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    Stem Cell Shifts: Current Biology Vol 19 No 6 R224

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    Candra Bumi
    Reprogramming cells using viruses, has been shown in earlier work, but the need to modify their DNA to create them meant that they cannot be given to patients without greatly increasing their risk of cancer.

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    Stem Cell Shifts: Current Biology Vol 19 No 6 R224

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    Candra Bumi
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    Reprogramming cells using viruses, has been shown in earlier work, but the need to modify their DNA to create them meant that they cannot be given to patients without greatly increasing their risk of cancer.

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    stem cell shift

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    Reprogramming cells using viruses, has been shown in earlier work, but the need to modify their DNA to create them meant that they cannot be given to patients without greatly increasing their risk of cancer.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    11 views1 page

    Stem Cell Shifts: Current Biology Vol 19 No 6 R224

    Uploaded by

    Candra Bumi
    Reprogramming cells using viruses, has been shown in earlier work, but the need to modify their DNA to create them meant that they cannot be given to patients without greatly increasing their risk of cancer.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Current Biology Vol 19 No 6

    R224

    Stem cell shifts


    Skin cells are claimed as a new source
    of stem cells. Nigel Williams reports.
    President Barack Obama announced
    this month, as he had promised on
    his campaign trail, a lifting of the ban
    on federal funding for research on
    new human embryonic stem cells.
    The former president, George Bush,
    blocked the use of government money
    to fund research into any human
    embryonic stem cells created after
    9 August 2001. The decision forms
    part of Obamas pledge to make his
    administrations support for science
    tobe freer from political interference.
    His decision is set to increase
    international competition to create
    potentially clinically useful and
    economically viable sources of
    humanstem cells.
    In the UK, researchers have been
    able to work on embryo-derived
    stem cells for some time, but one
    of the problems has been a lack
    of supply. More recently, and more
    controversially, the way has been
    paved to create animalhuman hybrid
    embryos as a potential source of stem
    cells for researchers to overcome
    the shortage of human embryos.
    But two main groups working on
    humananimal hybrid embryos were
    recently reported by The Independent
    newspaper to be having some funding
    problems for their work.
    Now, new developments have been
    reported in the use of somatic cells
    as a potential source of stem cells
    which may provide a challenge to
    embryo-derived cells and the new
    boost to such research backed by
    Obama. Two teams of researchers
    announced this month (in Nature
    online) a new way of making stem
    cells from a patients own cells.
    Many scientists believe stem cells
    are the key to treating a number of
    conditions because of their potential
    ability to be grown into any kind
    of cell in the body. The teams of
    researchers from Britain and Canada
    have now reported a way of making
    stem cells from a patients skin cells.
    The research raises the prospect for
    the first time of developing stem-cell
    treatments without having to destroy
    human embryos.
    Reprogramming the skin cells
    allows them to assume the properties
    of stem cells obtained from embryos.

    Two teams of researchers, led


    by Keisuke Kaji from the Medical
    Research Councils Centre for
    Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh
    University and Andras Nagy from the
    University of Toronto, combined their
    research to create the stem cells that
    act like embryonic stem cells without
    the need to use viruses in the process.
    Reprogramming cells using viruses,
    has been shown in earlier work, but
    the need to modify their DNA to create
    them meant that they cannot be given
    to patients without greatly increasing
    their risk of cancer.

    The teams of researchers


    from Britain and Canada have
    now reported a way of making
    stem cells from a patients
    skin cells. The research raises
    the prospect for the first
    time of developing stem-cell
    treatments without having to
    destroy human embryos.
    The new method using
    electroporation avoids the use of
    viruses and allows four genes to be
    inserted into the cell to reprogramme
    it and then be removed from the cell.
    The two teams were initially working
    separately on reprogramming but by
    chance discovered that each team
    had solved a separate part of the
    challenge, and their combined method
    appears safer and more efficient.
    The researchers developed their
    techniques in both mouse and
    human skin cells and tests on the
    reprogrammed lines showed that they
    behaved exactly like embryonic stem
    cells. Nobody thought it was really
    possible. This new method will advance
    the field of regenerative medicine, and
    should help understand diseases and
    test new drugs, said Kaji.
    It is a step towards the practical
    use of reprogrammed cells in
    medicine, perhaps even eliminating
    the need for human embryos as a
    source of stem cells, he said.
    Human cell reprogramming was first
    achieved two years ago, but the use
    of multiple viruses to deliver the four
    crucial genes which can reverse
    the adult cells fate into the cells
    DNA also made them liable to switch
    on cancer-causing genes. This has

    previously made them unsafe for


    transplantation into patients. Before
    this new study, attempts at non-viral
    reprogramming had only succeeded
    with mouse cells, and were generally
    inefficient.
    Before their collaboration, Kajis
    team had found a non-viral method
    to deliver the four genes in a single
    fragment. But he could not find a
    way of removing all trace of the
    reprogramming from the genome, and
    this remaining footprint could disrupt
    other genes at the site of insertion.
    Nagys group, however, had
    developed a reprogramming system
    that allowed the removal of inserted
    genes without a trace but because
    their method delivered the four genes
    to different parts of the genome, they
    had not managed to remove all of
    them. The teams breakthrough came
    when they combined their methods.
    With federal funding now opening
    up in the US for embryonic stem cells,
    the race is quickening to find the best
    source of stem cells for use in the
    clinic.
    Kaji said that it will be possible
    to remove not only all the inserted
    genes, but all traces of our genetic
    modification from the human
    skin-derived stem cells, although we
    still need to improve the efficiency.
    Ian Wilmut, director of the MRC
    Edinburgh centre said it will take time
    before these stem cells can be given
    to patients. Crucially, we need to
    have a method to generate the desired
    cell types from these stem cells. But
    I believe the team has made great
    progress and combining this work
    with that of other scientists working
    on stem-cell differentiation, there is
    hope that the promise of regenerative
    medicine could soon be met.
    US researchers, however, are
    pleased with the lifting of the federal
    ban on funds for embryo stem cell
    research. I feel vindicated after eight
    years of struggle and I know it is
    going to energise my research team,
    said George Daley at the Harvard
    Stem Cell Institute. The federal
    funding ban meant that researchers
    had been forced to separate any
    privately funded research from their
    government-backed projects.
    I believe that the restrictions that
    President Bush has placed on funding
    of human embryonic stem cell research
    have handcuffed our scientists and
    hindered our ability to compete with
    other nations, Obama said.

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