MT2A gene

Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) is among the most salt- and cadmium-tolerant warm-season perennial grass species widely used as turf or forage. The objective of this study was to select stable reference genes for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis of seashore paspalum in response to four abiotic stresses. The stability of 12 potential reference genes was evaluated by four programs (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and RefFinder). U2AF combined with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) showed stable expression in Cd-treated leaves and cold-treated roots...

BACKGROUND: To elucidate the potential role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the metallothionein (MT) genes in Northern Spanish patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: A total of 130 unrelated Northern Spanish natives diagnosed with AMD (46 dry, 35 neovascular, and 49 mixed) and 96 healthy controls, matched by age and ethnicity, were enrolled in a case-control study. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood and genotyped for 14 SNPs located at 5 MT genes (MT1A: rs11076161, rs 11640851, rs8052394, and rs7196890; MT1B: rs8052334, rs964372, and rs7191779; MT1M: rs2270836 and rs9936741; MT2A: rs28366003, rs1610216, rs10636, and rs1580833; MT3: rs45570941) using TaqMan probes...

Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common malignancy in the United States representing a considerable public health burden. Pharmacological suppression of skin photo-carcinogenesis has shown promise in preclinical and clinical studies, but more efficacious photochemopreventive agents are needed. Here, we tested feasibility of harnessing pharmacological disruption of intracellular zinc-homeostasis for photochemoprevention in vitro and in vivo. Employing the zinc-ionophore and FDA-approved microbicidal agent zinc pyrithione (ZnPT), used worldwide in over-the-counter (OTC) topical consumer products, we first demonstrated feasibility of achieving ZnPT-based intracellular Zn(2+) -overload in cultured malignant keratinocytes (HaCaT-ras II-4; SCC-25) employing membrane-permeable fluorescent probes...

BACKGROUND: Lead in blood can stimulate lipid oxidation in phosphatidylcholine and increase peroxidation in lipids. Metallothionein (MT) is a cysteine-rich protein that can influence the detoxification of heavy metals and scavenge oxidative stress for free radicals. One of the most expressive functional genes in humans is the MT2A gene. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine if the association of the blood lead level and lipid biomarkers was influenced by MT2A polymorphisms...

BACKGROUND: The rapid increase in the incidence rate of colorectal cancer has led to the search and identification of biomarkers that can predict risk for and future behavior of this malignancy and management. To study the biological role of the phosphorylated Fas associated death domain (pFADD) gene in colorectal cancer, we performed a GAL4-based yeast two-hybrid screening of a human heart cDNA library. METHODS: A series of two yeast hybrid method was used to identification of protein-protein interaction...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer related death worldwide. Although great progress in diagnosis and management of HCC have been made, the exact molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. The study aims to identify potential biomarkers for HCC progression, mainly at transcription level. In this study, chip data GSE 29721 was utilized, which contains 10 HCC samples and 10 normal adjacent tissue samples. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between two sample types were selected by t-test method...

AIMS: Cardiac-specific metallothionein (MT) overexpression extends lifespan, but the mechanism underlying the effect of MT protection against age-associated cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains elusive. To elucidate this, male wild-type and two lines of MT-transgenic (MT-TG) mice, MM and MT-1 (cardiac-specific overexpressing MT about 10- and 80-fold, respectively) at three representative ages (2-3, 9-10, and 18-20 months), were utilized. A stable human MT2A overexpressing cardiomyocytes (H9c2MT7) was also introduced...

BACKGROUND: Our previous studies showed that the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), ameliorates the clinical symptoms in mouse myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)35-55-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis model of multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as decreases the memory MOG35-55-specific T cell (TMOG) proliferation and cytokine secretion including IL-17, a key autoimmune factor. The mechanisms of these activities are currently poorly understood. METHODS: Herein, using microarray-based gene expression profiling, we describe gene networks and intracellular pathways involved in CBD-induced suppression of these activated memory TMOG cells...

Metallothioneins (MTs) are proteins that protect cells from toxic agents such as heavy metal ions or reactive oxygen species. MT2A A-5G is a single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region of the MT2A gene, and the minor G allele results in lower transcription efficiency. We aimed to elucidate associations between MT2A A-5G and risks of 2 diseases potentially related to lowered MT expression, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and diabetes mellitus (DM), in a community-dwelling population. Study subjects were Nagoya city residents participating in the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study (J-MICC) Daiko Study, comprised 749 men and 2,025 women, aged 39-75 years...

Increasing attention has been focused on the health of vegetables and grains grown in the contaminated agricultural soil, it is thus meaningful to find ways to reduce the heavy metals (HMs) accumulation in plants. As sulfur is considered to be an essential macronutrient for plant stress defenses, the important role of sulfur assimilation in plants responding to HMs stress has been followed. However, the potential mechanism of the only sulfur-containing gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and its main endogenously generated substrate, cysteine (Cys), in plant defense is poorly understood...

