Browsing by Author "Zhang, Min"

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    Donor Leukocyte Trafficking and Damage-associated Molecular Pattern Expression During Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion.
    (Transplantation Direct, 2020-03) Davis, Robert P; Yerxa, John; Gao, Qimeng; Gloria, Jared; Scheuermann, Uwe; Song, Mingqing; Zhang, Min; Parker, William; Lee, Jaewoo; Hartwig, Matthew G; Barbas, Andrew S
    Background:While ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) has become established in lung transplantation, the cellular processes occurring during this period are not yet fully understood. Prior studies demonstrated that donor leukocytes (DLs) migrate from the graft into the perfusate during EVLP, but the distribution of DLs in graft and perfusate compartments has not been characterized. Moreover, cell death of DLs has been implicated in mediating graft injury during EVLP, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. We hypothesized the following: (1) there is a nonspecific migration of DLs from the graft into perfusate and (2) cell death of DLs releases damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that contribute to the inflammatory milieu during EVLP. Methods:EVLP was performed on rat lungs for 3 hours (N = 6). At the end of EVLP, flow cytometry was used to quantify the distribution of different DL cell types in both the graft and perfusate compartments. During EVLP, the perfusate was also sampled hourly to measure levels of DAMPs and downstream inflammatory cytokines generated during EVLP. Results:At the conclusion of EVLP, there was a significantly higher proportion of T and B cells present in the perfusate compartment compared with the graft compartment. There was a time-dependent increase in extracellular DNA and tumor necrosis factor α in the perfusate during EVLP. Conclusions:T cells and B cells are enriched in the perfusate compartment during EVLP. Cell death of DLs contributes to an accumulation of DAMPs during EVLP.
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    Tocopherol-associated protein suppresses prostate cancer cell growth by inhibition of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway.
    (Cancer research, 2005-11) Ni, Jing; Wen, Xingqiao; Yao, Jorge; Chang, Hong-Chiang; Yin, Yi; Zhang, Min; Xie, Shaozhen; Chen, Ming; Simons, Brenna; Chang, Philip; di Sant'Agnese, Anthony; Messing, Edward M; Yeh, Shuyuan
    Epidemiologic studies suggested that vitamin E has a protective effect against prostate cancer. We showed here that tocopherol-associated protein (TAP), a vitamin E-binding protein, promoted vitamin E uptake and facilitated vitamin E antiproliferation effect in prostate cancer cells. Interestingly, without vitamin E treatment, overexpression of TAP in prostate cancer cells significantly suppressed cell growth; knockdown of endogenous TAP by TAP small interfering RNA (siRNA) in nonmalignant prostate HPr-1 cells increased cell growth. Further mechanism dissection studies suggested that the tumor suppressor function of TAP was via down-regulation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling, but not by modulating cell cycle arrest or androgen receptor signaling. Immunoprecipitation results indicated that TAP inhibited the interaction of PI3K subunits, p110 with p85, and subsequently reduced Akt activity. Constitutively active Akt could negate the TAP-suppressive activity on prostate cancer cell growth. Moreover, stable transfection of TAP in LNCaP cells suppressed LNCaP tumor incidence and growth rate in nude mice. Furthermore, TAP mRNA and protein expression levels were significantly down-regulated in human prostate cancer tissue samples compared with benign prostate tissues as measured by reverse transcription-PCR, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry. Together, our data suggest that TAP not only mediates vitamin E absorption to facilitate vitamin E antiproliferation effect in prostate cancer cells, but also functions like a tumor suppressor gene to control cancer cell viability through a non-vitamin E manner. Therefore, TAP may represent a new prognostic marker for prostate cancer progression.