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    Home > Medical News > Medical World News > Weigh! Scientists have identified specific proteins that control the self-renewal of human blood stem cells

    Weigh! Scientists have identified specific proteins that control the self-renewal of human blood stem cells

    • Last Update: 2019-12-02
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from the University of California found a relationship between a special protein and the self-renewal ability of anthropological stem cells through research The researchers said that activating the protein could promote the self-renewal of blood stem cells at least 12 times under laboratory conditions In vitro, the proliferation of blood stem cells can greatly improve the treatment options of blood cancer (such as leukemia) and a variety of inherited blood diseases Photo source: UCLA broad stem cell research center Dr Hanna Mikkola, researcher, said that although we have studied the biological characteristics of blood stem cells for many years, we still face many key challenges, that is, how to promote the self-renewal of human blood stem cells under laboratory conditions Now we have to overcome these problems through research Blood stem cells, or hematopoietic stem cells, exist in the bone marrow In the bone marrow, they can self renew and differentiate into many types of blood cells Moreover, bone marrow transplantation can also be used to treat patients with blood or immune system diseases However, there are obvious limitations in bone marrow transplantation, so it is not always feasible to find a suitable bone marrow donor, and the patient's own immunity The epidemic system also rejects exogenous cells, and sometimes the number of stem cells transplanted is not enough to successfully treat patients' diseases When blood stem cells are removed from bone marrow and placed in a laboratory culture dish, they will quickly lose the ability of self-renewal They will either die or differentiate into other blood cells The goal of the researchers is to make blood stem cells self renew under controlled laboratory conditions, which may open up new ideas for the treatment of various blood diseases, as well as Help scientists produce blood stem cells from pluripotent stem cells In order to clarify how to promote the self-renewal of blood stem cells in the laboratory, the researchers analyzed the genes that were shut down and expressed when the blood stem cells lost the ability of self-renewal At the same time, the researchers noticed which genes were shut down and expressed when the blood stem cells differentiated into special blood cells (such as white blood cells or red blood cells) Then the researchers placed the blood stem cells in the experiment To observe which gene expression will be turned off in a lab dish, using pluripotent stem cells for research, researchers can create blood stem cells without self-renewal ability, and they can also monitor which gene expression is in a state of inactivation The researchers found that the expression of MLLT3 gene is closely related to the potential of self-renewal of blood stem cells The protein expressed by MLLT3 gene can provide necessary instructions for blood stem cells to maintain the ability of self-renewal It can keep the important parts of blood stem cells to function normally in cell classification by cooperating with other regulatory proteins The researchers want to know whether maintaining the MLLT3 protein level in the blood stem cells in the laboratory culture dish is enough to improve their self-renewal ability Using a virus vector, the researchers can insert the active MLLT3 gene into the blood stem cells At the same time, they observe that the reproduction rate of functional blood stem cells in the laboratory culture dish increases by at least 12 times Researcher Mikkola said that if we consider the number of blood stem cells needed to treat a patient, it may be a large number; but we need to not only focus on the number, but also ensure that the blood stem cells produced in the laboratory can continue to function by making all the blood cell types needed for transplantation Recently, researchers have identified a special kind of small molecule (organic molecule used to manufacture medical drugs) that can promote the proliferation of human blood stem cells in the laboratory Then researchers use this small molecule to study They found that it can improve the self-renewal ability of blood stem cells, but the cells can not maintain the appropriate MLLT3 level And it can not function normally after transplanted into mice Previous studies have found that this small molecule is very important, but this study is based on the results of previous studies In this study, the researchers developed a new method that can expose blood stem cells to this small molecule and insert the active MLLT3 gene This new method may be able to produce blood stem cells that can be better integrated into the mouse bone marrow, so it can be effective The ability to produce all blood cell types and maintain their self-renewal What's more, MLLT3 gene can maintain the self-renewal of blood stem cells at a certain safe rate These blood stem cells can not obtain any dangerous characteristics, such as a large number of proliferation, mutation or abnormal cells that induce leukemia risk Later, researchers will continue to conduct in-depth research to determine which special proteins and elements of blood stem cell DNA will affect the switch of MLLT3 gene, and how to use special preparations to control this process in laboratory culture dishes Researchers are confident to develop new strategies to turn on / off the expression of MLLT3 gene without using virus vectors, so that it can be used in clinical practice Safe use under bed conditions.
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