One Gene Found To Control Two Contradictory Stem Cell Activities

Source: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research
Posted: September 5, 2006

Summary:

A single gene involved in embryonic development is responsible for two seemingly contradictory activities, according to new research from Switzerland: maintaining stem cells after the embryo has implanted in the mother’s uterus, and later providing cues to direct their differentiation in a coordinated fashion when the time is ripe.

Understanding the choreography involved in this mysterious cellular signaling is crucial to being able to coax stem cells to grow into specific tissues outside the body. It is also important in order to understand and perhaps correct what goes wrong when the chemical signaling system goes awry and stem cells become cancerous. Understanding the activity of this gene in embryonic development may hold the key to finding a way to control its activity in tumor cells.

Commentary: Hopefully this discovery will enable both the transformation of stem cells into specific cell types to treat disease, and also correcting chemical signaling in stem cells that become cancerous in order to treat cancer before it spreads.