Can cells be influenced by their “mates”? Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have revealed that skin cells can be made to behave like muscle cells and muscle cells like skin cells simply by changing the types of surrounding cells. The changeability of the cells, and the ease with which they make the switch, provides a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to change.
Helen Blau, PhD, and member of Stanford's Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Institute stated "These types of experiments will help us to identify the earliest regulators of reprogramming." Controlling these genetic alterations will allow scientists to understand how to induce specialized adult cells to revert to a stem-cell-like state using a process called induced pluripotency. The new pluripotent, or iPS, cells, can then be encouraged to branch out into a variety of other cell types. But Blau's experiments suggest a fascinating alternative to iPS: that of enticing these adult cells to move sideways from one to another without the necessity to access the stem cell pool.
To test this, they first used a chemical treatment to fuse skin and muscle cells together, producing cells that had nuclei from human skin cells and mouse muscle cells. By being encapsulated within the same cell wall, the human skin cells and mouse muscle nuclei could now "talk" to one another via chemical signals. Then, the scientists looked at the genes from the human skin nuclei and mouse muscle nuclei. (This was possible because one cell type was human and the other was mouse, so the genes could be distinguished based on species differences.) After several experiments, they were able to induce the human skin nuclei to produce mouse muscle genes and induce the muscle nuclei to produce human skin genes, effectively transforming the cell from one type to the other.
This research paves the way for a breakthrough in treatment of certain disease. As indicated by Blau, 'regenerative medicine provides hope of novel and powerful treatments for many diseases, but depends on the availability of cells with specific characteristics to replace those that are lost or dysfunctional”.The team is continuing with experimentation on cells of different types in order to fine tune their process and provide a valuable contribution to medical science.
REFERENCE:
Article: Stanford Scientists Explore New Way To Change Cell's IdentityConger, K. (2009, May 6). Retrieved May 10, 2009, from Medical News Today: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/149072.php
Image from: newswire.rockefeller.edu/?id=484&page=engine
