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Developmental Cell Sep 2022Three-dimensional mammary epithelial acini are a model for understanding how microenvironment-driven signaling coordinates cell behavior and tissue morphogenesis. In...
Three-dimensional mammary epithelial acini are a model for understanding how microenvironment-driven signaling coordinates cell behavior and tissue morphogenesis. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Ender et al. use live-cell imaging to capture dynamic spatiotemporal patterns of ERK activity that instruct cell migration and survival fates in developing acini.
Topics: Acinar Cells; Cell Movement; Epithelial Cells; Morphogenesis; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 36167056
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.09.001 -
Development (Cambridge, England) Jan 2023The vertebrate eye is shaped as a cup, a conformation that optimizes vision and is acquired early in development through a process known as optic cup morphogenesis.... (Review)
Review
The vertebrate eye is shaped as a cup, a conformation that optimizes vision and is acquired early in development through a process known as optic cup morphogenesis. Imaging living, transparent teleost embryos and mammalian stem cell-derived organoids has provided insights into the rearrangements that eye progenitors undergo to adopt such a shape. Molecular and pharmacological interference with these rearrangements has further identified the underlying molecular machineries and the physical forces involved in this morphogenetic process. In this Review, we summarize the resulting scenarios and proposed models that include common and species-specific events. We further discuss how these studies and those in environmentally adapted blind species may shed light on human inborn eye malformations that result from failures in optic cup morphogenesis, including microphthalmia, anophthalmia and coloboma.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Eye; Embryonic Development; Coloboma; Organogenesis; Morphogenesis; Retina; Mammals
PubMed: 36714981
DOI: 10.1242/dev.200399 -
Cell Adhesion & Migration Nov 2016The tooth, like many other organs, develops from both epithelial and mesenchymal tissues, and has proven to be a valuable tool with which to investigate organ formation... (Review)
Review
The tooth, like many other organs, develops from both epithelial and mesenchymal tissues, and has proven to be a valuable tool with which to investigate organ formation and peripheral innervation. Tooth formation is regulated by local epithelial-mesenchymal tissue interactions, and is closely integrated with stereotypic dental nerve navigation and patterning. Recent analyses of the function and regulation of semaphorin 3A (SEMA3A) have shed light on the regulatory mechanisms that coordinate organogenesis and innervation at the tissue and molecular levels. In the tooth, SEM3A acts as a developmentally regulated secretory chemo-repellent, that controls tooth innervation during embryonic and postnatal development. The tooth germ governs its own innervation by a combination of local tissue interactions and SEMA3A expression. SEMA3A signaling, in turn, is controlled by a number of conserved signaling effectors, including TGF-β superfamily members, FGF, and WNT; all function in embryo and organ development, and are essential for tooth histo-morphogenesis. Thus, SEMA3A driven axon guidance is integrated into key odontogenic signaling networks, establishing this protein as a critical molecular tether between 2 distinct developmental processes (morphogenesis and sensory innervation), both of which are required to obtain a functional tooth.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Models, Biological; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis; Semaphorin-3A; Signal Transduction; Tooth
PubMed: 27715429
DOI: 10.1080/19336918.2016.1216746 -
Current Osteoporosis Reports Feb 2015Synovial joint morphogenesis occurs through the condensation of mesenchymal cells into a non-cartilaginous region known as the interzone and the specification of... (Review)
Review
Synovial joint morphogenesis occurs through the condensation of mesenchymal cells into a non-cartilaginous region known as the interzone and the specification of progenitor cells that commit to the articular fate. Although several signaling molecules are expressed by the interzone, the mechanism is poorly understood. For treatments of cartilage injuries, it is critical to discover the presence of joint progenitor cells in adult tissues and their expression gene pattern. Potential stem cell niches have been found in different joint regions, such as the surface zone of articular cartilage, synovium, and groove of Ranvier. Inherited joint malformations as well as joint-degenerating conditions are often associated with other skeletal defects and may be seen as the failure of morphogenic factors to establish the correct microenvironment in cartilage and bone. Therefore, exploring how joints form can help us understand how cartilage and bone are damaged and develop drugs to reactivate this developing mechanism.
