Expression of the Brachyury gene during mesoderm development in differentiating embryonal carcinoma cell cultures

G Vidricaire, K Jardine, MW McBurney - Development, 1994 - journals.biologists.com
G Vidricaire, K Jardine, MW McBurney
Development, 1994journals.biologists.com
When aggregated and treated with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), P19 embryonal carcinoma
cells differentiate into cell types normally derived from the mesoderm and endoderm
including epithelium and cardiac and skeletal muscle. The Brachyury gene is expressed
transiently in these differentiating cultures several days before the appearance of markers of
the differentiated cell types. The expression of Brachyury is not affected by DMSO but is
induced by cell aggregation, which requires extracellular calcium. Expression of Brachyury …
Abstract
When aggregated and treated with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), P19 embryonal carcinoma cells differentiate into cell types normally derived from the mesoderm and endoderm including epithelium and cardiac and skeletal muscle. The Brachyury gene is expressed transiently in these differentiating cultures several days before the appearance of markers of the differentiated cell types. The expression of Brachyury is not affected by DMSO but is induced by cell aggregation, which requires extracellular calcium. Expression of Brachyury is also induced by various members of the TGFβ family such as activin and bone morphogenetic proteins. D3 is a mutant clone of P19 cells selected for its failure to differentiate when aggregated in DMSO. Aggregated D3 cells express Brachyury mRNA suggesting that the mutation(s) responsible for the phenotype of D3 cells is downstream of the chain of events initiated by Brachyury expression.
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