Purification and properties of a proline iminopeptidase from Propionibacterium acnes

Targeting the Hippo pathway in cancer, fibrosis, wound healing and regenerative medicine

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signalling pathway with key roles in organ development, epithelial homeostasis, tissue regeneration, wound healing and immune modulation. Many of these roles are mediated by the transcriptional effectors YAP and TAZ, which direct gene expression via control of the TEAD family of transcription factors. Dysregulated Hippo pathway and YAP/TAZ-TEAD activity is associated with various diseases, most notably cancer, making this pathway an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. This Review highlights the key findings from studies of Hippo pathway signalling across biological processes and diseases, and discusses new strategies and therapeutic implications of targeting this pathway.

Culture and biological activity of Propionibacterium acnes

Administration of killed Propionibacterium acnes to experimental animals leads to the development of hypersensitivity to the lethal and cytokine-inducing effects of endotoxin. This sensitizing property of P. acnes is not always expressed by different bacterial preparations. Its expression depends very much on the conditions employed for the cultivation of this microorganism. The present study investigates which culturing conditions result in P. acnes preparations with optimal sensitizing properties. The composition of the medium, the culturing time and temperature as well as the type of cultivation (in minifermentor or stationary culture) were all varied for this purpose. The resulting bacterial preparations were killed at 65 degrees C for 1 h and tested for sensitizing activity. The results show that stationary cultures of P. acnes grown at 37 degrees C for 4 to 5 days in the appropriate medium produce biologically active preparations with satisfactory sensitizing activity.