The success of early embryonic development depends on oocyte nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation. We have investigated whether glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) affects the in vitro maturation (IVM) of porcine oocytes and their subsequent ability to sustain preimplantation embryo development. GDNF and both its coreceptors, GDNF family receptor alpha-1 (GFR alpha-1) and the rearr...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE The age at menarche reflects a pubertal girl's physiologic maturity. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between the age at menarche and skeletal maturation in female orthodontic patients. METHODS Hand-wrist radiographs and lateral cephalometric radiographs from 304 adolescent female subjects (age, 8-18.9 years) were selected from the files of the Depar...

Completion of lagging strand DNA synthesis requires processing of up to 50 million Okazaki fragments per cell cycle in mammalian cells. Even in yeast, the Okazaki fragment maturation happens approximately a million times during a single round of DNA replication. Therefore, efficient processing of Okazaki fragments is vital for DNA replication and cell proliferation. During this process, primase...

UNLABELLED Newborn neurons enter an extended maturation stage, during which they acquire excitability characteristics crucial for development of presynaptic and postsynaptic connectivity. In contrast to earlier specification programs, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms that control neuronal maturation. The Pet-1 ETS (E26 transformation-specific) factor is continuously expressed in ...

The aim of this review is to summarize the interactions between the oocyte and its surrounding granulosa cells which are involved in the control of oocyte growth or apoptosis as well as those playing a key role in the ability of the oocyte to undergo nuclear (resumption as meiosis to reach the MII stage) or cytoplasmic maturation (ability to fertilize and develop to the blastocyst stage). The r...

The enamel matrix proteins (amelogenin, enamelin and ameloblastin) are degraded by matrix metalloproteinase-20 and kallikrein-4 during enamel development and mature enamel is virtually protein free. The precise mechanism of removal and degradation of the enamel protein cleavage products from the matrix, however, remains poorly understood. It has been proposed that receptor-mediated endocytosis ...

BACKGROUND Ras dexamethasone-induced protein (RASD1) is a member of Ras superfamily of small GTPases. RASD1 regulates various signaling pathways involved in iron homeostasis, growth hormone secretion, and circadian rhythm. However, RASD1 function in oocyte remains unknown. METHODS Using immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and quantitative real-time RT-PCR, RASD1 expression in mouse ovar...

BACKGROUND MicroRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA molecules critical for regulating cellular function, and are abundant in the maturing oocyte and developing embryo. MiRNA-21 (MIR21) has been shown to elicit posttranscriptional gene regulation in several tissues associated with rapid cell proliferation in addition to demonstrating anti-apoptotic features through interactions with PDCD4 mRNA ...

Autologous T cells were genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) directed toward carboxy-anhydrase-IX (CAIX) and used to treat patients with CAIX-positive metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In this study, we questioned whether the T cell maturation stage in the pre-infusion product affected CAIX CAR expression and function in vitro as well as in vivo CAR T cell numbers an...

From December 1995 to November 2000, the seasonal maturation of Glypthelmins vitellinophilum Dobbin, 1958, in its definitive host, the frog Lysapsus limellus Cope, 1862, was studied in a subtropical permanent pond in northeastern Argentina. The objectives of this study were: 1) to determine the infrapopulation dynamics of the parasite, analyzing the seasonal maturation cycle throughout the year...