Background Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells have become dominant host cells in the biopharmaceutical industry due to their capacity for proper protein folding, assembly and posttranslational modifications. However, low specific productivity (qp) places limitations on yields obtained from mammalian host cells. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a novel class of short, non-coding RNAs which negatively regulate...

Trophinin is a membrane protein that mediates apical cell adhesion between trophoblastic cells and luminal epithelial cells of the endometrium and is implicated in the initial attachment during the process of human embryo implantation. The present study identified novel trophinin gene transcripts, which encode proteins structurally distinct from trophinin protein in the mouse. We designated the...

Whether the adult mammalian ovary contains oogonial stem cells (OSCs) is controversial. They have been isolated by a live-cell sorting method using the germ cell marker DDX4, which has previously been assumed to be cytoplasmic, not surface-bound. Furthermore their stem cell and germ cell characteristics remain disputed. Here we show that although OSC-like cells can be isolated from the ovary us...

Background: The demand for producing recombinant therapeutic proteins by mammalian cell lines, such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, continues to grow. Significant achievements in process optimization including development of cell culture strategies for largescale and cost-effective production have been made. Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is an often essential growth supplement and yet most cos...

The development of mammalian fetal germ cells along oogenic or spermatogenic fate trajectories is dictated by signals from the surrounding gonadal environment. Germ cells in the fetal testis enter mitotic arrest, whilst those in the fetal ovary undergo sex-specific entry into meiosis, the initiation of which is thought to be mediated by selective exposure of fetal ovarian germ cells to mesoneph...

Catecholamines present in the mammalian ovary are involved in many normal aspects of ovarian functions, including initial follicle growth, steroidogenesis, and pathological states such as polycystic ovary syndrome. Sympathetic nerve fibers are the largest source of norepinephrine (NE), but not the only one. Surgical denervation of the rat ovary reduces, but does not eliminate, the ovarian conte...

Sea turtle egg relocation and hatchery incubation (hereafter termed ex situ incubation) is an effective strategy to protect clutches when in not viable. Nevertheless, it negatively affects the ontogenesis of male gonads brain areas homologous mammalian hippocampus, as well body size fitness. Thus, imperative analyze effects on other developmental aspects extend these observations females. This ...

The mammalian ovary shows extensive variation mainly in relation to the interstitial tissue of the ovary, the so-called interstitial gland, and the degree of gonad regionalisation, which implies the existence of a cortex and a medulla. Three mammalian species, mouse, human, and mole, have been reviewed here as representative animal models for ovarian variability. Whereas the human ovary may be ...

To identify novel genes involved in early mammalian folliculogenesis, we used the Unigene collection of mouse cDNA libraries to identify unique expressed sequence tags in a newborn mouse ovary cDNA library. Nobox (newborn ovary homeobox-encoding gene) was one of several genes identified by in silico (electronic database) subtraction. We cloned the mouse Nobox cDNA and characterized its genomic ...