• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.263-271
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• 2009

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the most cause of death around the world and fields of interest for cardiac stem cells. Also, current use of terminally differentiated adult cardiomyocytes for CVDs has limited regenerative capacity therefore any significant cell loss may result in the development of progressive heart failure. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) derived from blastocyst-stage embryos spontaneously have ability to differentiate via embryo-like aggregates (endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm) in vitro into various cell types including cardiomyocyte. However, most effective molecule or optimized condition which can induce cardiac differentiation of hESCs is rarely studied. In this study, we developed both spontaneous and inductive cardiomyocyte-like cells differentiation from hESCs by treatment of induced-factors, 5-azacytidine, BMP-4 and cardiogenol C. On the one hand, spontaneous and inductive cardiomyocyte-like cells showed that cardiac markers are expressed for further analysis by RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry. Interestingly, BMP-4 greatly improved homogeneous population of the cardiomyocyte-like cells from hESCs CHA15 and H09. In conclusion, we verified that spontaneously differentiated cells showed cardiac specific markers which characterize cardiac cells, treated extrinsic factors can manage cellular signals and found that hESCs can undergo differentiation into cardiomyocytes better than spontaneous group. This finding offers an insight into the inductive factor of differentiated cardiomyocytes and provides some helpful information that may offer the potential of cardiomyocytes derived from hESCs using extrinsic factors.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.180-187
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• 2015

Incontinentia pigmenti, also called Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome, is a rare X-linked inherited dominant disorder that affects females, but causes spontaneous abortion of prenatal males. Incontinentia pigmenti is a systemic disease with clinical features similar to ectodermal dysplasia, including congenitally missing teeth. The pathogenesis is related to gene mutations in NF-kappa-B essential modulator on chromosome Xq28. Incontinentia pigmenti is caused by a defect in the developmental stage of organs originating from the ectoderm or mesoderm and involves the skin, eyes, hair, teeth and central nervous system. This report discusses the management of three cases of 3 to 5 years old females with incontinentia pigmenti and accompanying multiple missing teeth. The cases had sparse hair, and showed oligodontia and anomalous crowns with supplementary cusps in the posterior teeth and conical anterior teeth. Removable space maintainers were applied, achieving improved esthetics, recovery of mastication and increased self-esteem in the patients.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.673-678
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• 2014

During Xenopus early development, FGF signaling is involved in mesoderm formation and neurogenesis by modulating various signaling cascades. FGF-MAPK signaling induces Xbra expression, which maintains mesodermal fate through an autocatalytic-loop. Interestingly, previous reports have demonstrated that basic FGF (bFGF) treatment alone does not induce neurogenesis in ectodermal explants, even though FGF signaling inhibits BMP signaling via phosphorylation in Smad1 linker region. In addition, the overexpression of dominantnegative Xbra induces neurogenesis in ectodermal explants. However, the detailed mechanism underlying these phenomena has not yet been clarified. In this work, we showed that bFGF-Xbra signaling increased the PV.1 expression. DN-Xbra was found to decrease PV.1 expression, and the co-injection of PV.1 with DN-Xbra reduced neurogenesis in ectodermal explants. Furthermore, the knockdown of PV.1 induced neurogenesis in bFGF-treated ectodermal explants. Taken together, our results demonstrate that FGF-Xbra signaling induces PV.1 expression and that PV.1 functions as a neural repressor in the FGF-treated ectoderm.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.437-445
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• 2010

This study was aimed at comparing selected joint angles at the golf address stance by categorizing three different body types. 43 elite male golfers were selected and 9 of them turned out to be the ectoderm while 24 of them to be the mesoderm. The remaining 10 subjects were the endoderm. The measurement was carried out at the address stance with the number 7 iron and the driver. The result showed that the angle of trunk flexion did not different among body types. The trunk tilting angle became more inclined to the right side, which confirmed the guidelines from most of golf lesson books, for bigger people since they tended to put more weight on the right foot. The angle of both knees showed similar but the right knee was bent more than the left knee. The target direction and body alignment faced more to the left side than the target spot because of the influence of open stance and natural aiming position. It seems that pelvis and knees turned a little bit more to the right side than the target direction in order to maintain the parallel. Overall, significant differences among body types were found at the trunk tilting angle and pelvis-target alignment and golf address configuration can be differentiate by these factors.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.528-530
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• 2007

