differentiation

Priming embryonic stem cells to fulfill their promise

...ed cell typesfound in the body.Embryonic stem cell differentiation is complex and far from fullyunderstood. Scientist...ernal inputsknown to be involved in triggering the differentiation of stem cells:soluble growth factors, adjacent cells, mechanical forces, andextracellular matrix pro...

Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds

..., many of the specializedmedia used for growth and differentiation still contain materials fromanimal sources and are hence contaminated with Neu5Gc.In addition to using human serum, the researchers suggested thepossibility of using what are called "feeder cells" from mice with ahuman-like defect in Neu5Gc productio...

Newly-discovered class of genes determines ?and restricts ?stem cell fate

...govern a stem cell's fate and put a hold on future differentiation until the time is right. Understanding the molecul... of the molecular programs that regulate stem-cell differentiation is necessary for harnessing this potential. ### This work was supported by grants from the Nationa...

Scientists discover the cellular roots of graying hair

...ators say, appears to beimplicated in the mistaken differentiation of melanocyte stem cellsthat accompanies the stem cells?depletion. MITF, they conclude, seemsto play a crucial role in maintaining the supply of stem cells withinthe hair follicle, and graying is the result of “incomplete maintenanceof melanocyte ste...

Fundamental Finding Yields Insight into Stem Cells, Cancer; Opens Door to Drug Discovery

...ators say, appears to beimplicated in the mistaken differentiation of melanocyte stem cellsthat accompanies the stem cells?depletion. MITF, they conclude, seemsto play a crucial role in maintaining the supply of stem cells withinthe hair follicle, and graying is the result of “incomplete maintenanceof melanocyte ste...

Scientists rid stem cell culture of key animal cells

...onic stem cells to differentiate appear to inhibit differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells. Aside from feeder cells, two other sources of animal material remain in stem cell culture materials. One, Matrigel, is a product that is essentially a plate-coating matrix of cells extracted from mouse tumors. Serum re...

Weizmann Institute scientists develop a new approach for directing treatment to metastasized prostate cancer in the bones.

...ators say, appears to beimplicated in the mistaken differentiation of melanocyte stem cellsthat accompanies the stem cells?depletion. MITF, they conclude, seemsto play a crucial role in maintaining the supply of stem cells withinthe hair follicle, and graying is the result of “incomplete maintenanceof melanocyte ste...

UCSD researchers maintain stem cells without contaminated animal feeder layers

...viously been shown to modulate cellular growth and differentiation in human pancreatic cells. Human embryonic stem cells cultured for several weeks under these conditions showed no change in cell form and structure. The team then eliminated each factor and pluripotency was assessed. At first, the results were narrow...

UCSD team discovers specialized, rare heart stem cells in newborns

...UCSD) School of Medicine. The cells are capable of differentiation into fully mature heart tissue. Called isl1+ cells, these cardiac progenitor cells are stem cells that have been programmed to form heart muscle during fetal growth. Until this new discovery, the cells were thought to be absent after birth. However,...

New insight into regulation of blood stem cells

...ul for future studies aimed at directing stem cell differentiation in a variety of potential therapeutic contexts. B...latelets. The genes that control proliferation and differentiation have been difficult to study using traditional gene disruption methods because loss of genes thought...

New tumor-suppressor gene discovered

...revealed that the mats gene is required for normal differentiation of eye cells during the development of the fly's eye. Lai's team also tackled the tough challenge of discovering how the mats gene is able to suppress the growth of tumors. "We did not find many clues when we compared the sequence of the mats gene w...

Scientists generate patient-specific stem cells, Science study says

...ers must develop methods to efficiently direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells to specific stable cell types. Scientists must also find a way to remove the remaining animal components from the laboratory procedures. Currently, the procedure for isolating non-reproductive cells for the nuclear transfer me...

SuperLigands - a database of ligand structures derived from the Protein Data Bank

...ers must develop methods to efficiently direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells to specific stable cell types. Scientists must also find a way to remove the remaining animal components from the laboratory procedures. Currently, the procedure for isolating non-reproductive cells for the nuclear transfer me...

Human Eggs Can Develop From Ovarian Surface Cells In Vitro

...sa cells. The authors speculate that this bipotent differentiation may represent a sophisticated mechanism created during the evolution of female reproduction, and not seen in ovaries of female prosimians (ancestral primates) or mice carrying germline stem cells. The ability to produce mature human eggs from adult ...

