CSB328H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Somatic Cell, Oct-4, Cellular Differentiation
Document Summary
Experiment used to make sure that ips cells were indeed pluripotent. Somatic cells are nuclear equivalent to fertilized eggs (have the same genetic information) What cell types a cell can form depends on it"s environment. The changes that the nucleus undergoes are reversible (epigenetic) Experiments tell us that the genetic information is maintained during differentiation. Their must be factors inside the oocyte that allow the reversion of the nucleus to it"s original state by removing all of the epigenetic changes. Sox2, oct4, klf4, c-myc are transcription factors that are associated with embryonic cells (that are pluripotent) These proteins are not made in differentiated cells. They determined that these cells were pluripotent by: Injecting ips cells (labeled with gfp that is ubiquitously expressed) into a blastocyst stage mouse embryo. Chimeric mouse developed from blastocyst ips gave rise to cell types from all three germ layers. Then they fixed tissues from many different tissues of the chimeric embryo.
