The initiation and morphogenesis of cutaneous appendages depend on a series of reciprocal signaling events between the epithelium and mesenchyme of the embryonic skin. In the development of feather germs, early dermal signals induce the formation of epidermal placodes that in turn signal the mesoderm to form dermal condensations immediately beneath them. We find a spatially and temporally restr...

Four well-defined heparan sulfate (HS) block copolymers containing S-domains (high sulfo group content) placed adjacent to N-domains (low sulfo group content) were chemoenzymatically synthesized and characterized. The domain lengths in these HS block co-polymers were ~40 saccharide units. Microtiter 96-well and three-dimensional cell-based microarray assays utilizing murine immortalized bone ma...

BACKGROUND One of the main challenges in skin flap surgery is tissue ischemia and following necrosis. The present study compares the effects of fibroblast growth factors 1 and 2 on increasing cutaneous vasculature, improving ischemia, and preventing distal necrosis in ischemic skin flaps in rat model. METHODS Thirty rats were allocated into 3 groups (n=10) and 2×8 cm dorsal random-pattern ski...

BACKGROUND: this study was designed to characterize some of the biochemical and molecular genetic changes during reversion of human fat cells. METHODS: mature adipocytes were isolated from greater omental fat tissue of eight lean and 14 massively obese persons by established methodology. RESULTS: at day 7 of adherence to Leighton tubes, there was appreciable depletion of triacylglycerol, as wel...

Dysregulated expression of basic fibroblast growth factor [fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2)] mediates autocrine growth of melanoma cells. The presence of a consensus Myb binding site in the human FGF-2 promoter prompted us to investigate whether this transcription factor could regulate FGF-2 expression in melanomas. We report that c-MYB mRNA is overexpressed in melanoma cell lines compared to...

BACKGROUND Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) promotes vascular repair and angiogenesis and can induce in vitro tissue factor (TF), a potent agent initiating thrombogenesis, which probably plays a role in angiogenesis. We investigated whether bFGF administration induced TF expression by monocytes and vascular cells. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied TF expression in normally fed (n=16) and ch...

The differentiation of precursor cells into neurons has been shown to be influenced by both the Notch signaling pathway and growth factor stimulation. In this study, the regulation of neuronal differentiation by these mechanisms was examined in the embryonic day 10 neuroepithelial precursor (NEP) population. By downregulating Notch1 expression and by the addition of a Delta1 fusion protein (Del...

Neonatal rats exposed to 95% oxygen (O2) for 7 days from birth had inhibited lung growth, DNA synthesis, and secondary septation. These parameters were rapidly restored by a period of recovery in air. Northern and Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry were used to screen for the fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 (FGF-R1) and its high affinity ligand, basic fibroblast growth factor (b...

Neurotrophic effects of CS23, a mutein of human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and recombinant human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) were compared in dissociated cerebellar cultures from embryonic (E20) and early postnatal (P0-5) rats. Both CS23 and hEGF promoted the survival of cerebellar neurons without distinction of ages of animals used. The maximum effects of CS23 were always larger...

We have studied the molecular specification of precursor cells in expanded neurosphere cultures derived from distinct subregions of the embryonic mouse telencephalon. These regionally derived cultures exhibited differential responses to the mitogens EGF and bFGF, suggesting that the precursors in these cultures were differentially specified as is the case in situ. To examine this further, cultu...