• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.801-806
• /
• 2008

A classical technique to study somitic cell fate is to employ the cross-transplantation of quail somites into a chick host. The densely stained nucleoli of the quail cells makes it possible to assess the fate of the donor quail cells in the chick host. Classical somite transplantation techniques have been hampered by the necessity of a small opening in the chick eggshell, difficulty in hatching the offspring and interspecies post-hatch graft rejection. With the advent of transgenic chicken technology, it is now possible to use embryos from transgenic chickens expressing reporter genes in somite cross-transplantation techniques to remove any possibility of interspecies graft rejection. This report describes using a surrogate eggshell system in conjunction with transgenic chick:chick somitic cell cross-transplantation to generate viable chimeric embryos and offspring. Greater than 40% of manipulated embryos survive past 10 days of incubation, and ~80% of embryos successfully cultured past 10 days of incubation hatched to produce viable offspring.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.5-5
• /
• 2001

This lecture will begin by tracing some of the history behind techniques that we nowadays take for granted in the practice of embryo transfer, and in the application of the technique to various animal biotechnologies. It will be argued that an appreciation of such history can teach us a great deal about how we need to study and teach the subject, and about the best ways to conduct and finance the research that is essential to further progress. Examples in support of this argument will be taken from the changes that have occurred in the way embryos, particularly bovine embryos, have been collected, maintained in vitro, subjected to a variety of manipulations (sexing, division to produce identical animals, combination into chimeras, transfection with foreign genes), frozen and thawed, and transferred over the past 50 years. (omitted)

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.43.1-43.11
• /
• 2020

Capicua (CIC) is a transcriptional repressor that regulates several developmental processes. CIC deficiency results in lymphoproliferative autoimmunity accompanied by expansion of CD44^hiCD62L^lo effector/memory and follicular Th cell populations. Deletion of Cic alleles in hematopoietic stem cells (Vav1-Cre-mediated knockout of Cic) causes more severe autoimmunity than that caused by the knockout of Cic in CD4⁺CD8⁺ double positive thymocytes (Cd4-Cre-mediated knockout of Cic). In this study, we compared splenic CD4⁺ T cell activation and proliferation between whole immune cell-specific Cic-null (Cic^f/f;Vav1-Cre) and T cell-specific Cic-null (Cic^f/f;Cd4-Cre) mice. Hyperactivation and hyperproliferation of CD4⁺ T cells were more apparent in Cic^f/f;Vav1-Cre mice than in Cic^f/f;Cd4-Cre mice. Cic^f/f;Vav1-Cre CD4⁺ T cells more rapidly proliferated and secreted larger amounts of IL-2 upon TCR stimulation than did Cic^f/f;Cd4-Cre CD4⁺ T cells, while the TCR stimulation-induced activation of the TCR signaling cascade and calcium flux were comparable between them. Mixed wild-type and Cic^f/f;Vav1-Cre bone marrow chimeras also exhibited more apparent hyperactivation and hyperproliferation of Cic-deficient CD4⁺ T cells than did mixed wild-type and Cic^f/f;Cd4-Cre bone marrow chimeras. Taken together, our data demonstrate that CIC deficiency at the beginning of T cell development endows peripheral CD4⁺ T cells with enhanced T cell activation and proliferative capability.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2004

Transplantation would be the only way to cure the end-stage organ failure involving heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas. The replacement of the parts of the body damaged to lose its function or lost to trauma must be a dream of human-being. Human history is replete with chimeras, from sphinxes to mermaids, making one wonder if the ancients might actually have dreamed of what now is called 'xenotransplantation'. In the 20th century, the transplantation of organs and tissues to cure disease has become a clinical reality. The development in the fields of surgical techniques, physiology and immunology attributed to the successful transplantation in human. In the center of the successful transplantation lies the progress in understanding the cellular and molecular biology of immune system which led to the development of immunosuppressive drugs and the invention of the concept of immunological tolerance. The mandatory side effects of immunosuppressive drugs including infection and cancer forced us to search alternative approaches along with the development of new immunosuppressive agents. Among the alternative approaches, the induction of a state of immunologic tolerance would be the most promising and the most generic applicability as a future therapy. Recent reports documenting long-term graft survival without immunosuppression suggest that tolerance-based therapies may become a clinical reality. Last year, we saw the epoch making success of overcoming hyperacute rejection in porcine to primate xenotransplantation which will lead porcine to human xenotransplantation to clinical reality. In this review, I dare to summarize the development of transplantation immunology from the perspective of history.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.390-395
• /
• 2015

The synthesis of chimeras is a breeding approach for horticultural crops. In our breeding program, a new diploid citrus chimera, named 'Hongrou Taoye' (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck + Citrus unshiu Marc.), was found arising at the junction where a 'Taoye' sweet orange (C. sinensis) scion was grafted onto Satsuma mandarin (C. unshiu). As an artificial chimera, its fruit traits derived from the L1 cell layer, with juice color and carotenoid complement, in which ${\beta}$-cryptoxanthin accumulated predominantly, similar to those of Satsuma mandarin. By contrast, traits originating from the L2/L3 cell layer, including pollen, seed, and rind aroma characteristics, were the same as those of 'Taoye' sweet orange (the scion). SSR and cpSSR analyses showed that both nuclear and chloroplast genomes of the chimera were a combination of both donor parents. 'Hongrou Taoye' thus combined the valuable traits of both donor plants, and therefore has good potential in citrus fresh market.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.246-255
• /
• 2005

