[extropy-chat] BIO: Stem Cell Genes

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, Jeff Davis wrote:

> Regenerative chemical turns muscle cells into stem cells
>
> A group of researchers from The Scripps Research
> Institute has identified a small synthetic molecule that
> that can induce a cell to undergo dedifferentiation--to
> move backwards developmentally from its current state
> to form its own precursor cell.
>
> These precursor cells are multipotent...

Careful careful -- In the first place muscle tissue contains
muscle stem cells.  I believe it has been shown that properly
stimulated these can differentiate into other cells.  Mature
muscle cells are one of the few cell types in the body that
are multinucleated (the other I'm aware of is some liver cells).
Getting a cell to revert from multiple nuclei to a single nuclei
so it can really be multipotent (most cells only have a single
nuclei) has got to be a neat trick -- I see no reason why natural
selection would include a program for this purpose.  In my mind
this is going to require some kind of mechanical "uncloning"
operation to remove the extra nuclei then some removal of
the switches that drove differentiation.  And it is starting
to look like differentation may be driven in part by molecular
modifications to the histones (acetylation, glycosylation, etc.)
removing those modifications from just the right histones is
going to be a mean trick.

I'd want to look at the scientific paper(s) -- I suspect they just
happened to have stumbled across a way to promote the growth of normal
muscle stem cells.

Another good example of really bad reporting in the public press.

A little knowledge is a bad thing.

And you can quote me on that Jeff.  :-)
Robert