Assisted repro techonologies- stem cells, cloning, transgenics

Question 1

Describe stem cells

Answer 1

• Unspecialised with the ability to self renew
• Self renew= ability of SC to divide and maintain undifferentiated state
• Can differentiate into specialised cell types

Question 2

Describe difference between totipotent/ pluripotent and multipotent

Answer 2

Toti= able to form entire organism 
Pluri= able to form body's cell lineages
Mulit= can form multiple lineages that constitute an entire tissue

Question 3

List the uses of stem cells

Answer 3

• Drug testing/ screening
• Disease modelling
• Stem cell therapy
• Study of early development

Question 4

Describe the use of SC in tendon injuries in horses

Answer 4

-Mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow and fat

Question 5

What are the potential diseases with stem cell therapy?

Answer 5

• Transmission of disease

- Tumour formation

Question 6

What does reprogramming solve and what does the process involve?

Answer 6

• The risk of immune rejection

- De-differentiation of a specialised cells into a pluripotent SC

Question 7

What is the aim of reproductive cloning?

Answer 7

-To produce a cloned embryo to develop a cloned animal (opposed to therapeutic cloning which is to derive SC from the cloned embryo)

Question 8

What is the importance of induced pluripotent stem cells?

Answer 8

-That mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent so it OVERCOMES need to generate embryos to get pluripotent cells.

Question 9

What is a transgenic animal?

Answer 9

An animal that has a foreign gene inserted into its genome.