Early mammalian development is characterized by extensive changes in nuclear functions that result from epigenetic modifications of the newly formed embryonic genome. While the first embryonic cells are totipotent, this status spans only a few cell cycles. At the blastocyst stage, the embryo already contains differentiated trophectoderm cells and pluripotent inner cell mass cells. Concomitantly...

immediate early step in PrE specification. We show that the fraction cells present with in this state is influenced by factors that both promote and suppress primitive PrE differentiation, however conditions that support ES cell self-renewal prevent their progression into endoderm differentiation and support an equilibrium between this state and at least one other that resembles the inner cell ...

Microcins are gene-encoded antibacterial peptides of low molecular mass (<10 kDa), produced by Enterobactericeae. They are produced and secreted under conditions of limited essential nutrients and are active against related species. Bacterial strains under starvation conditions can produce and release microcins that can kill microcin-sensitive cells and therefore have more nutrients for surviva...

The inside-outside model has been invoked to explain cell-fate specification of the pre-implantation mammalian embryo. Here, we investigate whether cell-cell interaction can influence the fate specification of embryonic blastomeres by sequentially separating the blastomeres in two-cell stage mouse embryos and continuing separation after each cell division throughout pre-implantation development...

stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide (through mitosis) to produce more stem cells. they are found in multicellular organisms. in mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. in ad...

Early development of the mouse comprises a sequence of cell fate decisions in which cells are guided along a pathway of restricted potential and increasing specialisation. The first choice faced by cells of the embryo is whether to become trophectoderm (TE) or inner cell mass (ICM); TE is an extra-embryonic tissue which will form the embryonic portion of the placenta, whilst ICM gives rise to c...

Because embryonic stem (ES) cells are generally derived by the culture of inner cell mass (ICM) cells, they are often assumed to be the equivalent of ICM cells. However, various evidence indicates that ICM cells transition to a different cell type during ES-cell derivation. Historically, ES cells have been believed to most closely resemble pluripotent primitive ectoderm cells derived directly f...

BACKGROUND The selection of blastocyst warmed for transfer is based on pre-freeze morphology in vitrified-warmed single blastocyst transfer cycles. But, it is controversial which parameter of blastocyst morphology most closely related to the clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect of blastocoele expansion, trophectoderm (TE) morphology grade, and inner cell mass (ICM) morphology g...

In order to increase the efficiency of the conveyance of the granular solids, a new experimental set-up is designed. The test rig has longitudinal trapezoidal slots in its conveying pipes. Through experimentation, a correlation for friction factor in terms of solid mass flow rate, fluid flow rate and Froude number is presented. It is shown that the mixture friction factor for pipes with inn...