The digestive organs comprise the endodermal epithelium and mesenchyme derived from the splanchnic mesoderm. For morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation of these organs, epithelial-mesenchymal interactions are essential (Le Douarin, 1975; Wessels, 1977; Haffen et al., 1987; Yasugi and Mizuno, 1990; Yasugi, 1993). We have been studying the mechanisms of differentiation of the proventricular epithe...

Myxomas are the most common type of primary benign cardiac tumor in adults, with an incidence about 0.2 % population at autopsy. develop from multipotent mesenchyme and usually undifferentiated, pedunculated atrial mass attached to a fossa ovale on left side septum. Frequent asymptomatic course disease complicates timely diagnosis treatment. The presented clinical observation demonstrates accid...

Radial patterning in the urinary tract and gut depends on reciprocal signaling between epithelial cells, which form mucosa, and mesenchyme, which forms smooth muscle and connective tissue. These interactions depend on sonic hedgehog (Shh), which is secreted by epithelial cells and induces expression of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (Bmp4), a signaling molecule required for differentiation of smo...

Inductive interactions between gut endoderm and the underlying mesenchyme pattern the developing digestive tract into regions with specific morphology and functions. The molecular mechanisms behind these interactions are largely unknown. Expression of the conserved homeobox gene Barx1 is restricted to the stomach mesenchyme during gut organogenesis. Using recombinant tissue cultures, we show th...

Mouse salivary epithelium cannot undergo branching morphogenesis in the absence of the surrounding mesenchyme. To clarify the nature of the mesenchymal influence on the epithelium, we have investigated the culture conditions in which the epithelium could normally branch in the absence of mesenchymal cells. Combination of basement-membrane-like substratum (Matrigel) and epidermal growth factor (...

During kidney development and in response to inductive signals, the metanephric mesenchyme aggregates, becomes polarized, and generates much of the epithelia of the nephron. As such, the metanephric mesenchyme is a renal progenitor cell population that must be replenished as epithelial derivatives are continuously generated. The molecular mechanisms that maintain the undifferentiated state of t...

Loss of Foxc1 is associated with Dandy-Walker malformation, the most common human cerebellar malformation characterized by cerebellar hypoplasia and an enlarged posterior fossa and fourth ventricle. Although expressed in the mouse posterior fossa mesenchyme, loss of Foxc1 non-autonomously induces a rapid and devastating decrease in embryonic cerebellar ventricular zone radial glial proliferatio...

Mf1 encodes a forkhead/winged helix transcription factor expressed in many embryonic tissues, including prechondrogenic mesenchyme, periocular mesenchyme, meninges, endothelial cells, and kidney. Homozygous null Mf1lacZ mice die at birth with hydrocephalus, eye defects, and multiple skeletal abnormalities identical to those of the classical mutant, congenital hydrocephalus. We show that congeni...

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) leads to structural and functional changes in the peritoneal membrane, endpoint of which is fibrosis. fibrosis diagnosed 50% 80% PD patients within 1 2 years treatment initiation, respectively. A key role development played by mesothelial-mesenchymal transformation, a complex biological process transition from mesothelium mesenchyme. This review summarizes current knowl...