Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
Cleft palate is among the most frequent human birth defects. A number of genes and encoded proteins have been shown to play a crucial role in the process of palatogenesis. The central role is attributed to the cytokine TGF-ß3 which is expressed in the medial edge epithelium, (MEE), covering the growing palatal shelves already prior to the fusion process. Gene targeted mice with a palatal cleft phenotype may be divided into factors acting upstream of TGFß-3 in regulating its gene expression or downstream in its signal transduction pathway. The fusion process itself gets explained either by a transition of the epithelial cells into mesenchymal cells (EMT.) or by programmed cell death (apoptosis) of the epithelial cells. No explanation could ever been given why the TGF-ß3 producing epithelial cells do not undergo differentiation or apoptosis prior to the contact of the two shelves. We screened the MEE for expression of known antagonists of TGFß-molecules and detected the gene coding for follistatin to be coexpressed with TGF-ß3. We can show that follistatin directly binds to TGFß3 and that it completely blocks TGF-ß3 induced EMT of an epithelial cell line in vitro. EMT of the cells was analyzed by microarray hybridization.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
SUBMITTER: Joachim Gruen
PROVIDER: E-TABM-395 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
Differentiation; research in biological diversity 20071120 4
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in normal embryonic development as well as in tumor progression and invasiveness. This process is also known to be a crucial step in palatogenesis during fusion of the bi-lateral palatal processes. Disruption of this step results in a cleft palate, which is among the most frequent birth defects in humans. A number of genes and encoded proteins have been shown to play a role in this developmental stage. The central role is attributed to the cyto ...[more]