Runx3/Pebp2alphaC null mouse gastric mucosa exhibits hyperplasias due to stimulated proliferation and suppressed apoptosis in epithelial cells, and the cells are resistant to growth-inhibitory and apoptosis-inducing action of TGF-beta, indicating that Runx3 is a major growth regulator of gastric epithelial cells. Between 45% and 60% of human gastric cancer cells do not significantly express RUNX3 due to hemizygous deletion and hypermethylation of the RUNX3 promoter region. Tumorigenicity of human gastric cancer cell lines in nude mice was inversely related to their level of RUNX3 expression, and a mutation (R122C) occurring within the conserved Runt domain abolished the tumor-suppressive effect of RUNX3, suggesting that a lack of RUNX3 function is causally related to the genesis and progression of human gastric cancer.

SOCS-1 is a negative regulatory molecule of the JAK-STAT signal cascade. Here, we demonstrate that SOCS-1 is a critical downregulating factor for LPS signal pathways. SOCS-1 expression was promptly induced in macrophages upon LPS stimulation. SOCS-1-deficient mice were highly sensitive to LPS-induced shock and produced increased levels of inflammatory cytokines. Introduction of SOCS-1 inhibited LPS-induced NF-kappaB and STAT1 activation in macrophages. Furthermore, LPS tolerance, a refractory state to second LPS stimulation, was not observed in SOCS-1-deficient mice. These results suggest SOCS-1 as an essential, negative regulator in LPS responses that protects the host from harmful overresponses to LPS and may provide new insight into the endotoxin-induced fatal syndrome that occasionally occurs following infection.

Fas ligand (FasL) is a 40 kDa type II membrane protein belonging to the tumor necrosis factor family, which induces apoptosis by binding to its receptor, Fas. In this report, we isolated the chromosomal gene for human FasL. The human FasL gene consists of approximately 8.0 kb and is split into four exons. The human FasL gene was mapped on chromosome 1q23 by in situ hybridization against human metaphase chromosomes. Human FasL cDNA was isolated by the reverse polymerase chain reaction of mRNA prepared from human activated peripheral blood lymphocytes. Human FasL is a type II membrane protein consisting of 281 amino acids with a calculated M(r) of 31,759. It has an identity of 76.9% at the amino acid sequence level with mouse FasL. Both human and mouse recombinant FasL expressed in COS induced apoptosis in the cells expressing either human Fas or mouse Fas, indicating that FasL fully cross-reacts between human and mouse. A comparison of human and mouse FasL chromosomal genes indicated that a approximately 300 bp sequence upstream of the ATG initiation codon is highly conserved between them. Several transcription cis-regulatory elements such as SP-1, NF-kappa B and IRF-1 were recognized in this region.

No abstract

We recently reported an internal tandem duplication of the receptor-type tyrosine kinases (RTKs), 8,9 ses were also performed to reveal the time when the mutation duplication transformed to overt leukemia within a few months.emerged. Together with the FLT3 mutation, chromosome fin-