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研究発表を行った学会；
・41st Annual Meeting for the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists.
　2008年5月28日~30日(徳島)

タイトル；Functional analysis of Angiopoietin-like protein 3 during chick liver development.
　
発表者；　仁木　大輔　氏
　　　（熊本大学　発生医学研究センター　パターン形成分野）
Abstract；
The liver is the center for metabolism and has a highly organized microstructure that enables it to perform its function. The microstructure, which is referred to as hepatic cord, is considered that formed by the interactions between three distinct cell types (hepatoblast, sinusoidal endothelilal cell, and transversum mesenchymal cell), yet little is known about these mediators during liver development.
To elucidate the mediators, we searched genes expressed in developing chick liver and found that Angiopoietin-like protein 3 (Angptl3) is specifically expressed in hepatoblasts. Angptl3 belongs to a family of Angiopoietin-like protein, which contains both coiled-coil domain for lipid metabolism at the N-terminal side and fibrinogen-related domain for angiogenesis at the C-terminal side. In addition, it has been reported that Angptl3 acts on endothelial cell development. The detailed analysis of gene expression pattern indicated that Angptl3 is expressed only in hepatic cord surrounded by endothelial cells, but not in extrahepatic bile duct after Hamburger and Hamilton’s stage 18. Moreover, intestinal ectopic expression of Angptl3 induced the emergence of Flk-1-positive cells in the transferred site of gut epithelium. These results suggest that Angptl3 to be the signaling from hepatoblasts to sinusoidal endothelial cells, which is involved in sinusoidal endothelial cell migration.