| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KAGAWA Tetsushi Kumamoto University, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Associate Professor, 発生医学研究センター, 助教授 (50270484)
NOBUHISA Ikuo Kumamoto University, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Assistant Professor, 発生医学研究センター, 講師 (40332879)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥15,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥7,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,100,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥8,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,500,000)
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| Research Abstract |
(1)We have previously shown that BMPs inhibit neurogenesis while inducing astrogliogenesis. In this study, functional recovery of recipient mice with spinal cord injury was observed when neural stem cells expressing noggin, a BMP inhibitor, were transplanted.
(2)Olig2 is an essential transcription factor for oligodendrocyte lineage specification and is expressed predominantly in ventral neuroepithelial cells in the medial and lateral ganglionic eminence (GE), where oligodendrocyte progenitors originate. In this study, we show significant induction of Olig2 expression in dorsal neuroepithelium-derived cells cultured in the presence of bFGF. We also show that bFGF endows these cells with the ability to differentiate into oligodendrocytes.
(3)In this study, we show that many cancer cell lines contain a small side population (SP), which, in many normal tissues, is thought to contain stem cells of the tissue. We propose that cancer cell lines contain a minor subpopulation of stem cells that is enriched in an SP, can be maintained indefinitely in culture, and is crucial for their malignancy.
(4)We here show that bFGF and Wnt3a cooperate together to induce cyclin D1 in neural stem cells, which leads to enhanced cell cycle progression and attenuation of astrogliogenesis of these cells.
(5)The aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region is a primary source of definitive hamotopoietic cells in the midgestation mouse embryo. In this study, we performed characterization of hematopoietic cells that emerge in the AGM culture. Based on the expression profile of CD45 and c-Kit examined by flow cytometry, we defined three cell populations : CD45^<low> c-Kit^+ (population 1), CD45^<low> c-Kit^- (population 2), and CD45^<high> c-Kit^<low/-> (population 3) cells. From in vitro colony-forming assays and in vivo transplantation experiments, we conclude that the CD45^<low> c-Kit^+ cells produced in the AGM culture have the potential to reconstitute multi-lineage hematopoietic cells.
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