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Biomedical subjects

C Cepko

Publications and source records attributed to C Cepko.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Giving in to the blues.

The molecular players that direct the development of mammalian photoreceptors are slowly coming into focus. A study that elucidates the cause of enhanced S-cone syndrome, a disorder that may be caused by a distortion of retinal cell fate, reveals one such factor-although questions about its effects remain.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

Quantitative analysis of proliferation and cell cycle length during development of the rat retina.

The rat retina has been a useful model system for the study of the development of the central nervous system (CNS). In order to facilitate future studies on the mechanisms that control retinal growth, we have quantified the proliferation of retinal cells and the length of the cell cycle throughout development. For each day during development, the number of mitotic and postmitotic cells per retina, the proportion of cycling cells, S phase length, and cell cycle length were determined through quantification of cell numbers and 3H-thymidine labeling. As retinal development proceeds, the proportion of cycling cells decreases, and cell cycle length increases, in part due to an increase in S phase length.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Taurine promotes the differentiation of a vertebrate retinal cell type in vitro.

The retina offers a model system for investigating the mechanisms that control cell type determination and differentiation in the vertebrate central nervous system. Previously, rod photoreceptor development in vitro was found to require a diffusible activity released by retinal cells (D. Altshuler and C. Cepko, Development 114, 947-957, 1992). In this report, we show that retinal-cell-conditioned medium and extracts contain two separable activities that influence rod development: a > 10 kDa inhibitory activity, and a stimulatory activity that is < 1 kDa and heat stable. Taurine was found to be a component of the < 1 kDa fraction and to stimulate rod development when added to retinal cultures. Taurine was not the only rod-promoting factor in these retinal preparations, however, as conditioned medium and extracts stimulated a higher level of rod development than did taurine alone. Taurine uptake into cells could be blocked without inhibiting taurine's ability to stimulate rod development, arguing against an osmoregulatory or nutritive mechanism of action. Finally, a competitive antagonist of taurine's bioactivity was identified and shown partially to inhibit rod development in retinal explants, suggesting that taurine may normally act to stimulate rod development in the retina. These results provide evidence for three activities, one of which is taurine, that are candidate regulators of rod photoreceptor development in vivo.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Targeted ablation of diverse cell classes in the nervous system in vivo.

The study of both the function and development of complex neural systems would be greatly facilitated by a means for systematically blocking intercell communication. One way of preventing cells from signaling each other is to remove them from the system by ablation. Here we present a general technique for visualizing and ablating selected cell classes in vivo. The cells of interest are genetically engineered so that they can be selectively labeled with a photoactivatable dye and visualized in living preparations; the dye-labeled cells can then be photoablated. This approach is applicable to a broad range of cell types, in organisms amenable to gene transfer, and permits ablations to be performed at different developmental stages or in the adult. We demonstrate the use of this technique on several cell types in the mouse retina and cerebral cortex, and in the zebrafish embryo.

Affinity Labels↗
PubMed1992

A temporally regulated, diffusible activity is required for rod photoreceptor development in vitro.

The retina is a relatively simple and well-characterized CNS structure in which cell-cell interactions have been hypothesized to influence cell type determination. By manipulating cell density in serum-free cultures we show that rat rod photoreceptor development requires a diffusible activity produced by neonatal retinal cells. This effect is not mediated by changes in cell survival or mitosis. Production of the rod promoting activity varies with developmental stage and is temporally correlated with the timing of rod generation in vivo. In low density cultures, which do not support rod development, an increased fraction of cells stain with an antibody specific for another retinal neuron, the bipolar cell. Thus, the diffusible rod promoting activity may influence cell fate determination, and not only terminal differentiation. These results provide an approach for the molecular characterization of developmentally important signals in the vertebrate retina.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Control of proliferation in the retina: temporal changes in responsiveness to FGF and TGF alpha.

Proliferation in the rat retina, as in other parts of the nervous system, occurs during a restricted period of development. In addition to regulating cell number, the mechanisms that control proliferation influence the patterning of tissues, and may affect the determination of cell type. To begin to determine how proliferation is controlled, several growth factors found in the retina were tested for effects on progenitor cell division in culture. Proliferation was enhanced by TGF alpha, bFGF and aFGF, and many of the dividing cells later differentiated into cells with the antigenic phenotypes of retinal neurons and glial cells. The mitotic response of retinal cells to these factors changed during development: progenitor cells from younger retinas (embryonic day 15 to 18; E15-E18) were more responsive to FGF's, while progenitor cells from older retinas (greater than E20) were more responsive to TGF alpha. Progenitor cells stopped dividing in vitro, even when treated with excess mitogen. These observations suggest that proliferation in the retina may be stimulated by multiple mitogenic signals provided by TGF alpha, FGF, or related factors, and that proliferation is not controlled by limiting concentrations of mitogen alone. Rather, these data demonstrate that retinal cells change during development in their responsiveness to mitogenic signals. Such changes may contribute to the regulation of proliferation.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer of beta-nerve growth factor into mouse pituitary line AtT-20.

Expression of the biologically active beta-subunit of mouse nerve growth factor (beta-NGF) was conferred onto cultured AtT-20 mouse pituitary cells via a replication-defective retroviral vector. The retroviral LTR promoter was used for expression of a cDNA for beta-NGF corresponding to the shorter mRNA species produced by most tissues that receive sympathetic innervation. The vector included the TU5 gene conferring resistance to the neomycin analogue G418 under the control of an SV40 early promoter. AtT-20 cells, which produce essentially no endogenous beta-NGF, were infected and then cloned under G418 selection. Clones were evaluated for release into the medium of biologically active beta-NGF using a bioassay for neurite extension from PC-12 cells. The biological activity was equivalent to 1 to 10 ng of beta-NGF per mg cell protein over 24 hours. Immune precipitation and SDS/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of labelled proteins in the medium showed that the major form of immunoreactive beta-NGF secreted from cells comigrated with authentic mature beta-NGF, apparent Mr 13,000. Release of this beta-NGF from cells was stimulated by addition of 1 mM-8-bromocyclic AMP or 10 nM-corticotropin releasing factor, suggesting that at least some of the processed factor is stored in secretory vesicles. These studies, together with those on other cultured cells, which produce beta-NGF and lack secretory granules, e.g. L cells, suggest that the beta-NGF precursor synthesized from the shorter mRNA species can be processed and secreted through either the regulated or constitutive route. This retroviral vector provides a potential means of conferring beta-NGF expression onto a number of different cell types in culture and in vivo.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Lineage analysis in the vertebrate nervous system by retrovirus-mediated gene transfer.

We describe a cell-lineage marking system applicable to the vertebrate nervous system. The basis of the technique is gene transfer using the retroviral vector system. We used Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase as a marker gene and demonstrate a high level of expression of this marker from the viral long terminal repeat promoter, with simultaneous expression of the Tn5 neo gene from the simian virus 40 early promoter. This expression has allowed us to detect individual infected cells histochemically. We applied this marking technique to the study of lineage relationships in the developing vertebrate nervous system, both in vivo and in culture. In the rat retina, we injected virus in vivo and histochemically identified clones of marked neural cells. In addition, we used this virus to infect cultures of rat cerebral cortex and have analyzed the clonal relationships of morphologically different neural cell types. The host range of the marking system extends to avian as well as mammalian species. Thus, this system should have broad applicability as a means of gene transfer and expression in the nervous system.

Animals↗