Shinichiro Nishimatsu    Department   Kawasaki Medical School  Kawasaki Medical School, Department of Natural Sciences,    Position   Professor
Article types	原著
Language	English
Peer review	Peer reviewed
Title	Autoinduction of activin genes in early Xenopus embryos.
Journal	Formal name：The Biochemical journal Abbreviation：Biochem J ISSN code：02646021/14708728
Volume, Issue, Page	298(2),pp.275-280
Author and coauthor	Suzuki Atsushi, Nagai Takeharu, Nishimatsu Shin-ichio, Sugino Hiromu, Eto Yuzuru, Shibai Hiroshiro, Murakami Kazuo, Ueno Naoto
Publication date	1994/03
Summary	Activin exhibits a potent mesoderm inducing activity towards the ectodermal tissue (animal cap) of Xenopus laevis blastulae. Thus in order to investigate the role of activin in morphogenesis of early Xenopus embryos, activation of genes for activin A and B was examined by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. In vivo, activin betaB mRNA appears to be present in embryonic stage 1 whereas betaA mRNA is undetectable prior to gastrulation. betaB and betaA mRNAs were noted to accumulate after stages 9 and 15 respectively. Activin gene expression in Xenopus animal caps was examined after treatment with various concentrations of activin A. Under these treatment conditions, both activin betaA and betaB mRNAs accumulated in a dose-dependent fashion after 24 h. The same effect was noted for treatment with similar concentrations of activin B. Accumulation of mRNAs was inhibited by the addition of cycloheximide to the culture medium, consistent with the proposition that activin gene expression requires certain protein factors. In total, therefore, these data suggest that an autoinduction mechanism is involved in the regulation of activin mRNA levels in normal Xenopus embryos and that this mechanism may play a pivotal role during early embryonic development.
Document No.	8135731