Source: California Institute of Technology
Date: April 12, 2012
Summary:
In studies that mark a major step forward in the understanding of stem cells' fates, a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has traced the stepwise developmental process that ensures certain stem cells will become T cells -- cells of the immune system that help destroy invading pathogens. The group's findings appear in the April 13 issue of the journal Cell.
The researchers studied multipotent hematopoietic precursor cells -- stem-cell-like cells that express a wide variety of genes and have the capability to differentiate into a number of different blood-cell types, including those of the immune system. Taking into consideration the entire mouse genome, the researchers pinpointed all the genes that play a role in transforming such precursor cells into committed T cells and identified when in the developmental process they each turn on. At the same time, the researchers tracked genes that could guide the precursor cells to various alternative pathways. The results showed not only when but also how the T-cell-development process turned off the genes promoting alternative fates.
