Scientists in England have come up with a way to develop "naive pluripotent stem cells" from human embryos, which is set to change the world of science, as these cells can be used to take research on genetic disorders like Down's syndrome to a new level.
Procuring stem cells is currently a time-consuming and highly technical process. Moreover, the cells harvested at present are already "primed" to evolve into specific cell types, and therefore evolve into specific organs.
Now, researchers at Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute have successfully isolated "naïve pluripotent stem cells," which "may have promising therapeutic uses in regenerative medicine to treat devastating conditions that affect various organs and tissues, particularly those that have poor regenerative capacity, such as the heart, brain and pancreas."
When an egg is fertilized, it begins to divide and replicate before the embryo takes shape. Around day five, the embryonic cells cluster together and form a structure called the "blastocyst," which is made up of three cell types: cells that will develop into the placenta, cells that form the "yolk sac," and the "epiblast" made up of the naïve cells that will develop into the future body. It is from the blastocyst that the research team has removed cells, on day six, growing them individually in culture. This individual growth resulted in the cells being unable to "talk" to each other, thereby making them develop on a particular course, as required by research.
While the technology of isolating "naïve stem cells" has been available for about 30 years, it was possible only for mice. It is now finally possible for human stem cells.
"Naïve stem cells have many potential applications, from regenerative medicine to modelling human disorders," explained Ge Guo the lead author of the study.
"Even in many 'normal' early-stage embryos, we find several cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes. Because we can separate the cells and culture them individually, we could potentially generate 'healthy' and 'affected' cell lines. This would allow us to generate and compare tissues of two models, one 'healthy' and one that is genetically-identical other than the surplus chromosome. This could provide new insights into conditions such as Down's syndrome," said Dr. Jenny Nichols, joint senior author, explaining the study further.
The team published their work in the March 3 issue of the journal Stem Cell Reports.
