Muscle Differentiation: Signalling Cell Fusion

Muscle Differentiation: Signalling Cell Fusion

Myoblast fusion is fundamental both to the production of skeletal muscle during development and to its repair later in life. An in-depth knowledge of cell fusion in general, and myoblast fusion in particular, may also become crucial to developing clinical approaches to tissue repair based on stem cells and/or gene therapy [1,2]. But despite its importance, much remains to be learnt about cell f...

Wnt Signalling During F9 Cell Differentiation

NFAT signalling and the differentiation of coronary smooth muscle cells.

Development of the heart is complex and cells with different embryonic origins participate in cardiac organogenesis. The first and second heart fields deliver cells to generate the atrial and ventricular chambers and also participate in venous inflow and arterial outflow tract formation. There are also important cellular contributions from two extra-cardiac cell populations, i.e. cardiac neural...

Signalling molecules involved in mouse bladder smooth muscle cellular differentiation.

Mouse bladder mesenchyme differentiates into smooth muscle under the influence of urothelium at gestational day 13.5 (E13.5). Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is considered to be the upstream gene arising from the urothelium, which induces smooth muscle in the peripheral bladder mesenchyme. We hypothesize differential gene expression across the full thickness of bladder mesenchyme as a function of proximit...

Dickkopf Homolog 3 Induces Stem Cell Differentiation into Smooth Muscle Lineage via ATF6 Signalling*

Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are a key component of healthy and tissue engineered vessels and play a crucial role in vascular development and the pathogenic events of vascular remodeling i.e. restenosis. However, the cell source from which they can be isolated is limited. Embryonic stem (ES) cells that have the remarkable capability to differentiate into vascular SMCs in response to specific stim...