Programmed capillary regression is essential for development, but little is known about the mechanism behind this phenomenon. In this study, we characterized the molecular determinants of capillary regression utilizing the pupillary membrane (PM) in the newborn rat's eye. We observed in the 1-day-culture system that apoptotic endothelial cells decrease in number with the addition of a natural a...

The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus), a freshwater teleost fish, is an excellent vertebrate model organism to study tooth development, specifically the spatiotemporal events related to the development of the oral and pharyngeal dentitions. In contrast to the coordinated early tooth development in the premaxilla and mandible, the maxillary teeth develop much later in life at 60 dpf. By analysi...

The patterning of the CNS relies on the interaction of multiple signaling molecules such as Sonic Hedgehog, Wnts, and BMPs and their antagonists Chordin and Noggin. The identification of the secreted molecule Tiarin (Tsuda et al., 2002, this issue of Neuron), produced by the nonneural ectoderm at border of the anterior and lateral neural plate, now introduces a novel signaling pathway participa...

Epithelial appendages, such as mammary glands and hair, arise as a result of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are important for hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling and are known to regulate a wide variety of developmental processes. For example, overexpression of BMPs inhibits hair follicle formation. We hypothesized that the down-regulation of the BMP...

Vertebrate eye formation begins in the anterior neural plate in the eye field. Seven eye field transcription factors (EFTFs) are expressed in eye field cells and when expressed together are sufficient to generate retina from pluripotent cells. The EFTF Tbx3 can regulate the expression of some EFTFs; however, its role in retina formation is unknown. Here, we show that Tbx3 represses bmp4 transcr...

Members of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family play diverse roles in multiple developmental processes. However, in the mouse, mutations in many BMPs, BMP receptors and signaling components result in early embryonic lethality making it difficult to analyze the role of these factors during organogenesis or tissue homeostasis in the adult. To bypass this early lethality, we used an organ c...

Epithelial cell rests of Malassez (ERM) are involved in the maintenance and homeostasis of the periodontal ligament. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of mechanical stretching on cell growth, cell death and differentiation in the ERM. Cultured porcine ERM were stretched for 24 hr in cycles of 18% elongation for 1 sec followed by 1 sec relaxation. The numbers of cells and...

Human prostate cancer has a high predisposition to metastasize to bone, resulting in the formation of osteoblastic metastases. The mechanism through which prostate cancer cells promote osteoblastic lesions is undefined. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been implicated as a mediator of osteoblast activity. In the present study, we examined if prostate cancer cells promote osteoblast...

The purpose of this investigation is to identify and study the expression pattern of pertinent molecular factors involved in the differentiation of the intervertebral disk (IVD). It is likely that hedgehog genes and the BMP inhibitors are key factors involved in spinal joint formation. Radioactive in situ hybridization with mRNA probes for pax-1, SHH, IHH and Noggin gene was performed on mouse ...