Fibroblast in Biological News

Pitt team finds molecule that regulates heart size by using zebrafish screening model

... gene for green fluorescent protein linked to a key signaling pathway of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), a family of proteins that are essential in ... cells and, ultimately, larger hearts, Dr. Tsang said. Unraveling the fibroblast growth factor pathway has broad implications for improving wound healing ...

Embryology study offers clues to birth defects

... mice and zebrafish, the team found that retinoic acid suppresses the gene fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) during the period when forelimb budding occurs, ... rescue fin development by treating such embryos with a drug that reduces fibroblast growth factor activity, thus supporting the hypothesis that retinoic acid ...

Heart attacks: The tipping point

... developed a mathematic model that shows when the proportion of structural fibroblast cells are at dangerous levels, at approximately 70% of the heart's volume. ... the electric coupling tiny electric signals between myocytes and fibroblast cells, he was able to paint a more accurate picture of a heart's health ...

New mechanical insights into wound healing and scar tissue formation

... out, like candy from a wrapper. Once the growth factor is available, the fibroblast expresses the contractile proteins, sticks more firmly to the matrix and ... therefore critical. This new understanding of the mechanical nature of fibroblast activation could be used to reduce or prevent fibrosis from occurring, ...

Reprogramming human cells without inserting genes

... OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG already in the skin cells by lowering the amount of atmospheric oxygen the cells were exposed to, and by adding a protein called fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) to the culture medium. (FGF2 is a naturally occurring protein that is known to be vital for maintaining the pluripotency of ...

Gene activity reveals dynamic stroma microenvironment in prostate cancer

... "DNA damage could be related to mutations in the stroma." The researchers also found changes in growth factor pathways, including those for fibroblast growth factor and transforming growth factor beta as well as pathways linked to the growth and maintenance of stem cells, said Ittmann. While ...

Findings show insulin -- not genes -- linked to obesity

... variability in fat storage is due to varied rates of insulin processing among cells." The cell culture used in the research contains cloned mice fibroblast cells. "This particular type of cell culture has been used to study the molecular control of obesity for the past 35 years," Cheng said. ...

UF scientist tapped by Howard Hughes Medical Institute to pursue 'best ideas'

... development. At University College London, he discovered that the embryonic master switch for limb formation was a multifunctional protein called fibroblast growth factor. The finding, published in the journal Cell, was later proven true for other animals, including people. After finding the trigger, ...

Christopher McCulloch receives the IADR Research in Oral Biology Award

... B.Sc., D.D.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto, and has more than 200 publications on topics including mechanisms that regulate the fibroblast cytoskeleton, collagen remodeling in the periodontium, and the responses of fibroblasts to inflammatory cytokines and mechanosensory signals. This ...

Mammals can be stimulated to regrow damaged inner retina nerve cells

... cells (a type of nerve cell found near the surface of the retina) and amacrine cells. Then by injecting the eye with epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) or a combination of FGF1 and insulin, they were able to stimulate the Mller glia cells to re-start their dividing engines and ...

Scripps research scientists identify compounds for stem-cell production from adult cells

... Sox2: BIX and BayK. For the first time, the new study showed that BIX, an inhibitor of enzymes involved in regulating gene expression, enables fibroblast cell reprogramming in the absence of Sox2 gene overexpression. However, by itself, BIX's reprogramming efficiency is relatively low. "As a ...

TGen and Washington University researchers discover new approach to treating endometrial cancer

... at Washington University. Pollock and colleagues in May 2007 announced that they had discovered previously unrecognized alterations in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) gene. The altered FGFR2 is present in the cancer cells of nearly 15 percent of women with endometrioid endometrial ...

Is hybridoma production about to take a quantum leap forward?

... comparison to the DI-based media: "an increase by an average of nearly 30% . The researchers then tested the proliferation rate of primary human fibroblast cells incubated either in NPD-based or DI-based media. Unlike the CHO cells, these are sensitive to cell density and were grown at two different ...

Simple recipe turns human skin cells into embryonic stem cell-like cells

... reprogramming, Yamanaka said. Last year, his team found that four factors, known as Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4, could lend differentiated fibroblast cells taken from embryonic or adult mice the pluripotency normally reserved for embryonic stem cells. Fibroblasts make up structural fibers found in ...

Pourquie Lab demonstrates role of growth factor in vertebrae formation

... The Stowers Institutes Pourqui Lab has demonstrated the role of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) in the embryonic process of somitogenesis, an event required for vertebrae formation, in a paper posted to the Web site of the ...

Key to zebrafish heart regeneration uncovered

... the blastema and the epicardium is controlled in part by proteins called fibroblast growth factors, which are involved in wound healing and embryonic development. "When we blocked signaling by fibroblast growth factors in our zebrafish model, we found that the regeneration gets ...

With few factors, adult cells take on character of embryonic stem cells

... demonstrated that pluripotent stem cells can be directly generated from fibroblast cultures by the addition of only a few defined factors," Yamanaka said. ... factors, known as Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4, could lend differentiated fibroblast cells taken from embryonic or adult mice the pluripotency normally ...

With few factors, adult cells take on character of embryonic stem cells

... demonstrated that pluripotent stem cells can be directly generated from fibroblast cultures by the addition of only a few defined factors," Yamanaka said. ... factors, known as Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4, could lend differentiated fibroblast cells taken from embryonic or adult mice the pluripotency normally ...

Einstein scientists discover how protein crucial for motion is synthesised at the right place in the cell

... Singer and Dr Stefan Huettelmaier, the research team focused on migrating fibroblast cells important in wound healing. To move towards a wound, these cells ... protein called ZBP1 binds to the messenger RNA and "escorts" it out of the fibroblast nucleus and into the cytoplasm. On reaching the cell's periphery, the ...

