Module 3 Pluripotent Stem Cells Flashcards
What are the two aspects of human development?
Growth: Rapid during embryonic development and slows down as we age.
Differentiation: Cells become different- as embryo divides there’s a period when cells have to be set aside to become different parts of the body.
What are the three germ layers?
Ectoderm: makes nervous system and skin
Mesoderm: makes blood, heart, and muscle
Endoderm: makes pancreas, liver, gut, and lungs.
What is terminal differentiation?
It’s the time when the cell becomes the specialized adult cell and stops differentiating.
What are pluripotent stem cells? (FOCUSED)
These are the stem cells which come from the inner cell mass of the embryo and form the germ cells.
What are the 2 amazing properties of stem cells?
They can self-renew and become specialized cells (or differentiate).
What are totipotent stem cells?
Stem cells that have the ability to form an entire organism. It comes after the fertilized egg. They can form the placenta and umbilical cord which makes it different from the pluripotent stem cells which it comes before.
What are multipotent stem cells? (FOCUSED)
Multipotent stem cells are able to form multiple cell types. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) can differentiate into cells that form bone, cartilage, and fat.
What are oligopotent stem cells?
Oligopotent stems cells can differentiate into 2 or more lineages. Example is neural stem cells that can form a subset of neurons in the brain.
What are unipotent stem cells?
Stem cells that have the ability to form cells from a single lineage. Example is spermatogonia stem cells.
What is a progenitor cell and what’s the difference between progenitor and stem cell?
Progenitor can differentiate only into a specific cell type while stem cell can differentiate into another stem cell or specific.
Define epigenetics
The stable alterations in gene expression potential that arise during development and cell proliferation without altering the DNA sequence.
What was the Yamanaka study about?
This study successfully reprogrammed adult somatic stem cells into induced pluripotent stems cells (IPS) with use of his 3-4 transcription factors: Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4. c-Myc may not need to be included because it’s a strong oncogene but it lowers the efficiency. Limitations: efficiency, genomic insertion, and tumors.
What are some in vitro applications for iPS cells?
Toxicology, making disease models, drug screening, and cell therapy
What is HLA?
Human Leukocyte Antigen(HLA) are the major cause of cell, tissue, and organ transplant rejections.
What determines if iPS cells will be safe (i.e. will not cause tumors)?
iPS cells if they don’t have minor epigenetic abnormalities and the origin of the iPS cells also have strong impact on quality.
