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TITLE
Derivation and analysis of pluripotent stem cell lines with inherited TGF-b mediated disorders from donated IVF embryos and reprogrammed adult skin
ABSTRACT
The field of regenerative medicine revolves around the capacity of a subset of cells, called stem cells, to become the mature tissues of the adult human body. By studying stem cells, we hope to develop methods and reagents for treating disease. For instance, we hope to develop methods for making stem cells become cardiovascular cells in the lab which could then be used to rapidly screen large numbers drugs that may be used to treat cardiovascular disease. In another example, if we are able to create bone in the lab from stem cells, we may be able to help treat people with catastrophic skeletal injuries such as wounded soldiers.
Until recently, the most flexible type of stem cell known was the embryonic stem cell. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they can give rise to all of the adult tissues. In contrast, stem cells found in the adult are considered only multipotent, in that they can only become a limited number of mature cells. For example, bone marrow stem cells can give rise to all of the components of the blood, but cannot make nerves for a spinal chord.
Breakthroughs in the past couple of months have indicated that it is possible to "reprogram" adult skin cells and make them become pluripotent, like stem cells from an embryo. These new kind of cells ares called "induced pluripotent cells" or iPS cells for short. This has lead to great excitement within the scientific community because it raises the possibility that we may use this technology to rapidly create pluripotent stem cells from a large host of human diseases using skin from affected individuals. However, whether the new iPS cells made from skin cells and embryonic stem cells are functionally the same in all applications remains to be seen.
Our lab is in the unique position to test this hypothesis. We have derived several normal embryonic stem cell lines and are in the process of deriving iPS cells from normal skin. Furthermore, we are fortunate enough to have begun deriving a new embryonic stem cell line harboring an inherited mutation that results in severe cardiovascular and bone disease that affects more than 7,500 Californians. What's more, one of our collaborators has over the past ten years assembled a cell bank of more that 50 unique adult skin cell lines with the same inherited disease. Therefore, for our proposal, we will make new normal and disease specific iPS and embryonic stem cell lines. We will use these new stem cell lines to test whether the iPS and embryonic stem cells are truly functionally the same, by comparing them after we make them become cardiovascular and bone cells.
This work will allow us to advance the field of regenerative medicine on two fronts.
We will perform an important comparison of iPS and embryonic stem cell lines.
We will compare the disease specific cells with normal cells which will help us better understand cardiovascular and bone disease and pave the way for the development of new therapies.
PI
Michael Longaker
INSTITUTE
Stanford University
STATE
California
AMOUNT
$1,424,410.00
AWARD DATE
2008 June
GRANT TYPE
New Cell Lines