Purpose: Holoprosencephaly(HPE) is a rare developmental defect due to incomplete cleavages of the prosencephalon during the third week of fetal development. Chromosomal anomalies, genetic syndrome, teratogen, or genetic disorder of non-syndromic HPE are usually accepted as etiology. The consequences of prechordal mesoderm defect are varying degrees of deficit of midline facial development, especially the median nasal process(premaxilla), and incomplete morphogenesis of the forebrain. We experienced a case of lobar HPE with complete cleft lip and palate. Methods: A female newborn infant was born at $38^{+6}$ weeks' gestational age via NSVD. The infant's birth weight was 3.6 kg, height 52 cm, and head circumference 32.5 cm, showing microcephaly, flat nose, median complete cleft lip & palate, and hypotelorism, along with defects of midfacial development including losses of premaxilla, philtrum, nasal septum, and columella. Results: There were no specific findings noted from the head and neck X-ray and tests for endocrine and metabolic disorders, but clinical characteristics of midface and dysgenesis corpus callosum on brain MRI were seen, so that this case was diagnosed with HPE. Conclusion: HPE is divided into three categories of alobar, semilobar, and lobar prosencephaly according to the degree of cerebral hemisphere separation. Assesment of patient's brain abnormality and malformation is essential in determining the extent and benefit of surgical intervention. This case was included in the lobar type HPE which shows relatively good prognosis compared with other types and reconstruction of median complete cleft lip & palate and midfacial defects will be performed.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

Mesenchymal stem cells are classified as multipotent stem cells, due to their capability to transdifferentiate into various lineages that develop from mesoderm. Their popular appeal as cell-based therapy was initially based on the idea of their ability to restore tissue because of their differentiation potential in vitro; however, the lack of evidence of their differentiation to target cells in vivo led researchers to focus on their secreted trophic factors and their role as potential powerhouses on regulation of factors under different immunological environments and recover homeostasis. To date there are more than 800 clinical trials on humans related to MSCs as therapy, not to mention that in animals is actively being applied as therapeutic resource, though it has not been officially approved as one. But just as how results from clinical trials are important, so is to reveal the biological mechanisms involved on how these cells exert their healing properties to further enhance the application of MSCs on potential patients. In this review, we describe characteristics of MSCs, evaluate their benefits as tissue regenerative therapy and combination therapy, as well as their immunological properties, activation of MSCs that dictate their secreted factors, interactions with other immune cells, such as T cells and possible mechanisms and pathways involved in these interactions.

• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.403-408
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• 2019

Dorsoventral patterning of body axis in vertebrate embryo is tightly controlled by a complex regulatory network of transcription factors. Ventx1.1 is known as a transcriptional repressor to inhibit dorsal mesoderm formation and neural differentiation in Xenopus. In an attempt to identify, using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-Seq, genome-wide binding pattern of Ventx1.1 in Xenopus gastrulae, we observed that Ventx1.1 associates with its own 5'-flanking sequence. In this study, we present evidence that Ventx1.1 binds a cis-acting Ventx1.1 response element (VRE) in its own promoter, leading to repression of its own transcription. Site-directed mutagenesis of the VRE in the Ventx1.1 promoter significantly abrogated this inhibitory autoregulation of Ventx1.1 transcription. Notably, Ventx1.1 and Xcad2, an activator of Ventx1.1 transcription, competitively co-occupied the VRE in the Ventx1.1 promoter. In support of this, mutation of the VRE down-regulated basal and Xcad2-induced levels of Ventx1.1 promoter activity. In addition, overexpression of Ventx1.1 prevented Xcad2 from binding to the Ventx1.1 promoter, and vice versa. Taken together, these results suggest that Ventx1.1 negatively regulates its own transcription in competition with Xcad2, thereby fine-tuning its own expression levels during dorsoventral patterning of Xenopus early embryo.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.68-75
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• 2021

