Splenogonadal fusion is a rare congenital malformation characterized by intrauterine fusion of the spleen and gonad. We present a 13-year-old boy referred to our clinic, with left scrotal mass and impalpable testis on the right. The scrotal mass was diagnosed histologically as discontinuous-type splenogonadal fusion and intra-abdominal displaced right testis ...

The research has been designed to investigate whether acrosome-reacted spermatozoa can fuse with somatic cells and to check whether this event may involve the molecular machinery implicated in the sperm-egg fusion. Boar spermatozoa were capacitated in vitro and then treated with A23187 to induce acrosome reaction and activate their fusogenic ...

In most mammalian species, a key process of placenta development is the fusion of trophoblast cells into a highly specialized, multinucleated syncytiotrophoblast layer, through which most of the maternofetal exchanges take place. Little is known about this process, despite the recent identification of 2 pairs of envelope genes of retroviral ...

Herpes simplex virus VP16 and ICP0 mutants replicate efficiently in U2OS osteosarcoma cells but are restricted in other cell types. We previously showed that the restrictive phenotype is dominant in a transient cell fusion assay, suggesting that U2OS cells lack an antiviral mechanism present in other cells. Recent data indicate ...

Late endocytic compartments, containing MHC class II molecules in antigen presenting cells, fuse to each other in order to deliver antigens to these molecules. We have shown previously that fusion of late endocytic compartments takes place also in hybridomas. Therefore, we investigate here whether the level of fused late endocytic ...

Osteoclasts are multinucleated bone resorbing cells which form by fusion of pre-osteoclasts. Here, we investigate how nitric oxide (NO) affects osteoclastogenesis. Time lapse photomicrography, using the fluorescent NO indicator dye, 4,5-diaminofluorescein diacetate, revealed an intense NO signal in pre-osteoclasts preceding cell fusion. Osteoclastogenesis in RAW264.7 cells increased when exposed to ...

Altered glycosylation may be a hallmark of malignant transformation and cancer progression. In the work described, a specific mannose-binding lectin, Pinellia pedatisecta agglutinin (PPA), was genetically fused with the extracellular domain of coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) to generate the soluble CAR (sCAR)-PPA fusion protein. The adenoviral transduction of acute myeloid leukemia ...

Membrane fusion remains one of the less well-understood processes in cell biology. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain how the generation of fusogenic lipids at sites of exocytosis facilitates secretion in mammalian cells. Over the last decade, chromaffin cells have served as an important cellular model to ...

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a T lymphotropic herpes virus that is categorized into two variants, A (HHV-6A) and B (HHV-6B), on the basis of distinct genetic, immunological and biological characteristics. HHV-6 uses human CD46 as a cellular receptor. Without viral replication, HHV-6A induces cell-cell fusion between cells expressing human ...

Glycoprotein B (gB) homologues within the herpesvirus family display high sequence conservation, and a number of gB homologues contain a cleavage motif R-X-K/R-R recognized by the cellular protease furin. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gB contains this motif and cleaved gB is found in EBV virions. To determine the functional significance of ...

An understanding of nuclear reprogramming is fundamental to the use of cells in regenerative medicine. Due to technological obstacles, the time course and extent of reprogramming of cells following fusion has not been assessed to date. Here, we show that hundreds of genes are activated or repressed within hours of ...

Cell fusion has been used for many different purposes, including generation of hybridomas and reprogramming of somatic cells. The fusion step is the key event in initiation of these procedures. Standard fusion techniques, however, provide poor and random cell contact, leading to low yields. We present here a microfluidic device ...

Cell fusion between circulating bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) and non-hematopoietic cells is well documented in various tissues and has recently been suggested to occur in response to injury. Here we illustrate that inflammation within the intestine enhanced the level of BMDC fusion with intestinal progenitors. To identify important microenvironmental factors ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to investigate expression of ADAMs (A Disintegrin and A Metalloproteinase) of host cell origin during cell-cell fusion induced by human parainfluenza virus type 2 (HPIV2). RESULTS: Induction of host cell ADAM9 was observed in GMK cells, but the applicability of this model was ...

Rubella virus (RUBV) infects cells via an acid-triggered membrane fusion process. RUBV virions contain two cysteine-rich glycoproteins, E2 and E1. The latter is believed to be involved in the membrane fusion. Using a recombinant plasmid containing RUBV E1 and E2, 11 of total 20 cysteines present in the ectodomain of ...

Controversy surrounds issue of cell fusion as a repair mechanism whereby stem cells regenerate. To identify the ratio of fusion happens between stem cells and damaged cells, hepatic cells were damaged with 200microM H2O2 for 2 hr. Then, mouse ESCs were cocultured with damaged human hepatocytes. Fusion was detected directly ...

Coronavirus host and cell specificities are determined by specific interactions between the viral spike (S) protein and host cell receptor(s). Avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis (IBV) has been adapted to embryonated chicken eggs, primary chicken kidney (CK) cells, monkey kidney cell line Vero, and other human and animal cells. Here we ...

