Reprogramming the future

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757737/

The article: From Stealing Fire to Cellular Reprogramming: A Scientific History Leading to the 2012 Nobel Prize by Dr. M. William Lensch and Dr. Christine L. Mummery is a fascinating review of the history of stem cells. This article covers everything from Prometheus's’ re-appearing liver to proving nuclear equivalence with a baby’s hair.

Although there is quite a lot of information within this article, I thought that the part about what we may be able to do with stem cells was the most interesting. First, though, we have to know what stem cells are. Pluripotent stem cells are non-differentiated cells, meaning they can become cells in any of the somatic germ layers: the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm. "

Teratomas, or tumors with multiple germ layers, come from pluripotent cells. "Today, we understand teratomas to derive from germ cell precursors". These precursors are pluripotent stem cells. One mutation within a differentiated cell can lead to tumors, but a mutation within a pluripotent cell, if the cell does not die, can cause an abnormal tumor, with skin, hair, or even teeth. These tumors are most often found in the gonads of each sex. These tumors prove that there are certain cells that can become different types of tissue, because a tumor starts with only one mutated cell. Because of this and the works of scientists such as Heape, Weismann, Cruikshank, and Spemann, present-day biologists believe that there are sets of  “on-switches” and “off-switches” within cells, telling them how to behave, given the same set of DNA.

The Nobel Prize was given to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their discovery that it is possible to reprogram these “switches” and turn a mature cell from one of the somatic germ layers into a pluripotent cell. This means that we can now take, say, a skin cell, reprogram it, and it will become a pluripotent cell that is able to reproduce itself. This is incredible for people who need organ transfers, because we now have a way of providing an exact match for their organs, rather than a match off of a list that doesn’t guarantee the organ will function perfectly with the rest of the body. This discovery will likely save millions of lives of people now and in the future that don’t have access to organ matches.

I hope that our generation continues with research of cellular reprogramming and pluripotent stem cells because we are now closer to saving the lives of people who would regularly die because their vital organs can't be properly replaced.