Wada N, Nohno T
Department of Molecular Biology, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Japan.
Kaibogaku Zasshi. 1998 Dec;73(6):677-85.
Vertebrate limb is used as a model system to understand the mechanism of pattern formation in development. Mesenchymal cells of the limb bud are differentiated into chondrogenic cells or fibroblastic cells. The chondrogenic cells form bifurcated and segmented cartilage structure. This cartilage pattern is regulated by many signaling molecules and transcriptional factors. In the early stage of cartilage differentiation, mesenchymal cells aggregate into suitable region in the limb bud, and the aggregates form prepattern of skeletal elements. Cell adhesion molecules have been shown of their involvement in this cell aggregate formation and the cartilage differentiation process. Expression of these cell adhesion molecules and other cell surface molecules may be regulated by signaling molecules or transcriptional factors, although no regional specificities of these molecules have been reported. In this review, we describe about regional differences of cell affinity of limb bud mesenchyme. We show the differential cell affinity represents the positional identity of the mesenchyme in limb bud, and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored cell surface proteins are involved in this different cell affinity. From these results, we discuss the importance of the cell affinity in pattern formation of limb bud.
脊椎动物的肢体被用作一个模型系统，以了解发育过程中模式形成的机制。肢芽的间充质细胞分化为软骨生成细胞或成纤维细胞。软骨生成细胞形成分叉和分段的软骨结构。这种软骨模式受许多信号分子和转录因子的调节。在软骨分化的早期阶段，间充质细胞聚集到肢芽中的合适区域，这些聚集体形成骨骼元件的预模式。细胞粘附分子已被证明参与了这种细胞聚集体的形成和软骨分化过程。这些细胞粘附分子和其他细胞表面分子的表达可能受信号分子或转录因子的调节，尽管尚未报道这些分子的区域特异性。在这篇综述中，我们描述了肢芽间充质细胞亲和力的区域差异。我们表明，差异细胞亲和力代表了肢芽中间充质的位置身份，并且糖基磷脂酰肌醇（GPI）锚定的细胞表面蛋白参与了这种不同的细胞亲和力。基于这些结果，我们讨论了细胞亲和力在肢芽模式形成中的重要性。
