EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE AXIAL SKELETON AND MUSCLE

脊柱和中轴骨骼肌从成对的 胚胎中的结构，称为体节。 它们来自于松散的 细胞来自原始条纹在非常早期的阶段， 发展 尽管世纪以来， 了解体节、椎骨和 中轴肌的建立，控制这个组织的过程 在任何层面上都是未知的：组织、细胞或分子。 广大 本研究的目的是阐明这些控制过程 程度. 本项目研究细胞方面，以解决四个 基本问题：（a）早期体节祖细胞是否表现为干细胞 细胞？(b)哪个细胞群负责建立 节段性模式(c)分割单元是自主的和/或 包括细胞分选吗（d）每根椎骨是否都从尾椎发出 一个体节的一半和相邻体节的吻侧的一半，如 普遍认为？ 为了回答这些问题，将结合最近开发的技术， 采用 它们包括用碳菁标记小细胞群 染料，通过细胞内注射示踪剂的单细胞谱系分析， 用延时视频显微镜和显微外科手术跟踪标记的细胞， 挑战小群体胚胎细胞命运的手术。 如果没有研究将产生的信息， 为寻找控制这些的分子提供方向 重要进程。 获得的知识将有助于理解 影响脊柱的发育突变以及 一些常见和严重的先天性异常的病因，包括 脊柱侧凸、脊柱后凸、脊柱前凸、Klippel-Feil综合征和许多其他疾病。

The vertebral column and axial skeletal muscles develop from paired structures in the embryo, called somites. They arise from loosely packed cells which come from the primitive streak at very early stages of development. Despite considerable interest for more than a century in understanding how the segmented organization of the somites, vertebrae and axial muscles is established, the processes that control this organization are still unknown at any level: tissue, cellular or molecular. The broad aim of this research is to elucidate these control processes at all levels. This project investigates the cellular aspects, to address four fundamental questions: (a) do early somite progenitors behave as stem cells? (b) which cell population is responsible for setting up the segmental pattern? (c) is segmentation cell autonomous and/or does it involve cell sorting? and (d) does each vertebra arise from the caudal half of one somite and the rostral half of the adjacent somite, as is widely believed? To answer them, a combination of recently developed techniques will be used. They include labeling of small groups of cells with carbocyanine dyes, single cell lineage analysis by intracellular injection of a tracer, following marked cells with time-lapse video microscopy and microsurgical operations to challenge the fates of small groups of embryonic cells. Without the information that the research will yield, it will be difficult to provide direction to a search for the molecules that control these important processes. The knowledge gained will help understand developmental mutations affecting the vertebral column as well as the etiology of some frequent and severe congenital abnormalities, including scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis, Klippel-Feil syndrome and many others.