Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics; Fertility
Article Date: 10 Jun 2013 – 1:00 PDT
University of Copenhagen. “Stem Cell Research Advanced By Rewinding Development.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 10 Jun. 2013. Web.
3 Jul. 2013. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/261627.php>
Scientists at the Danish Stem Cell Center, DanStem, at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that they can make embryonic stem cells regress to a stage of development where they are able to make placenta cells as well as the other fetal cells. This significant discovery, published in the journal Cell Reports, has the potential to shed new light on placenta related disorders that can lead to problematic pregnancies and miscarriages.
LIF protein plays a crucial role
Brickman and colleagues grew their embryonic stem cells in a solution containing LIF, which is a protein known to somehow support embryonic stem cells but also for its role in implantation of the embryo into the uterus. As implantation is stimulated by the cells that will become the placenta, not the embryo, these roles appeared to be contradictory. The DanStem study resolved this contradiction by revealing that LIF helps maintain the cells in their regressed, early stage of development.
A team of scientists at the Danish Stem Cell Center, DanStem, at the University of Copenhagen have shown that it is possible to rewind the developmental state of embryonic stem cells. By maintaining mouse embryonic stem cells under certain conditions, they found that cells appear to regress and resemble extremely early embryo cells that can form any kind of cell including placenta and yolk sac cells.
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