Generation of a monoclonal antibody reactive to prefusion myocytes.

We established a novel monoclonal antibody, Yaksa that is specific to a subpopulation of myogenic cells. The Yaksa antigen is not expressed on the surface of growing myoblasts but only on a subpopulation of myogenin-positive myocytes. When Yaksa antigen-positive mononucleated cells were freshly prepared from a murine myogenic cell by a cell sorter, they fused with each other and formed multinucleated myotubes shortly after replating while Yaksa antigen-negative cells scarcely generated myotubes.

Secreted factor FAM3C (ILEI) is involved in retinal laminar formation.

FAM3C is a secreted factor, which is involved in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition. In transcriptome profiling of the mouse retina using microarray, we found that FAM3C is highly expressed in the retina. FAM3C is expressed in the ganglion cell layer (GCL) of the retina.

Viral FLIP enhances Wnt signaling downstream of stabilized beta-catenin, leading to control of cell growth.

Death receptor-mediated apoptosis is potently inhibited by viral FLIP (FLICE/caspase 8 inhibitory protein), which is composed of two tandemly repeated death effector domains (DEDs), through reduced activation of procaspase 8. Here, we show that equine herpesvirus 2-encoded viral FLIP E8 enhances Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in a variety of cell lines. E8 was shown to strikingly augment Wnt3a signaling, as shown both in a luciferase assay for T-cell factor/beta-catenin and through induction of endogenous cyclin D1.