Objectives: The hair follicle is composed of more than 20 kinds of cells, and mesoderm derived dermal papilla cells and keratinocytes cooperatively contribute hair growth via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. We are to investigate β-catenin expression and regulatory mechanism by CBD in alopecia hair tissues and dermal papilla cells. Methods: We performed structural and anatomical analyses on alopecia patients derived hair tissues using microscopes. Pharmacological effect of CBD was evaluated by β-catenin expression using RT-PCR and immunostaining experiment. Results: Morphological deformation and loss of cell numbers in hair shaft were observed in alopecia hair tissues. IHC experiment showed that loss of β-catenin expression was shown in inner shaft of the alopecia hair tissues, indicating that β-catenin expression is a key regulatory function during alopecia progression. Consistently, β-catenin expression was decreased in testosterone or PMA treated dermal papilla cells, suggesting that those treatments are referred as a model on molecular mechanism of alopecia using dermal papilla cells. RT-PCR and immunostaining experiments showed that β-catenin expression was decreased in RNA level, as well as decreased β-catenin protein might be resulted from ubiquitination. However, CBD treatment has no changes in gene expression including β-catenin, but the decreased β-catenin expression by testosterone or PMA was restored by CBD pretreatment, suggesting that potential regulatory effect on alopecia induction of testosterone and PMA. Conclusion: CBD might have a modulating function on alopecia caused by hormonal or excess of signaling pathway, and be a promising application for on alopecia treatment.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.9.1-9.15
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• 2020

Regenerative therapy holds great promise in the development of cures of some untreatable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, and pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) including induced PSCs (iPSCs) are the most important regenerative seed cells. Recently, differentiation of human PSCs into functional tissues and cells in vitro has been widely reported. However, although porcine reports are rare they are quite essential, as the pig is an important animal model for the in vitro generation of human organs. In this study, we reprogramed porcine embryonic fibroblasts into porcine iPSCs (piPSCs), and differentiated them into cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31)-positive endothelial cells (ECs) (piPSC-derived ECs, piPS-ECs) using an optimized single-layer culture method. During differentiation, we observed that a combination of GSK3β inhibitor (CHIR99021) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) promoted mesodermal differentiation, resulting in higher proportions of CD31-positive cells than those from separate CHIR99021 or BMP4 treatment. Importantly, the piPS-ECs showed comparable morphological and functional properties to immortalized porcine aortic ECs, which are capable of taking up low-density lipoprotein and forming network structures on Matrigel. Our study, which is the first trial on a species other than human and mouse, has provided an optimized single-layer culture method for obtaining ECs from porcine PSCs. Our approach can be beneficial when evaluating autologous EC transplantation in pig models.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.49.1-49.15
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• 2023

Background: Hystricomorpha rodents display a similar placentation model to humans. The present study was carried out considering the scarcity of information concerning the placental development in agouti. Objective: Describe the microscopy of the placenta, subplacenta and yolk sac of agoutis in early pregnancy and report on the inversion of the yolk sac. Methods: Fifteen females between the 14^th-32^nd day of gestation were used following euthanasia. Gestational buttons were collected, fixed, processed, stained to optical microscopy or immunohistochemistry. Results: Chorioallantoic placenta (CP) ranged from conical to a half-sphere, as follows: from the 14^th to 17^th day, the CP displays an inverted "V" shape, predominantly formed by cytotrophoblasts; from 20 to 22 days, formed almost entirely by cytotrophoblasts; at 28 days, a half sphere, with distinct lobes and interlobular area, numerous maternal gaps delimited by syncytiotrophoblasts and trophoblast giant cells; at 32 days, globose and undergoing the maturation process. Subplacenta, located between decidua and CP, initially presents septa consisting of simple columnar epithelium and after 17 days, comprising stratified epithelium. Visceral yolk sac (VYS) is attached to two CP projections between 14 and 17 days, formed by a simple cubic epithelium and inverted. Between 20 and 22 days, the epithelium displays apical villous projections with cytoplasmic vacuoles and a vascularized mesoderm. After the 24^th day, the VYS near the placenta is pleated, very vascularized and villous, with decreased villi sizes further away from the placenta. Conclusion: The agouti CP displays similar characteristics to other hystricomorpha, including placenta lobulation, a subplacenta and an inverted vitelline placenta.