A novel method to measure circadian cycles

... varies between individuals. Unlike an individual's true rhythm, a fibroblast cell culture's rhythm does not vary with changes in light exposure or ... between the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the circadian rhythms of cultured fibroblast cells. Just how does this brain structure coordinate genetic imperatives ...

Researchers devise new technique for creating human stem cells

... In the studies published in Science , the researchers combined human fibroblast cells with human embryonic stem cells in the presence of a detergent-like ... the fused cells for two distinctive genetic markers present in the somatic fibroblast and stem cells. The researchers were also able to further confirmed that ...

Hormone helps mice 'hibernate,' survive starvation

... obesity and metabolic disorders, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The starvation-fighting effects of the hormone, called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), are described for the first time in a study appearing online today in Cell Metabolism. FGF21, triggered in starving ...

Targeting sugar on blood vessels may inhibit cancer growth

... in the tumor environment. An example would be developing small-molecule inhibitors of Ndst1. By affecting a broad array of molecules ?such as VEGF, fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, or others that impact angiogenesis in a variety of carcinomas ?this therapy could be used to inhibit ...

Keeping the body in sync -- The stability of cellular clocks

... How is it possible for all these cell-autonomous clocks to sustain accurate 24-hour rhythms in such a noisy environment? Using mouse fibroblast circadian bioluminescence recordings from the Schibler Lab at the University of Geneva, the researchers turned to dynamical systems theory and ...

Scientists unlock mystery of embryonic stem cell signaling pathway

... of Sciences. This discovery takes scientists another step closer to being able to grow embryonic stem cells without the “feeder layer?of mouse fibroblast cells that is essential for maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, says the study’s primary investigator, Michael Kahn, Ph.D., who was ...

Living view in animals shows how cells decide to make proteins

... enhancers. In the current study, Garcia-Blanco’s team sought to identify which silencers chop out an important segment of RNA in a gene called fibroblast growth receptor 2 (FGFR2). This gene plays a critical role in normal mouse and human development, and the order in which its RNA is assembled can ...

Vaccination with embryonic stem cells prevents lung cancer in mice

... (ESC) only, obtained from mouse blastocysts (very early, pre-implantation embryos). The other vaccine consisted of the ESCs combined with cultured fibroblast cells producing GM-CSF, a growth factor usually made by white blood cells and blood vessel-lining endothelial cells, which "supercharges" the immune ...

Embryonic patterning makes the feathers fly

... patterns are laid down in embryonic chickens. Feathers, or more properly feather buds, will appear on the skin of the developing embryo wherever fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is activated. The mystery has been how a pattern of activation was laid down by FGF. Speculation pointed to a downstream cellular ...

Hopkins researchers discover genetic switch that turns off an oxygen-poor cell's combustion engine

... this critical task. This starves the TCA cycle of acetyl CoA and shuts it down. The Hopkins researchers made their discovery using mouse embryo fibroblast (MEF) cells that were genetically altered to lack HIF-1. When the investigators exposed these so-called HIF-1 null MEFs to hypoxic conditions, the ...

Testes to incubate stem cells

... the ideal conditions and nutrients that will coax spermatogonial stem cells into becoming sperm. So far, they have found that growth factors GDNF and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) seem to be necessary to enhance cell growth. The team's next move is to transplant monkey and human cells into the mouse testes ...

Breakthrough for stem cell research

... the first hESC line produced in Australia and only the second one in the world, which does not use animals in any way. Our line grows on human fetal fibroblast feeder layer that does not require fetal calf serum," said UNSW Senior Lecturer, Dr Kuldip Sidhu, who was the lead scientist responsible for the ...

Researchers discover why melanoma is so malignant

... genes into normal human cells and then injecting the tumor cells underneath the skin of mice. Mice injected with breast cancer cells or with fibroblast (connective tissue) cancer cells developed tumors, but the tumors didn't spread. Those injected with melanoma cells immediately developed invasive ...

Stem cells bring fast direct improvement, without differentiation, in acute renal failure

... as well as iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase), and upregulation of anti-inflammatory and organ-protective interleukin-10, as well as bFGF (basic fibroblast growth factor), TGF-alpha (transforming growth factor alpha) and antiapoptotic Bc1-2," the paper added. Beneficial paracrine actions are elicited ...

'Underground' tunnels discovered as means for communication between immune system cells

... are additional cell types with these microscopic tunnel connections. Thus far, their studies suggest the tunnels do not exist between commonly used fibroblast and tumor cell lines. Interestingly, if not for a minor mishap while carrying out an experiment, the authors might not have discovered the ...

New complete muscle grown in the lab

... into aligned and elongated muscle fiber tubes and the endothelial cells organizing themselves in tubes nestled between the myoblasts. By adding fibroblast cells to the scaffold, the researchers were able to significantly boost the growth of the blood vessel network forming within the muscle tissue. ...

Vitamin A's paradoxical role in influencing symmetry during embryonic development revealed

... of the exterior of the trunk. Belmonte and his Salk colleagues evaluated other signaling pathways that also influence pattern formation -- Wnt, fibroblast growth factor and Notch -- and found that none of them was responsible for coordinating the antero-posterior and left-right axes. However, blocking ...

Embryonic Stem Cells Treated With Growth Factor Reverse Hemophilia In Mice: UNC Researchers

... Smithies received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, often called "America’s Nobel." In the study, ES cells were treated with fibroblast growth factor for seven days prior to injection. As expected, this resulted in ES cells differentiating into early endoderm like precursors, which ...

Scientists rid stem cell culture of key animal cells

... Xu and his team explored the molecular interactions within the stem cell growth medium. He discovered that, in certain conditions, a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) accomplishes the same critical role that feeder cells are thought to play: ensuring that the stem cells remain in their ...