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Embryonic Differentiation Waves
A mechanochemistry, mechanochemical based model for Neurulation#Primary neural induction, primary neural induction was first proposed in 1985 by Brodland and Richard Gordon (theoretical biologist), Gordon. They proposed that there is a mechanically sensitive bistable organelle made of microtubules and microfilaments in the apical ends of cells within cell sheets that are about to differentiate (that are competent) and these cells are under mechanical tension. The microtubules and microfilaments are in mechanical opposition in a proposed embryonic organelle they called the cell state splitter. Depending on where the cell is within a sheet, the tension will be resolved by either the apical end contracting or the apical end expanding. The resolution will begin at one point and spread over the rest of the tissue limited by other mechanical forces at boundaries. An actual physical wave of contraction has been found which traverses the presumptive neural epithelium of the developing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schematic Of Cell State Splitter Organelle
A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the schematic is intended to convey, and may include oversimplified elements in order to make this essential meaning easier to grasp, as well as additional organization of the information. For example, a subway map intended for passengers may represent a subway station with a dot. The dot is not intended to resemble the actual station at all but aims to give the viewer information without unnecessary visual clutter. A schematic diagram of a chemical process uses symbols in place of detailed representations of the vessels, piping, valves, pumps, and other equipment that compose the system, thus emphasizing the functions of the individual elements and the interconnections among them and suppresses their physical details. In an electronic circuit d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gastrulation
Gastrulation is the stage in the early embryonic development of most animals, during which the blastula (a single-layered hollow sphere of cells), or in mammals, the blastocyst, is reorganized into a two-layered or three-layered embryo known as the gastrula. Before gastrulation, the embryo is a continuous epithelial sheet of cells; by the end of gastrulation, the embryo has begun differentiation to establish distinct cell lineages, set up the basic axes of the body (e.g. dorsal–ventral, anterior–posterior), and internalized one or more cell types, including the prospective gut. Gastrula layers In triploblastic organisms, the gastrula is trilaminar (three-layered). These three germ layers are the ectoderm (outer layer), mesoderm (middle layer), and endoderm (inner layer).Mundlos 2009p. 422/ref>McGeady, 2004: p. 34 In diploblastic organisms, such as Cnidaria and Ctenophora, the gastrula has only ectoderm and endoderm. The two layers are also sometimes referred to as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folate
Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing and storage. Folate is required for the body to make DNA and RNA and metabolise amino acids necessary for cell division and maturation of blood cells. As the human body cannot make folate, it is required in the diet, making it an essential nutrient. It occurs naturally in many foods. The recommended adult daily intake of folate in the U.S. is 400 micrograms from foods or dietary supplements. Folate in the form of folic acid is used to treat anemia caused by folate deficiency. Folic acid is also used as a supplement by women during pregnancy to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs) in the baby. NTDs include anencephaly and spina bifida, among other defects. Low levels in early pregnancy are believed to be the cause of more tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neural Tube Defects
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a group of birth defects in which an opening in the spine or cranium remains from early in human development. In the third week of pregnancy called gastrulation, specialized cells on the dorsal side of the embryo begin to change shape and form the neural tube. When the neural tube does not close completely, an NTD develops. Specific types include: spina bifida which affects the spine, anencephaly which results in little to no brain, encephalocele which affects the skull, and iniencephaly which results in severe neck problems. NTDs are one of the most common birth defects, affecting over 300,000 births each year worldwide. For example, spina bifida affects approximately 1,500 births annually in the United States, or about 3.5 in every 10,000 (0.035% of US births), which has decreased from around 5 per 10,000 (0.05% of US births) since folate fortification of grain products was started. The number of deaths in the US each year due to neura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neural Tube
In the developing chordate (including vertebrates), the neural tube is the embryonic precursor to the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. The neural groove gradually deepens as the neural folds become elevated, and ultimately the folds meet and coalesce in the middle line and convert the groove into the closed neural tube. In humans, neural tube closure usually occurs by the fourth week of pregnancy (the 28th day after conception). Development The neural tube develops in two ways: primary neurulation and secondary neurulation. Primary neurulation divides the ectoderm into three cell types: * The internally located neural tube * The externally located epidermis * The neural crest cells, which develop in the region between the neural tube and epidermis but then migrate to new locations # Primary neurulation begins after the neural plate forms. The edges of the neural plate start to thicken and lift upward, forming the neural folds. The center ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Scientific Publishing
