All Things Stem Cell

International Stem Cell Awareness Day is October 3, 2012, so on this day please help spread the word about the importance of stem cell research! Stem cell researchers across the world are investigating how stem cells can be used to improve our lives, from repairing and regenerating damaged or lost tissues, to developing cures for numerous devastating diseases and conditions, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration, Parkinson’s, and paralyzing spinal cord injuries, and various other useful applications in between: They’re being used to help us learn more about the entire developmental process (giving us a better understanding of how to fix problems that can arise during development), the efficacies of different drugs are studied and characterized using stem cells, and their unique biological roles make them ideal for use in better understanding aging.

So please be sure to get out the word on stem cells this October 3! For more information on International Stem Cell Awareness Day (and free wallpapers and downloadable stem cell images!), visit StemCellsOfferHope.com, which is affiliated with the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. Read on for a summary of stem cell history and recent research breakthroughs and highlights.

With all of the breaking news stories that come out on cutting-edge stem cell findings all the time, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Yes, the stem cell family, which includes all of the varieties of stem cells that have been discovered so far, is very large, and growing larger with new children, cousins, uncles, and aunts being discovered or created all the time. But a key feature they all share is their potential to improve our lives.

Our understanding of these cells and their incredible potential for treating diseases, fight cancers, heal wounds, and, in essence, saving lives, has grown hugely since we first unknowingly used them in World War II. However, the more we learn about them the more we realize we have yet to understand. This blog has strived to explore the different stem cell types in detail, including their biology, history, potential, clinical applications, and numerous remaining questions. However, the ways in which the different types of stem cells came to be accepted into the stem cell family is itself an interesting story, and one that can help paint a useful bigger picture, and that is why this story will be the focus for this blog post to celebrate International Stem Cell Awareness Day.

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Recently, a patient with leukemia and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had apparent remission of both after stem cell transplants (Hütter et al., 2009). As discussed earlier, hematopoietic stem cells have been used in transplants to rescue patients with leukemia, but this method has not previously been as successful for treating HIV, the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Once in the body, HIV primarily attacks the immune system, such as T cells, though some individuals have T cells that are naturally resistant to HIV infection. Over a decade ago, this resistance was found to be due to a mutation in a receptor that is normally on the cell surface of T cells, called chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) (Liu et al., 1996). CCR5 is a chemokine receptor, meaning it normally binds and receives signals from chemokines, which are molecules cells can release and receive to cause an immune system response. CCR5 is thought to normally be involved in causing a response to infection, though its exact function is not fully understood. HIV normally interacts with CCR5 to gain entry into the target T cell, but some individuals have a mutation in the CCR5 gene, specifically a 32 base-pair deletion, that renders the resultant receptor completely nonfunctional and consequently prevents HIV from being taken into these cells (Liu et al., 1996).

The T cell membrane (shown as the purple, semicircle double line) allows entry of HIV (in pink) into the cell through multiple cell receptors anchored on the membrane, including CCR5.

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