Publications by authors named "Fumiko Matsukawa Usami"
Article Synopsis
- The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) is crucial for regulating cell functions like proliferation and differentiation, and is activated by fibroblast growth factors.
- Researchers developed a specific ESC line expressing a biosensor to track ERK activity in real-time, revealing that ERK activity displays pulsatile patterns.
- The study identified two groups of embryonic stem cells: those with frequent ERK activity pulses and those with no detectable pulses, and found that the Raf protein significantly influences the pulse pattern of ERK activity.
Multiple motile cilia are formed at the apical surface of multi-ciliated cells in the epithelium of the oviduct or the fallopian tube, the trachea, and the ventricle of the brain. Those cilia beat unidirectionally along the tissue axis, and this provides a driving force for directed movements of ovulated oocytes, mucus, and cerebrospinal fluid in each of these organs. Furthermore, cilia movements show temporal coordination between neighboring cilia.
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- Motile cilia in epithelial cells beat in sync to move fluid across organ surfaces, but their microtubule structure's formation is not fully understood.
- Researchers found that the protein CAMSAP3 is crucial for the stability and formation of the cilium's structure, specifically concentrating at the transition zone where cilia are formed.
- Dysfunction of CAMSAP3 leads to loss of key microtubules and uncoordinated cilia movement, highlighting its importance in cilia function in airway epithelial cells.*
The molecular mechanisms by which cilia orientation is coordinated within and between multi-ciliated cells (MCCs) are not fully understood. In the mouse oviduct, MCCs exhibit a characteristic basal body (BB) orientation and microtubule gradient along the tissue axis. The intracellular polarities were moderately maintained in cells lacking CELSR1 (cadherin EGF LAG seven-pass G-type receptor 1), a planar cell polarity (PCP) factor involved in tissue polarity regulation, although the intercellular coordination of the polarities was disrupted.
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