introduction: the aim of this study was evaluate the ability of notochord to induce neural induction and/or differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cell to neuron and motor neuron, respectively. methods: in order to produce embryoid bodies, es cells line royan b1 were grown in suspension in the absence of lif for 4 days. ebs were divided into 4 groups. ebs in group 1 & 2 were further cultured i...

background: diabetes mellitus (dm), simply known as diabetes, refers to a group of metabolic diseases in which there are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. in this study, the feasibility and safety of intravenous transplantation of very small embryonic like stem cells (vsels) were investigated for diabetes repair, and finally the migration and distribution of these cells in hosts ...

Development of novel therapies for polycystic kidney disease (PKD) requires assays that adequately reflect disease biology and are adaptable to high-throughput screening. Here we describe an embryonic cystic kidney organ culture model and demonstrate that a new mutant allele of the Pkd1 gene (Pkd1(tm1Bdgz)) modulates cystogenesis in this model. Cyst formation induced by cAMP is influenced by th...

Exogenous expression of pharmacological targets in transformed cell lines has been the traditional platform for high throughput screening of small molecules. However, exogenous expression in these cells is limited by aberrant dosage, or its toxicity, the potential lack of interaction partners, and alterations to physiology due to transformation itself. Instead, primary cells or cells differenti...

Recently, assisted reproductive techniques have been used to prevent further miscarriages in women with recurrent miscarriage. One approach uses either screening or diagnosis of embryonic chromosomes prior to embryo replacement [preimplantation genetic screening (PGS)/preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)]. The second approach involves surrogacy. However, PGS/PGD assumes that the embryo is ch...

The control of cell-material interactions is the key to a broad range of biomedical interactions. Gradient surfaces have recently been established as tools allowing the high-throughput screening and optimization of these interactions. In this paper, we show that plasma polymer gradients can reveal the subtle influence of surface chemistry on embryonic stem cell behavior and probe the mechanisms...

Identification of gene products that function in some specific process of interest is a common goal in developmental biology. Although use of drug compounds to probe biological systems has a very long history in teratology and toxicology, systematic hierarchical drug screening has not been capitalized upon by the developmental biology community. This "chemical genetics" approach can greatly ben...

Preimplantational Genetics Diagnosis (PGD) is requested by geneticists and reproductive specialists. Usually geneticists ask for PGD because one or both members of the couple have an increased genetic risk for having an affected offspring. On the other hand, reproductive specialists ask for embryo aneuploidy screening (PGS) to assures an euploid embryo transfer, with the purpose to achieve an o...

It is estimated that approximately 2500 genes are essential for the normal development of a zebrafish embryo. A mutation in any one of these genes can result in a visible developmental defect, usually followed by the death of the embryo or larva by days 5-7 of age. We are performing a large-scale insertional mutagenesis screen in the zebrafish with the goal of isolating approximately 1000 embry...

We have analyzed a set of linkage group (LG) II maternal-effect lethal mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans isolated by a new screening procedure. Screens of 12,455 F1 progeny from mutagenized adults resulted in the recovery of 54 maternal-effect lethal mutations identifying 29 genes. Of the 54 mutations, 39 are strict maternal-effect mutations defining 17 genes. These 17 genes fall into two cla...