Proper regulation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) is crucial for sustaining steady-state spermatogenesis. Previous work has identified several paracrine factors involved in this regulation, in particular, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor and fibroblast growth factor 2, which promote long-term SSC self-renewal. Using a SSC culture system, we have recently reported that Wnt5a promo...

Female sex determination in the germ line of Drosophila melanogaster is regulated by genes functioning in the soma as well as genes that function within the germ line. Genes known or suspected to be involved in germ-line sex determination in Drosophila melanogaster have been examined to determine if they are required upstream or downstream of Sex-lethal+, a known germ-line sex determination gen...

Soma-germline interactions play conserved essential roles in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, patterning and homeostasis in the gonad. In the Drosophila testis, secreted signalling molecules of the JAK-STAT, Hedgehog, BMP and EGF pathways are used to mediate soma-germline communication. Here, we demonstrate that gap junctions may also mediate direct, bi-directional signalling bet...

The formation of mature spermatozoa is one of the most essential functions in life. A concerted sequence of events is needed to proliferate, maintain and mature germ cells starting with spermatogonial stem cells and culminating in mature gametes. Apart from the genetic background, this process requires highly organized tissue in which the complex process of spermatogenesis is strongly regulated...

The Hippo pathway regulates organ size, stem cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in adult organs. Whether the Hippo pathway influences establishment of stem cell niche size to accommodate changes in organ size, however, has received little attention. Here, we ask whether Hippo signaling influences the number of stem cell niches that are established during development of the Drosophila larval o...

one of the major complications in cancer chemotherapy is the development of resistance, and cisplatin, as one of the important medicines in treatment regimens of different cancers is not excluded. one of the most described cellular defense mechanisms involved in resistance is glutathione (gsh) and in this study, the effects of cisplatin on the total intracellular gsh level (gshi) in some sensit...

1 Rustin GJS. Tumour markers in germ cell tumours. BrMedJ 1986;292:7134. 2 Lucraft HH. A review of thirty-three cases of ovarian dysgerminoma emphasising the role of radiotherapy. Clin Radiol 1979;30:585-9. 3 Gordon A, Lipton D, Woodruff JD. Dysgerminoma: a review of 158 cases from the Emil Novak Ovarian Tumor Regstry. Obstet Gynecol 1981;58:497-504. 4 Slayton RE, Park RC, Silverberg SG, Shingl...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is usually considered a cell-autonomous suicide program, synonymous with apoptosis. Recent research has revealed that PCD is complex, with at least a dozen cell death modalities. Here, we demonstrate that the large-scale nonapoptotic developmental PCD in the Drosophila ovary occurs by an alternative cell death program where the surrounding follicle cells nonautonomou...