Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most lethal neoplasm of common urologic cancers with poor prognoses. SMAD4 has a principal role in TGF-β (Transformis growth factorβ)-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) as a key factor in gaining cancer stem cell (CSC) features and tumor aggressiveness. This study aimed to evaluate the expression patterns and clinical significance of SMAD4 in RCC and the impact of its targeting on stem cell/ mesenchymal cells and EMT characteristics in renal spheroid derived cells (SDCs) compared to parental cells (PCs) in RCC. The expression pattern and clinical significance of SMAD4 was evaluated in RCC. SDCs were enriched using a sphere culture system. Then SDCs and their PCs were compared with respect

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most lethal neoplasm of common urologic cancers with poor prognoses. SMAD4 has a principal role in TGF-β (Transformis growth factorβ)-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) as a key factor in gaining cancer stem cell (CSC) features and tumor aggressiveness. This study aimed to evaluate the expression patterns and clinical significance of SMAD4 in RCC and the impact of its targeting on stem cell/mesenchymal cells and EMT characteristics in renal spheroid derived cells (SDCs) compared to parental cells (PCs) in RCC. The expression pattern and clinical significance of SMAD4 was evaluated in RCC. SDCs were enriched using a sphere culture system. Then SDCs and their PCs were compared with respect t

microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) play key roles in different stages of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) pathogenesis. The present study aimed to demonstrate whether miR-155 enables CD34+ CML cells to escape from the growth-inhibitory effects of TGF-β1 and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. Among differentially expressed miRNAs in CD34+ CML cells, miR-155 was highly up-regulated. QRT-PCR revealed an inverse correlation between miR-155 and two key members of the TGF-β pathway-TGF-βR2 and SMAD5. Results showed that SMAD5 is not only up-regulated through BMPs treatment, but recombinant TGF-β1 can also induce SMAD5 in CML cells. We also demonstrated that TGF-β1-mediated phosphorylation of SMAD1/5 was abolished by pre-treatment with the blo

Paracrine signaling between tumor and surrounding stromal cells is critical for the maintenance of tumor microenvironment during ovarian cancer progression. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs; exosomes in particular) are nano-sized vesicles secreted actively by many cells including tumor cells and are found to have fundamental roles in intercellular communication through shuttling functional RNAs. Although microRNAs (also called miRNAs or miRs), small non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression, are selectively accumulated in tumor sEVs and can mediate intercellular communication, the exact biological mechanisms underlying the functions of exosomal miRNAs in ovarian tumor angiogenesis remain unclear. In this study, sEVs were isolated from co

Author information: (1)Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, 1665659911, Iran. (2)Department of Cancer Medicine, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Isar 11, Babol, 47138-18983, Iran. (3)Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Tytgat Institute for Liver and Intestinal Research, Amsterdam Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Meibergdreef 69-71, 1105 BK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (4)School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, 1417614411, Iran. (5)Department of Life Science Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehr

For the past nine years, Royan Institute (Tehran, Iran) has held annual international summer schools to educate and promote key basic and applied concepts regarding stem cells, cancer, personalized medicine, tissue engineering, and developmental biology. The last “Royan International Summer School” was focused on latest molecular approaches to disease therapy as well as early diagnosis of human diseases. The summer school, which hosted speakers from the Netherlands, US, and Iran as well as more than 250 researchers, was began on 13 July 2019 at Royan Institute and ended on 17 July 2019. The speakers discussed genome-editing technologies, gene-and RNA interference (RNAi) therapies, cancer vaccines, and molecular diagnosis via biomarkers