Scientists finds Stem Cell Network in Ancient Fish
Published:26 Dec.2022 Source:ScienceDaily
A complicated organ that pumps blood around the body of animals and humans. Not exactly something you associate with a Petri dish in a laboratory. But that may change in the future, and save the lives of people whose own organs fail. And the research is now one step closer to that. To design artificial organs you first have to understand stem cells and the genetic instructions that govern their remarkable properties. Pluripotent stem cells are stem cells that can develop into all other cells. For example, heart cells. If we understand how the pluripotent stem cells develop into a heart, then we are one step closer to replicating this process in a laboratory.
The pluripotent property of stem cells -- meaning that the cells can develop into any other cell -- is something that has traditionally been associated with mammals. Now Joshua Mark Brickman and his colleagues have found that the master gene that controls stem cells and supports pluripotency also exists in a fish called coelacanth. In humans and mice this gene is called OCT4 and they found that the coelacanth version could replace the mammalian one in mouse stem cells. In addition to the fact that the coelacanth is in a different class from mammals, it has also been called a 'living fossil,' since approximately 400 million years ago it developed into the form it has today. It has fins shaped like limbs and is therefore thought to resemble the first animals to move from the sea onto land. The central factor controlling the gene network in stem cells is found in the coelacanth. This shows that the network already existed early in evolution, potentially as far back as 400 million years ago. And by studying the network in other species, such as this fish, the researchers can distill what the basic concepts that support a stem cell are.
The beauty of moving back in evolution is that the organisms become simpler. For example, they have only one copy of some essential genes instead of many versions. That way, you can start to separate what is really important for stem cells and use that to improve how you grow stem cells in a dish.