A myriad of coordinated signals control cellular differentiation. Reprogramming the cell's proteome drives global changes in cell morphology and function that define cell phenotype. A switch in alternative splicing of many pre-mRNAs encoding neuronal-specific proteins accompanies neuronal differentiation. Three groups recently showed that the global splicing repressor, polypyrimidine track-bind...

The proneural factor Achaete-scute complex-like 1 (Ascl1/Mash1) acts as a pioneering transcription factor that initializes neuronal reprogramming. It drives neural progenitors and non-neuronal cells to exit the cell cycle, and promotes neuronal differentiation by activating neuronal target genes, even those that are normally repressed. Importantly, force-expression of Ascl1 was shown to drive p...

During early neurogenesis, the floor plate plays an essential role(s) in the differentiation of the ventral portion of neural tube. In this study, we detected the specific distribution of unique glycoconjugate during the floor plate differentiation. Formalin fixed paraffin sections of BALB/c mice (10-14 embryonic days) were processed for histochemical studies using horseradish peroxidase-labell...

A myriad of coordinated signals control cellular differentiation. Reprogramming the cell’s proteome drives global changes in cell morphology and function that define cell phenotype. A switch in alternative splicing of many pre-mRNAs encoding neuronal-specific proteins accompanies neuronal differentiation. Three groups recently show that the global splicing repressor, polypyridmine track binding...

The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is an important mediator of physiological and pathophysiological processes in the central nervous system. Importantly, JNK not only is involved in neuronal cell death, but also plays a significant role in neuronal differentiation and regeneration. For example, nerve growth factor induces JNK-dependent neuronal differentiation in several model systems. The mecha...

The extract of pluripotent stem cells induces dedifferentiation of somatic cells with restricted plasticity. In this study, we used the extract of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to dedifferentiate adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and examined the impact of this reprogramming event on dopaminergic differentiation of the cells. For this purpose, cytoplasmic extract of ESCs was prepare...

Neuroblastomas are the most common extracranial solid tumors in children and have a unique feature of neuronal differentiation. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ is reported to neuroprotective effects addition having antitumor various cancers. Thus, we aimed clarify role PPAR-γ agonist antagonist malignant neuroblastomas, which also possess features. In MYCN-amplified neurobla...

We have demonstrated recently that Wilms' tumor suppressor 1 (Wt1),in addition to its role in genitourinary formation,is required for the differentiation of ganglion cells in the developing retina. Here we provide further evidence that Wt1 is associated with neuronal differentiation. Thus, the retinoblastoma-derived human cell line, Y-79, contained robust amounts of Wt1 mRNA and protein. Wt1 ex...

The NR1 gene undergoes induction in neurogenesis mainly via promoter de-repression, and up-regulation during neuronal differentiation by undefined mechanism(s). Here, we show that in the distal region the NR1 promoter has an active NF-kappaB site sharing the consensus with the immunoglobulin (Ig)/human immunodeficiency virus NF-kappaB site. Mutation of this site significantly reduced NR1 promot...

multiple sclerosis (ms) is an autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. the aim of this study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of transplanted human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stromal cells (ucb-msc) derived neural progenitor cell (mdnpc) in eae, an experimental model of ms. to initiate neuronal differentiation of ucb-mscs, the pre-inductio...