... on the SHH/BMP4 signaling axis to regulate mesenchymal patterning and differentiation. Mouse embryos with conditional loss of Fgfr1 and Fgfr2 in the ureteric mesenchyme exhibited reduced mesenchymal proliferation and prematurely activated lamina propria formation at the expense of the smooth muscle cell...

...Dafne Gays; Christopher Hess; Annalisa Camporeale; Ugo Ala; Paolo Provero; Christian Mosimann; Massimo M. Santoro ABSTRACT Intestinal smooth muscle cells (iSMCs) are a crucial component of the adult gastrointestinal tract and support intestinal differentiation, peristalsis and epithelial...

... that the pool of Fgf10 -positive cells in the distal lung mesenchyme contains progenitors of the parabronchial smooth muscle cells. Fgf10 gene expression is slightly repressed in this transgenic line. This allowed us to create a hypomorphic Fgf10 phenotype by expressing the LacZ transgene in a heterozygous...

... with targeted replacement of the Cx45-coding region with the lacZ reporter gene. Heterozygous Cx45 +/− mice showed strong expression of the reporter gene in vascular and visceral smooth muscle cells. Cx45 -deficient embryos exhibited striking abnormalities in vascular development and died between embryonic day...

... and the transcriptional activity of its promoter in cultured smooth muscle cells in vitro and in transgenic mice. In the transgenic animals, promoter constructs ranging in length from 445 to 2126 bp directed reporter expression initially in the heart and the somites of embryos and subsequently in the arteries...