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Human Skin Cells Converted Directly To Neurons
Dr. Eggman writes "Stanford's School of Medicine brings us an update in the latest achievements towards in-vitro neuron generation via redifferentiation of specialized cells (skin cells in this case.) This important progress follows on last year's success in inducing this change with mice skin cells. The importance of this line of research lies in that the process does not need to first de-differentiate the skin cells into a kind of stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells. By skipping this phase, the process avoids potential problems in the body's rejection of the iPS cells. Amazingly, the transformation occurs with the added presence of 4 proteins (one more protein than need to induce the effect in mice) over several weeks (compared to a few days in mice.) Research continues as the study highlights the significant differences in mice and human neural cells as well as the success rate of transformation (2-4% for human cells, 20% for mice.) The resultant cells aren't yet as capable as naturally derived neurons; generating less-robust electrical signals."
I just use purified neuron serum from my victims.
So can they turn skin cells directly into any kind of cell, or just neurons? 'Cause I'm thinking the old parody of MAKE.MONEY.FAST might be about to come true.
In the Woody Allen movie, "The Sleeper", the "fearless leader" is recreated from cells cloned from his nose.... it's beginning to look like he was right.
Next thing we know, we'll find out that nuts are bad for us.
skinheads
Zombies
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
5...4...3...2...1
Every time you cut yourself you're prone to forgetting an important date.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm pretty sure every scientist in the field would gladly trade embryotic stem cells for this "artificial" kind, given they are so much less trouble. Nobody picketing their lab because they're "killing babies" (I'd guess not even the most fanatic religious zealot would go to those lengths for skin flakes), no personal "ethic" troubles for doing it, no huge paperworks (I'm pretty sure you get skin cells easier than embryos, hell, if everything fails, just forgo that anti-dandruff shampoo for a while and you're your own supplier!).
I don't know if the religious nuts think scientists are hellbent on killing unborn children for the sake of killing them (and the whole stem cell research is just a ruse to have a marketable reason why they want to kill them), but I kinda doubt that anyone out there trying to be "evil".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They do think that way. I've seen it personally. I met people that sincerely believed that atheists know that god exists, but actively deny him, because they want to be evil. Scientist are just part of this god-denial conspiracy in their minds. Killing a couple of unborn kids before breakfast is pretty much a requirement to join the evil atheist club in their minds.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Now I'm scared.
Not of the atheists...
I'm scared of those christians: is that level of... "reduced intelligence", so to speak, infectuous? I hear it can be transferred verbally..
I was reading yesterday that there's a lot of cross signaling of growth factors between neurons and their surrounding glial cells such as myelin sheath Schwann cells.
I wouldn't expect very normal neuron development without the surrounding glial infrastructure they both induce and are influenced by.
But this is great progress, especially being able to avoid a step where bodily rejection takes place.
There was an article in Nature a while back in which they showed that you can create microglial cells from stem cells (at least for mice). I know that's not the same as the macroglial cells you're referring to, and it's not as effective as transition directly from skin cells to the desired cells, but it is a step in the right direction.
yeah, sounds like it. Thanks for the info.
I want to convert all of my skin directly into a brain.
Do not sit on the neural network.
What about regular fat cells? "This isn't a spare tire, it's a Beowulf cluster of Brain power!"
Perhaps it would be a smart replacement for silicone/saline in breast enlargement augmentation?
It may even give new meaning to: "The sexiest part of you is your Mind."
Admit? At best I could not deny it, lacking data. Generally my view would be that God is not required to explain the universe. Combined with Occam's Razor, the conclusion would be that from a lack of need stems a lack of existence. If he exists, a condition we cannot test as far as I know, he is superfluous concerning our existence. So worship him if you feel like it, but it's proven that it is not a requirement for existence. Huh? Yes, it's proven. A lot of people existed before the first time God was worshiped and a lot of people exist who never heard of him, so it's pretty much established that you can exist without him.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nature. 2011 May 26. [Epub ahead of print]
Induction of human neuronal cells by defined transcription factors.
Pang ZP, Yang N, Vierbuchen T, Ostermeier A, Fuentes DR, Yang TQ, Citri A, Sebastiano V, Marro S, Südhof TC, Wernig M.
Source
1] Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA [2].
Abstract
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, cell fusion, or expression of lineage-specific factors have been shown to induce cell-fate changes in diverse somatic cell types. We recently observed that forced expression of a combination of three transcription factors, Brn2 (also known as Pou3f2), Ascl1 and Myt1l, can efficiently convert mouse fibroblasts into functional induced neuronal (iN) cells. Here we show that the same three factors can generate functional neurons from human pluripotent stem cells as early as 6days after transgene activation. When combined with the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor NeuroD1, these factors could also convert fetal and postnatal human fibroblasts into iN cells showing typical neuronal morphologies and expressing multiple neuronal markers, even after downregulation of the exogenous transcription factors. Importantly, the vast majority of human iN cells were able to generate action potentials and many matured to receive synaptic contacts when co-cultured with primary mouse cortical neurons. Our data demonstrate that non-neural human somatic cells, as well as pluripotent stem cells, can be converted directly into neurons by lineage-determining transcription factors. These methods may facilitate robust generation of patient-specific human neurons for in vitro disease modelling or future applications in regenerative medicine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21617644
Normally the growth factors would cause a signal at the cell surface that eventually changed the amount of various neuronal genes being expressed.They skipped that step here by using viruses to insert extra copies of the neuronal genes into the skin cells. I should note that the neuronal genes are still present in the skin cells but are being suppressed. What this process does is insert extra, non-suppressed copies of those genes.
The summary only mentioning adding four proteins is really misleading then.
Unless they mean the extra unsuppressed genes from I take it real neuron cells expresses for among other things those additional proteins.
They used viruses to add four extra genes in as DNA. This DNA encoded the four proteins they mention. While these genes were already present in the skin cells, they were not active (ie not being used to make Proteins). One way to make the already present versions of the genes active could be adding the right mix of growth factors. Your body really doesnt want this to happen easily though, since it would easily lead to cancer.
Instead of that, they added in new copies of the genes designed so that they will be made into proteins by the skin cells. These proteins then go on to change whats going on in the cell to change it to look and act like a neuron.
The NERVE of some people! This really gets under my skin!
Discussion of producing neural progenitors from both hESC and hiPSC. Touches on the different types which can be produced, production methods, and issues faced in production.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...