Maija J. Zile


    

zile@msu.edu
http://www.msu.edu/~zile/index.htm
Phone: (517) 355-8474 ext. 127
Home Department: Food Science and Human Nutrition

Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Madison; M.S., University of Wisconsin - Madison; B.S., University of Maryland


        Vitamin A is essential for normal embryonic development in all vertebrates, and exerts its effects at the gene level via nuclear receptors for the vitamin A-active form, retinoic acid. Our laboratory studies the function of retinoids in embryogenesis. We have developed a vitamin A-deficient (retinoid ligand knockout) avian embryo model to examine early developmental events and genes regulated by retinoids. Our focus is on cardiovascular development, i.e. morphogenesis of the primitive heart, specification of heart asymmetry and formation of the initial vascular network. Several retinoid-regulated genes linked to those events have been identified in our lab: homeobox genes HoxB-1 and Msx-1; cardiogenic transcription factor GATA-4, and the asymmetry genes nodal, snail and Pitx-2. Our model provides an opportunity to address basic issues in developmental biology and to elucidate the critical role of vitamin A in embryogenesis, so as to apply this knowledge to prevention of congenital heart defects.

        Current projects include: 1) heart asymmetry specification; 2) regulation of cardiac morphogenesis; 3) analysis of the roles of retinoid receptors in regulating heart development; and 4) function of retinoids in vasculogenesis.


Selected Publications


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