Topic Review
Central Nervous System in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous, behaviorally defined, neurodevelopmental disorder that has been modeled as a brain-based disease.
  • 4.1K
  • 20 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Neural Tube Defects
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the second most common congenital malformations of humans, characterized by impaired development of the central nervous system. Even though the etiology of most birth defects remains undetermined, genetic and environmental risk factors in the background of NTDs have been identified and extensively reported.
  • 1.9K
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a technique for generating embryos with genomic information identical to that of donor cells. SCNT has presented various insights into the process of de-differentiation by cellular reprogramming.  Now authors are focusing on the challenge of understanding the potential of pluripotent stem cells and the safe use. Moreover, stem cells from livestock have provided many potential to the academic field as well as medical and industrial applications.
  • 1.6K
  • 12 May 2021
Topic Review
The Mitotic Spindle
During cell division, the mitotic spindle, a macromolecular structure primarily comprised of microtubules, drives chromosome alignment and partitioning between daughter cells. Mitotic spindles can sense cellular dimensions in order to adapt their length and mass to cell size.
  • 1.5K
  • 29 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Embryonic Development
In developmental biology, embryonic development, also known as embryogenesis, is the development of an animal or plant embryo. Embryonic development starts with the fertilization of an egg cell (ovum) by a sperm cell, (spermatozoon). Once fertilized, the ovum becomes a single diploid cell known as a zygote. The zygote undergoes mitotic divisions with no significant growth (a process known as cleavage) and cellular differentiation, leading to development of a multicellular embryo after passing through an organizational checkpoint during mid-embryogenesis. In mammals, the term refers chiefly to the early stages of prenatal development, whereas the terms fetus and fetal development describe later stages.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Nail Mini-Organ Stem Cells
Nails are highly keratinized skin appendages that exhibit continuous growth under physiological conditions and full regeneration upon removal. These mini-organs are maintained by two autonomous populations of skin stem cells. The fast-cycling, highly proliferative stem cells of the nail matrix (nail stem cells (NSCs)) predominantly replenish the nail plate. Furthermore, the slow-cycling population of the nail proximal fold (nail proximal fold stem cells (NPFSCs)) displays bifunctional properties by contributing to the peri-nail epidermis under the normal homeostasis and the nail structure upon injury. Here, we discuss nail mini-organ stem cells’ location and their role in skin and nail homeostasis and regeneration, emphasizing their importance to orchestrate the whole digit tip regeneration. Such endogenous regeneration capabilities are observed in rodents and primates. However, they are limited to the region adjacent to the nail’s proximal area, indicating the crucial role of nail mini-organ stem cells in digit restoration.
  • 1.2K
  • 04 May 2021
Topic Review
YAP/TAZ Activation in Head and Neck Cancer
The Hippo signaling pathway, originally discovered as a mechanism regulating tissue growth and organ size, transduces intracellular and extracellular signals to regulate the transcriptional co-activators YAP and TAZ. Alterations in the Hippo pathway resulting in persistent YAP and TAZ activation have emerged as major oncogenic drivers. The researchers' analysis of the human Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) oncogenome revealed multiple genomic alterations impairing Hippo signaling and activating YAP and TAZ, which in turn contribute to HNSCC development. This includes mutations and deletions of the FAT1 gene (29%) and amplification of the WWTR1 (encoding TAZ, 14%) and YAP1 genes (8%), together representing one of the most genetically altered signaling mechanisms in this malignancy. 
  • 1.2K
  • 11 May 2022
Topic Review
Y Chromosome Evolution and Functional Specialization
The Y chromosome is one of the sex chromosomes found in males of animals of different taxa, including insects and mammals. Among all chromosomes, the Y chromosome is characterized by a unique chromatin landscape undergoing dynamic evolutionary change. Being entirely heterochromatic, the Y chromosome as a rule preserves few functional genes, but is enriched in tandem repeats and transposons. Due to difficulties in the assembly of the highly repetitive Y chromosome sequence, deep analyses of Y chromosome evolution, structure, and functions are limited to a few species, one of them being Drosophila melanogaster. Here researchers survey comparative evolutionary history of the fly and human Y chromosomes, and functions of Y-linked piRNA clusters ensuring sex-specific piRNA silencing. 
  • 996
  • 09 May 2022
Topic Review
Cell Cycle Regulation in Pluripotent Stem Cells
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) hold great promise in cell-based therapy because of their pluripotent property and the ability to proliferate indefinitely. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) derived from inner cell mass (ICM) possess unique cell cycle control with shortened G1 phase. In addition, ESCs have high expression of homologous recombination (HR)-related proteins, which repair double-strand breaks (DSBs) through HR or the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway.
  • 960
  • 17 Nov 2021
Topic Review
DNA Repair Pathways in Folate Deficiency and NTDs
DNA repair pathways are essential for ensuring normal DNA synthesis, genomic stability, and integrity, which are required for a multitude of cellular processes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, cell cycle, apoptosis, and the development of tissues and organs. Defects or inappropriateness in DNA repair pathways are associated with detrimental health effects, including birth defects, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. DNA repair genes are over-expressed at the early stages of normal embryonic development in order to reduce possible replication errors and genotoxic damage. The occurrence of NTDs may be related to the abnormality or deletion of various DNA repair pathways. Due to the link between folate deficiency and NER not being particularly evident, the progress of DNA repair pathways (BER, MMR, DSBR) and NTDs with folate deficiency was reviewed here.
  • 925
  • 16 Mar 2023
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