Student Society for Stem Cell Research

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Student Society for Stem Cell Research

• February 27, 2008
• Virginia Commonwealth University

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Reprogramming Skin Cells

• Human skin cells have been reprogrammed to act
  like embryonic stem cells (induced pluripotent
  stem cells, or iPS).
• Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka (Kyoto
  University, Japan) published in Cell.
• Junying Yu and colleagures (University of
  Wisconsin-Madison) published in Science.

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Reprogramming Skin Cells

• What pluripotent stem cells generated from
  mature human fibroblasts
• How Uses viruses to insert several copies of
  three or more pluripotency genes into cells.
• Result An adult cell behaving like an embryonic
  stem cell.
• The induced cells do all the things embryonic
  stem cells do - its going to completely change
  the field.
• Professor James Thomson, University of
  Wisconsin-Madison

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Kyoto Team

• The cells were similar to embryonic stem cells!
• Brain and Heart tissue
• Heart muscle tissue started beating.

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Benefits of Reprogramming

• Reduces the risk of tissue rejection.
• No embryo is needed.
• No more controversy!

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Problems with Reprogramming

• Viral contamination
• Cancer
• Not Efficient / Questionable Validity

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Possible Answers

• Yamanaka, S., et all. (2008). Generation of
  Pluripotent Stem Cells from Adult Mouse Liver and
  Stomach Cells. Science.
• Genetic Marking System
• Cancer?
• Less viral contamination
• No Transgenes This is encouraging to those of
  us who are seeking a nonviral means of generating
  iPS cells, said George Daley of Childrens
  Hospital Boston

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Future of Stem Cell Research

• New treatments for diseases
• Perfecting the Technique
• Still needs to be embryonic stem cell research!

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Sources / Resources

• http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7101834.stm
• http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18276851?ordina
  lpos1itoolEntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_R
  esultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
• http//blogs.nature.com/reports/theniche/2008/02/a
  dult_cell_types_besides_skin.html