord blood (UCB)-MSCs pretreated with melatonin enhanced wound closure, granulation, and re-epithelialization at mouse skin wound sites, where relatively more UCB-MSCs which were engrafted onto the wound site were detec

Lipid rafts are cholesterol-rich microdomains of cell membranes that have a variety of roles in cellular processes including receptor-mediated signal transduction. Lipid rafts also occur in embryonic stem (ES) cells, but their role in ES cells is largely unknown. Therefore, we investigated the role of lipid rafts in the maintenance of ES cell self-renewal. In the present study, we observed that the presence of lipid rafts/caveolae. The results from sucrose gradient fractionation showed that the

Adhesion of cells to extracellular matrix (ECM) influences vital aspects of anchorage-dependent cell behavior including survival, proliferation, and differentiation. However, the role of collagen I in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) is not well-known. Therefore, in the present study we examined the effect of collagen I on mESC self-renewal and related signal pathways. Collagen I (10 µg/ml) maintained mESCs in an undifferentiated state (Nanog, OCT4, and SSEA-1) and did not affect differentiati