In addition PCs including PC6 also play an important role in HIV infection

The observed effect may be attributed to both decrease in the proliferation of cells over-expressing SLAMF3 and the induction of apoptosis. In the present work, we also observed an association between restoration of SLAMF3 expression in HCC cells and the significant inhibition of ERK and JNK phosphorylation, which are constitutively activated in HCC and associated with the malignant HCC phenotype. Other studies using in vivo HCC animal models and human HCC tissue specimens have evidenced greater MAPK ERK expression and activity in tumours Ametycine relative to the surrounding tissue. Indeed, ERK activity has clinical relevance since it positively correlated with tumour size and aggressive tumour behaviour and is considered to be an independent prognostic marker for poor overall survival . In human T cells, SLAMF3 engagement attenuates T-cell receptor signalling and reduces ERK activation. Murine T cells lacking SLAMF3 exhibit low Th2 responses. The JNK pathway is known to be a negative regulator of the p53 tumour suppressor and its role in cell survival is well established. Based on the correlation between elevated JNK kinase activity and tumour cell proliferation, it has been suggested that JNK has an oncogenic role. In contrast, reports of low p38 activity in HCC suggest that elevated p38 MAPK activity induces apoptosis in hepatoma cell lines. The members of the BCL2 family can function both as positive or negative regulators of apoptosis. Changes in BCL2 family expression and/or activation have been observed in several tumour types. Indeed, expression levels of BCLXL are elevated in HCC. 925206-65-1 distributor Furthermore, a recent report indicated that BID is down-regulated in a subset of HCCs in the context of viral hepatitis. The pro-apoptotic BAD reportedly exert an important regulatory role in cell death in normal liver cells. Concordantly, BAD expression is low in HCC. It was recently reported that sorafenib increases the expression of BAD and thereby sensitizes HCC cells to apoptosis. In our present study, the restoration of high SLAMF3 expression in HCC cells produced a minor enhancement of BAD levels but did not have an effect on BCL-XL. Taken together with the fact that p38 phosphorylation was not modified, our resu