A drop in egg production associated with loss of pigment and soft-shelled eggs was experienced on a farm in the Western Cape. Investigations revealed high levels of antibodies against adenovirus 127, the causative agent of egg drop syndrome (EDS) in chickens which were not vaccinated against EDS. A cytopathic agent was subsequently isolated in chicken embryo liver cell cultures and identified a...

Silymarin is having antioxidant and membrane stabilizing property and acts as a defensive material in different toxic forms of liver diseases like liver cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease. Pullulan is a good water soluble neutral linear polysaccharide consisting of α-1,6 linked maltotriose residues. It is broadly used as a food additive and is considered to be safe for human use. In the present...

Toxicity of cypermethrin insecticide was evaluated in the liver of 16-day old chick embryo following administration of a single sub-lethal dose of cypermethrin into the eggs on day ‘0’ of incubation. The biochemical analysis of the liver revealed that the activities of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase were significantly increased. The activities of ...

During the early stages of development, the embryo depends on the placenta as provider of oxygen and calcium, among other essential compounds. Although fetal liver accomplishes a well-known haematopoietic function, its contribution to calcium homeostasis upon development is poorly understood. The homeostasis of cell calcium contributes to diverse signaling pathways across developmental stages o...

Tuberous sclerosis (TSC) is a autosomal dominant genetic disorder caused by mutations in either TSC1 or TSC2, and characterized by benign hamartoma growth. We developed a murine model of Tsc1 disease by gene targeting. Tsc1 null embryos die at mid-gestation from a failure of liver development. Tsc1 heterozygotes develop kidney cystadenomas and liver hemangiomas at high frequency, but the incide...

Mouse liver induction occurs via the acquisition of ventral endoderm competence to respond to inductive signals from adjacent mesoderm, followed by hepatic specification. Little is known about the regulatory circuit involved in these processes. Through the analysis of vHnf1 (Hnf1b)-deficient embryos, generated by tetraploid embryo complementation, we demonstrate that lack of vHNF1 leads to defe...

B-lineage-committed cells are believed to arise in the liver of mouse embryos at 14 days after coitus (dpc). However, pre-B-specific gene transcripts and DJH gene rearrangements have been detected in earlier, midgestation embryos. We describe here a population of c-kit(+)AA4.1(+)CD19(+)Pax5(+) cells present in the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) area and in the livers of 11-dpc mouse embryos. In ...

Activating transcription factor (ATF) 4 is a ubiquitous basic leucine-zipper transcription factor that is a member of the ATF/cyclic adenosine monophosphate responsive element-binding (CREB) protein family. To determine the in vivo function of ATF4, the ATF4 gene in murine embryonic stem cells was deleted and homozygous mutant mice were generated. ATF4 null fetuses were severely anemic because ...