BIOM30001 Lecture 13: 13 Stem cells - basic concepts D
Document Summary
Seven signaling systems control most events during animal development: wnt, hedgehog, Es cell differentiation goes through germ layer intermediates. By adding different factors we can steer cell fate by recapitulating what happens in embryo e. g. can create beating heart muscle from human embryonic stem cells, using signalling pathways in very pure forms. Transcription factors tells us what stage of development it is in. Many species of mammal have now been cloned. Somatic cell nuclear transfer and patient specific therapy. Use cloning to make stem cells with correct genetic make up for a patient. Take cells from skin-->put into enucleated egg-->trick egg into making stem cells--> differentiate them-->put back into patient. You need 100s of human eggs to make 1 embryo. This is difficult to access this many eggs. Reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency: an alternate method. Es-specific transgenes introduced in host cells oct-4, sox2, klf-4, cmyc. Identified 4 key transcription factors critical for embryonic development.