Nuclear reprogramming describes a switch in gene expression of one kind of cell to that of another unrelated cell type. Early studies in frog cloning provided some of the first experimental evidence for reprogramming. Subsequent procedures included mammalian somatic cell nuclear transfer, cell fusion, induction of pluripotency by ectopic gene ...

Cell-cell fusion is essential for a variety of developmental steps in many eukaryotic organisms, during both fertilization and vegetative cell growth. Although the molecular mechanisms associated with intracellular membrane fusion are well characterized, the molecular mechanisms of plasma membrane merger between cells are poorly understood. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora ...

Spontaneous cell fusion can occur in cocultured stem cells. We examined whether telomerase activity change and cell fusion occurred in mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) and nucleus pulposus cell (NPC) coculture. MSCs and NPCs were labeled with PKH26 and PKH67 dyes and cocultured at a 50:50 ratio. An equal number of ...

Reprogramming of the epigenetic state from differentiated to pluripotent cells can be attained by cell fusion of differentiated somatic cells with embryonic stem (ES) cells or transfer of the nucleus of a differentiated cell into an enucleated oocyte. Activation of Akt signaling is sufficient to maintain pluripotency of ES cells ...

Targeting of T cell epitopes to APC enhances T cell responses. We used an APC-specific Ab (anti-IgD) and substituted either of 18 loops connecting beta strands in human IgG constant H (C(H)) domains with a characterized T cell peptide epitope. All Ab-epitope fusion molecules were secreted from producing cells except ...

The recent development of peptide carriers for efficient and specific delivery of biologically active molecules into mammalian cells represents a major advance in the study of both normal and uncontrolled cell growth. In the past few years, this technology has been successfully applied to the delivery of therapeutic molecules in ...

We have previously reported the establishment of preadipocyte cell lines, termed dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells, from mature adipocytes of various animals. DFAT cells possess long-term viability and can redifferentiate into adipocytes both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, DFAT cells can transdifferentiate into osteoblasts and chondrocytes under appropriate culture conditions. ...

An effective method for producing doubled haploid plants of the Asiatic hybrid lily 'Connecticut King' was established with an in vitro colchicine treatment of haploid calli. With an increase in the concentration and duration of colchicine treatment for the haploid calli, both the survival rate and the shoot regeneration from ...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease associated with severe remodeling of the large and small pulmonary arteries. Increased accumulation of inflammatory cells and apoptosis-resistant cells are contributing factors. Proliferative apoptosis-resistant cells expressing CD133 are increased in the circulation of PAH patients. Circulating cells can contribute to tissue repair ...

Little is known about the mechanisms of cell-cell fusion in development and diseases and, especially, about fusion stages downstream of an opening of nascent fusion pore(s). Earlier works on different cell-cell fusion reactions have indicated that cytoskeleton plays important role in syncytium formation. However, due to complexity of these reactions ...

Herpesviruses use a cascade of interactions with different cell surface molecules to gain entry into cells. In many cases, this involves binding to abundant glycosaminoglycans or integrins followed by interactions with more limited cell surface proteins, leading to fusion with cellular membranes. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has the ability to infect ...

This proposal had two overall objectives: 1) Determine the frequency of breast cancer cell X host cell fusion events in experimental tumors; and 2) Measure the metastatic capacity of cells derived from fusion events. We engineered murine mammary carcinoma cells with a reporter construct in which fluorescent protein (mCherry) expression ...

Osteoblasts respond to shear stress by simultaneously increasing their whole-cell stiffness and up-regulating the cytoskeletal crosslinking protein alpha-actinin. The stiffness of reconstituted cytoskeletal networks increases following the addition of alpha-actinin, but the effect of alpha-actinin on whole-cell mechanical behavior has not been investigated. The hypothesis of this study was that ...

Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor Attachment protein Receptors (SNAREs) participate in the specificity of membrane fusions in the cell. The mechanisms of specific SNARE sorting are still however poorly documented. We investigated the possible role of Adaptor Protein (AP) complexes in sorting of the Dictyostelium discoideum v-SNARE VAMP7. In live cells, GFP-VAMP7 is ...

Surgery of the spine to fuse the vertebral bones is one of the most commonly performed operations with an estimated 350,000 Americans undergoing this surgery annually with estimated costs of $60 billion. Current procedures are highly invasive with limited success. The goal of this study is to develop a safe ...

An active micromixer system utilizing the magnetic force was developed and examined for its ability to facilitate the mixing of more than two fluid flows. The mixing performance of the active micromixer was evaluated in aqueous-aqueous systems including dyes for visual observation. A complete analytical microfluidic system was developed by ...

During insect myogenesis, myoblasts are organized into a pre-pattern by specialized organizer cells. In the Drosophila embryo, these cells have been termed founder cells and play important roles in specifying muscle identity and in serving as targets for myoblast fusion. A group of adult muscles, the dorsal longitudinal (flight) muscles, ...

