Identification of mechanisms controlling the transcriptional activity of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) p65/RelA

Dissertação para a obtenção do grau de doutor em Biologia pelo Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica. Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Living in an ever-changing environment, cells have evolved numerous mechanisms that allow their assessment of the environment, their communication with each other and the integration of the information in order to adapt to the environmental changes and to maintain their homeostasis. In the presence of harmful stimuli, such as infection or tissue damage, a series of defensive sequential events, including the activation of vascular endothelial cells (EC), are initiated and result in the inflammatory stress response. Much of the inflammatory response is regulated at the level of gene transcription through the expression of a number of proinflammatory genes such as adhesion molecules and stress-responsive cytoprotective genes, e.g. heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1).(...)