The differentiation potential of adult stem cells (ASC) has long been thought to be limited to cell lineages present in the organ from which they are derived; however, several studies have challenged this notion by demonstrating that some ASC exhibit a remarkably high degree of plasticity. Unlike terminally differentiated somatic cells, the less differentiated state of ASC can assume the functional phenotypes and expression profiles of cells unique to other tissues. The expansive repertoire of differentiation potential exhibited by ASC suggests these cells possess characteristics similar to pluripotent cells, including epigenomic regulatory pattern. Therefore, ASC may be better equipped for complete epigenetic reprogramming than terminally differentiated cells.
The objective of Experiment 1 was to analyze bovine adipose-derived adult stem cells (ADAS) and fetal fibroblast (BFF) cells for the presence of the pluripotency-associated genes, Oct-4, Nanog, and Sox-2. Because the endogenous expression of these genes is believed to contribute to reprogramming efficiency, Experiment 2 sought to increase Oct-4, Nanog and Sox-2 expression levels in BFF cells through exposure to ADAS cell extracts.
Transcripts for all three pluripotency-associated genes were detected in all BFF and ADAS cell samples at every passage analyzed; however, expression was quite low and highly variable between cell lines and passage numbers. Nevertheless, these findings support the notion that these cells are less differentiated than other somatic cells. This less differentiated state appears to sufficient for at least the partial reprogramming of BFF cells using ADAS cell extracts in a cell extract-based nuclear reprogramming system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11182010-204302 |
| Date | 22 November 2010 |
| Creators | Coley, Laura Whitney |
| Contributors | Bondioli, Kenneth, Godke, Robert, Dimario, Patrick, Eilersten, Kenneth |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11182010-204302/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds