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Articles by K Beck
Total Records ( 2 ) for K Beck
  K Beck , B. J Wu , J Ni , F. S Santiago , K. P Malabanan , C Li , Y Wang , L. M Khachigian and R. Stocker
  Rationale:

Induction of heme oxygenase (HO)-1 protects against experimental atherosclerotic diseases, and certain pharmacological HO-1 inducers, like probucol, inhibit the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and, at the same time, promote the growth of endothelial cells in vivo and in vitro.

 Objective:

Because such cell-specific effects are reminiscent of the action of the transcription factor Yin Yang (YY)1, we tested the hypothesis that there is a functional relationship between HO-1 and YY1.

 Methods and Results:

We report that probucol increases the number of YY1+ cells in rat carotid artery following balloon injury at a time coinciding with increased HO-1 expression. The drug also induces the expression of YY1 mRNA and protein in rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) in vitro, as do other known HO-1 inducers (tert-butylhydroquinone and hemin) and overexpression of HO-1 using a human HMOX1 cDNA plasmid. Conversely, overexpression of YY1 induces expression of HO-1 in RASMCs. Induction of YY1 expression is dependent on HO-1 enzyme activity and its reaction product CO, because pharmacological inhibition of heme oxygenase activity or CO scavenging block, whereas exposure of RASMCs to a CO-releasing molecule increases, YY1 expression. Furthermore, RNA interference knockdown of YY1 prevents probucol or adeno–HO-1 from inhibiting RASMC proliferation in vitro and neointimal formation in vivo.

 Conclusions:

Our findings show, for the first time, that HO-1 functionally interplays with the multifunctional transcription factor YY1 and that this interplay explains some of the protective activities of HO-1.
  K Beck , M. M Peak , T Ota , D Nemazee and C. Murre
 

The E2A gene products, E12 and E47, are critical regulators of B cell development. However, it remains elusive whether E12 and E47 have overlapping and/or distinct functions during B lymphopoiesis. We have generated mice deficient for either E12 or E47 and examined their roles in B cell maturation. We show that E47 is essential for developmental progression at the prepro–B cell stage, whereas E12 is dispensable for early B cell development, commitment, and maintenance. In contrast, both E12 and E47 play critical roles in pre–B and immature B cells to promote immunoglobulin (Ig) germline transcription as well as Ig VJ gene rearrangement. Furthermore, we show that E12 as well as E47 is required to promote receptor editing upon exposure to self-antigen. We demonstrate that increasing levels of E12 and E47 act to induce Ig germline transcription, promote trimethylated lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3) as well as H3 acetylation across the J region, and activate Ig VJ gene rearrangement. We propose that in the pre–B and immature B cell compartments, gradients of E12 and E47 activities are established to mechanistically regulate the sequential rearrangement of the Ig light chain genes.
 
 
 
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