Biologists determine genetic blueprint of social amoeba

...for studying cell polarity, how cells move and the differentiation of tissues. It also exhibits many of the properties of white blood cells. Three years ago, another team of UCSD biologists discovered that two genes that are used by Dictyostelium to guide the organism to food sources are also used to guide human wh...

Brain size may depend upon how neural cells are cleaved

...peutic use, the role of G protein signaling in the differentiation of such progenitor cells is going to be a very exciting area to explore," she said. ...

AACR Favors 'full spectrum of stem cell research biology'

...will elucidate critical aspects of cell growth and differentiation that are altered during the formation and growth of tumors. # Research on tissue-specific stem cells from adults may reveal the body's innate maintenance and repair mechanisms. # Embryonic stem cells have the ability to transform into the cells of ...

Stem cells bring fast direct improvement, without differentiation, in acute renal failure

...ntial late phase contributions to organ repair via differentiation of stem cells into cells that have been destroyed in ARF," the study noted. ...

Fish and chips: A fast track to understanding blood development

...rstood is which genes control the self-renewal and differentiation processes, and how these genes could be used to influence, or regulate, these processes. The research will be published in the July issue of the journal of Public Library of Science Biology. "If we can find a way to coax blood stem cells to self-re...

The making of a fat cell

...oliferation of mesenchymal stem cells, followed by differentiation into fat cell precursors called preadipocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into various cell types, including bone, cartilage, muscle, nerve, and fat. Fat precursor cells then migrate and proliferate at the site of fat production, where...

System Drastically Cuts Down Botulism Detection Time

...oliferation of mesenchymal stem cells, followed by differentiation into fat cell precursors called preadipocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into various cell types, including bone, cartilage, muscle, nerve, and fat. Fat precursor cells then migrate and proliferate at the site of fat production, where...

Short-term Bio Sensors Monitor From Afar

...oliferation of mesenchymal stem cells, followed by differentiation into fat cell precursors called preadipocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into various cell types, including bone, cartilage, muscle, nerve, and fat. Fat precursor cells then migrate and proliferate at the site of fat production, where...

Key To Stem Cell Transplant Success Is Tricking Immune System

...oliferation of mesenchymal stem cells, followed by differentiation into fat cell precursors called preadipocytes. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into various cell types, including bone, cartilage, muscle, nerve, and fat. Fat precursor cells then migrate and proliferate at the site of fat production, where...

Master regulatory gene found that guides fate of blood-producing stem cells

...y gene to shift the balance of self-renewal versus differentiation so that all the immature, leukemic cells differentiate and die. Over the past 10 years, several gene families have been suggested to be important in regulating HSC fate-for example homebox, wnt, notch 1, and telomerase genes. Emerson and colleagues ...

Regenerating worms help elucidate stem cell biology

...environmental cues that influence the division and differentiation of their neoblasts, Sánchez Alvarado considers planaria an excellent model to tease out the intricacies of adult stem cell biology. "I think they probably have a lot to teach us about how a population of stem cells is being regulated in vivo, ra...

CO2 sensing proves critical for fungal pathogens to adapt to life in air and human hosts

... study implicates a key role for CO2 in growth and differentiation in the fungal kingdom. The identification of a link between CO2 sensing and fungal virulence may have broad implications for the study of microbial pathogens and the role of adenylyl cyclase in virulence trait regulation by CO2. Furthermore, it may...

Stem cells' electric abilities might help their safe clinical use

...ause electrical activity is known to regulate cell differentiation and proliferation," says Li. "To my knowledge, the...and observed the electric current's effect on cell differentiation and proliferation. "In a number of different cell types, from cancer to T-lymphocytes, potassium ch...

Researchers show key protein necessary for normal development of red blood cells

..., the production of blood cells involves a complex differentiation pathway that involves the interaction of many molecular players and proteins. In humans, there are four globin genes clustered on chromosome 11 in the order in which they are "turned on" or expressed. These genes include the epsilon-globin gene, tw...

From one cell, many possible cures

...produce mesenchymal stem cells and to direct their differentiation into bone, cartilage, muscle, heart muscle, fat or nerve tissue," Ma said. "The tissues grown then will be suitable for clinical transplantation." He added that stem cells can live for up to 40 days within the bioreactor. Ma's research has attracted...

OHSU discovery sheds light into how stem cells become brain cells

...velopment of drugs targeted at promoting stem cell differentiation in the adult nervous system." While much more research needs to be conducted, the scientists believe these findings could play a role in the development of therapies to combat a variety of diseases and conditions. For instance, Parkinson's disease ...

