Cells are the basic, structural, and functional units of every living being. They are like the foundations from which all life takes its form. You are what you are – the way you look; how you smile; the way you walk and talk; how you reason; the way you live generally – because that’s how your cells have been programmed by your DNA.
Stem Cells
Do you know that you started as just a single cell? Now, your body contains trillions of these microscopic units. Ever wondered how? This is because cells are capable of multiplying – one becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eight, eight becomes sixteen, and so on – and each cell is eventually differentiated to become part of a specific tissue, organ, or system of your body.
Every cell type is a product of unspecialized cells, known as stem cells, that are determinants of each cell type. Whether this stem cell finally becomes a brain cell (neuron), muscle cell, germ cell, retina cell, heart cell, lung cell, lymphocytes, or osteocytes, is determined by a series of reactions within its DNA. And how this happens is what the researchers at Elowitz laboratory wanted to find out.
The study
The outcome of these series of reactions, described as a genetic circuit, is the outcome of the stem cell. The researchers created an artificial circuit that shows how stem cells turn out to be specific cell types. They called it ‘Multifate’. With this circuit, they were able to discover how stem cells get to become that nerve cell or that bone cell. Through the property known as ‘multistability’, small protein components are attached to the stem cells and controlling them in a way that they eventually grow into a cell type relative to the protein component attached.
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The circuit is made up of three genes, labeled with three different colors – green, red, or blue – representing the attachment of a specific protein type, which would be the outcome of the differentiation of the cells. According to the research team, the circuit allows a cell to become one of these seven colors: red, green, blue, cyan, white, yellow, or magenta. The cells retain these colors unless they are influenced by the researchers, and they pass on these colors to their resulting daughter cells when they multiply.
With this circuit, researchers can now grow cells in well-prepared laboratory environments and, using this built genetic circuit, control how they grow to become specific in their function, just like the cells in the body.
Clinical significance
This study is of the utmost importance in the world of medicine. The knowledge of stem cells’ multiplication and differentiation, and how they can be manipulated can help doctors resolve so many health conditions.
Stem cell study is vital for disease control, testing of new drugs, and transplant of diseased tissues or cells. For instance, the treatment of blood cancer, leukemia, requires the removal of cancerous stem cells and replacing them with healthy ones. The knowledge of the manipulation of stem cells which this research has uncovered can help doctors monitor the stem cells in the patient and ensure optimal treatment of that patient.
In addition, since stem cells are the basic dividing cells, lab scientists can employ the knowledge from this study to monitor these cells’ division for effective control of diseases, and also test the safety and effectiveness of newly manufactured drugs.
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Conclusion
The vitality of stem cells in the human body cannot be overemphasized. Stem cells are like the foundation on which the human body is built; if something goes wrong with them, then, the whole body is in danger, since they can easily multiply and spread this abnormal growth to every body part, leading to one disorder or the other.
With the knowledge from this study, scientists and doctors now have the means to understand the mechanism of stem cell differentiation and work towards improving health conditions that resulted from an abnormality in these cells.