World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, with more than 170 journals in various fields. In 1995, World Scientific co-founded the London-based Imperial College Press together with the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Company structure The company head office is in Singapore. The Chairman and Editor-in-Chief is Dr Phua Kok Khoo, while the Managing Director is Doreen Liu. The company was co-founded by them in 1981. Imperial College Press In 1995 the company co-founded Imperial College Press, specializing in engineering, medicine and information technology, with Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epigenetics
In biology, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix ''epi-'' (ἐπι- "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" the traditional (DNA sequence based) genetic mechanism of inheritance. Epigenetics usually involves a change that is not erased by cell division, and affects the regulation of gene expression. Such effects on cellular and physiological traits may result from environmental factors, or be part of normal development. The term also refers to the mechanism of changes: functionally relevant alterations to the genome that do not involve mutation of the nucleotide sequence. Examples of mechanisms that produce such changes are DNA methylation and histone modification, each of which alters how genes are expressed without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Further, non-coding RNA sequences have been shown to play a key role in the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morphogen
A morphogen is a substance whose non-uniform distribution governs the pattern of tissue development in the process of morphogenesis or pattern formation, one of the core processes of developmental biology, establishing positions of the various specialized cell types within a tissue. More specifically, a morphogen is a signaling molecule that acts directly on cells to produce specific cellular responses depending on its local concentration. Typically, morphogens are produced by source cells and diffuse through surrounding tissues in an embryo during early development, such that concentration gradients are set up. These gradients drive the process of differentiation of unspecialised stem cells into different cell types, ultimately forming all the tissues and organs of the body. The control of morphogenesis is a central element in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). History The term was coined by Alan Turing in the paper " The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis", where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inner Cell Mass
The inner cell mass (ICM) or embryoblast (known as the pluriblast in marsupials) is a structure in the early development of an embryo. It is the mass of cells inside the blastocyst that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus. The inner cell mass forms in the earliest stages of embryonic development, before implantation into the endometrium of the uterus. The ICM is entirely surrounded by the single layer of trophoblast cells of the trophectoderm. Further development The physical and functional separation of the inner cell mass from the trophectoderm (TE) is a special feature of mammalian development and is the first cell lineage specification in these embryos. Following fertilization in the oviduct, the mammalian embryo undergoes a relatively slow round of cleavages to produce an eight-cell morula. Each cell of the morula, called a blastomere, increases surface contact with its neighbors in a process called compaction. This results in a polari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trophoblast
The trophoblast (from Greek language, Greek : to feed; and : germinator) is the outer layer of cells of the blastocyst. Trophoblasts are present four days after Human fertilization, fertilization in humans. They provide nutrients to the embryo and develop into a large part of the placenta. They form during the first stage of pregnancy and are the first cells to Cellular differentiation, differentiate from the fertilized Ovum, egg to become extraembryonic structures that do not directly contribute to the embryo. After blastulation, the trophoblast is contiguous with the ectoderm of the embryo and is referred to as the trophectoderm. After the first differentiation, the cells in the human embryo lose their Cell potency#Totipotency, totipotency because they can no longer form a trophoblast. They become Cell potency#Pluripotency, pluripotent stem cells. Structure The trophoblast proliferates and differentiates into two cell layers at approximately six days after fertilization for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morula
In embryology, cleavage is the division of cells in the early development of the embryo, following fertilization. The zygotes of many species undergo rapid cell cycles with no significant overall growth, producing a cluster of cells the same size as the original zygote. The different cells derived from cleavage are called blastomeres and form a compact mass called the morula. Cleavage ends with the formation of the blastula, or of the blastocyst in mammals. Depending mostly on the concentration of yolk in the egg, the cleavage can be holoblastic (total or complete cleavage) or meroblastic (partial or incomplete cleavage). The pole of the egg with the highest concentration of yolk is referred to as the vegetal pole while the opposite is referred to as the animal pole. Cleavage differs from other forms of cell division in that it increases the number of cells and nuclear mass without increasing the cytoplasmic mass. This means that with each successive subdivision, there is ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cytoskeleton
The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is composed of similar proteins in the various organisms. It is composed of three main components: microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules, and these are all capable of rapid growth and or disassembly depending on the cell's requirements. Cytoskeleton can perform many functions. Its primary function is to give the cell its shape and mechanical resistance to deformation, and through association with extracellular connective tissue and other cells it stabilizes entire tissues. The cytoskeleton can also contract, thereby deforming the cell and the cell's environment and allowing cells to migrate. Moreover, it is involved in many cell signaling pathways and in the uptake of extracellular material ( endocytosis), the segregation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