Scientists crack code for motor neuron wiring

... established that certain Hox proteins control the differentiation of motor neurons into columns in the spinal cord. ... proteins, their chromosomal organization, and the differentiation and connectivity of motor neuron pools," he said. Jessell said this code appears to govern three le...

Forgotten by evolution?

...lls could be the mere remnants of former embryonal differentiation processes, or, in other words, "footprints" of evo...ls. This provided evidence for the beginnings of a differentiation process. But this process was only apparently halfway complete. So, for example, after the activatio...

Ocean 'dead zones' trigger sex changes in fish, posing extinction threat

... control the production of sex hormones and sexual differentiation in embryonic zebra fish. As a result, 75 percent of the fish developed male characteristics. In contrast, 61 percent of the zebra fish spawn raised under normal oxygen conditions ?more than 5 parts per million ?developed into males. The normal sex ra...

Clues to breast cancer hidden inside stem cells

...s over, it involutes. This cycle of proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis also happens in every menstrual cycle and in a more dramatic form during pregnancy. "This caught our attention, and has driven our research," Sigurdsson pointed out. Breast cancer almost always occurs in the luminal epithelial compartm...

MiRNA fingerprint identified in platelet formation

... miRNAs are turned off during normal megakaryocyte differentiation and that 8 of those genes create a molecular signature that clearly defines a megakaryocyte from any other type of cell. "We believe this set of genes may contribute to platelet formation," says Garzon. "We think that when these miRNAs are turned o...

Single microRNA causes cancer in transgenic mouse

...miR 155 initiated the process that blocked further differentiation of these cells," says Costinean. Croce says the results are consistent with previous study findings. "We know that miRNAs often act just like oncogenes, in that they promote abnormal cell growth that leads to cancer. Others, however, behave more li...

Findings advance use of adult stem cells for replacement bone

...to progress through a half-dozen or more stages of differentiation on their way to becoming the right tissue ?and any missed cue will derail the process. In most cases, engineers have little choice but to take a trial-and-error approach to designing a growth-factor regime." In the study, Mikos's team hit upon the i...

Retinol for combating leukemia cells

...ke part in three processes: in cell death, in cell differentiation and in cell proliferation. Clean and programmed death Two types of death occur in cells: necrosis and apoptosis. Necrosis defines a pathological death, i.e. a death caused by a lack or deficit within the cell such as lack of oxygen or food. On...

Liquid crystals show promise in controlling embryonic stem cells

...nt, can also be used to report in real time on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells. Differentiation is the ...lenge facing stem cell research is that of guiding differentiation along these well-defined, controlled lineages. Stem cells grown in the laboratory tend to differenti...

Markers of gene, protein, or micro-RNA activity predict outcome in prostate and colorectal cancers

...hemotherapy," Nielsen said. "Such possible patient differentiation should, of course, be confirmed in prospective studies." Such a study is currently underway in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, he said. Up to 1,500 patients will be enrolled and blood samples will be collected periodically, such as before ...

AIDS-related cognitive impairment exists in two separate forms

...hemotherapy," Nielsen said. "Such possible patient differentiation should, of course, be confirmed in prospective studies." Such a study is currently underway in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, he said. Up to 1,500 patients will be enrolled and blood samples will be collected periodically, such as before ...

Researchers map out networks that determine cell fate

...iming appears to be a common feature of blood cell differentiation and may in fact be a general feature of other developmental processes." "Understanding the genetic circuitry that orchestrates development of each specialized cell type," Singh added, "should enable us to manipulate it for our own purposes." The re...

When the going gets tough, slime molds start synthesizing

...author Robert Kay, Ph.D., a Dictyostelium cellular differentiation expert and groupleader at the MRC. "We wrote a paper and sent a version to Rob Kay and said, 'You don't know us, but here's what we do. Biochemically we have identified the machinery that makes the essential precursor for the bioactive DIF-1 molecule...

New study reveals signaling pathways required for expansion of pancreas stem cells

... that regulate gene expression. Ids (inhibition of differentiation factors) are a family of proteins implicated in a ...ndent factor PAX6, which is required for the final differentiation of pancreatic islet cells." The group's results indicate that BMP4 stimulation blocks the differen...

Neural stem cell gene plays crucial role in eye development

...ne, SOX2, are a critical factor that regulates the differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells in the eye. Their work appears in the current edition of the journal Genes & Development. The SOX2 gene is a member of class of master genes that encode for transcription factors. Transcription factors are prote...

