The physiological roles of the protease inhibitor SERPINB3 (SB3) are still largely unknown. The study was addressed to assess the biological effects of this serpin in vivo using a SB3 transgenic mouse model. Two colonies of mice (123 transgenic for SB3 and 148 C57BL/6J controls) have been studied. Transgenic (TG) mice showed longer survival than controls and the difference was more remarkable i...

Little is known about stem cells in organisms at the beginning of evolution. To characterize the regulatory events that control stem cells in the basal metazoan Hydra, we have generated transgenics which express eGFP selectively in the interstitial stem cell lineage. Using them we visualized stem cell and precursor migration in real-time in the context of the native environment. We demonstrate ...

In order to maintain organs and structures at their appropriate sizes, multicellular organisms orchestrate cell proliferation and post-mitotic cell expansion during morphogenesis. Recent studies using Arabidopsis leaves have shown that compensation, which is defined as post-mitotic cell expansion induced by a decrease in the number of cells during lateral organ development, is one example of su...