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Inc & Co is a private equity firm which partners with aspiring businesses looking to fulfil their unrealised potential and accelerate growth.

Maker&Son believe that there are people looking for truly comfortable furniture made from only natural materials. They design and make each of their pieces by hand, using traditional methods.

Inccompany

You're ready to sell up and move on to retirement or you just fancy a fresh challenge, we're delicate and confidential with a potential sale and will discuss how we can make the process painless.

IncMagazine

If your business is a going concern or you've hit a roadblock with funding support or a lack of help from HMRC or creditors, we can provide hands-on support to get things moving again.

If your business is a going concern or you've hit a roadblock with funding support or a lack of help from HMRC or creditors, we can provide hands-on support to get things moving again.

Incbusiness

Specialists in private equity, mergers & acquisitions and distressed business turnarounds with notable acquisitions, including Maker&Son, the luxury furniture brand and many more.

Inc & Co’s portfolio also includes further investments in retail, property, data analytics & logistics that operate globally.

A business which is looking at potential insolvency, or liquidation usually is one that needs a quick turnaround assessment and deep dive to find potential solutions to save the business.

inc. meaning in business

Learn everything you need to know about our brands here at Inc & Co in our new series of Spotlights starting with Manchester’s premium barbers & treatment destination, King Street Grooming.

TGF-β signaling is crucial for modulating osteoarthritis (OA), and protein phosphatase magnesium–dependent 1A (PPM1A) has been reported as a phosphatase of SMAD2 and regulates TGF-β signaling, while the role of PPM1A in cartilage homeostasis and OA development remains largely unexplored. In this study, we found increased PPM1A expression in OA chondrocytes and confirmed the interaction between PPM1A and phospho-SMAD2 (p-SMAD2). Importantly, our data show that PPM1A KO substantially protected mice treated with destabilization of medial meniscus (DMM) surgery against cartilage degeneration and subchondral sclerosis. Additionally, PPM1A ablation reduced the cartilage catabolism and cell apoptosis after the DMM operation. Moreover, p-SMAD2 expression in chondrocytes from KO mice was higher than that in WT controls with DMM induction. However, intraarticular injection with SD-208, repressing TGF-β/SMAD2 signaling, dramatically abolished protective phenotypes in PPM1A-KO mice. Finally, a specific pharmacologic PPM1A inhibitor, Sanguinarine chloride (SC) or BC-21, was able to ameliorate OA severity in C57BL/6J mice. In summary, our study identified PPM1A as a pivotal regulator of cartilage homeostasis and demonstrated that PPM1A inhibition attenuates OA progression via regulating TGF-β/SMAD2 signaling in chondrocytes and provided PPM1A as a potential target for OA treatment.

Qinwen Ge, Zhenyu Shi, Kai-ao Zou, Jun Ying, Jiali Chen, Wenhua Yuan, Weidong Wang, Luwei Xiao, Xia Lin, Di Chen, Xin-Hua Feng, Ping-er Wang, Peijian Tong, Hongting Jin