Stem Cell Briefings

A collection of summaries of peer-reviewed articles on developments in stem cell science.

• On the Way to Producing Safer Pluripotent Stem Cells
  Okita, K., Nakagawa, M., Hyenjong, H., Ichisaka, T., Yamanaka, S. (2008). Generation of Mouse Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Without Viral Vectors. Science 322, 949-953

• Direct Cellular Reprogramming Produces Pancreatic Beta Cells
  Zhou, Q., Brown, J., Kanarek, A., Rajagopal, J., and Melton, D. A. (2008). In vivo reprogramming of adult pancreatic exocrine cells to beta-cells. Nature 455, 627-632.

• New Tools to Study Disease
  Dimos, J. T., Rodolfa, K. T., Niakan, K. K., Weisenthal, L. M., Mitsumoto, H., Chung, W., Croft, G. F., Saphier, G., Leibel, R., Goland, R., et al. (2008). Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from patients with ALS can be differentiated into motor neurons. Science 321, 1218-1221.Park, I. H., Arora, N., Huo, H., Maherali, N., Ahfeldt, T., Shimamura, A., Lensch, M. W., Cowan, C., Hochedlinger, K., and Daley, G. Q. (2008). Disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells. Cell 134, 877-88
  

• Human Embryonic Stem Cells Provide Clues about Fetal Heart Progenitors
  Posted May 28, 2008
  Yang, L., Soonpaa, M. H., Adler, E. D., Roepke, T. K., Kattman, S. J., Kennedy, M., Henckaerts, E., Bonham, K., Abbott, G. W., Linden, R. M., et al. (2008). Human cardiovascular progenitor cells develop from a KDR(+) embryonic-stem-cell-derived population. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature06894.
  
  
• Tissue Engineering to Build a Heart
  Posted April 28, 2008
  Ott, H. C., Matthiesen, T. S., Goh, S. K., Black, L. D., Kren, S. M., Netoff, T. I., and Taylor, D. A. (2008). Perfusion-decellularized matrix: using nature's platform to engineer a bioartificial heart. Nat Med 14, 213-221.
  
  
• Mice Pave the Way to Insights About Sickle Cell Anemia
  Posted March 21, 2008
  Hanna, J., Wernig, M., Markoulaki, S., Sun, C. W., Meissner, A., Cassady, J. P., Beard, C., Brambrink, T., Wu, L. C., Townes, T. M., Jaenisch, R. (2007). Treatment of sickle cell anemia mouse model with iPS cells generated from autologous skin. Science 318, 1920-1923.
  
  
• Breakthroughs in stem cell biology: Human iPS cells
  Posted February 27, 2008
  Park, I. H., Zhao, R., West, J. A., Yabuuchi, A., Huo, H., Ince, T. A., Lerou, P. H., Lensch, M. W., and Daley, G. Q. (2008). Reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotency with defined factors. Nature 451, 141-146.
  Takahashi, K., Tanabe, K., Ohnuki, M., Narita, M., Ichisaka, T., Tomoda, K., and Yamanaka, S. (2007). Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors. Cell 131, 861-872.Yu, J., Vodyanik, M. A., Smuga-Otto, K., Antosiewicz-Bourget, J., Frane, J. L., Tian, S., Nie, J., Jonsdottir, G. A., Ruotti, V., Stewart, R., et al. (2007). Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells. Science 318, 1917-1920.
  
  
• Peeking at stem cells in the brain
  Posted February 26, 2008
  Manganas, L. N., Zhang, X., Li, Y., Hazel, R. D., Smith, S. D., Wagshul, M. E., Henn, F., Benveniste, H., Djuric, P. M., Enikolopov, G., and Maletic-Savatic, M. (2007). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy identifies neural progenitor cells in the live human brain. Science 318, 980-985.
  
  
• Nuclear Transfer Skin Cells from Monkey
  Posted February 26, 2008
  Byrne JA, Pedersen DA, Clepper LL, Nelson M, Sanger WG, Gokhale S, Wolf DP, Mitalipov SM (2007). Producing primate embryonic stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Nature 450, 497-502.
  
  
• Mouse Adult Skin Cells Reprogrammed to Embryonic State
  Posted August 21, 2007
  Maherali, N., et al. (2007). Directly reprogrammed fibroblasts show global epigenetic remodeling and widespread tissue contribution. Cell Stem Cell 1, 55-70
  Okita, K., et al. (2007). Generation of germline-competent induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature 448, 313-317.
  Wernig, M., et al. (2007). In vitro reprogramming of fibroblasts into a pluripotent ES-cell-like state. Nature 448, 318-324
  

• Ethics and Biology of Germ Cells
  Posted May 1, 2007
  McLaren, A. (2007). Free-range eggs? Science 316, 339.

• Stem Cells Assist Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
  Posted March 18, 2008
  Di Giorgio et al., (2007). Nat Neurosci. 10(5):608-614. Non-cell autonomous effect of glia on motor neurons in an embryonic stem cell-based ALS model.
  Nagai, M., et al., (2007). Nat Neurosci. 10(5):615-622. Astrocytes expressing ALS-linked mutated SOD1 release factors selectively toxic to motor neuron
  
  
• Technological Alternative to Therapeutic Cloning for the Production of Blood
  Posted March 18, 2008
  Kim, K., et al. (2007). Histocompatible embryonic stem cells by parthenogenesis. Science 315, 482-486.
  
  
• Human Stem Cells Improve Mouse Neurodegenerative Disease
  Posted April 5, 2007
  Lee, J. P., et al. (2007). Stem cells act through multiple mechanisms to benefit mice with neurodegenerative metabolic disease. Nat Med.
  
  
• Mapping the Elusive MAPC: Questions settled about a powerful stem cell
  Posted February 2, 2007
  Serafini, M., et al. (2007). Hematopoietic reconstitution by multipotent adult progenitor cells: precursors to long-term hematopoietic stem cells. J Exp Med 204, 129-139.
  
  
• Versatile Stem Cell Identified in Amniotic Fluid
  Posted January 24, 2007
  De Coppi, P., et al. (2007). Isolation of amniotic stem cell lines with potential for therapy. Nat Biotechnol 25, 100-106.
  
  
• Scientists Discover Master Regulator for Embryonic Stem Cells
  Posted October 16, 2006
  Zhang, J., et al. (2006). Sall4 modulates embryonic stem cell pluripotency and early embryonic development by the transcriptional regulation of Pou5f1. Nat Cell Biol 8, 1114-1123.
  
  
• Report of the Formation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells from Single Cells Extracted from 8-10-cell Early Human Embryos
  Posted September 29, 2006
  Klimanskaya, I., et al. (2006). Human embryonic stem cell lines derived from single blastomeres. Nature 444, 481-485.
  
  
• Modified Human Embryonic Stem Cells Can Preserve Visual Function in
  Diseased Rat Retina
  Posted September 29, 2006
  Lund , R. D., et al. (2006). Human embryonic stem cell-derived cells rescue visual function in dystrophic RCS rats. Cloning Stem Cells 8, 189-199.
  
  
• Scientists Report Reprogramming of Adult Cells
  Posted September 20, 2006
  Takahashi, K., and Yamanaka, S. (2006). Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell 126, 663-676.

Updated December 11, 2008