Source: Stanford University
Date: March 2, 2009
Summary:
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a protein complex important in controlling whether embryonic stem cells retain their ability to become any cell in the body — a quality called pluripotency — or instead embark on a pathway of maturation and specialization. The finding is an important advance in the quest by scientists to harness the unique abilities of embryonic stem cells to treat disease and generate replacement tissue for the body.
Like a musician tuning an instrument, the complex associates with and adjusts the expression levels of other proteins important in pluripotency, perhaps by affecting how the DNA is packaged within the cells in strands called chromatin. They found that this complex associates closely with other major regulators of pluripotency, including four genes known to be able to coax adult cells to display many qualities of embryonic stem cells.
