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Research Newsletter - February 2007

Spotlight

In a research paper published in Nature, HSCI Scientific Co-Director, Douglas Melton and collaborators at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, describe how organ size is limited by the number of embryonic progenitor cells in the pancreas but not the liver.

Organ size is limited by the number of embryonic progenitor cells in the pancreas but not the liver

The determinants of vertebrate organ size are poorly understood, but the process is thought to depend heavily on growth factors and other environmental cues. In the blood and central nervous system, for example, organ mass is determined primarily by growth-factor-regulated cell proliferation and apoptosis to achieve a final target size. Here, we report that the size of the mouse pancreas is constrained by an intrinsic programme established early in development, one that is essentially not subject to growth compensation. Specifically, final pancreas size is limited by the size of the progenitor cell pool that is set aside in the developing pancreatic bud. By contrast, the size of the liver is not constrained by reductions in the progenitor cell pool. These findings show that progenitor cell number, independently of regulation by growth factors, can be a key determinant of organ size.

Stanger BZ, Tanaka AJ, Melton DA. Organ size is limited by the number of embryonic progenitor cells in the pancreas but not the liver. Nature. 2007 Jan 28; Read Abstract.

Scientific Papers

Review and Commentary

  • Daley GQ, Richter LA, Auerbach JM, Benvenisty N, Charo RA, Chen G, Deng HK, Goldstein LS, Hudson KL, Hyun I, Junn SC, Love J, Lee EH, McLaren A, Mummery CL, Nakatsuji N, Racowsky C, Rooke H, Rossant J, Scholer HR, Solbakk JH, Taylor P, Trounson AO, Weissman IL, Wilmut I, Yu J, Zoloth L. Ethics. The ISSCR guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research. Science. 2007 Feb 2;315(5812):603-4. No abstract available. Read Abstract.
  • Hochedlinger K, Jaenisch R. On the cloning of animals from terminally differentiated cells. Nat Genet. 2007 Feb;39(2):136-7. No abstract available. Read Abstract.
  • Rosenbauer F, Tenen DG. Transcription factors in myeloid development: balancing differentiation with transformation. Nat Rev Immunol. 2007 Feb;7(2):105-17. Read Abstract.
  • Vacanti JP. Editorial: tissue engineering: a 20-year personal perspective. Tissue Eng. 2007 Feb;13(2):231-2. No abstract available. Read Abstract.
  • Wang Y, McMahon AP, Allen BL. Shifting paradigms in Hedgehog signaling. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2007 Feb 13; Read Abstract.

Blood

  • Koschmieder S, Agrawal S, Radomska HS, Huettner CS, Tenen DG, Ottmann OG, Berdel WE, Serve HL, Muller-Tidow C. Decitabine and vitamin D3 differentially affect hematopoietic transcription factors to induce monocytic differentiation. Int J Oncol. 2007 Feb;30(2):349-55. Read Abstract.
  • Lengerke C, McKinney-Freeman S, Naveiras O, Yates F, Wang Y, Bansal D, Daley GQ. The Cdx-Hox pathway in hematopoietic stem cell formation from embryonic stem cells. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007 Feb 15; Read Abstract.
  • Liu TX, Rhodes J, Deng M, Hsu K, Radomska HS, Kanki JP, Tenen DG, Look AT. Dominant-interfering C/EBPalpha stimulates primitive erythropoiesis in zebrafish. Exp Hematol. 2007 Feb;35(2):230-9. Read Abstract.
  • Zhang J, Scadden DT, Crumpacker CS. Primitive hematopoietic cells resist HIV-1 infection via p21. J Clin Invest. 2007 Feb 1;117(2):473-481. Read Abstract.

Cancer

  • Scott LM, Tong W, Levine RL, Scott MA, Beer PA, Stratton MR, Futreal PA, Erber WN, McMullin MF, Harrison CN, Warren AJ, Gilliland DG, Lodish HF, Green AR. JAK2 exon 12 mutations in polycythemia vera and idiopathic erythrocytosis. N Engl J Med. 2007 Feb 1;356(5):459-68. Read Abstract.
  • Thomas RK, Baker AC, Debiasi RM, Winckler W, Laframboise T, Lin WM, Wang M, Feng W, Zander T, Macconnaill LE, Lee JC, Nicoletti R, Hatton C, Goyette M, Girard L, Majmudar K, Ziaugra L, Wong KK, Gabriel S, Beroukhim R, Peyton M, Barretina J, Dutt A, Emery C, Greulich H, Shah K, Sasaki H, Gazdar A, Minna J, Armstrong SA, Mellinghoff IK, Hodi FS, Dranoff G, Mischel PS, Cloughesy TF, Nelson SF, Liau LM, Mertz K, Rubin MA, Moch H, Loda M, Catalona W, Fletcher J, Signoretti S, Kaye F, Anderson KC, Demetri GD, Dummer R, Wagner S, Herlyn M, Sellers WR, Meyerson M, Garraway LA. High-throughput oncogene mutation profiling in human cancer. Nat Genet. 2007 Mar;39(3):347-351. Epub 2007 Feb 11. Read Abstract.

