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Basic fibroblast growth factor activates MEK/ERK cell signaling pathway and stimulates the proliferation of chicken primordial germ cells.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Long-term maintenance of avian primordial germ cells (PGCs) in vitro has tremendous potential because it can be used to deepen our understanding of the biology of PGCs. A transgenic bioreactor based on the unique migration of PGCs toward the recipients' sex cord via the bloodstream and thereby creating a germline chimeric bird has many potential applications. However, the growth factors and the signaling pathway essential for inducing proliferation of chicken PGCs are unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the effects of various combinations of growth factors on the survival and proliferation of PGCs under feeder-free conditions. We observed proliferation of PGCs in media containing bFGF. Subsequent characterization confirmed that the cultured PGCs maintained expression of PGC-specific markers, telomerase activity, normal migrational activity, and germline transmission. We also found that bFGF activates the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular-signal regulated kinase (MEK/ERK) signaling. Also, the expression of 133 transcripts was reversibly altered by bFGF withdrawal. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results demonstrate that chicken PGCs can be maintained in vitro without any differentiation or dedifferentiation in feeder free culture conditions, and subsequent analysis revealed that bFGF is one of the key factors that enable proliferation of chicken PGCs via MEK/ERK signaling regulating downstream genes that may be important for PGC proliferation and survival.

SUBMITTER: Choi JW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2944891 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Basic fibroblast growth factor activates MEK/ERK cell signaling pathway and stimulates the proliferation of chicken primordial germ cells.

Choi Jin Won JW Kim Sujung S Kim Tae Min TM Kim Young Min YM Seo Hee Won HW Park Tae Sub TS Jeong Jae-Wook JW Song Gwonhwa G Han Jae Yong JY

PloS one 20100923 9

<h4>Background</h4>Long-term maintenance of avian primordial germ cells (PGCs) in vitro has tremendous potential because it can be used to deepen our understanding of the biology of PGCs. A transgenic bioreactor based on the unique migration of PGCs toward the recipients' sex cord via the bloodstream and thereby creating a germline chimeric bird has many potential applications. However, the growth factors and the signaling pathway essential for inducing proliferation of chicken PGCs are unknown. ...[more]

PMID: 20886037

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Project description:Eyal-Giladi and Kochav stage X (EGK.X) blastoderm mostly consists undifferentiated progenitor (pluripotent) cells that have the potency to differentiate into all cell types. Analyzing the transcriptional programs of blastoderm is critical to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the developmental fate of early embryos, and practical application of blastoderm-derived pluripotent cells, including ESC. Primordial germ cells (PGC) are also undifferentiated progenitor cells that later differentiate into male and female germ cells. Analyzing the transcriptional programs of PGC is critical to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the developmental fate of early germ cells, and practical application of PGC in generating transgenic chickens. Therefore, we performed whole-transcriptome sequencing (WTS) in the chicken EGK.X blastoderm and PGCs together with the chicken embryonic fibroblasts (CEF, as a reference sample). CEF are differentiated and an abundant somatic cells. The generated WTS data of CEF, EGK.X blastoderm and PGC are rich resources to utilize for various focused research. As a first focused research, we utilized the generated WTS data for analyzing the expression profiling of DNA repair and apoptosis pathway genes in EGK.X blastoderm and PGC compared with CEF. DNA is the fundamental unit of inheritance and is susceptible to damage by various exogenous and endogenous sources. When the DNA is damaged, the cell sense the nature of damage through multiple surveillance mechanisms and select an appropriate DNA repair pathway to repair the damage and avoid passing the damage to a progeny of cells. When the cell fails to repair DNA damage, cell cycle progression is halted and apoptosis is initiated. Despite several genes are involved in five major DNA repair pathways and two major apoptosis pathways, a comprehensive understanding on the expression of those genes are not well-understood in chicken tissues. Through WTS analysis in CEF, stage X blastoderm and PGC, we identified that most of the DNA repair pathway genes were expressed more high in blastoderm and high in PGC than CEF. At the other hand, most of the apoptosis pathway genes were expressed low in blastoderm and PGC than CEF.

Dataset Information

Basic fibroblast growth factor activates MEK/ERK cell signaling pathway and stimulates the proliferation of chicken primordial germ cells.

Publications

Basic fibroblast growth factor activates MEK/ERK cell signaling pathway and stimulates the proliferation of chicken primordial germ cells.

Similar Datasets

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