• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2004

Using MLV (murine leukemia virus)-based retrovirus vectors encapsidated with VSV-G (vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein), we tried to make transgenic chickens carrying the transferred genes in their chromosomes. Twenty one days after virus injection beneath the blastoderms of unincubated chicken embryos (stage Ⅹ, at laying), DNA isolated from the hatched chicks were analyzed by PCR with two sets of primers specific for EGFP (enhanced green fluorescence protein) gene or $Neo^R$ (E. coli neomycin resistant) gene. Among sixty-seven embryos injected with retrovirus, four of them were identified to carry the EGFP genes in their genomes. Remarkably, one transgenic chick showed presence of the retrovirus vector sequences in all organs differentiated from one of endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm. Expression of EGFP gene was not detected, however, the stable germ line transmission of transgene was verified in spermatozoa from the founder chicken and 50% of $F_1$ progenies.

• 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.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.54-64
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• 1996

Normal development of the olfactory placode was studied to describe the sequence of events involved in the development of the olfactory placode. It has been primarily concerned with the morphological differentiation of the sensory neurons, their initial growth, maturation patterns and the contacts of their axons with the primitive prosencephalic vesicle. The olfactory organ first appears at stage 23 as a paired thickening of the two ectodermal layers: the superficial non-nervous layer (NNL) and the inner nervous layer (NL). Receptor cells differentiate from the NL and the supporting cells develop from the NNL. After stage 26 the placodal cells begin to migrate toward the epithelial surface between the NNL cells and their apical processes reach the surface at stage 28. As the apical process reaches the epithelial surface, basal processes (presumptive axons) sprout from the base of the NL cells at stage 29/30. They penetrate the underlying telencephalon by stage 32. Sensory synaptic contacts first appear at stage 37/38. Some placodal cells remain at the olfactory epithelium as basal cells while other placodal cells differentiate into olfactory neurons. The results confirmed that neurons originate exclusively from the nervous layer of the ectoderm while supporting cells originate from the NNL layer. The results also indicate that the development of olfactory neuron is independent of information from the target ftssue.

• 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.37 no.6
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• pp.827-830
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• 2010

Purpose: Congenital spinal dermal sinus tract is a rare lesion connecting skin to deeper structures including neural tissue. It results from the failure of the neuroectoderm to separate from the cutaneous ectoderm in the third to fifth week of gestation. The common locations are the lumbosacral and occipital regions. Sometimes it extends to spinal canal. In this paper we report a case of congenital spinal dermal sinus tract in the coccyx. Methods: A 21-month-old male child born after an uncomplicated full-term pregnancy was admitted to our institute with a midline dermal sinus and a cartilaginous protrusion in the coccygeal region. There were no signs of infection. Neurologic examination showed no functional deficit in both lower limbs. He was treated with complete excision of the tract and an underlying accessory cartilage. Results: The spinal dermal sinus tract was extended from the skin to the coccyx. The stalk was loosely attached to the accessory cartilage of coccyx. At that point, it was dissected from the accessory cartilage and resected. The accessory cartilage was also resected at the bone and cartilage junction. During the follow-up period of 6 months, the wound healed well without any complication nor recurrence. Conclusion: Congenital spinal dermal sinus tract is known as a form of spinal dysraphism. In order to prevent complications, timely surgical intervention including complete resection of sinus tract with correction of associated abnormalities is of utmost importance.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.220-225
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• 2014

Suppression of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling induces neural induction in the ectoderm of developing embryos. BMP signaling inhibits neural induction via the expression of various neural suppressors. Previous research has demonstrated that the ectopic expression of dominant negative BMP receptors (DNBR) reduces the expression of target genes down-stream of BMP and leads to neural induction. Additionally, gain-of-function experiments have shown that BMP downstream target genes such as MSX1, GATA1b and Vent are involved in the suppression of neural induction. For example, the Vent1/2 genes are involved in the suppression of Geminin and Sox3 expression in the neural ectodermal region of embryos. In this paper, we investigated whether PV.1, a BMP downstream target gene, negatively regulates the expression of FoxD5b, which plays a role in maintaining a neural progenitor population. A promoter assay and a cyclohexamide experiment demonstrated that PV.1 negatively regulates FoxD5b expression.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.140-151
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• 2002

