Researchers in the Medical School’s Thisse Lab have successfully created a complete zebrafish embryo from uncommitted embryonic stem cells, breaking new ground in the world of stem cell research. This research provides key insight for scientists interested in growing organs for transplants.
Shortly after body cells are created, they specialize to perform different jobs, serving as skin cells, nerve cells, brain cells, muscle cells and whatever else the body may need them to be. Stem cells are newly created cells that have not had a chance to specialize.
Pluripotent stem cells, the type used in this experiment, can specialize into any time of cells. Generally, the cell will develop based on its location in the body. By discovering the pathways that signal for stem cells to specialize, scientists have figured out how to induce specialization into whatever type of cell they need.
“We have generated an animal by just instructing embryonic cells the right way,” Cell Biology Prof. Dr. Chris Thisse said in a press release.
The researchers identified key signals responsible for a number of processes that eventually lead to fish embryo development. In order to create the embryo, mRNA — molecules that carry the blueprints of DNA — of the genes BMP and Nodal was inserted into one end of zebrafish egg cells.
In the future, scientists hope to use the information they’ve discovered about signal pathways in order to grow new organs and tissues for transplantation.
Researchers have already begun testing the model using mouse stem cells. Molecular mechanisms are expected to be similar between mice and other mammals, possibly even humans.
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