The embryos of some rodents and primates can precede early development without the process of fertilization; however, they cease to develop after implantation because of restricted expressions of imprinting genes. Asexually developed embryos are classified into parthenote/gynogenote and androgenote by their genomic origins. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) derived from asexual origins have also been...

teratomas are rare germline tumors that originate from one or more embryonic germ cell layers. teratoma of the kidney is extremely rare, and less than 30 cases of primary intrarenal teratomas have been published to date. we report the main radiologic features of an unusual case of mature cystic teratoma arising from the left kidney in a two-year-old boy. a left-sided abdominal mass was detected...

rived from totipotent cells of the embryo and therefore, can serve as a putative source of numerous types of differentiated cells. Of the various ES cell lines, murine (mES) cells have been investigated extensively and were shown to be genuinely pluripotent, being able to differentiate into all embryonic cell types (1,2). The multipotency of embryonic stem cells is evident from three main featu...

Human embryonic stem (hES) cells can differentiate in vitro, forming embryoid bodies (EBs) composed of derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers. Spontaneously contracting outgrowths from these EBs contain cardiomyocytes (CMs); however, the types of human CMs and their functional properties are unknown. This study characterizes the contractions and action potentials (APs) from beating EB o...

All of the cerebral cortex has some degree of laminar organization. These different layers are composed of neurons with distinct connectivity patterns, embryonic origins, and molecular profiles. There are little data on the laminar specificity of cognitive functions in the frontal cortex, however. We recorded neuronal spiking/local field potentials (LFPs) using laminar probes in the frontal cor...

During gastrulation, distinct lineage specification into three germ layers, the mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm, occurs through an elaborate harmony between signaling molecules along the embryonic proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes, and Nodal signaling plays a key role in the early embryonic development governing embryonic axis formation, mesoderm and endoderm specification, and left-ri...

The bi-functional enzyme UDP-N-acetyl-2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase (GNE) is the key enzyme of the sialic acid biosynthesis. Sialic acids are negatively charged nine carbon amino sugars and are found on most glycoproteins and many glycolipids in terminal positions, where they are involved in a variety of biological important molecular interactions. Inactivation of the GNE by homologous...