2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Functional analysis of the intrinsic factors regulating diversity of neural crest cells and disease.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	18590387
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Experimental pathology
Research Institution	Aichi Medical University
Principal Investigator	IWASHITA Toshihide Aichi Medical University, Medicine, Associate professor (00283432)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KUROKAWA Kei Aichi medical University, Medicine, Research Associate (90399030)
Project Period (FY)	2006 – 2007
Keywords	Neural crest / Stem cells
Research Abstract	We have postulated that Hox proteins were candidate for the intrinsic factors that make difference between vagal neural crest and trunk neural crest. To understand the molecular mechanism of the neural crest differentiation by Hox protein, Hox genes were over-expressed in the migrating neural crest. Especially, we focused on the function of HoxB8 that was predominantly expressed by vagal neural crest. HoxB8 and GFP were over-expressed in the migrating chicken vagal neural crest derived from posterior hindbrain using ovo-electroporation technique. The neural crest expressing HoxB8 and GFP protein was also stained by anti-HNK1 antibody that specifically recognized neural crest. Interestingly, Ret, a receptor of glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor and played an important role on migration of vagal neural crest to gut, was much suppressed in the neural crest expressing HoxB8.

(3 results)