The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

The structure and regulation of the human and mouse matrix metalloproteinase-21 gene and protein.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play key roles in tissue remodelling under normal development and, especially, in diseases ranging from malignancies to stroke. We cloned and thoroughly characterized the novel human and mouse MMP gene encoding MMP-21. MMP-21 is the last uncharacterized MMP coded by the human genome. Human and mouse MMP-21 is the orthologue of Xenopus laevis X-MMP. The latent proenzyme of MMP-21 (569 amino acid residues) consists of the prodomain, the catalytic domain and the haemopexin-like domain, and is potentially capable of being activated in its secretory pathway to the extracellular milieu by furin-like proprotein convertases. Human MMP-21 is the probable target gene of the Wnt pathway. In addition, the expression of MMP-21 is controlled uniquely by Pax and Notch transcription factors known to be critical for organogenesis. MMP-21 is expressed transiently in mouse embryogenesis and increased in embryonic neuronal tissues. Our observations clearly indicate that there is an important specific function for MMP-21 in embryogenesis, especially in neuronal cells

Role of proteolytic enzymes in human prostate bone metastasis formation: in vivo and in vitro studies

Prostate cancers ability to invade and grow in bone marrow stroma is thought to be due in part to degradative enzymes. The formation of prostate skeletal metastases have been reproduced in vitro by growing co-cultures of prostatic epithelial cells in bone marrow stroma. Expression of urokinase plasminogen activator, matrix metalloproteinase 1 and 7 by prostatic epithelial cells were identified using immunocytochemistry. Also, in vivo tissue sections from human prostatic bone marrow metastases were stained. To establish the role of these enzymes on colony formation, inhibitory antibodies directed against urokinase plasminogen activator, matrix metalloproteinase 1 and matrix metalloproteinase 7 were added into primary prostatic epithelial cells and bone marrow stroma co-cultures. All prostatic epithelial cell cultures stained positively for matrix metalloproteinase 1, matrix metalloproteinase 7 and urokinase plasminogen activator. Generally prostatic epithelial cells derived from malignant tissues showed increased staining in comparison to epithelia derived from non-malignant tissue. In agreement with in vitro co-cultures, the in vivo tissue sections of prostate bone marrow metastases showed positive staining for all three enzymes. Inhibition studies demonstrated that blocking matrix metalloproteinase 1, matrix metalloproteinase 7 and urokinase plasminogen activator function reduced the median epithelial colony area significantly in bone marrow stroma co-cultures in vitro. Using a human ex-vivo model we have shown that matrix metalloproteinase 1, matrix metalloproteinase 7 and urokinase plasminogen activator play an important role in the establishment of prostatic epithelial cells within bone marrow