TY  - JOUR
TI  - Over-expression of thymosin beta4 promotes abnormal tooth development and stimulation of hair growth 
AU  - Cha, Hee-Jae
AU  - Philp, Deborah
AU  - Lee, Soo-Hyun
AU  - Moon, Hye-Sung
AU  - Kleinman, HyndaK.
AU  - Nakamura, Takashi
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - Thymosin beta4 has multi-functional roles in cell physiology. It accelerates wound healing, hair growth and angiogenesis, and increases laminin-5 expression in corneal epithelium. Furthermore, thymosin beta4 stimulates tumor growth and metastasis by induction of cell migration and vascular endothelial growth factor-mediated angiogenesis. Using a construct on the skin-specific keratin-5 promoter, we have developed thymosin beta4 over-expressing transgenic mice to further study its functional roles. Thymosin beta4 in adult skin and in embryonic stages of the transgenic mouse was analyzed by both Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The over-expression of thymosin beta4 was observed especially around hair follicles and in the teeth in the transgenic mice. We examined the phenotype of the thymosin beta4 over-expressing mice. Hair growth was accelerated. In addition, the transgenic mice had abnormally-shaped white teeth and dull incisors. We found that the expression of laminin-5 was up-regulated in the skin of the transgenic mice. We conclude that thymosin beta4 has an important physiological role in hair growth and in tooth development.
PY  - 2010
DO  - 10.1387/ijdb.082735hc
VL  - 54
IS  - 1
SP  - 135
EP  - 140
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/082735hc
Y2  - 2024/11/21/14:15:31
ER  -