Source: University of Utah Health Sciences
Date: September 11, 2008
Summary:
Unlike some parents, adult stem cells don’t seem to mind when their daughters get a tattoo. In fact, they’re willing to pass them along. Using the molecular equivalent of a tattoo on DNA that adult stem cells (ASC) pass to their “daughter” cells in combination with gene expression profiles, University of Utah. researchers have identified two early steps in adult stem cell differentiation—the process that determines whether cells will form muscle, neurons, skin, etc., in people and animals. The U of U researchers, led by Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and anatomy, identified 259 genes that help defined the earliest steps in the differentiation of adult stem cells in planarians—tiny flatworms that have the uncanny ability to regenerate cells and may have much to teach about human stem cell biology. The findings, reported in the Sept. 11 issue of Cell Stem Cell establish planarians as an excellent model for studying adult stem cells in a live animal, rather than a laboratory culture dish.
