WIKIMEDIA, NISSIM BEVENISTYCulture conditions and cellular processing can impact the genetic changes that human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) undergo over time, according to a study published in PLOS ONE this week (February 25). A team led by investigators at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, found that ESCs grown on a layer of feeder cells and passaged mechanically harbored less genetic variation than cells grown without a feeder layer and passaged chemically.
“I’m trying to get other people in the field to closely examine their cells before they do anything else with them,” said study coauthor Jeanne Loring of Scripps.
“The study is important in that it suggests that there are ways that we might avoid growing cells and having these abnormalities appear,” said stem-cell scientist Martin Pera of the University of Melbourne who was not involved in the work.
WIKIMEDIA, ROBERT M. HUNTHuman mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) pretreated with a certain small molecule are more likely to target inflamed tissue in mice, members of a public-private research collaboration led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School showed in Cell Reports this week (February 26). The results point to a way researchers might increase the clinical utility of such cells.
“Generally speaking, MSCs do have great potential for tissue regeneration,” said Sophia Khaldoyanidi, a stem-cell biologist at the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies in San Diego, California, who was not involved ...
