9 replies to this topic

[revenant]

This is big
http://www.medicalne...cles/190440.php

[Sillewater]

wow

[N.T.M.]

Woah!! That's great news!!!


One big step closer to the refinement of a key age-reversal therapy.

[VidX]

Very exciting!

[James Cain]

It's an important step forward, but not a huge breakthrough. There have been non-animal cultures of human stem cells, but this combined a few other steps into one (good, but not perfect) process. I'm not dismissing the importance here, but just saying it's not landmark IMO.

Here's the abstract:

------------------
Long-term self-renewal of human pluripotent stem cells on human recombinant laminin-511.
Rodin S, Domogatskaya A, Ström S, Hansson EM, Chien KR, Inzunza J, Hovatta O, Tryggvason K.

Division of Matrix Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract
We describe a system for culturing human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells on a recombinant form of human laminin-511, a component of the natural hES cell niche. The system is devoid of animal products and feeder cells and contains only one undefined component, human albumin. The hES cells self-renewed with normal karyotype for at least 4 months (20 passages), after which the cells could produce teratomas containing cell lineages of all three germ layers. When plated on laminin-511 in small clumps, hES cells spread out in a monolayer, maintaining cellular homogeneity with approximately 97% OCT4-positive cells. Adhesion of hES cells was dependent on alpha6beta1 integrin. The use of homogeneous monolayer hES or iPS cell cultures provides more controllable conditions for the design of differentiation methods. This xeno-free and feeder-free system may be useful for the development of cell lineages for therapeutic purposes.

PMID: 20512123

[Ghostrider]

It's an important step forward, but not a huge breakthrough. There have been non-animal cultures of human stem cells, but this combined a few other steps into one (good, but not perfect) process. I'm not dismissing the importance here, but just saying it's not landmark IMO.

Here's the abstract:

------------------
Long-term self-renewal of human pluripotent stem cells on human recombinant laminin-511.
Rodin S, Domogatskaya A, Ström S, Hansson EM, Chien KR, Inzunza J, Hovatta O, Tryggvason K.

Division of Matrix Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract
We describe a system for culturing human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells on a recombinant form of human laminin-511, a component of the natural hES cell niche. The system is devoid of animal products and feeder cells and contains only one undefined component, human albumin. The hES cells self-renewed with normal karyotype for at least 4 months (20 passages), after which the cells could produce teratomas containing cell lineages of all three germ layers. When plated on laminin-511 in small clumps, hES cells spread out in a monolayer, maintaining cellular homogeneity with approximately 97% OCT4-positive cells. Adhesion of hES cells was dependent on alpha6beta1 integrin. The use of homogeneous monolayer hES or iPS cell cultures provides more controllable conditions for the design of differentiation methods. This xeno-free and feeder-free system may be useful for the development of cell lineages for therapeutic purposes.

PMID: 20512123

James, you know more about biology than I do, what would be landmark? What's missing?

[MoodyBlue]

An important breakthrough for sure, but it should be pointed out that unless one's own genome is cloned in order to have a source of compatable embryonic stem cells for therapy, the huge problem of transplant rejection of foreign embryonic stem cells due to one's own immune system attacking and killing them still exists. Here is a quote from an interview of Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime, Inc.:

West: Yes. We are now developing a technology we call ReCyte™. ReCyte™ uses testicular cells called EC cells that we genetically engineer to express large quantities of these master regulators such as Oct4, Sox2, and Lin28 to be little time machines to transport a patient’s cells back in time. ReCyte™ is a technology designed specifically to increase the efficiency of reprogramming, and to do so on a robotic, commercial scale. Based on our understanding of how all this technology works, we believe this will allow us to manufacture a product for resetting the clock of aging in cells inexpensively and efficiently and improve the quality of reprogramming, making the safest and most efficacious cells available for patients that can be produced as of today.

The entire interview is here: http://www.lef.org/m...herapies_01.htm

[Ghostrider]

West: Yes. We are now developing a technology we call ReCyte™. ReCyte™ uses testicular cells called EC cells that we genetically engineer to express large quantities of these master regulators such as Oct4, Sox2, and Lin28 to be little time machines to transport a patient's cells back in time. ReCyte™ is a technology designed specifically to increase the efficiency of reprogramming, and to do so on a robotic, commercial scale. Based on our understanding of how all this technology works, we believe this will allow us to manufacture a product for resetting the clock of aging in cells inexpensively and efficiently and improve the quality of reprogramming, making the safest and most efficacious cells available for patients that can be produced as of today.

Ok...that does sound like a landmark...

[James Cain]

Ok...that does sound like a landmark...

I was actually going to say something along these lines. Undifferentiating cells seems possible to some extent, we just need to be able to control it to possibly regenerate tissue instead of replacing it with external stem cells. The best alternative for growing generic stem cells for human use would be to use a "chemically defined" growing environment, though how you define that involves a lot of variables. I'd liken it to blood. Everyone has it, and there is some inter-compatibility, but ultimately you need something matched to the individual. I do some work with cell culture, but not along these lines enough to know exactly what it would take to bring this sort of technology to market.

[ihatesnow]

This is big
http://www.medicalne...cles/190440.php

http://pagingdrgupta...s-studies-show/