While it is already possible to obtain in vitro pluripotent cells (ie, cells capable of generating all tissues of an embryo) from any cell type, researchers from Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla’s team have pushed the limits of science even further.
These results provide new elements for the understanding of pluripotency and could increase the efficiency of reprogramming somatic cells to be used for applications in regenerative medicine.
They managed to obtain totipotent cells with the same characteristics as those of the earliest embryonic stages and with even more interesting properties. Obtained in collaboration with Juanma Vaquerizas from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine (Münster, Germany), these results are published on 3rd of August in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Just after fertilization, when the embryo is comprised of only 1 or 2 cells, cells are “totipotent“, that is to say, capable of producing an entire embryo as well as the placenta and umbilical cord that accompany it. During the subsequent rounds of cell division, cells rapidly lose this plasticity and become “pluripotent”. At the blastocyst stage (about thirty cells), the so-called “embryonic stem cells” can differentiate into any tissue, although they alone cannot give birth to a foetus anymore. Pluripotent cells then continue to specialise and form the various tissues of the body through a process called cellular differentiation.
For some years, it has been possible to re-programme differentiated cells into pluripotent ones, but not into totipotent cells. Now, the team of Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla has studied the characteristics of totipotent cells of the embryo and found factors capable of inducing a totipotent-like state.
Read more: From pluripotency to totipotency
The Latest on: Totipotency
[google_news title=”” keyword=”totipotency” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Totipotency
- How to Grow a Pineapple at Home (All You Need Is the Top of an Old One!)on April 30, 2024 at 8:45 am
Use a sunny windowsill or grow light to ensure your pineapple always has a steady supply of light. Moisten regularly for 5 to 8 weeks to encourage root growth. Store your pineapple in a warm, humid ...
- Cuttings: How to reproduce the plants we have at homeon April 17, 2024 at 2:24 pm
One of them is called totipotency, and it is the ability of plant cells to generate other cells that result in a complete new plant. That is what a cutting is: a piece of a plant that is expected ...
- Tingfeng Guo, PhDon May 24, 2023 at 10:13 pm
With a combination of his extensive background in biochemistry and genetics, he is delving into the genetic intricacies of totipotency and aims to illuminate the intricate connections between genetic ...
- Cloning efficiency and differentiationon February 20, 2023 at 10:41 pm
The efficiency of nuclear transfer remains extremely low (
- Stem cell researchon October 11, 2022 at 3:49 am
In 1885, Hans Driesch showed that both cells of a two-cell sea urchin embryo are able to develop into a complete sea urchin, demonstrating the totipotency of these cells. Pluripotency of vertebrates ...
via Bing News
