Stem Cells and Where This is Going

The most recent issue of Scientific American has a wonderful review of the stem cell opportunities and updates on what is going on in an article titled “Your Inner Healers”. I will try to summarize this article for those of you who do not have access to this publication…

Throughout history, researchers have wanted to escape from aging and disease. They have looked for way to to crease embryonic cells from adult cells in the body. In experiments in mice, some researchers have been successful in creating stem cells from mouse skin cells. These cells have contributed to better understanding of diseases like Type 1 Diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. There are 220 cell types in the human body that are created by embryonic stem cells and the stem cells can be extracted before they differentiate into their adult state. These cells can generate into any tissue type (pluripotent).

The goal for today’s scientists is to reprogram the adult cells into going backward to their embryonic state. Cloning is but one example of the reprogramming process where genetic material from one cell is transferred to another (Dolly the sheep). Although we have successfully cloned a variety of animals, no one has cloned a human being. A group of Japanese researchers have attempted to create pluripotent cells from adult cells without the use of eggs or embryos, but with the use of a retrovirus. Eventually they identified 4 genes that were critical to the process (Oct-3/4, SOX2, c-Myc, and Klf4 — read more about those here). Researchers have found that some of the creation of these pluripotent cells became cancers and the ability to control that process was clearly a risk that was not understood well. Controlling these cells’ ability to produce cancer is critical to what will be the eventual human work that will follow, in time. The goal is to create chemical activators that will do what the gene transfers do without the risks. Growing pluripotent cells in a petri dish could eventually produce an endless supply of stem cells for whatever purpose we need. Control of the reprogramming process will eventually lead us to create organ and tissue types. It may even give us the hair that genetic balding has taken away.

The Scientific American website has a fantastic interactive presentation about this for those interested in learning more — Your Inner Healers: Progress in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, Made Interactive.