Retroviral integrases insert viral DNA into target DNA. In this process they recognize their own DNA specifically via functional domains. In order to analyze these functional domains, we constructed six chimeric integrases by swapping domains between HIV-1 and HFV integrases, and two point mutants of HFV integrase. Chimeric integrases with the central domain of HIV-1 integrase had strand transfer and disintegration activities, in agreement with the idea that the central domain determines viral DNA specificity and has catalytic activity. On the other hand, chimeric integrases with the central domain of HFV integrase did not have any enzymatic activity apart from FFH that had weak disintegration activity, suggesting that the central domain of HFV integrase was defective catalytically or structurally. However, these inactive chimeras were efficiently complemented by the point mutants (D164A and E200A) of HFV integrase, indicating that the central domain of HFV integrase possesses potential enzymatic activity but is not able to recognize viral or target DNA without the help of its homologous N-terminal and C-terminal domains.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.557-562
• /
• 1995

In this study, characteristics of chick primordial germ cells (PGCs), which is the founder cell of the germline, and gonadal development of the chick embryo between 12hrs and 6 day of incubation were investigated by transverse serial sections of chick embryos under the light microscopic observation. In embryo stage 20 (3 day of incubation), there are a lot of PGCs at the mesenchym, which were moving to the thickened epithelium (gonadal ridge). The PGCs arrive at both right and left gonad primordial in equal number prior to stage 24 (4 day of incubation), but in the following stages, the distribution of the PGCs became asymmetrical. More PGCs colonized the left than the right gonad, but the reason for the unequal distribution of PGCs is uncertain. The PGCs have mostly settled in the gonadal ridge (GR) at 6 day embryo. This study was conducted to investigate characteristics of the PGC migration and gonadal formation and observe the best condition for PGC isolation, culture and to attempt the possibility of the production for transgenic germline chimeras with manipulated PGCs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
• /
• 1999.11a
• /
• pp.11-33
• /
• 1999

This study was conducted to determine the embryonic stages for the isolation of the highest number of PGCs and to improve PGCs enrichment method. The primordial germ cells(PGCs) from different sources of chick embryos were isolated. The embryonic stage having the highest number of PGCs from each sources was selected ; 1-day-old embryos for germinal crescent (stage 6-8), 2.5-day-old embryos for blood (stage 17-18) and 5.5-day-old embryos for gonad (stage 27-28). The number of PGCs from one embryonic germinal crescent, blood and gonad was about 87$\pm$1.8, 103$\pm$4.0, and 932$\pm$10.9, respectively. The viability of PGCs after Ficoll from each sources was similar, showing approximately 70%. the PGCs enrichment method was improved using Ficoll density gradient centrifugation. After this step the purity of PGCs from germinal crescent, blood, and gonad was 45$\pm$9.10%, 85$\pm$1.18%, and 86$\pm$0.19%, respectively. Also, PGCs were picked up by mouth pipette to improve the purity. This improved method for the separation of PGCs from different sources will serve as a useful too to preserve the foundation stocks of poultry and to produce germline chimeras.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 2007.04a
• /
• pp.25-44
• /
• 2007

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is an intracellular protein that is widely distributed throughout hippocampal and neocortical brain tissue. Mifepristone (RU486) is a potent GR antagonist that has also been shown to exhibit partial agonist-like effects. The precise location of the GR domain involved in the agonist-like activity of RU486 is unknown. Here, we examine this aspect of GR signaling by comparing human GR (hGR) construct with a Guyanese squirrel monkey GR (gsmGR) construct in which nuclear translocation and transactivation are known to be impaired. Using an objective translocation scoring method, we found that both hGR and gsmGR are translocated by RU486, and that nuclear translocation of hGR is significantly increased compared to gsmGR at 10 nM, 100 nM and 1000 nM RU486 in transiently transfected COS1 cells. While addition of RU486 to the cells transfected with hGR results in a 16-fold dose-dependent increase in transactivation compared to non-treated cells, no significant change in transactivation is observed with gsmGR at doses up to 100 nM RU486. Further experiments using six GR chimeras indicate that replacement of the hGR carboxyl-terminus of tau-1 transactivation domain (C-AF1, amino acids 132-428) with that from gsmGR diminishes hGR transactivation by RU486. These results demonstrate that RU486-induced transactivation of GR is determined in part by amino acids in the C-AF1 domain.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.105-110
• /
• 2003

Ankyrins are a ubiquitously expressed family of intracellular adaptor proteins involved in targeting diverse proteins to specialized membrane domains in both the plasma membrane and the endoplasmic reticulum. Canonical ankyrins are 190-220 kDa proteins expressed in most tissues and cell types and comprise a membrane-binding domain (MBD) of 24 ANK repeats, a spectrin-binding domain, a death domain and a C-terminal domain. Rescue studies with ankyrin-B/G chimeras have identified the C-terminal domain of ankyrin-B as the defining domain in specifying ankyrin-B activity, but the function of C-terminal domain of ankyrin-B is, however, not known. We report here that the C-terminal domain of ankyrin-B is capable of interacting with the C-terminal Region of Hsp40. The Hsps are induced not only by heat shock but also by various other environmental stresses. Hsps are also expressed constitutively at normal growth temperatures and have basic and indispensable functions in the life cycle of proteins as molecular chaperones, as well as playing a role in protecting cells from the deleterious stresses. The binding sites required in the interaction between C-terminal domain of ankyrin-B and C-terminal region of Hsp40 were characterized using the yeast two-hybrid system and GST-pull down assay. The interaction between ankyrin-B and Hsp40 represents the first direct evidence of ankyrin's role as chaperones.