Jae-Sang Kim

LPS, the primary constituent of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is recognized by TLR4. Binding of TLR4 to LPS triggers various cell signaling pathways including NF-kappaB activation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. In this study, we present the data that LPS-induced ROS generation and NF-kappaB activation are mediated by a direct interaction of TLR4 with (NAD(P)H oxidase 4 (Nox) 4), a protein related to gp91phox (Nox2) of phagocytic cells, in HEK293T cells. Yeast two h

The glial cells missing (gcm) gene in Drosophila encodes a transcription factor that determines the choice between glial and neuronal fates. We report here the isolation of two mammalian gcm homologs, Gcm1 and Gcm2, and the characterization of their expression patterns during embryonic development. Although Gcm2 is expressed in neural tissues at a low level, the major sites of expression for both of the mammalian genes are nonneural, suggesting that the functions of the mammalian homologs have d

The roles of miRNAs in lung cancer have not yet been explored systematically at the genome scale despite their important regulatory functions. Here, we report an integrative analysis of miRNA and mRNA sequencing data for matched tumor-normal samples from 109 Korean female patients with non-small-cell lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). We produced miRNA sequencing (miRNA-Seq) and RNA-Seq data for 48 patients and RNA-Seq data for 61 additional patients. Subsequent differential expression analysis with st

In this study, we report a novel function of FCN3 (Ficolin 3), a secreted lectin capable of activating the complement pathway, as a tumor suppressor of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). First, the expression of FCN3 was strongly down-regulated in cancer tissues compared to matched normal lung tissues, and down-regulation of FCN3 was shown to be significantly correlated with increased mortality among LUAD patients. Interestingly, while ectopic expression of FCN3 led to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis i

It is believed that the inherent differentiation program of melanocytes during embryogenesis predisposes melanoma cells to high frequency of metastasis. Sox10, a transcription factor expressed in neural crest stem cells and a subset of progeny lineages, plays a key role in the development of melanocytes. We show that B16F10 melanoma cells transfected with siRNAs specific for Sox10 display reduced migratory activity which in turn indicated that a subset of transcriptional regulatory target genes

BACKGROUND: Sox10, a member of the Sry-related HMG-Box gene family, is a critical transcription factor for several important cell lineages, most notably the neural crest stem cells and the derivative peripheral glial cells and melanocytes. Thus far, only a handful of direct target genes are known for this transcription factor limiting our understanding of the biological network it governs. RESULTS: We describe identification of multiple direct regulatory target genes of Sox10 through a procedure

The function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as second messengers in cell differentiation has been demonstrated only for a limited number of cell types. Here, we used a well-established protocol for BMP2-induced neuronal differentiation of neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) to examine the function of BMP2-induced ROS during the process. We first show that BMP2 indeed induces ROS generation in NCSCs and that blocking ROS generation by pretreatment of cells with diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) as NADPH ox

An activity that modulated the relative levels of transcription from the adenovirus major late promoter (MLP), and the immunoglobulin heavy chain mu promoter (mu) was purified as a 90-kDa factor. This factor is suggested to be a heterotetramer of two subunits: a 20-kDa polypeptide identical to the previously described Dr1/p19 and a novel 30-kDa polypeptide. The Dr1/p19 protein has been characterized as a repressor of transcription, and the 30-kDa protein is related to a recently identified yeast

In this study we showed that 2-(trimethylammonium)ethyl (R)-3-methoxy-3-oxo-2-stearamidopropyl phosphate [(R)-TEMOSPho], a derivative of an organic chemical identified from a natural product library, promotes highly efficient differentiation of megakaryocytes. Specifically, (R)-TEMOSPho induces cell cycle arrest, cell size increase and polyploidization from K562 and HEL cells, which are used extensively to model megakaryocytic differentiation. In addition, megakaryocyte-specific cell surface mar