Learning from endangered zebra stem cells
Scientists from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Wildlife Research Centre have produced stem cells from the endangered Grévy's zebra using human reprogramming factors.
Scientists from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Wildlife Research Centre have produced stem cells from the endangered Grévy's zebra using human reprogramming factors. Further comprehensive gene analyses identified key genes that are also found in human and mouse cells, providing insight into evolutionary conservation between mammals.
Mammalian stem cells have drawn interest from researchers for their ability to change into multiple cell types, such as skin, muscle, egg and sperm. Pluripotent stem cells have the capacity for unlimited self-renewal and differentiation into any type of cell.
The research group generated iPSCs by converting Grévy's zebra skin cells using human reprogramming factors that tell the differentiated cells to revert back to their stem cell state. The iPSCs were then grown using the same methods as human iPSCs and demonstrated the potential to differentiate into different cell types. These similarities suggest that Grévy's zebra iPSCs are good candidates to scale up for future research using similar methods as human iPSCs.
The researchers then performed RNA sequencing analyses to better understand and characterize the cells.
The successful production of the zebra iPSCs could provide resources for functional research and the artificial reproduction of the endangered species.
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