Muscle cells point the finger at each other
2010-11-23
(Press-News.org) A new study reveals that muscle cells fuse together during development by poking "fingers" into each other to help break down the membranes separating them. The study appears online on November 22, 2010 in the Journal of Cell Biology(www.jcb.org).
During muscle development, individual muscle cells fuse together to form long myotubes containing multiple cell nuclei. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, fusion occurs between two different types of muscle cell: founder cells and fusion-competent myoblasts. Using electron microscopy to analyze developing fly embryos, Elizabeth Chen and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, discovered that fusion-competent myoblasts send multiple "finger-like" protrusions into neighboring founder cells. These fingers contained large amounts of the cytoskeletal protein actin, and their formation required several proteins that stimulate the assembly of actin molecules into long filaments.
The actin-rich fingers helped form a small pore connecting the founder cell and fusion-competent myoblast, which gradually expands to fuse the two cell types together. The researchers think that the fingers assist pore formation by pushing the two cell membranes extremely close to each other.
The structure and behavior of these myoblast fingers are very similar to other types of actin-rich protrusions called invadosomes that researchers have previously identified in cancer cells and other cell types in culture. But this is the first example of this type of structure in a developing tissue. The researchers now want to investigate how these invasive myoblast fingers are formed and controlled.
###
About the Journal of Cell Biology
Founded in 1955, the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) is published by The Rockefeller University Press. All editorial decisions on manuscripts submitted are made by active scientists in conjunction with our in-house scientific editors. JCB content is posted to PubMed Central, where it is available to the public for free six months after publication. Authors retain copyright of their published works and third parties may reuse the content for non-commercial purposes under a creative commons license. For more information, please visit www.jcb.org.
Sens, K.L., et al. 2010. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.201006006.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-11-23
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 22, 2010 -- Five related species of tree-dwelling snakes found in Southeast and South Asia may just be the worst nightmares of ophidiophobes (people who have abnormal fears of snakes). Not only are they snakes, but they can "fly" -- flinging themselves off their perches, flattening their bodies, and gliding from tree to tree or to the ground.
To Virginia Tech biologist Jake Socha, these curious reptiles are something of a biomechanical wonder. In order to understand how they do what they do, Socha and his colleagues recently studied Chrysopelea ...
2010-11-23
Boston, Mass. – Medulloblastomas are the most common malignant brain tumors of childhood, with 40 to 50 percent overall mortality. One of the greatest challenges in treating them is that they vary substantially from patient to patient. In the largest genomic study of human medulloblastomas to date, researchers from Children's Hospital Boston, together with collaborators, have identified six subtypes with distinct molecular "fingerprints" that will improve doctors' ability to direct and individualize treatment.
The study, reported online November 22nd in the Journal of ...
2010-11-23
Black, Asian, and Native American children are more likely than white and Hispanic children to die after being treated for neuroblastoma, according to new research on the pediatric cancer. The study, of more than 3,500 patients with the disease, is the largest ever to look at racial disparities in risk and survival for the most common solid cancer found in young children.
The study also found that black and Native American children are more likely to have the high-risk form of the disease and show signs of resistance to modern treatment. Those biological characteristics ...
2010-11-23
Beta-thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that results in chronic anemia. A major complication of the condition is iron overload, which damages organs such as the liver and heart. The iron overload has been linked to low levels of the protein hepcidin, a negative regulator of intestinal iron absorption and iron recycling. A team of researchers, led by Stefano Rivella, at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, has now shown that increasing the concentration of hepcidin in beta-thalassemic mice limits iron overload and markedly reduces their anemia. They therefore ...
2010-11-23
Children who experience a parental divorce are over twice as likely to suffer a stroke at some point in their lives, according to new research presented in New Orleans at The Gerontological Society of America's (GSA) 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting.
This finding is based on a representative community sample of over 13,000 people from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey. The data analysis was conducted by Esme Fuller-Thomson, PhD, and a team of colleagues at the University of Toronto.
"We were very surprised that the association between parental divorce and stroke ...
2010-11-23
When using combined positron emission tomography (PET) computed tomography (CT) imaging, adopting a true whole-body field of view in the imaging of cancer patients could lead to more accurate staging and restaging than achieved with the routinely used limited whole-body field of view, according to a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org). PET/CT is a dual imaging technique that is used to diagnose and treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers.
"Use of the routine field of view for whole-body FDG PET/CT ...
2010-11-23
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — More than half of all combat-related injuries sustained by U.S. troops are the result of explosions, and many of those involve injuries to the head. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, about 130,000 U.S. service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have sustained traumatic brain injuries — ranging from concussion to long-term brain damage and death — as a result of an explosion. A recent analysis by a team of researchers led by MIT reveals one possible way to prevent those injuries — adding a face shield to the helmet worn by military personnel.
In ...
2010-11-23
High blood levels of the antioxidant alpha-carotene appear to be associated with a reduced risk of dying over a 14-year period, according to a report posted online today that will be published in the March 28 print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Oxygen-related damage to DNA, proteins and fats may play a role in the development of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer, according to background information in the article. Carotenoids—including beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and lycopene—are produced by plants and microorganisms ...
2010-11-23
Diabetes appears to be associated with the risk of depression and vice versa, suggesting the relationship between the two works in both directions, according to a report in the November 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
An estimated 23.5 million U.S. adults—more than 10 percent—have diabetes, including 23 percent of those ages 60 and older, according to background information in the article. Major depressive disorder affects about 14.8 million U.S. adults each year. "Although it has been hypothesized that the diabetes-depression ...
2010-11-23
Dual antiplatelet therapy—treatment with the medications clopidogrel and aspirin together to prevent blood clots—poses a clinically significant risk of hemorrhage that should be considered before prescribing, according to a report in the November 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Dual antiplatelet therapy with clopidogrel plus aspirin is commonly used to prevent blood clots in patients with cardiovascular disease, according to background information in the article. The treatment has demonstrated a benefit in reducing the formation ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Muscle cells point the finger at each other
