The separation of the optic neuroepithelium into future retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a critical event in early eye development in vertebrates. Here we show in mice that the transcription factor PAX6, well-known for its retina-promoting activity, also plays a crucial role in early pigment epithelium development. This role is seen, however, only in a background genetically sensi...

To examine whether hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α mediates the profibrotic effects of angiotensin II, we treated cultured renal medullary interstitial cells with angiotensin II and found that it increased HIF-1α levels. This was accompanied by a significant upregulation of collagen I/III, the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1, elevation of the proliferation marker proliferating cell nu...

Emerging evidence has demonstrated transdifferentiation process of glioma stem cells (GSCs) into endothelial cells (ECs) in glioma neovascularization. Herein, we focused on screening for genes that were differentially expressed in the transdifferentiation process using microarray analysis. Bioinformatics analysis revealed differential expression of the prolyl 4-hydroxylase subunit alpha-1 (P4HA...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have suggested the differentiation of human endothelial progenitor cells (huEPCs) isolated from peripheral blood into cardiomyocytes. This study investigates whether, when cocultured, neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) can induce transdifferentiation of huEPCs into cardiomyocytes. METHODS AND RESULTS Coculture experiments with 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethyli...

Severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by complex precapillary arteriolar lesions, which contain phenotypically altered smooth muscle (SM) and endothelial cells (EC). We have demonstrated that VEGF receptor blockade by SU5416 {3-[(2,4-dimethylpyrrol-5-yl)methylidenyl]-indolin 2-one} in combination with chronic hypoxia causes severe angioproliferative PH associated with arterial occ...

UNLABELLED Transdifferentiation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) to a myofibroblast-like phenotype is the pivotal event in liver fibrosis. The dramatic change in phenotype associated with transdifferentiation is underpinned by a global change in gene expression. Orchestrated changes in gene expression take place at the level of chromatin packaging which is regulated by enzymatic activity of epi...

Only few examples of transdifferentiation, which denotes the conversion of one differentiated cell type to another, are known to occur during normal development, and more often, it is associated with regeneration processes. With respect to muscles, dedifferentiation/redifferentiation processes have been documented during post-traumatic muscle regeneration in blastema of newts as well as during ...

Castration-resistant prostate cancers (CRPCs) that relapse after androgen deprivation therapies (ADTs) are responsible for the majority of mortalities from prostate cancer (PCa). While mechanisms enabling recurrent activity of androgen receptor (AR) are certainly involved in the development of CRPC, there may be factors that contribute to the process including acquired neuroendocrine (NE) cell-...

Previous studies of the human neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-SH had demonstrated the presence of and phenotypic interconversion (transdifferentiation) between two morphologically and biochemically distinct cell types: N (neuroblastic) cells with properties of noradrenergic neurons and S (substrate-adherent) cells with properties of melanocytes. Current studies have sought to test the generality o...

Pdx1 has been shown to convert hepatocytes into both exocrine and endocrine pancreatic cells in mice, but it fails to selectively convert hepatocytes into pure insulin-producing cells (IPCs). The molecular mechanisms underlying the transdifferentiation remain unclear. In this study, we generated a stably transfected rat hepatic cell line named WB-1 that expresses an active form of Pdx1 along wi...