The de Caestecker laboratory is exploring the functional and biochemical properties of a family of transcriptional co-factors, the Cited proteins, in the regulation of renal development and cancer.   Lab members have shown that Cited1 regulates BMP and Wnt-dependent transcriptional responses, and that all three mammalian family members, Cited1, Cited2 and Cited4, have highly restricted expression patterns during kidney development. They have also shown that Cited1 knockout mice have a late defect in dorsoventral patterning of the developing kidney, and are exploring the functional role and genetic redundancy of the other two Cited family members using the respective germ line null mutant mice.  The deCaestecker lab is also developing a BAC transgenic line expressing a tamoxifen regulated Cre cassette at the Cited1 locus in order to perform lineage tracing studies to explore the fate of Cited1 expressing cells at different stages of development.  Trainees in the lab are also performing biochemical studies to identify Cited1 interacting proteins that are functionally significant during early nephrogenesis, and are evaluating their role during embryonal tumorigenesis of the kidney using a mouse Xenograft model to study of human Wilms’ tumors.

For more information about Dr. De Caestecker visit his Vanderbilt Faculty Page

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Increased susceptibility to hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in Bmpr2 mutant mice is associatd with endothelial dysfunction in the pulmonary vasculature.   2007 Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol [Epub ahead of print]

Angiopoietin-2 and glomerular proteinuria.  2007 J Am Soc Nephrol 18: 2217-2218

Cited1 and Cited2 are differentially expressed in the dveloping kidney but are not required for nephrogenesis.   2007 Developmental Dynamics 236: 2321-2330

Wilms' tumorigenesis is altered by misexpression of the transcriptional co-activator, CITED1.  2007 Journal of Pediatric Surgery 42; 474-481

Fate mapping using Cited1-CreERT2 mice demonstrates that the cap mesenchyme contains self-renewing progenitor cells and gives rise exclusively to nephronic epithelia.  [2007 Developmental Biology in press]