Expanding waistlines triggered by your genes

..., the research team also discovered that adipocyte differentiation in conventional two-dimensional (2-D) cell culture is different from three-dimensional (3-D) microenvironment taking place inside the complex body. In regular 2-D culture system, the MT1-MMP gene was not necessary, but it becomes a critical metabolic...

Mobile DNA part of evolution's toolbox

...oduces a protein that helps control the growth and differentiation of motor neurons. In the laboratory of Edward Rubin at the University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow Nadav Ahituv combined the human version of the LF-SINE sequence with a "reporter" gene that would produce an easily recognizable protei...

Striking the right balance between excitation and inhibition

...ltiple roles of Notch, not only in controlling the differentiation of neurons but in determining their excitatory/inhibitory activity, he adds: "Given that we now have a detailed description of how Notch signaling provides a switch that controls the choice between two different neuronal fates, we can now look and se...

Plants' role in global warming re-examined

... previous climate-carbon simulations have included differentiation among vegetation types, none have incorporated an explicit time-dependent acclimation of plant respiration to increasing temperatures. ORNL researchers also looked at the influence of temperature acclimation at both the local ecosystem and global sca...

Researchers make progress in studying genetic traits of India-born populations

...an ancestry groups, with relatively little genetic differentiation among the Indian populations. Although the study used participants that may not reflect a random sample from India, these results still suggest that the frequencies of many genetic variants are distinctive in India compared to other parts of the worl...

A natural chemical found in strawberries boosts memory in healthy mice

...ome of those compounds, including fisetin, induced differentiation or maturation of neural cells. Maher explains, "Th...e signaling pathway activated by fisetin in neural differentiation also played a role in memory formation, a process neuroscientists call "long-term potentiation" or L...

Mayo Clinic: Gene expression profiling not quite perfected in predicting lung cancer prognosis

...ally expressed, most of which are related to tumor differentiation and may not correlate with clinical outcomes; conversely, genes expressed at low levels or in a subtle difference are often overlooked, which may be quite relevant biologically to clinical questions. The authors of the study recommend that me...

Embryonic stem cells do better on bumpy nanoscale mattress

...ons, of cell culture surfaces influences HES cell differentiation and self-renewal, according to the researchers. For HES cells to realize their potential in clinical medicine, they would have to be cultured in great quantities and with great fidelity to their pluripotent phenotype. Fine-tuning their nano-micro to...

Muscle and bone from an ink-jet printer

... using growth factors to control proliferation and differentiation in populations of “muscle-derived stem cells,?or M...tic abnormalities. Spatial patterning of stem cell differentiation through delivery of bio-inks with an ink-jet printer will offer the Pittsburgh researchers a whole n...

Detailed 3-D image catches a key regulator of neural stem cell differentiation in action

...molecular "on" and "off" switches orchestrates the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into different tissue type...ch and potential therapies. "At the moment, the differentiation of stem cells into neurons in a Petri dish is a little bit like a black box and not very efficient,"...

One signal elicits thousands of answers

...rs, for example, can lead to growth of a cell, its differentiation or proliferation. Defects in these tightly regulated and controlled processes can cause cancer and other human diseases. In recent decades, knowledge of the important players in signal transduction has been painstakingly accumulated, mainly through t...

Researchers identify a key regulator for skin stem cells

...rchers analyzed how switching on Tcf3 affected the differentiation of embryonic skin stem cells. They found that activating the gene in mice blocked differentiation of all three types of mature skin cells -- epidermal, sebaceous, and hair follicle. "We've known for...

Who gives stem cells their marching orders?

...s uterus, and later providing cues to direct their differentiation in a coordinated fashion when the time is ripe. The development of an embryo from a few seemingly identical stem cells is a truly awesome feat of nature. As they bathe in a chemical soup they've manufactured themselves, stem cells react to subtle c...

Lost in the labyrinth

...ells, by keeping them on hold and preventing their differentiation until the right time. Such pathways are usually switched on and off by external stimuli that help cells respond properly to the environment. Now Peggy Kirstetter and other members of Nerlov's lab have shown what happens when Wingless is too active in...

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

... direct evidence of growth factor control over the differentiation of these neurons, " says Jeffrey Macklis MD, DHST, director of the MGH-Harvard Medical School (HMS) Center for Nervous System Repair, the report's senior author. "In addition to providing insight into the development and circuit formation of this cr...