Transcriptional and signaling networks establish complex cross-regulatory interactions that drive cellular differentiation during development. Using microarrays we identified the gene encoding the ligand Wnt9a as a candidate target of Neurogenin3, a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor that functions as a master regulator of pancreatic endocrine differentiation. Here we show that Wnt9a i...

Investigators from the Institute of Neurology, London, UK, and centers in Italy, Germany, and Greece, studied 18 unrelated cases of benign hereditary chorea BHC (7 familial, 11 sporadic) who were negative for NKX2-1 mutations.

BACKGROUND NKX2-5 is a transcriptional factor, which plays an important role in heart formation and development. Two genetic variants in the coding region of NKX2-5, 63A>G (rs2277923) and 606G>C (rs3729753), have been investigated in the risk of congenital heart disease (CHD), although with inconsistent results. Thus, a meta-analysis was performed to clarify the associations between the two var...

RATIONALE Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can differentiate into multiple cell types, including cardiomyocytes and have tremendous potential for drug discovery and regenerative therapies. However, it is unknown how much variability exists between differentiated lineages from independent iPS cell lines and, specifically, how similar iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CMs) are to embryonic...

Defects in neurogenesis alter brain circuit formations and may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Histone H2A.z, a variant of histone H2A, plays critical roles in chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation, but its function and mechanism in brain development remain largely unknown. Here, we find that the deletion of H2A.z results in enhanced proliferation ...

To examine a role for focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in cardiac morphogenesis, we generated a line of mice with a conditional deletion of FAK in nkx2-5-expressing cells (herein termed FAKnk mice). FAKnk mice died shortly after birth, likely resulting from a profound subaortic ventricular septal defect and associated malalignment of the outflow tract. Additional less penetrant phenotypes included p...

The heart is the first organ to form in mammals. Cardiogenic lineages originate from paired regions of anterior lateral mesoderm, the cardiac crescent, soon after gastrulation and develop into parallel cardiac primordia that fuse to form the primitive heart tube along the ventral midline of the embryo. Subsequent events of looping, chamber maturation and alignment with the vasculature give rise...

The subpallium comprises large parts of the basal ganglia including striatum and globus pallidus. Genes and factors involved in the development of the subpallium have been extensively studied in most vertebrates, including amphibians, birds, and rodents. However, our knowledge on patterning of the human subpallium remains insufficient. Using double fluorescent immunohistochemistry, we investiga...

We used high-resolution array analysis to discover a recurrent lung cancer amplicon located at 14q13.3. Low-level gain of this region was detected in 15% of lung cancer samples, and high-level amplification was detected in an additional 4% of samples. High-level focal amplification appears to be specific to lung cancers, because it was not detected in >500 samples of other tumor types. Mapping ...

Class II histone deacetylases (HDAC4, HDAC5, HDAC7 and HDAC9) have been shown to interact with myocyte enhancer factors 2 (MEF2s) and play an important role in the repression of cardiac hypertrophy. We examined the role of HDACs during the differentiation of P19 embryonic carcinoma stem cells into cardiomyocytes. Treatment of aggregated P19 cells with the HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A induced t...