Object and Method:Minor physical anomalies(MPAs) are frequently seen in patients with schizophrenia. MPAs are considered to arise from the anomalous development of ectoderm-originated tissues in the developing fetus. Since the central nervous system originates from ectoderm, MPAs can be regarded as externally observable and objective indicators of the aberrant development which might have taken place in the central nervous system. To investigate whether MPAs are more frequent in schizophrenic patients, the frequencies of MPAs were compared between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Total 245 schizophrenic patients diagnosed with DSM-IV(male : 158, female : 87), and 418 normal control subjects(male : 216, female : 202) were included in this study. The MPAs were measured using the modified Waldrop scale with fifteen items in six bodily regions; head, eye, ear, mouth, hand, and foot. Result:The total scores of Waldrop scale were $4.40{\pm}1.93$($mean{\pm}standard$ deviation) in patients and $3.43{\pm}1.68$ in controls for females, and for males, $4.58{\pm}1.75$ in patients and $4.28{\pm}1.59$ in controls. For females, the excess of MPAs in schizophrenic patients was statistically significant(t-test : p<0.001). For males, schizophrenic patients also showed more MPAs than normal controls, but this tendency did not reach statistical significance (t-test : p=0.094). When the modified Waldrop total scores excluding head circumference were compared, the total scores in schizophrenic patients were significantly higher for both male and female subjects(t-test : male p<0.001, female p=0.001). The individual anomaly items included in Waldrop scale were also investigated. The items of epicanthus, hypertelorism, malformed ears, syndactylia were significantly more frequent in schizophrenic patients. In contrast, the items of adherent ear lobes, asymmetric ears, furrowed tongue, curved fifth finger, single palmar crease and big gap between toes did not show any differences in frequency between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Since a lot of statistical analyses showed different results between male and female subjects, it seems to be necessary to consider gender as an important controlling variable for the analysis, however only the item of head circumference showed statistically significant gender-related difference according to log-linear analysis. Conclusion:With a relatively large sample size, the frequencies of MPAs enlisted in Waldrop scale were compared between schizophrenic patients and normal controls in this study. MPAs were more frequently seen in schizophrenic patients and, especially, several specific items in the Waldrop scale showed prominent excess in schizophrenic patients. Although definite conclusions cannot be drawn due to the inherent limitation of the study using Waldrop scale, these results seem to support the possibility that aberrant neurodevelopmental process might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in some of the patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.375-384
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• 2004

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are known to induce multiple functions in early development, including mesoderm formation, gastrulation movement and antero-posterior patterning. The induction of mesoderm from Xenopus presumptive ectoderm and the combination effect on inducing organs of bFGF(basic FGF) and HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) were studied. Explants were cultured in the combined solution for 3 days to normal embryo arrive at St. 43. These effects on combined dose were examined by histological experiment and by immunohistochemical method. The concentrations of growth factors were tested in 0, 0.5, 1, 10 and also tested in 50 ng/ml of bFGF, and 0, 1, 10, 50 and 100ng/ml of HGF respectively. The synergistic effects were seen in the combined-dose of bFGF and HGF rather than in single dose. Various organs were differentiated and highest inducing effects were seen at the combined concentration of 1 ng/ml of bFGF and 10ng/ml of HGF, and at the concentration 10ng/ml of bFGF and 1 ng/ml of HGF. The bFGF induces various organs from cultured animal cap explants and the effects are time and dose-dependent. HGF is also a potent mitogen for renal tubular cells and for mature hepatocytes in primary culture. Eyes were developed in high percentage at the combined concentration of 1 and 10ng/ml of bFGF, and 1 and 10 ng/ml of HGF. From the induced eye and normal embryonic eye, RPE65 was commonly detected by monoclonal antibodies 40All and 25F5 and the localization of RPE65 was seen by AP reaction.