This study was performed to evaluate the effects of fibroblast co-culture on in vitro maturation (IVM) of prepubertal mouse preantral follicles. The intact preantral follicles were obtained from the ovaries of 12-14 day old mice and these were cultured individually in α-minimal essential medium (α-MEM) supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 mIU/Ml recombinant follicle stimulating ho...

Microinjection of small noncoding RNAs in one-cell embryos was reported in several instances to result in transcriptional activation of target genes. To determine the molecular mechanisms involved and to explore whether such epigenetic regulations could play a role in early development, we used a cell culture system as close as possible to the embryonic state. We report efficient cardiac differ...

Somatic cell reprogramming has generated enormous interest after the first report by Yamanaka and his coworkers in 2006 on the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from mouse fibroblasts. Here we report the generation of stable iPSCs from mouse fibroblasts by recombinant protein transduction (Klf4, Oct4, Sox2, and c-Myc), a procedure designed to circumvent the risks caused by in...

The Arp2/3 complex nucleates the formation of the dendritic actin network at the leading edge of motile cells, but it is still unclear if the Arp2/3 complex plays a critical role in lamellipodia protrusion and cell motility. Here, we differentiated motile fibroblast cells from isogenic mouse embryonic stem cells with or without disruption of the ARPC3 gene, which encodes the p21 subunit of the ...

BACKGROUND Autocrine & paracrine signaling are widespread both in vivo and in vitro, and are particularly important in embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency and lineage commitment. Although autocrine signaling via fibroblast growth factor-4 (FGF4) is known to be required in mouse ESC (mESC) neuroectodermal specification, the question of whether FGF4 autocrine signaling is sufficient, or whethe...

Rationale: Fibroblast growth factor homologous factors (FHFs), a subfamily of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) that are incapable of functioning as growth factors, are intracellular modulators of Na channels and have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Although certain FHFs have been found in embryonic heart, they have not been reported in adult heart, and they have not been shown to reg...

Intercellular communication via gap junctions is thought to play an important role in embryonic cell survival and differentiation. Classical studies demonstrated both dye and electrical coupling of cells in the inner cell mass of mouse embryos, as well as the development of restrictions against coupling between cells of the inner cell mass and surrounding trophectoderm. Here we demonstrate exte...

The MED1/TRAP220 subunit of the Mediator plays a key role in facilitating ligand-dependent interactions of this multisubunit coactivator complex with nuclear receptors through their ligand binding domains. The isolated MED1/TRAP220 protein previously was shown to interact with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in a ligand-dependent manner. However, the functional role of MED1/TRAP220, within the con...

objective: human basic fibroblast growth factor (bfgf) plays an important role in cellular proliferation, embryonic development, and angiogenesis as well as in several signaling pathways of various cell types. bfgf is an essential growth factor for the maintenance of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hescs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hipscs). materials and methods: in ...