Mouse chondrocytes were allowed to differentiate from 11-day dissociated limb-bud mesenchymal cells cultured at high density. Over a period of 5 days in culture these cells differentiated from a culture containing a population of mesenchymal cells and myoblasts into one containing cartilage nodules. Chondrogenesis, as demonstrated by the sulfated proteoglycans (PGS) synthesized, was monitored q...

Retinoids (vitamin A derivatives) have been shown to have striking effects on developing and regenerating vertebrate limbs. In the developing chick limb, retinoic acid is a candidate morphogen that may coordinate the pattern of cellular differentiation along the anteroposterior limb axis. We describe a series of investigations of the metabolic pathway of retinoids in the chick limb bud system. ...

background: umbilical cord tissue is a very rich source of mesenchymal stem cells. instead of discarding this source we are banking the tissue along with cord blood for possible future cell based applications. the cord tissue needs to be transported and stored properly in order for it to be good enough for cell isolation at a later date. in this paper we have carried out a validation study to d...

Objectives: To explore the effects of cyclosporine (CsA) on skeletal development (chondro­ genesis). Anatomy Department, Shiraz Materials and Methods: Mesenchymal cells obtained from stage-23 to stage-24 chickUniversity of Medical embryo limb buds were grown in 96-well plates using chemically defined tissue-culture Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. medium. Cultures were treated with CsA (0.01–5.0 μg/ml) ...

Pattern formation along the proximal-distal (PD) axis in the developing limb bud serves as a good model for learning how cell fate and regionalization of domains, which are essential processes in morphogenesis during development, are specified by positional information. In the present study, detailed fate maps for the limb bud of the chick embryo were constructed in order to gain insights into ...

Among mammals, modern cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are unusual in the absence of hind limbs. However, cetacean embryos do initiate hind-limb bud development. In dolphins, the bud arrests and degenerates around the fifth gestational week. Initial limb outgrowth in amniotes is maintained by two signaling centers, the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) and the zone of polarizing activity...

Two problems are raised concerning the movement of cells during tissue-specific sorting-out of chick embryo cells in mixed aggregates. (i) A possible expectation from the hypothesis of 'contact inhibition' is that cells which are entirely surrounded by other cells in monolayer should be held stationary. Cells within solid aggregates, being totally surrounded by others, might also not be expecte...

Fgf-4, initially isolated as a transforming gene from human tumors, is a member of the Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) family. It has previously been shown by northern blot hybridization analysis to be expressed in teratocarcinoma and embryonic stem cells, suggesting that it plays a role in embryonic development. We have carried out an RNA in situ hybridization analysis of Fgf-4 expression in th...

Mammalian taste buds have properties of both epithelial and neuronal cells, and are thus developmentally intriguing. Taste buds differentiate at birth within epithelial appendages, termed taste papillae, which arise at mid-gestation as epithelial thickenings or placodes. However, the embryonic relationship between placodes, papillae and adult taste buds has not been defined. Here, using an indu...

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling mediates reciprocal mesenchymal-epithelial cell interactions in the developing mouse lung and limb. In the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, FGF10 is expressed in the cecal mesenchyme and signals to an epithelial splice form of FGF receptor (FGFR) 2 to regulate epithelial budding. Here, we identify FGF9 as a reciprocal epithelial-mesenchymal signal required f...