Scientists Transform Beating Heart Stem Cells into Brain Cells
University of Virginia researchers and partners were able to cause stem cells that were on their way to becoming heart cells to alter course and become future brain cells by turning off a single gene.
University of Virginia researchers and partners were able to cause stem cells that were on their way to becoming heart cells to alter course and become future brain cells by turning off a single gene.
And that could lead to novel therapeutics by allowing scientists to better understand how certain genes affect body development and the role they play in developmental illnesses. Stem cells are like a blank canvas. They're "pluripotent," which means they can change into any cell type in the body.
This transformation process, known as canalization, involves a succession of phases. It was previously considered that once stem cells began canalization, they couldn't alter course and become other cell types. However, Saucerman's researchers at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, led by Benoit G. Bruneau, employed CRISPR genome-editing techniques to turn off the Brm gene in mouse stem cells specialised into heart cells. As a result, the mouse cells were missing a protein known as Brahma. Brm was turned off, which prevented stem cells from developing into beating heart cells. They had also shifted from being heart precursors to becoming brain cell precursors.
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