Stem Cells

by Krista Conger

Like homing in to an elusive radio frequency in a busy city, human embryonic stem cells must sort through a seemingly endless number of options to settle on the specific genetic message, or station, that instructs them to become more-specialized cells in the body (Easy Listening, maybe, for skin cells, and Techno for neurons?). Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that this tuning process is accomplished in part by restricting the number of messages, called transcripts, produced from each gene.

Read more: Scientists First to Identify Wide Variety of Genetic Splicing in Embryonic Stem Cells

Medical

Researchers at UTHealth have demonstrated in rats that transplanting genetically modified adult stem cells into an injured spinal cord can help restore the electrical pathways associated with movement. The results are published in today’s issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

In spinal cord injury, demyelination, or the destruction of the myelin sheath in the central nervous system, occurs. The myelin sheath, produced by cells called oligodendrocytes, wraps around the axons of nerves and helps speed activity and insulate electrical conduction. Without it, the nerves cannot send messages to make muscles move.

Read more: UTHealth Research Shows Modified Adult Stem Cells May Be Helpful in Spinal Cord Injury

News

Computer engineer Andrew Cohen was designing software to use in high-performance graphics when he left industry for academia and decided to apply his work to a field where the stakes are somewhat higher.

Now, the assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) is creating software that offers a completely novel approach to analyzing time-lapse images capturing live stem cell behaviors. It could lead to new stem cell-based therapies and also new research into causes of cancer, which involves cells that continuously self-renew.

Read more: UWM Engineer Creates Unique Software that Predicts Stem Cell Fate

Stem Cells

Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell's genome.

It is the first example of reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency in this manner, and is hailed by the researchers as a major step toward the use of such cells in humans. They hope that the ease of the technique and its relative safety will smooth its way through the necessary FDA approval process.

Read more: Virus-free Technique Enables Scientists to Easily Make Stem Cells Pluripotent, Moving Closer to Possible Human Therapies

Research

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center (JDC) have taken a major step toward eventually understanding — and perhaps slowing — the aging process.

In a series of careful experiments, Amy J. Wagers and colleagues have demonstrated that the stem cells of old mice exposed to certain factors present in blood from young mice begin to act like young stem cells, with the process driven by signals from another type of cell nearby in the bone. In fact, not only do the blood stem cells begin to take on characteristics of younger cells, but the tissues of old mice exposed to this yet-to-be-identified factor or factors appear to be much more “youthful.

Read more: Blood Tells Old Cells to Act Young

Stem Cells

Even Superman needed to retire to a phone booth for a quick change. But now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in the ultimate switch: transforming mouse skin cells in a laboratory dish directly into functional nerve cells with the application of just three genes. The cells make the change without first becoming a pluripotent type of stem cell — a step long thought to be required for cells to acquire new identities.

The finding could revolutionize the future of human stem cell therapy and recast our understanding of how cells choose and maintain their specialties in the body.

Read more: Dramatic Transformation: Researchers Directly Turn Mouse Skin Cells into Neurons, Skipping IPS Stage