The monoclonal antibody M1-1A, specific for the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein of human parainfluenza type 2 virus (HPIV2), blocks virus-induced cell-cell fusion without affecting the hemagglutinating and neuraminidase activities. F13 is a neutralization escape variant selected with M1-1A and contains amino acid mutations N83Y and M186I in the HN protein, with ...

Microprocessor, the complex of Drosha and DGCR8, promotes the processing of primary microRNA to precursor microRNA, which is a crucial step for microRNA maturation. So far, no convenient assay systems have been developed for observing this step in vivo. Here we report the establishment of highly sensitive cellular systems where ...

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are capable of differentiating into all embryonic and adult cell types following mouse chimera production. Although injection of diploid ES cells into tetraploid blastocysts suggests that tetraploid cells have a selective disadvantage in the developing embryo, tetraploid hybrid cells, formed by cell fusion between ES cells ...

Polyethylene glycol-polyethylenimine (PEG-PEI) nanogels have been used to deliver nucleic acids and oligonucleotides into cells. First, we synthesized PEG-PEI nanogels with methylene proton ratios (CH2O:CH2N) in PEG-PEI ranging from approximately 6.8:1 to 4:1 and less, as shown by 1H NMR spectra. We first synthesized various nanogels with varying ratios of ...

Myoblast fusion is essential for muscle development, postnatal growth and muscle repair after injury. Recent studies have demonstrated roles for actin polymerization during myoblast fusion. Dynamic cytoskeletal assemblies directing cell-cell contact, membrane coalescence and ultimately fusion require substantial cellular energy demands. Various energy generating systems exist in cells but the ...

Extensive alterations in cellular organization are known to accompany the responses of sensitized T cells to target cells presenting an antigen of interest. Now, equally if not more dramatic changes are found to take place in cells presenting an antigen. With the help of a spinophilin-GFP fusion protein, Bloom et ...

The cytoplasmic tail of the HIV transmembrane protein plays an important role in viral infection. In this study we analyzed the role of retroviral cytoplasmic tails in modulating the cytoskeleton and interfering with virus-cell fusion. HeLaP4 cells expressing different HIV cytoplasmic tail constructs showed reduced acetylated tubulin levels whereas the ...

Cell entry by paramyxoviruses requires fusion of the viral envelope with the target cell membrane. Fusion is mediated by the viral fusion (F) glycoprotein and usually requires the aid of the attachment glycoprotein (G, H or HN, depending on the virus). Human respiratory syncytial virus F protein (F(RSV)) is able ...

Cell fusions are important to fertilization, placentation, development of skeletal muscle and bone, calcium homeostasis and the immune defense system. Additionally, cell fusions participate in tissue repair and may be important to cancer development and progression. A large number of factors appear to regulate cell fusions, including receptors and ligands, ...

Members of the tetraspanin family including CD9 contribute to the structural organization and plasticity of the plasma membrane. K41, a CD9-specific monoclonal antibody, inhibits the release of HIV-1 and canine distemper virus (CDV)- but not measles virus (MV)-induced cell-cell fusion. We now report that K41, which recognizes a conformational epitope ...

Cell-cell fusion is critical to the normal development of certain tissues, yet the nature and degree of conservation of the underlying molecular components remains largely unknown. Here we show that the two guanine-nucleotide exchange factors Brag2 and Dock180 have evolutionarily conserved functions in the fusion of mammalian myoblasts. Their effects ...

During herpes simplex virus (HSV) entry, membrane fusion occurs either on the cell surface or after virus endocytosis. In both cases, binding of glycoprotein D (gD) to a receptor such as nectin-1 or HVEM is required. In this study, we co-cultured cells expressing gD with nectin-1 expressing cells to investigate ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Transplantation of adrenal chromaffin cells (CCs) that release endogenous opioid peptides and catecholamines produces significant antinociceptive effects in patients with terminal cancer pain. In clinical practice, however, obtaining a sufficient number of chromaffin cells may not be possible because of the limited availability of human adrenal tissue. ...

In the placenta, trophoblast cell fusion leads to the formation of the syncytiotrophoblast, which plays an essential role in the diffusion of nutrients and hormones from the mother to the fetus. Different protein tyrosine kinases are involved in the modulation of this biological process. Herein, we investigated the impact of ...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) spike glycoprotein (S) is a class I viral fusion protein that binds to its receptor glycoprotein, human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), and mediates virus entry and cell-cell fusion. The juxtamembrane domain (JMD) of S is an aromatic amino acid-rich region proximal to ...

Dorsal closure is a paradigm epithelial fusion episode that occurs late in Drosophila embryogenesis and leads to sealing of a midline hole by bonding of two opposing epithelial sheets. The leading edge epithelial cells express filopodia and fusion is dependent on interdigitation of these filopodia to prime formation of adhesions. ...