Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
This review considers the diversity observed during both the development and evolution of tooth replacement throughout the vertebrates in a phylogenetic framework from basal extant chondrichthyan fish and more derived teleost fish to mammals. We illustrate the conservation of the tooth regeneration process among vertebrate clades, where tooth regen...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Langerhans cells (LC), the skin epidermal contingent of dendritic cells (DC), possess an exceptional life cycle and developmental origin. LC, like all mature blood cells, develop from haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) through successive steps of lineage commitment and differentiation. However, LC development is different to that of other DC subsets a...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
HB-EGF is a member of the EGF family of ligands that is initially synthesized as a membrane-bound growth factor termed, proHB-EGF. The membrane bound proHB-EGF undergoes extensive proteolytic processing by several metalloproteinases capable of stimulating cellular proliferation. Soluble, mature HB-EGF binds to and activates EGF receptors. HB-EGF is...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Aneuploidy, described as an abnormal number of whole chromosomes or parts of them, has been observed in the majority of sporadic carcinomas, the most common type of cancer occurring in humans and derived from putative epithelial cells. However, the causal relationship between aneuploidy and tumorigenesis remains highly debated. On the one hand, ane...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
The key role of the p53 protein in tumor suppression is highlighted by its frequent mutation in human cancers and by the completely penetrant cancer predisposition of p53 null mice. Beyond providing definitive evidence for the critical function of p53 in tumor suppression, genetically engineered mouse models have offered numerous additional insight...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
The blood and lymphatic vasculatures are essential for nutrient delivery, gas exchange and fluid homeostasis in all tissues of higher vertebrates. They are composed of a hierarchical network of vessels, which are lined by vascular or lymphatic endothelial cells. For blood vascular lumen formation to occur, endothelial cell cords polarize creating a...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Langerhans cells (LCs) are the unique antigen-presenting cell of the epidermis. LCs have long been depicted in textbooks as the archetypical dendritic cell that alerts the immune system upon pathogen induced skin barrier breakage, however recent findings argue instead for a more tolerogenic function. While the LCs that populate the epidermis in ste...
Published in BMC Cancer
Backgroundp53 is an important tumour suppressor with a known role in the later stages of colorectal cancer, but its relevance to the early stages of neoplastic initiation remains somewhat unclear. Although p53-dependent regulation of Wnt signalling activity is known to occur, the importance of these regulatory mechanisms during the early stages of ...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Microtubules are dynamic polymers of tubulin subunits that underpin many essential cellular processes, such as cell division and migration. Spermatogenesis is the process by which spermatogenic stem cells undergo mitotic and meiotic division and differentiation to produce streamlined spermatozoa capable of motility and fertilization. This review su...
Published in Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Building the complex architecture of tubular organs is a highly dynamic process that involves cell migration, polarization, shape changes, adhesion to neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix, physicochemical characteristics of the extracellular matrix and reciprocal signaling with the mesenchyme. Understanding these processes in vivo has bee...
