Perhaps the most astonishing stage of pregnancy is that
of the embryonic development as your unborn child goes from being the size of a sesame seed and looking like a tadpole to being the size of a kidney bean with some neck definition and tiny webbed fingers and toes.
Not exact matches
As specialized cells are generated during
embryonic development, they are programmed to use only a limited amount
of the total genetic information present in the nucleus to produce the proteins required for their particular function.
Embryonic stem cells are produced during
development by the same process
of epigenetic programming that later will produce adult cells such
as skin and brain.
This process
of restricting the use
of genetic information during
embryonic development is known
as epigenetic programming» programming that is not part
of the DNA code itself but imposed on that code during
embryonic development.
This complex society may be said to begin with conception, or with a late stage
of embryonic development, or with early childhood, depending upon the purpose which determines what one takes
as its defining characteristic.
Animals such
as salamanders and planaria regenerate tissues by rekindling genetic mechanisms that guide the patterning
of body structures during
embryonic development.
Manuel Eguren has analysed the biological consequences
of Cdh1 elimination in rapidly dividing cells,
as part
of his doctoral research project in Malumbres's group; he focused on progenitors from the nervous system during
embryonic development in mice.
Salk scientists and colleagues have proposed new molecular criteria for judging just how close any line
of laboratory - generated stem cells comes to mimicking
embryonic cells seen in the very earliest stages
of human
development, known
as naïve stem cells.
Cell migration is highly coordinated and occurs in processes such
as embryonic development, wound healing, the formation
of new blood vessels, and tumour cell invasion.
The zebrafish is used
as a model organism for research into the
embryonic development of vertebrates.
The ability
of a fertilized egg to generate both
embryonic and extra-
embryonic tissues is referred to
as «totipotency,» an ultimate stem cell state seen only during the earliest stages
of embryonic development.
The next step, he says, is to investigate how
embryonic mouse brains with induced folds develop
as they mature past the fetal stages
of development and to look across species to see if the gene has similar effects in other mammals.
Other potential uses
of embryonic stem cells include investigation
of early human
development, study
of genetic disease and
as in vitro systems for toxicology testing.
However, malformation
of skeletal bones during embryogenesis also occurs in FOP patients and illustrates that the underlying genetic mutation occurs in a gene with functional importance in regulating chondro - osseous differentiation during
embryonic skeletal
development as well
as in adult musculoskeletal tissues.
Neural crest cells are a type
of stem cell; during vertebrate
embryonic development, they eventually differentiate into specialized cells such
as those that make facial skeleton cells or those that create pigment cells.
«The ability to generate pure populations
of these cell types is very important for any kind
of clinically important regenerative medicine,» said Loh, «
as well
as to develop a basic road map
of human
embryonic development.
In parallel, the roles
of symmetric and asymmetric cell divisions are investigated
as a mechanism for governing stem cell self - renewal and differentiation during
embryonic development and in the adult.
The gene, known
as gata5, acts in
embryonic cells, which are primordial, unspecialized cells that form in the earliest stage
of embryonic development and are genetically programmed to evolve into one
of many specialized cell types, such
as skeletal muscle cells, nerve cells, blood cells, skin cells, and liver cells.
The grand architecture
of the human cortex, with its hundreds
of distinct cell types, begins
as a uniform layer
of neural stem cells and builds itself from the inside out during several months
of embryonic development.
They discovered that extra chromosome 21 - a genetic state known
as trisomy 21 - disturbs a key regulating gene called NRSF or REST, which in turn disturbs the cascade
of other genes that control normal
development at the
embryonic stem cell stage.
Since the in vitro reprogramming systems are characterised by very low efficiency Petra's lab focuses on the systems where epigenetic reprogramming occurs naturally
as a part
of normal
embryonic development.
«The current extension
of induced pluripotency to human cells is a major
development and although it is early days for this technique it may well prove to be every bit
as signifcant
as the first derivation
of human
embryonic stem cells nine years ago.
As one example, using insights from
embryonic development, Jessell has been able to convert
embryonic stem cells into functioning motor neurons, facilitating the discovery
of medicines to treat such diseases.
They found that groups
of genes appear to work together in heart cells in a coordinated fashion — switching on and off
as a group at designated times during
embryonic development.
Integrating this new information into computational models, my colleagues and I predicted that about 5 percent
of HARs function
as noncoding RNAs, while most are enhancers that control gene expression during
embryonic development.9
Thus, all research on lines
of human
embryonic stem cells
as the cells
of various phenotypes derived from these lines should aim to lexploration mechanisms or the
development and validation
of therapeutic applicable to serious diseases.
The challenge takes on even more urgency with recent
developments, including a federal administration now more open to exploring the potential
of stem cells, the recent FDA approval
of a human trial involving
embryonic stem cells,
as well
as the reported case
of a young boy who developed a brain tumor four years after receiving a stem - cell treatment for a rare genetic disorder.
These images show human
embryonic stem cell colonies,
as grown in 1998 by researchers at the University
of Wisconsin — Madison, in different stages
of development.
We show that DONSON is expressed in progenitor cells
of embryonic human brain and other proliferating tissues, is co-expressed with components
of the DNA replication machinery, and that Donson is essential for early
embryonic development in mice
as well, suggesting an essential conserved role for DONSON in the cell cycle.
For example, clusters containing genes that are upregulated during the course
of ES cell differentiation (Table 3) include in order
of time
of expression: cluster 30 that represents genes which take part in the formation
of the three
embryonic germ layers during gastrulation, i.e., Goosecoid, Cerberus like 1 homolog, Wnt3, Mesp1, Mixl1, mEomes and Even - skipped 1; cluster 15 containing molecular regulators
of early mesoderm
development including Bmp2, Bmp5, Msx1, Msx2, Cripto, Tbx20, Hey2, Smad6, Vegfr2 (Kdr), Foxf1 and Hand1; cluster 20, which comprises regulatory and structural genes linked to hemopoiesis such
as Gata1, Nfe2, Klf1, Tie1, hemoglobins (Hba - x, Hbb - b1) and Glycophorin A; cluster 12, which is rich in genes involved in cardiac
development, e.g., Mef2c, Myl4, cardiac Troponin T2, Tropomodulin 1, myosin binding protein C, Bves, Angiopoietin 1 and Angiopoietin 2; and, cluster 4, which consists mostly
of genes associated with neuronal
development and differentiation, for example, Neurog1, Neurog2, Olig2, Nkx6.1, Neurod4, Pou3f2, Pou3f4, Cacna2d3, Cacng4, Kcnq2 and EphA5.
Thus, the ability to measure DNAme in single cells has the potential to make important contributions to the understanding
of several key biological processes, such
as embryonic development, disease progression and aging.
The study could provide clues to the genetic code that controls the expression
of genes, and may also further our understanding
of embryonic development and diseases such
as cancer.
However, the disrupted
embryonic and fetal
development of cattle clones produced by SCNT has been used
as a model to elucidate the mechanisms
of embryo loss, the maternal recognition
of pregnancy (13, 14), and placental
development (15 ⇓ — 17).
Such work yields unique mechanistic insight by directly illustrating the complex spatial - temporal dynamics
of fundamental cellular processes such
as mitosis, morphogenesis, polarization,
embryonic development, membrane trafficking and cytoskeleton dynamics.