klog blog flog: stem cells

i am participating (as of last week) in a law school reading group entitled "Genomic Freedom and Cognitive Liberties". a grandiose title for a class that seems to be a friendly forum for the discussion of legal and ethical issue that pertain to the recent genetic advances in biology.

this week's topic is "How to fix yourself with your own cells" -- basically, cloning and stem cells for research (as opposed to procreative) purposes. i found the readings to be a bit out-dated. in regards to the source of stem cells, they speak nearly solely of embryonic and adult stem cells, and portray embryos as a kind of "black box" for developing tissues and organs. which they are to some extent, as there is still much we don't know about how a pluripotent stem cell develops into the various cell types in our bodies.

not completely germane to this post is how i was able to identify the readings as obsolete. this knowledge can be attributed to me allowing myself (or perhaps equally accurately, finding the desire) to read articles / news blurbs outside my realm of immediate study, and several of recent note pertain to the topic(s) of this week's class. i tend to remember a piece of information and less so from where or whom i've heard it. (i once told an acquaintance the very interesting tidbit of trivia he'd told me the week before.) true to form, i just spent the last hour or so looking up the information i'd stumbled upon recently, and cataloguing it for my future reference. since the word documents i sometimes create in an attempt to organize my thoughts become just another misplaced source, i've decided to post the information here -- the internet, which is searchable and retrievable from ANYWHERE. i'd feel wrong not properly referencing my sources, this being for a legal class and all, so i've included links to primary sources.

first of all, did you know scientists have figured out that adult (somatic, full-differentiated) cells can be re-(de-?) programed into (pluripotent) stem cells through the induction of a mere handful of genes? we no longer need to harvest stem cells from embryonic or adult sources -- hooray!

The first paper demostrating this: Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Embryonic and Adult Fibroblast Cultures by Defined Factorss. Cell, Volume 126, Issue 4, 663-676, 25 August 2006.
This one's of note because they derive stem cells from a dude's skin cells: Reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotency with defined factors. Nature 2008, Jan 10;451(7175):141-6.

i just know that some of you are wondering about those pernicious retroviruses that are typically used for the stable expression of proteins and how they run the risk of integrating into a cell's genome and wreaking havoc -- typically cancer and cell death are the result, but zombie-ism is definitely a phenotype to watch out for. luckily, some really smart people saw "I am Legend" and got to work on this problem. they've come up with a safer way of generating stem cells, using a temporary expression system:

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Generated Without Viral Integration. Science 7 November 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5903, pp. 945 - 949.

lastly, the mystic properties of the womb have been debunked, at least for one growth factor named Twist. (for the rest of us, the search continues.) a group of Frenchies quite literally poked and prodded some cells in the developing mass of an embryo, to recreate the poking and prodding those cells would feel by neighboring cells, which had been removed for the purposes of this experiment. lo and behold, the expression of Twist was observed upon this mechanical manipulation, just as it is when the regular pushy cells are present. (i secretly think that if we grow stem cells in the gently prodding yet firmly present environment of those blower machines in the airport security lines, they'll turn out juuuuuust fine.) the Twist (and shout!) paper: