Bare Bones Pattern Formation: A Core Regulatory Network in Varying Geometries Reproduces Major Features of Vertebrate Limb Development and Evolution

BACKGROUND: Major unresolved questions regarding vertebrate limb development concern how the numbers of skeletal elements along the proximodistal (P-D) and anteroposterior (A-P) axes are determined and how the shape of a growing limb affects skeletal element formation. There is currently no generally accepted model for these patterning processes, but recent work on cartilage development (chondrogenesis) indicates that precartilage tissue self-organizes into nodular patterns by cell-molecular circuitry with local auto-activating and lateral inhibitory (LALI) properties. This process is played out in the developing limb in the context of a gradient of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) emanating from the apical ectodermal ridge (AER). RESULTS: We have simulated the behavior of the core chondrogenic mechanism of the developing limb in the presence of an FGF gradient using a novel computational environment that permits simulation of LALI systems in domains of varying shape and size. The model predicts the normal proximodistal pattern of skeletogenesis as well as distal truncations resulting from AER removal. Modifications of the model's parameters corresponding to plausible effects of Hox proteins and formins, and of the reshaping of the model limb, bud yielded simulated phenotypes resembling mutational and experimental variants of the limb. Hypothetical developmental scenarios reproduce skeletal morphologies with features of fossil limbs. CONCLUSIONS: The limb chondrogenic regulatory system operating in the presence of a gradient has an inherent, robust propensity to form limb-like skeletal structures. The bare bones framework can accommodate ancillary gene regulatory networks controlling limb bud shaping and establishment of Hox expression domains. This mechanism accounts for major features of the normal limb pattern and, under variant geometries and different parameter values, those of experimentally manipulated, genetically aberrant and evolutionary early forms, with no requirement for an independent system of positional information

Trypanosoma cruzi in dogs: electrocardiographic and echocardiographic evaluation, in Malinalco, State of Mexico

Sandra Díaz González-Vieyra1, Ninfa Ramírez-Durán2, Ángel H Sandoval-Trujillo3, Juan C Vázquez-Chagoyán1, Humberto G Monroy-Salazar1, Alberto Barbabosa-Pliego11Research Center of Advanced Studies in Animal Health, Veterinary Husbandry School, 2Medical and Ambiental Microbiology, Research Center of Advanced Studies in Health Science, School of Medicine, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Toluca, Mexico; 3Department of Biological Systems, Metropolitan Autonomous University, Xochimilco, Mexico City, MexicoAbstract: Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi is an important public health problem in Latin America. Dogs are considered a risk factor for human Chagas disease, a sentinel for T. cruzi infection in endemic regions and an animal model to study pathological aspects of the disease. The potential use of dogs as indicators of human cardiac pathogenicity of local T. cruzi strains has been studied insufficiently. We studied electrocardiographic (EKG) and echocardiographic (ECG) alteration frequencies observed in an open population of dogs in Malinalco, Mexico, and determined if such frequencies were statistically associated with T. cruzi infection in dogs. Animals (n = 139) were clinically examined and owners were asked to answer a questionnaire about dogs’ living conditions. Two commercial serological tests (IHA, ELISA) were conducted to detect anti-T. cruzi serum antibodies. Significant differences between seropositive and seronegative animals in cardiomyopathic frequencies were detected through EKG and ECG (P < 0.05). Thirty dogs (21.58%) were serologically positive to anti-T. cruzi antibodies (to ELISA and IHA assays), of which nine (30%) had EKG and/or ECG alterations. From the remaining 104 (78.42%) seronegative animals, five (4.5%) had EKG and/or ECG abnormalities. Our data support the hypothesis that most EKG and ECG alterations found in dogs from Malinalco could be associated with T. cruzi infection. Considering the dog as a sentinel and as an animal model for Chagas disease in humans, our findings suggest that the T. cruzi strains circulating in Malinalco have the potential to produce cardiomyopathies in infected humans.Keywords: chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, cardiomyopathy, electrocardiography, echocardiography, Malinalco, Méxic