Topics: Homeostasis; Humans; Joints; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis
PubMed: 25431159
DOI: 10.1007/s11914-014-0247-7 -
Current Opinion in Genetics &... Jun 2015Each of the steps of respiratory system development relies on intricate interactions and coordinated development of the lung epithelium and mesenchyme. In the past, more... (Review)
Review
Each of the steps of respiratory system development relies on intricate interactions and coordinated development of the lung epithelium and mesenchyme. In the past, more attention has been paid to the epithelium than the mesenchyme. The mesenchyme is a source of specification and morphogenetic signals as well as a host of surprisingly complex cell lineages that are crucial for normal lung development and function. This review highlights recent research focusing on the mesenchyme that has revealed genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of its development in the context of other cell layers during respiratory lineage specification, branching morphogenesis, epithelial differentiation, lineage distinction, vascular development, and alveolar maturation.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Cell Lineage; Epigenesis, Genetic; Humans; Lung; Mesoderm; Mice; Models, Biological; Morphogenesis; Respiratory Mucosa
PubMed: 25796078
DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2015.01.011 -
Cells, Tissues, Organs 2018Oxygen is a vital source of energy necessary to sustain and complete embryonic development. Not only is oxygen the driving force for many cellular functions and... (Review)
Review
Oxygen is a vital source of energy necessary to sustain and complete embryonic development. Not only is oxygen the driving force for many cellular functions and metabolism, but it is also involved in regulating stem cell fate, morphogenesis, and organogenesis. Low oxygen levels are the naturally preferred microenvironment for most processes during early development and mainly drive proliferation. Later on, more oxygen and also nutrients are needed for organogenesis and morphogenesis. Therefore, it is critical to maintain oxygen levels within a narrow range as required during development. Modulating oxygen tensions is performed via oxygen homeostasis mainly through the function of hypoxia-inducible factors. Through the function of these factors, oxygen levels are sensed and regulated in different tissues, starting from their embryonic state to adult development. To be able to mimic this process in a tissue engineering setting, it is important to understand the role and levels of oxygen in each developmental stage, from embryonic stem cell differentiation to organogenesis and morphogenesis. Taking lessons from native tissue microenvironments, researchers have explored approaches to control oxygen tensions such as hemoglobin-based, perfluorocarbon-based, and oxygen-generating biomaterials, within synthetic tissue engineering scaffolds and organoids, with the aim of overcoming insufficient or nonuniform oxygen levels and nutrient supply.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Cell Hypoxia; Embryonic Development; Embryonic Stem Cells; Humans; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis; Oxygen; Tissue Engineering
PubMed: 30273927
DOI: 10.1159/000493162 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Sep 2018Smooth muscle is increasingly recognized as a key mechanical sculptor of epithelia during embryonic development. Smooth muscle is a mesenchymal tissue that surrounds the... (Review)
Review
Smooth muscle is increasingly recognized as a key mechanical sculptor of epithelia during embryonic development. Smooth muscle is a mesenchymal tissue that surrounds the epithelia of organs including the gut, blood vessels, lungs, bladder, ureter, uterus, oviduct and epididymis. Smooth muscle is stiffer than its adjacent epithelium and often serves its morphogenetic function by physically constraining the growth of a proliferating epithelial layer. This constraint leads to mechanical instabilities and epithelial morphogenesis through buckling. Smooth muscle stiffness alone, without smooth muscle cell shortening, seems to be sufficient to drive epithelial morphogenesis. Fully understanding the development of organs that use smooth muscle stiffness as a driver of morphogenesis requires investigating how smooth muscle develops, a key aspect of which is distinguishing smooth muscle-like tissues from one another and in culture. This necessitates a comprehensive appreciation of the genetic, anatomical and functional markers that are used to distinguish the different subtypes of smooth muscle (for example, vascular versus visceral) from similar cell types (including myofibroblasts and myoepithelial cells). Here, we review how smooth muscle acts as a mechanical driver of morphogenesis and discuss ways of identifying smooth muscle, which is critical for understanding these morphogenetic events.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Mechanics of Development'.
Topics: Animals; Epithelial Cells; Humans; Morphogenesis; Muscle, Smooth
PubMed: 30249770
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0318 -
Current Topics in Developmental Biology 2018Understanding cell fate patterning and morphogenesis in the mammalian embryo remains a formidable challenge. Recently, in vivo models based on embryonic stem cells... (Review)
Review
Understanding cell fate patterning and morphogenesis in the mammalian embryo remains a formidable challenge. Recently, in vivo models based on embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have emerged as complementary methods to quantitatively dissect the physical and molecular processes that shape the embryo. Here we review recent developments in using ESCs to create both two- and three-dimensional culture models that shed light on mammalian gastrulation.
Topics: Animals; Body Patterning; Cell Lineage; Embryonic Stem Cells; Gastrulation; Mammals; Models, Biological
PubMed: 29801527
DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2018.03.001 -
Nature Communications Jan 2023Apical constriction is a cell shape change critical to vertebrate neural tube closure, and the contractile force required for this process is generated by actin-myosin...
Apical constriction is a cell shape change critical to vertebrate neural tube closure, and the contractile force required for this process is generated by actin-myosin networks. The signaling cue that instructs this process has remained elusive. Here, we identify Wnt4 and the transmembrane ephrinB2 protein as playing an instructive role in neural tube closure as members of a signaling complex we termed WERDS (Wnt4, EphrinB2, Ror2, Dishevelled (Dsh2), and Shroom3). Disruption of function or interaction among members of the WERDS complex results in defects of apical constriction and neural tube closure. The mechanism of action involves an interaction of ephrinB2 with the Dsh2 scaffold protein that enhances the formation of the WERDS complex, which in turn, activates Rho-associated kinase to induce apical constriction. Moreover, the ephrinB2/Dsh2 interaction promotes non-canonical Wnt signaling and shows how cross-talk between two major signal transduction pathways, Eph/ephrin and Wnt, coordinate morphogenesis of the neural tube.
Topics: Ephrin-B2; Constriction; Signal Transduction; Morphogenesis; Neural Tube
PubMed: 36670115
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35991-6 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Dec 2016Increasing evidence suggests that intrinsic cell chirality significantly contributes to the left-right (LR) asymmetry in embryonic development, which is a well-conserved... (Review)
Review
Increasing evidence suggests that intrinsic cell chirality significantly contributes to the left-right (LR) asymmetry in embryonic development, which is a well-conserved characteristic of living organisms. With animal embryos, several theories have been established, but there are still controversies regarding mechanisms associated with embryonic LR symmetry breaking and the formation of asymmetric internal organs. Recently, in vitro systems have been developed to determine cell chirality and to recapitulate multicellular chiral morphogenesis on a chip. These studies demonstrate that chirality is indeed a universal property of the cell that can be observed with well-controlled experiments such as micropatterning. In this paper, we discuss the possible benefits of these in vitro systems to research in LR asymmetry, categorize available platforms for single-cell chirality and multicellular chiral morphogenesis, and review mathematical models used for in vitro cell chirality and its applications in in vivo embryonic development. These recent developments enable the interrogation of the intracellular machinery in LR axis establishment and accelerate research in birth defects in laterality.This article is part of the themed issue 'Provocative questions in left-right asymmetry'.
Topics: Body Patterning; Cell Culture Techniques; Embryonic Development; In Vitro Techniques
PubMed: 27821525
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0413