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Robin Lovell-Badge Division of Developmental Genetics, MRC National Institute for Medical Research Nature 2001; 414: 88-91
2001. 11. 16 Park, Ji-Yoon
Contents
1. Introduction 2. Background A. What are Stem Cells? B. Properties of Human ES Cells 3. Where do embryonic stem cells come from? 4. Why are embryonic stem cells important? 5. How might embryonic stem cells be used to treat disease? 6. Why not derive stem cells from adults?
Relatively flat, compact colonies that easily dissociate into single cells in trypsin or in Ca2+ - and Mg2+ - free medium Grow more slowly than mouse ES cells Population-doubling time: ~ 36 hrs , / mouse ES cells: ~12hrs In vitro culture requirements for undifferentiated growth mouse - LIF(leukemia inhibitory factor) human - feeder layers & serum / or serum-free media, bFGF fibroblast feeder layers: prevent differentiation of human ES cells Remarkably stable karyotypes normal XX and XY karyotype model of the study of developmental biology mechanism Expression of high levels of telomerase maintain their length, is highly correlated with immortality in human cell line
Drug discovery
The ability to grow pure populations of specific cell types - offers a proving ground for chemical compounds that may have medical importance - treating specific cell types with chemicals and measuring their response offers a short-cut to sort out chemicals that can be used to treat the diseases - would permit the rapid screening of hundreds of thousands of chemicals that must now be tested through much more time-consuming processes
Benefits
offer insights into developmental events that cannot be studied directly in humans in utero or fully understood through the use of animal models knowledge of normal development could ultimately allow the prevention or treatment of abnormal human development
There are several approaches now in human clinical trials that utilize mature stem cells (such as blood-forming cells, neuron-forming cells and cartilageforming cells) because adult cells are already specialized, their potential to regenerate damaged tissue is very limited: Adults do not have stem cells in many vital organs, so when those tissues are damaged, scar tissue develops. Only embryonic stem cells, which have the capacity to become any kind of human tissue, have the potential to repair vital organs. adult stem cells are difficult to grow in the lab and their poetntial to reproduce diminishes with age. Studies of adult stem cells are important and will provide valuable insights into the use of stem cell in transplantation procedures.
They have the potential to treat or cure a myriad of diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, spinal cord injuries and burns.
Understand what leads cells to specialization in order to direct cells to become particular types of tissue. To study the potential of immune rejection of the cells, and how to overcome that problem.
Fig 2. A small primary neurosphere, obtained from one or a few cells from the dorsal telencephalon of a 14.5-d.p.c. mouse embryo, which has been grown in culture for 21 days. This is stained with DAPI (blue) to reveal nuclei and with both SOX2 (green) and Nestin (red) to reveal neural progenitor cells. Many, if not all, of these cells have properties of neural stem cells. (Figure courtesy of E. Remboutsika.)
Tissue derivatives of all three EG layers differentiated from human ES cells in vivo
Definition
Somatic cell - cell of the body other than egg or sperm. Somatic cell nuclear transfer - the transfer of a cell nucleus from a somatic cell into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed. Stem cells - cells that have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and to give rise to specialized cells. Pluripotent - capable of giving rise to most tissues of an organism. Totipotent - having unlimited capability. Totipotent cells have the capacity to specialize into extraembryonic membranes and tissues, the embryo, and all postembryonic tissues and organs.