Lukas Sommer

..The similarity to developmental eye disorders in humans suggests that defective TGFbeta signal modulation in ocular NC derivatives contributes to the pathophysiology of these diseases...

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..It will be intriguing to identify these signals and to elucidate whether and how neighboring epithelial stem cells influence the balance between melanocyte stem cell maintenance and differentiation...

..It will be important to determine how such signaling networks are established and how they elicit multiple signaling responses in neural crest cells to activate appropriate genetic programs...

..Moreover, Wnt1 is able to instruct early NCSCs (eNCSCs) to adopt a sensory neuronal fate in a beta-catenin-dependent manner. Thus, the role of Wnt/beta-catenin in stem cells is cell-type dependent...

..We propose that the requirement of beta-catenin for the specification of melanocytes and sensory neuronal lineages reflects roles of beta-catenin both in Wnt signaling and in mediating cell-cell interactions...

..Thus, TGF-beta signaling controls the size of a specific brain area, the dorsal midbrain, by antagonizing canonical Wnt signaling and negatively regulating self-renewal of neuroepithelial stem cells...

..These findings are relevant for the design of therapeutic strategies because the potential of stem and progenitor cells in vivo likely depends on their nature and origin...

..Thus, stem cell development is regulated by combinatorial growth factor activities that interact with changing cell-intrinsic cues...

..Thus, TGFbeta signal modulation in neural crest differentiation might play a crucial role in the etiology of DiGeorge syndrome...

..The myelination-regulating transcription factor Oct6 is involved in a complex modulatory relationship with Ski. We conclude that Ski is a crucial signal in Schwann cell development and myelination...

..A model emerges in which dorsal Wnt/BMP signal integration links growth and patterning, thereby maintaining undifferentiated and slow-cycling neural progenitors that form the dorsal confines of the developing spinal cord...

..The combination of methods applied in this study should be generally useful for isolating and profiling other stem cell and difficult to isolate cell populations...

..Thus, negative regulation of Sox10 by TGFβ signaling promotes the generation of mesenchymal progenitors from NCSCs. Our study might lay the grounds for future applications demanding defined populations of MSCs for regenerative medicine...

..Moreover, our data point to multiple, lineage-specific roles of Erm in neural crest stem cells and their derivatives, suggesting that Erm function is dependent on the cell intrinsic and extrinsic context...

..Finally, we have identified a number of candidate genes that may play important roles in the disease process or in myelination per se...

..This approach appears promising given the identification of multipotent progenitor cells from the mouse PNS and the availability of genetics in the mouse system...

..Thus, the cells that normally colonize the hindgut are depleted in the Sox10 mutant, causing the distal bowel to become aganglionic...

..Here, we summarize the current view of how melanocytes are specified from the neural crest and put this process into the context of spatiotemporal lineage decisions in neural crest cells...

..How a stem cell integrates Wnt and other signals and how such signaling networks regulate stem cell function on the molecular level remains to be elucidated...

..0001). We suggest that the hypoxic microenvironment in metastases contributes to a phenotype switch allowing melanoma cells to physically contribute to blood vessel formation...

..Using the neural crest as a model system helps us not only to understand the role of stem cells in development but might also lead to new aspects for the cure of stem cell-related diseases...

..Thus, Pramel7 represents a central and essential factor in the signaling network regulating pluripotency and self-renewal in ESCs...

..Intriguingly, these mouse models reveal that interference with either of two distinct phases of pharyngeal apparatus development can contribute to the aetiology of DiGeorge syndrome...

..The development of novel clinical therapies for orofacial and dental pathological conditions depends very much on a detailed knowledge of the molecular and cellular processes that are involved in head formation...

..Thus, axon-bound NRG1 might actively promote both Schwann cell survival and differentiation...

..The molecular basis for the functional diversity of Wnt in different stem cell types remains to be elucidated...

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..Therefore, in one defined model system, tumor cell-autonomous and non-autonomous pathways regulating human disease progression can be investigated in a humanized, clinically relevant context...

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..Thus, BMP-mediated signaling via Smad4 is required to initiate neurogenesis from adult neural stem cells and suppress the alternative fate of oligodendrogliogenesis...

..We suggest that CNC cells control craniofacial development by regulating positional interactions with mesoderm-derived muscle progenitors that together shape the cranial musculoskeletal architecture in vertebrate embryos...

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..What emerged from this meeting is an equally fascinating answer, namely that precursor diversity at rather early stages of development anticipates later cell type diversity...