生物谷报道:最新的《Science》杂志报道的一项新研究发现,一个原来已知的调节神经元存活的蛋白质看来也在肝脏修复中起重要作用。这些发现提出,名为p75NTR的蛋白质也许是控制肝脏疾病药物的一个有用的靶标。
由于so-hepatocyte增殖和形成新组织的能力,肝脏能非凡地自我再生。这个过程需要肝星状细胞来产生支持肝细胞增殖的基质。生长因子p75NTR在神经系统发育过程中以及受损后表达,其表达也在人与动物模型身上造成肝硬化的增加。为了更多地了解这个生长因子在肝脏再生中的作用,Melissa Passino和同事制造了一个缺少该蛋白质的小鼠家系。他们报告说,这些小鼠制造较少的肝细胞。p75NTR看来激活肝星状细胞,诱导它们分化成其它生长因子和肝细胞需要的细胞外基质,所以p75NTR是肝脏修复过程中两个关间细胞类型间的一个重要的连接。
原文出处:
Regulation of Hepatic Stellate Cell Differentiation by the Neurotrophin Receptor p75NTR, Melissa A. Passino, Ryan A. Adams, Shoana L. Sikorski, and Katerina Akassoglou
Science 30 March 2007 315: 1764 [DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5820.1764a] (in This Week in Science)
Summary » PDF »
作者简介:
Katerina Akassoglou, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology
University of California, San Diego
EDUCATION
1998-2001 Postdoc
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The Rockefeller University
1994-1998 Ph.D. in Neurobiology
University of Athens, Athens, Greece
1990-1994 B.Sc. in Biology (First Class Honors)
University of Athens
Athens, Greece
POSITIONS
2003-Today Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology, UCSD
La Jolla, CA
2002-2003 Research Associate
Molecular Neurobiology Program
Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine
New York University Medical Center
New York, NY
2001-2002 Research Associate
The Rockefeller University
New York, NY
相关基因:
Ngfr
Official Symbol: Ngfr and Name: nerve growth factor receptor (TNFR superfamily, member 16) [Mus musculus]
Other Aliases: RP23-67E18.6, LNGFR, Tnfrsf16, p75, p75NGFR, p75NTR
Other Designations: p75 neurotrophin receptor
Chromosome: 11; Location: 11 55.6 cM
GeneID: 18053