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Document Type: |
Master's Thesis |
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Name: |
Abbie A. Hartge |
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Email Address: |
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Title: |
The Role of FGF Signaling in Retinal Development |
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Degree: |
Master of Science |
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Program: |
Integrated Program in Biomedical Sciences |
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Research Advisor: |
Dr. Michael A. Dyer, Ph.D. |
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Advisor's Email: |
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Committee Members: |
Dr. Dianna A. Johnson, Ph.D. |
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Dr. Peter J. McKinnon, Ph.D. |
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Dr. Martine Roussel, Ph.D. |
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Dr. Beatriz Sosa-Pineda, Ph.D. |
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Keywords: |
Retina; Development; Proliferation; Fibroblast Growth Factor; Fgf15 |
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Availability: |
World-Wide Web Access |
The development of the retina is a precise balance between intrinsic
competence and extrinsic factors. This interplay is known to regulate the
generation of cell types in the developing retina and similar mechanisms have
been found in other regions of the CNS. In the developing retina, FGFs are a
large family of secreted polypeptide growth factors. Fgf15 is the major Fgf
expressed during retinal development in mice. Fgf15 is an example of an FGF
that has been shown to control proliferation, cell fate specification, differentiation
and migration during development. In this thesis I used analysis of specific genes
throughout retinal development, as well as characterization of Fgf receptor
mutant mice and Fgf15 knockout explant retina. The preliminary data presented
evidence that Fgf15 is a good candidate for an extrinsic factor that may regulate
retinal progenitor cell proliferation in the developing retina. When combined with
the expression data, these findings suggest that in the absence of Fgf signaling,
retinal progenitor cells fail to complete their normal developmental program.
Attached File(s)
Revised 5 November 2008