Stem cells born out of indecision

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Dec-2014

Contact: Joshua Brickman joshua.brickman@sund.ku.dk 45-51-68-04-38 University of Copenhagen - The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

This latest research by Joshua Brickman and his research team from Danish Stem Cell Center (Danstem) at the University of Copenhagen specifically found that inhibiting or blocking stem cells ability to make a specific decision, leads to better cell growth and could lead to defined ways to differentiate stem cells.

This research is the first comprehensive analysis of a pathway important for stem and cancer cell decisions known as Erk. As a result this work could contain clues to cancer treatment as well as helping to establish a platform to make stem cell treatments for gut related disorders like the pancreas or the liver.

The research results have just been published in Cell Reports.

Blocking choices

"If you block all the choices they can make, they stay in the stem cell state. If you only allow them one door to exit from the stem cell state, you should be able to make particular cell types more efficiently. So if you only leave one door open then it's the path of least resistance and when you give them a push they really go," says Professor Joshua Brickman.

As embryonic stem cells can become any cell type in the body, they have to make choices. Based on this research, it appears that blocking these choices is the key to making them grow as stem cells. In other words, if these choices are removed the cells simply reproduce more stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells

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Stem cells born out of indecision