Cardiovascular System

  • Leopold JA, Dam A, Maron BA, Scribner AW, Liao R, Handy DE, Stanton RC, Pitt B, Loscalzo J. Aldosterone impairs vascular reactivity by decreasing glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity. Nat Med. 2007 Mar;13(2):189-197. Epub 2007 Feb 4. Read Abstract.
  • Wang ZZ, Au P, Chen T, Shao Y, Daheron LM, Bai H, Arzigian M, Fukumura D, Jain RK, Scadden DT. Endothelial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells form durable blood vessels in vivo. Nat Biotechnol. 2007 Feb 25; Read Abstract.

Developmental Biology

  • Ghosh M, Loper R, Ghomashchi F, Tucker DE, Bonventre JV, Gelb MH, Leslie CC. Function, activity and membrane targeting of cytosolic phospholipase A2zeta in mouse lung fibroblasts. J Biol Chem. 2007 Feb 11; Read Abstract.
  • Grondin B, Lefrancois M, Tremblay M, Saint-Denis M, Haman A, Waga K, Bedard A, Tenen DG, Hoang T. c-Jun homodimers can function as a context-specific coactivator. Mol Cell Biol. 2007 Feb 5; Read Abstract.
  • Klose RJ, Yan Q, Tothova Z, Yamane K, Erdjument-Bromage H, Tempst P, Gilliland DG, Zhang Y, Kaelin WG Jr. The Retinoblastoma Binding Protein RBP2 Is an H3K4 Demethylase. Cell. 2007 Feb 21; Read Abstract.
  • Szotek PP, Chang HL, Zhang L, Preffer F, Dombkowski D, Donahoe PK, Teixeira J. Adult Mouse Myometrial Label-Retaining Cells Divide in Response to Gonadotropin Stimulation. Stem Cells. 2007 Feb 8; Read Abstract.

Imaging

  • Ho NH, Weissleder R, Tung CH. A Self-Immolative Reporter For beta-Galactosidase Sensing. Chembiochem. 2007 Feb 15; Read Abstract.
  • Nahrendorf M, Badea C, Hedlund LW, Figueiredo JL, Sosnovik DE, Johnson GA, Weissleder R. High Resolution Imaging of Murine Myocardial Infarction With Delayed Enhancement Cine Micro-CT. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2007 Feb 23; Read Abstract.

Immunology

  • Bihl F, Narayan M, Chisholm JV 3rd, Henry LM, Suscovich TJ, Brown EE, Welzel TM, Kaufmann DE, Zaman TM, Dollard S, Martin JN, Wang F, Scadden DT, Kaye KM, Brander C. Lytic and latent antigens of the human {gamma}-herpesviruses KSHV and EBV induce T cell responses with similar functional properties and memory phenotypes. J Virol. 2007 Feb 28; Read Abstract.
  • Haxhinasto S, Benoist C, Mathis D. Regulatory T-cell differentiation: Committed to control: a precocious choice? Immunol Cell Biol. 2007 Feb 20; No abstract available. Read Abstract.
  • Hill JA, Benoist C, Mathis D. T(reg) cells: guardians for life. Nat Immunol. 2007 Feb;8(2):124-125. No abstract available. Read Abstract.
  • Nguyen LT, Jacobs J, Mathis D, Benoist C. Where FoxP3-dependent regulatory T cells impinge on the development of inflammatory arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Feb;56(2):509-20. Read Abstract.
  • Nigrovic PA, Binstadt BA, Monach PA, Johnsen A, Gurish M, Iwakura Y, Benoist C, Mathis D, Lee DM. Mast cells contribute to initiation of autoantibody-mediated arthritis via IL-1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Feb 13;104(7):2325-30. Read Abstract.

Nervous System

  • Seo H, Sonntag KC, Kim W, Cattaneo E, Isacson O. Proteasome Activator Enhances Survival of Huntington's Disease Neuronal Model Cells. PLoS ONE. 2007 Feb 28;2:e238. Read Abstract.

Technology

  • Galante PA, Trimarchi J, Cepko CL, de Souza SJ, Ohno-Machado L, Kuo WP. Automatic Correspondence of Tags and Genes (ACTG): A Tool for the Analysis of SAGE, MPSS, and SBS Data. Bioinformatics. 2007 Feb 3; Read Abstract.