• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.183-188
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• 2021

In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is the procedure where the immature oocytes are cultivated in a laboratory until they are mature. Since IVM oocytes generally have low developmental competence as compared to those matured in vivo, development of an optimal IVM culture system by fine-tuning culture conditions is crucial to maintain high quality. In-depth knowledge and a deep understanding of the in vivo physiology of oocyte maturation are pre-requisites to accomplish this. Within ovarian follicles, various signaling pathways that drive oocyte development and maturation regulate interaction between oocytes and surrounding somatic cells. This review discusses the sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway, which has been demonstrated to be intimately involved in folliculogenesis and oocyte maturation. Advances in elucidating the role of the SHH signaling pathway in oocyte maturation will aid attempts to improve the current inferior in vitro oocyte maturation system.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.103-103
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• 2002

• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.7-8
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• 2012

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.548-550
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• 2015

A 1-year-old female hedgehog was presented with subcutaneous mass in the right forelimb. Grossly, an elevated subcutaneous mass approximately 4 cm in diameter was located in forelimb. Central dark brown area was surrounded by peripheral milky white zone in the cut surface of mass. Histopathologically, numerous neoplastic cells formed irregular cords or sheets in dermis. Most of neoplastic cells showed palisading features to basement membrane with or without central caseous necrosis. These neoplastic cells showed invasive tendency to adjacent tissues. According to immunohistochemistry, the neoplastic cells demonstrated strong positive signals for pancytokeratin, and negative for vimentin. Based on the gross, histopathology and immunohistochemistry, this mass was diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma in a hedgehog.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.144-151
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• 2019

Alopecia has emerged as one of the biggest interests in modern society. Many studies have focused on the treatment of alopecia, such as transplantation of hair follicles or inhibition of the androgen pathway. Hair growth is achieved through proper proliferation of the components such as keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells (DPCs), movement, and interaction between the two cells. The present study examined the effect of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is an important and fundamental signal in the cell, on the morphology and the viability of human keratinocytes and DPCs. Upregulation of Hh signaling caused a morphological change and an increase in epithelium-mesenchymal transition-related gene expression but reduced the viability of keratinocytes, while the alteration of Hh signaling did not cause any change in DPCs. The results show the possibility that the regulation of Hh signaling can be applied for the treatment of alopecia.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.170-175
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• 2014

Twenty five methanolic plant extracts were investigated to determine the anticancer activity against sonic hedgehog (shh)/Gli signaling pathway dependent cancer, PANC-1 human pancreatic cancer cells, through three screening programs. All extracts were inspected their inhibitory properties on sonic hedgehog-conditioned medium (shh-CM) induced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in C3H10T1/2 mouse mesenchymal stem cells to examine whether the plant extracts affect the shh/Gli signaling pathway. Next, plant extracts were screened the ability to suppress the cell proliferation of PANC-1 human pancreatic cancer cells. Finally, active plant extracts from the two screening systems were evaluated for the suppressive effect on Gli-mediated transcriptional activity in PANC-1 cells. Among active plants, Cinnamomum cassia suppressed Gli-mediated transcriptional activity leading to the down-regulated expression of Gli-target genes such as Gli-1 and Patched-1 (Ptch-1). This study provides the consideration for the important role of natural products in drug discovery process as well as the basis for the further analysis of active plant and potential identification of novel bioactive compounds as inhibitors of Gli and therapeutic candidates against shh/Gli signaling pathway dependent cancers.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Pathology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2001

Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed in a 4.5-year-old male African hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris). The patient was referred to Seoul National University, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital after 5 days history of left eye exophthalmos and corneal trauma. He had enlarged upper and lower jaw at the left part of the face and endophthalmitis of the left eye. On radiographic examinations, loss of bone density at the left zygomatic arch and sun-burst type periosteal reaction of left mandible with decreased bone density was noted. Histologically, the neoplastic mass consisted of markedly invasive, cords of nests of squamous epithelial cells. Intercellular bridges and keratin pearl formation were also noted.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.237-243
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• 2018

Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a key role in development from invertebrate to vertebrate. It is known to be involved in cell differentiation, polarity, proliferation, including the development of vertebrate limb and the establishment of flies' body plan. To investigate how the regulation of Hh pathway affects the development of parthenogenetic murine embryos, the parthenogenetically activated murine embryos were treated with either cyclopamine (Cyc), an antagonist of Hh pathway, or purmorphamine, an agonist of Hh pathway. While Cyc did not affect the blastocyst formation and its total cell number, the chemical reduced the hatching rate of embryos and the expression levels of Fn1 mRNA. The results of the present study show the possibility that Cyc may affect the development of embryos at blastocyst stage by blocking Hh pathway and this may cause detrimental effect to the embryos at peri-, and post-implantation stages.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.207-210
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• 2008

Trichophyton erinacei is a dermatophyte pathogen that infects both humans and hedgehogs. A two-month old female four-toed hedgehog presented to the Chonbuk Animal Medical Center with pruritus, excoriation and crust on her face for ten days. The owner of the hedgehog also exhibited the clinical signs of scaly erythema with fine vesicles on her neck. A presumptive diagnosis of dermatophytosis was made based on the results of an acetate tape preparation in which hyphae and chains of arthroconidia were observed. The crusts from the lesions were then cultured on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar for identification. After 10 days of incubation, downy colored colonies that had a central umbo with a white granular surface and a yellow pigment ring in the reverse were observed. Microscopic analysis revealed the presence of numerous teardrop shaped microconidia singly attached to the sides of the hyphae. In addition, 2-6 roomed macroconidia that were somewhat irregular in shape and size were present, and abundant intermediate sized spores were observed between the micro and macro conidia. To confirm that the culture was T. erinacei, the internal transcribed spacer region of the 5.8S phase of the ribosomal RNA gene (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA) was amplified by PCR and then sequenced. A 679-base pair fragment of DNA was then compared with sequences in GenBank and found to be 99% homologous with sequences of T. erinacei (Z97997 and Z97996. The clinical signs were resolved after four weeks of treatment with oral and topical ketoconazole and chlorhexidine. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first case of T. erinacei isolated from a four-toed hedgehog in Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2319-2324
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• 2012

Aim: To investigate the expression of three components of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway (SHH, SMO and GLI1) in human colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and evaluate their association with clinicopathologic characteristics of the patients. Methods: Fresh tumor tissues and matched tissues adjacent to the tumor were collected from 43 CRC patients undergoing surgery. Normal colorectal tissues from 20 non-CRC cases were also sampled as normal controls. The expression of SHH, SMO, GLI1 mRNAs was assessed by RT-PCR and proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Associations with clinicopathological characteristics of patients were analyzed. Results: SHH mRNA was expressed more frequently in tumor tissues than in normal tissues, but the difference did not reach significance in comparison to that in the adjacent tissues. SMO and GLI1 mRNAs were expressed more frequently in tumor tissues than in both adjacent andnormal tissues. The expression intensities of SHH, SMO, GLI1 mRNA in tumor tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent tissues and normal tissues. Proteins were also detected more frequently in tumors than other tissues. No significant links were apparent with gender, age, location, degree of infiltration or Dukes stage. Conclusion: Positive rates and intensities of mRNA and protein expression of Hh signaling pathway related genes SHH, SMO, GLI1 were found to be significantly increased in CRC tissues. However, over-expression did not appear to be associated with particular clinicopathological characteristics.