Authors of the Outreach book "The Weight of Obesity in the 21st Century" at radio program Foro Ciudadano

Juan Larraín

Investigación

Regenerative biology. The amphibians, unlike the mammals (mice, human beings) possess enormous regenerative capacities. The frogs as Xenopus laevis, in the tadpole stage, are capable of regenerating the spinal cord, capacity that gets lost in the adult state. On the other hand the salamanders, in its adult state can regenerate complete limbs, spinal cord, heart, and the retina. Our interest is to understand the differences between the regenerative species (amphibians) and the non-regenerative (mammals), through the study of the cellular, molecular and genetic bases of the regeneration of the nervous system in amphibians. To determine the basic mechanisms of the regeneration of the spinal marrow in amphibians can be useful to become able to induce the regeneration of this tissue in mammals and then, to design new therapies. Diseases such as Parkinson, Alzheimer, and spinal cord injury derive from neuronal damage and death. The aim of regenerative medicine is to provide an ailment for these and other diseases that require regeneration of the damaged tissue. Its promise lies in two main strategies: (i) cell-based therapies, which consist in the in vivo culturing and differentiation of stem cells followed by their transplantation into patients.

Objetivs:

  • To evaluate the role of neural progenitors and hyaluronan (HA) in spinal cord regeneration of Xenopus tadpoles
  • To identify key genes that regulate spinal cord regeneration
  • To identify novel compounds that promote spinal cord regeneration
Referencias Seleccionadas
Autor(es) Título Fecha
Moreno, M., Muñoz, R., Aroca, F., Labarca, M., Brandan,E. and Larraín, J. Biglycan is a new extracellular component of the Chordin-BMP4 signalling pathway. EMBO, J. 24, 1397-1405.(2005) 0
Muñoz, R., Moreno, M., Oliva, C., Orbenes, C., Larraín, J. Syndecan-4 regulates non-canonical Wnt signaling and is essential for convergent and extension movements in Xenopus embryos. Nat. Cell Biol. 8, 492-500.(2006) 0
Olivares, G.H., Carrasco, H., Aroca, F., Carvallo, L., Segovia, F. and Larraín, J Syndecan-1 regulates BMP signaling and dorso-ventral patterning during early Xenopus development Syndecan-1 regulates BMP signaling and dorso-ventral patterning during early Xenopu 0
Faunes, F., Sánchez, N., Castellanos, J., Vergara, I., Melo, F. and Larraín, J. Novel transcripts with differential dorsoventral expression in Xenopus gastrula identified by SAGE (in revision) 0
Contreras, E.G., Gaete, M., Sánchez, N., Carrasco, H. and Larraín, J. Early requirement of Hyaluronan synthase activity for tail regeneration in Xenopus tadpoles (in revision) 0
Faunes F, Sanchez N, Castellanos J, Vergara I, Melo F, Larrain J. Identification of novel transcripts with differential dorso-ventral expression in Xenopus gastrula using serial analysis of gene expression 0

Academic CV

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Pontificia Universidad Católica