FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Archives > IIDB ARCHIVE: 200X-2003, PD 2007 > IIDB Philosophical Forums (PRIOR TO JUN-2003)
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Yesterday at 05:55 AM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-10-2003, 03:02 AM   #1
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,335
Question pluripotent stem cells

I've been wondering: is it yet known at what point pluripotent stem cells lose their differentiating ability?
In a related query, what acts upon the cell to cause this change?
Godot is offline  
Old 05-10-2003, 05:23 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: On the edge
Posts: 509
Default

I think that you've just asked the current $64,000 questions in stem cell biology.
tribalbeeyatch is offline  
Old 05-10-2003, 06:16 PM   #3
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,335
Default

Fair enough. I guess what I was getting at was if it is yet to be known, have any hypotheses been advanced?
Godot is offline  
Old 05-10-2003, 06:47 PM   #4
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: On the edge
Posts: 509
Default

I do a little bit of work on neural stem cells, and I would say that we have identified certain growth factors that maintain multipotency and others that encourage differentiation. We also know some of the intracellular signaling events that go along with differentiation, but I don't think it's really known what sorts of mechanistic shifts this signaling provokes. I mean, we know that structural proteins are expressed and transcription factors/enhancers are upregulated, for example, but we haven't really identified the key process(es) that makes differentiation a dead-end street.
tribalbeeyatch is offline  
Old 05-11-2003, 01:39 AM   #5
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 1,211
Default

Godot,

You should look into the niche hypothesis. There is a lot of work on the environmental factors which allow certain populations of cells to maintain pluripotency while their sibling daughter cells move on to a differentiated fate.

Lin H.
The stem-cell niche theory: lessons from flies.
Nat Rev Genet. 2002 Dec;3(12):931-40.

TTFN,

Wounded
Wounded King is offline  
Old 05-11-2003, 07:47 AM   #6
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Calgary
Posts: 1,335
Smile

Thanks for that. I'll check it out.
Godot is offline  
Old 05-11-2003, 07:54 AM   #7
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 1,211
Default

The extent to which differentiation is a dead end street is debatable. There is much work going on at the moment into transdifferentiation from one tissue type to another.

See

Horb ME, Shen CN, Tosh D, Slack JM. Experimental conversion of liver to pancreas.
Curr Biol. 2003 Jan 21;13(2):105-15.

From the lab of Jonathan Slack, the man who brought you headless frog embryos.
Wounded King is offline  
Old 05-12-2003, 10:11 AM   #8
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: On the edge
Posts: 509
Default

Quote:
Originally posted by Wounded King
The extent to which differentiation is a dead end street is debatable. There is much work going on at the moment into transdifferentiation from one tissue type to another.
It is certainly debatable (what isn't?), but there really doesn't seem to be much a faction arguing that differentiation is irreversible/inalterable given the right sorts of therapeutic interventions. It isn't heretical in the slightest to suggest that cell fate determination might not be indelible. I hope that my "dead-end street" comment wasn't taken in that vein; I meant it more as a metaphor for the process of differentiation rather than the future of that avenue of research.
tribalbeeyatch is offline  
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:01 AM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.