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Background/aim: Hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is characterized by prostacyclin (PGI2) disorder, which manifests in the same manner as in monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PAH. Endogenous PGI2 inhibitor coupling factor 6 (CF6) is involved in MCT-induced PAH. This study aimed to explore the presence or absence of a correlation between hypoxia-induced PAH and CF6. Materials and methods: This study was conducted between January 2019 and June 2020. A total of 135 male Wistar rats (aged 8 weeks and weighing 200-250 g) were randomly divided into five groups: (A) control, (B) 1 week of hypoxia, (C) 2 weeks of hypoxia, (D) 3 weeks of hypoxia, and (E) 4 weeks of hypoxia. CF6 expression in both lung tissue and blood samples from the lung vasculature and tail vein was measured by western blotting, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Hemodynamic and morphological changes in hypoxia-induced rats indicated PAH development. The results showed the presence of a correlation between the mRNA and protein levels of CF6 in lung tissue, activity of mitochondrial ATP synthase, and hypoxia time, and there was a significant increment in the group exposed to hypoxia for 4 weeks compared to the control group. The decrement expression of ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF 1) mRNA was consistent with the outcomes of ATP synthase activity in lung tissue in the 4 weeks of hypoxia group compared with the control group. However, the levels of CF6 and ATP synthase activity did not differ between blood samples from the lung vasculature and tail vein. Conclusion: In hypoxia-induced PAH, CF6 showed downregulated expression in lung tissue, but not in pulmonary vasculature and circulation. Therefore, we speculated that CF6 and ATP synthase may play important roles in hypoxia-induced PAH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was evaluation of effect of heat shock protein 70 on toll-like receptor 4 and toll-like receptor 2 in melanoma cell line, A-375. The melanoma cell lines were stimulated in time course with heat shock protein 70 protein and incubation was performed. After 48 h, the cells were collected and total messenger ribonucleic acid was extracted and the expression of toll-like receptor 2 and toll-like receptor 4 was determined by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that the appearance of toll-like receptor 2, toll-like receptor 4 in melanoma cell line, A-375 decreased in exposure to heat shock protein 70. The results showed the expression of nuclear factor kappa B in melanoma cell line. 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide evaluation results of melanoma cell death were compared at different times and statistical analysis showed a significant difference (p<0.001). The role of heat shock protein 70 has been identified as a tumor suppressor in melanoma cancer. Heat shock protein 70 is a new treatment for melanoma in the near future. Heat shock protein 70 can be considered as a potential target in gene therapy for patients with melanoma cancer and the advantages of gene therapy by heat shock protein 70 in this type of cancer over chemotherapy can reduce cytotoxic effects and its low invasiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease with complicated genetic inheritance. Programmed death 1 (PD-1), a negative T cell regulator to maintain peripheral tolerance, induces negative signals to T cells during interaction with its ligands and is therefore a candidate gene in the development of SLE. In order to examine whether expression levels of PD-1 contribute to the pathogenesis of SLE, 30 patients with SLE and 30 controls were recruited and their PD-1 expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were measured via flow cytometry and quantitative real-time-reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Also, whether PD-1 expression levels are associated with the variant of the SNP rs36084323 and the SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) was studied in this work. The PD-1 expression levels of SLE patients were significantly increased compared with those of the healthy controls. The upregulated PD-1 expression levels in SLE patients were greatly associated with SLEDAI scores. No significant difference was found between PD-1 expression levels and SNP rs36084323. The results suggest that increased expression of PD-1 may correlate with the pathogenesis of SLE, upregulated PD-1 expression may be a biomarker for SLE diagnosis, and PD-1 inhibitor may be useful to SLE treatment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]