Budget Amount *help |
¥20,020,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,620,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥4,810,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,110,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥5,460,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,260,000)
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Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Coronary vessels supply the oxygen and nutrients to the entire heart muscle. Early embryonic heart, however, is avascular. The development of coronary vessels depends on a recruitment of an extracardiac rudiment called the proepicardium (PE). The PE, a villous protrusion that forms on the coelomic surface of the liver, protrudes in the pericardial cavity to fuse to a beating heart and cover its entire surface, forming the epicardium. What regulates the PE fusion and how epicardial cells later contribute to coronary vascular development still remain unclear. Our experimental approaches using the avian model revealed that (a) contact-dependent tissue interactions, mediated by the Eph/ephrin signaling, promotes the PE fusion, and that (b) both the epicardial EMT and coronary vascular development is promoted by epicardial misimpression of vascular endothelial growth factor-A.
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