There are currently no effective molecular targeted therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27)-specific methyltransferase, has been emerged as novel anticancer target. Our previous study has demonstrated that GSK343, an S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-competitive inhibitor of EZH2, induces autophagy and enhances drug sensitivity in cancer cells including HCC. In this study, an in silico study was performed and found that EZH2 was overexpressed in cancerous tissues of HCC patients at both gene and protein levels...

Our research group firstly discovered endothelial-overexpressed lipopolysaccharide-associated factor 1 (EOLA1, GenBank number AY074889) as a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) responsive gene in ECV304 cells. The previous studies have further demonstrated the association of EOLA1 with metallothionein 2A (MT2A), while the role of EOLA1 during LPS-induced inflammatory response in ECV304 cells is unknown. In this report, we determined the subcellular localization of EOLA1 and the regulatory capacity of EOLA1 on vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in response to LPS in ECV304 cells...

The adverse health effects of cadmium (Cd) are well known in human populations; however, much of what is known about biological mechanisms of Cd comes from in vitro and animal studies. The adverse health outcomes due to high levels of Cd exposure in the population of Mae Sot, Thailand have been extensively characterized. Here, for the first time, this population is being studied in an epigenetic context. The objective of this study was to characterize the association between DNA methylation markers and Cd exposure, taking into account sex and smoking differences, in an adult population at an increased risk of experiencing adverse health outcomes from high body burden of Cd...

Approximately 90 % of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), and the overall 5-year survival rate is not higher than 50 %. There is much evidence that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may influence the expression of commonly studied HNSCC markers. Our study was focused on the possible HPV-specificity of molecular markers that could be key players in important steps of cancerogenesis (MKI67, EGF, EGFR, BCL-2, BAX, FOS, JUN, TP53, MT1A, MT2A, VEGFA, FLT1, MMP2, MMP9, and POU5F). qRT-PCR analysis of these selected genes was performed on 74 biopsy samples of tumors from patients with histologically verified HNSCC (22 HPV-, 52 HPV+)...

Lead (Pb) is a metal that accumulates in the human body, inducing several adverse health effects. One of the proteins responsible for the distribution of metal in the body is metallothionein (MT), which is expressed by different genes, and it is supposed that genetic variation in the genes that encode MTs may affect the Pb body burden. The present study aimed to evaluate the genetic effects of the polymorphism of MT2A (single nucleotide polymorphism rs10636; Cx2192;G) on blood Pb levels (BLL) of workers from car battery factories who are chronically exposed to the metal...

BACKGROUND: Metallothionein (MT) proteins play critical roles in the physiological handling of both essential (Cu and Zn) and toxic (Cd) metals. MT expression is regulated by metal-regulatory transcription factor 1 (MTF1). Hence, genetic variation in the MT gene family and MTF1 might influence excretion of these metals. METHODS: 321 women were recruited in Seattle, WA and Las Cruces, NM and provided demographic information, urine samples for measurement of metal concentrations by mass spectrometry and creatinine, and blood or saliva for extraction of DNA...

HSPC238 is a recently identified tumor suppressor and demonstrates ubiquitin ligase E3 enzyme activity. HSPC238 was found to be significantly downregulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in vivo and to inhibit the proliferation and invasion of hepatoma cells in vitro; however, the underlying molecular mechanism is largely unknown. In the present study, we screened for and identified proteins that physically interact with HSPC238. A bait vector for yeast two-hybrid was constructed with human HSPC238 gene cDNA...

We have considered nanoparticles (NPs) of Fe, Co and Ni, three transition metals sharing similar chemical properties. NP dissolution, conducted by radioactive tracer method and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, indicated that NiNPs and FeNPs released in the medium a much smaller amount of ions than that released by Co NPs. The two considered methodological approaches, however, gave comparable but not identical results. All NPs are readily internalized by the cells, but their quantity inside the cells is less than 5%...

Even with significant advances in operative skills and adjuvant therapies, the overall survival of patients suffering with head and neck squamous cancers (HNSCC) is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, no clinically useful prognostic biomarkers have been found yet for HNSCC. Many studies analysed the expression of potential markers in tumour tissues compared to adjacent tissues. Nevertheless, due to the sharing of the same microenvironment, adjacent tissues show molecular similarity to tumour tissues. Thus, gene expression patterns of 94 HNSCC tumorous tissues were compared with 31 adjacent tissues and with 10 tonsillectomy specimens of non-cancer individuals...

BACKGROUND: Epithelial cells in malignant conditions release DNA into the extracellular compartment. Cell free DNA of tumor origin may act as a ligand of DNA sensing mechanisms and mediate changes in epithelial-stromal interactions. AIMS: To evaluate and compare the potential autocrine and paracrine regulatory effect of normal and malignant epithelial cell-related DNA on TLR9 and STING mediated pathways in HT-29 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells and normal fibroblasts...