Embryonal carcinoma cells and

Zhang XY, Loflin PT, Gehrke CW, Andrewes P, Ehrlich M. Hypermethylation of human DNA sequences in embryonal carcinoma cells, and somatic tissues, but not in sperm. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 15 9429-49. 

Hyafil, R, MoreUo, D., Babinet, C., and Jacob, F. 1980. A cell surface glycoprotein involved in the compaction of embryonal carcinoma cells and cleavage stage embryos. Cell 21(3) 927-34. 

Imidazole antimycotics, ketoconazole, clotrimazole, and miconazole are potent inhibitors of various cytochrome P450-isoenzymes that also affect the metabolism of retinoids. They were fust shown to inhibit the metabolism of RA in F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. When tested in vitm liarazole, a potent CYP-inhibitor, suppressed neoplastic transformation and upregulated gap junctional communication in murine and human fibroblasts, which appeared to be due to the presence of retinoids in the serum component of the cell culture medium. Furthermore, liarazole magnified the cancer chemopreventive activity of RA and (3-carotene in these experiments by inhibiting RA-catabolism as demonstrated by absence of a decrease in RA-levels in the culture medium in the presence of liarazole over 48 h, whereas without liarazole 99% of RA was catabolized. In vivo, treatment with liarazole and ketoconazole reduced the accelerated catabolism of retinoids and increased the mean plasma all-irans-RA-concentration in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia and other cancels. 

Embryonal carcinoma cell lines have also been established in culture from transplantable teratocarcinomas. The embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cells present in the tumors actually differentiated, and give rise to a variety of different types of embiyonic and adult cells. When these EC cells are cultured, they still possess the... 

F9 embryonal carcinoma cells have a simple set of growth supplements which are required for growth in serum-free medium insulin, transferrin, and fibronectin (Rizzino and Sato, 1978). Fibronectin is a component of the extracellular matrix and facilitates the attachment of the cells to the culture dish. In addition, high density lipoprotein (HDL) has been observed to promote the growth of F9 cells serum-free. 

Simeone, A., Acampora, D., Arcioni, L., Andrews, P. W., Boncinelli, E., and Mavilio, F. (1990). Sequential activation of HOX 2 homeobox genes by retinoic acid in human embryonal carcinoma cells. Nature 346 763-766. 

The implementation of animal test protocols in the 1980s has been accompanied by the development of a host of alternative methods to study adverse effects of chemicals on reproductive and developmental parameters. For example, rat whole embryo culture stems from the seventies (16), as does the rat limb bud organ culture (17) and rat limb bud and brain micromass was developed in the eighties (18). An elegant nonvertebrate alternative model used regeneration of polyps of Hydra atUnuata from dissociated cells (19). Animal-free in vitro alternatives include those employing the proliferation of a human embryonic palatal mesenchymal cell line (20), the attachment of a mouse ovarian tumor cell line (21), and the differentiation of a neuroblastoma cell line (22) and a embryonal carcinoma cell line (23). Various overviews of methods have been published over the years (24). The predictability of... 

Hennemann H, Schwarz J, Willecke K Characterization of gap junction genes expressed in F9 embryonic carcinoma cells Molecular cloning of mouse connexin31 and -45 cDNAs. Eur J Cell Biol 1992a 57 51-58. 

Targeted delivery has also been used to investigate the structure of carbohydrates needed to obtain discrimination of cellular uptake between liver and tumor cells [184], A study was performed by doubly modifying BSA with both a fluorophore (via Lys isothiocyanate derivatization) and different fucose derivatives (via Tyr diazotization). Similar studies have used EDC-mediated coupling to also attach therapeutic agents for delivery to human embryonal carcinoma cells [185]. 

B. Roy, R Taneja, and P. Chambon. Synergistic activation of retmoic acid (RA)-responsive genes and induction of embryonal carcinoma cell differentiation by an RA receptor alpha (RAR alpha)-, RAR beta-, or RAR gamma-selective ligand in combination with a retinoid X receptor-specific ligand. Mol Cell Bid, 15 (12), 6481-6487, 1995. 

H. Chiba, J. Clifford, D. Metzger, and P. Chambon. Distinct retinoid X receptor-retinoic acid receptor heterodimers are differentially involved in the control of expression of retinoid target genes in F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. Mol Cell Bid, 17 (6), 3013-3020, 1997. 

Song Y, Withers DA, Hakomori S. Globoside-dependent adhesion of human embryonal carcinoma cells, based on carbohydrate-carbohydrate interaction, initiates signal transduction and induces enhanced activity of transcription factors API and CREB. J. Biol. Chem. 1998 273 2517-2525. 

Eggens 1, Fenderson B, Toyokuni T, Dean B, Stroud M, Elakomori 35. S. Specific interaction between Le-x and Le-x determinants. A possible basis for cell recognition in preimplantation embryos and in embryonal carcinoma cells. J. Biol. Chem. 1989 264 9476-9484. 

Fluorescence microphotolysis can be used to measure diffusion in single cellsand nuclear envelope permeability. Pyranine probes have been used to measure internal pH changes in Escherichia coli membrane vesicles. Probe measurements of intralysosomal pH in living cells and perturbation of pH has been described by Ohkuma and Poole.Fluorescence polarization of six membrane probes in embryonal carcinoma cells have been measured by a cell sorter,Fluorescence of pancreatic islets labelled with fluorescein diacetate has been used to show the effects of cations, ionophores, and hypoglycaemic sulphonylureas. ... 

Rusciano, D., Lorenzoni, P. and Burger, M. M. (1991). The role of both specific cellular adhesion and growth promotion in fiver colonization by F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. Int. J. Cancer 48, 450-456. 

Hara, E., T. Kato, S. Nakada, S. SekiyaandK. Oda. Subtractive cDNA cloning using oligo(dT)30-latex and PCR isolation of cDNA clones specific to undifferentiated human embryonal carcinoma cells. Nucleic... 

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