Stem Cell

Stem cells are master cells with two important characteristics

Unspecialized cells capable of their own renewal Ability to differentiate into different cell types

The stem cells may have various differentiation potentials

Totipotent Pluripotent Multipotent Unipotent

Types of stem cells

Embryonic stem cells Adult stem cells

Characteristics of Embryonic stem cells

Derived from ICM/epiblast of Blastocyst Pluripotent Long-term self-renewal Exibit and maintain a stable diploid normal complement of chromosome

Lacks G1 check point in the cells cycle

Stemness Genes

Oct4 Nanog SSEA1 SSEA2 SSEA3 BMP4

Characteristics of Adult stem cells

Long-term self-renewal Give rise to mature cells having characteristic morphologies and specialized functions Rare Dispersed in tissues throughout the body Origin of adult stem cells in tissues is yet not known

Tissues containing adult stem cells

Bone marrow Skeletal muscle Epithelia of skin and digestive system Cornea retina Peripheral blood Spinal cord Blood vessels Testes Liver Pancreas Kidney Heart, etc

Stem cells speciality

Apoptosis No apoptosis in stem cells

Telomere No shortening of telomere in stem cells DNA Methylation Minimum DNA methylation in stem cells

ES cells from livestock species

Iwaski et al 1990 Saito et al 1992 ICM proportion lower in bovine IVF embryos than in vivo produced Bovine embryonic stem cells grow slower than murine embryonic stem cells Hamers et al 1995 Bovine culturing embryo derived cells resemble epithelial cells rather than pluripotent ICM cells Talbot et al 2000 Bovine embryonic cells grew as cell sheets. Passaging by physical dissociation Li et al 2003 Porcine ICMs isolated by enzymatic method. Two embryonic cell lines cultured upto 6 passages van Eijk et al 1999 Bovine Oct 4 pseudogene isolated Wang et al 2005 ES cells from cloned bovine embryos with marker staining pattern similar to bovine blastocysts Yadav et al 2005 Bovine ICM derived cells express the Oct4 ortholog

Major Applications

Animal model testing for pharmaceutical research Use of stem cells in transplantation and cell replacement therapy Conservation of endangered species Understanding fundamental events in embryonic development Therapeutic delivery system To resolve mysteries of developmental biology To investigate genes involved in differentiation and development Cell banking for research applications

Identification of stem cells

Cell morphology Expression of unique cell surface antigens Characterization of biochemical markers such as tissue specific enzymatic activity Expression of genes that are unique to a particular cell type Nuclear chromosomal karyotype to access genetic stability

Scope

Pharmaceuticals: diabetes, cardiac anomalies, neurodegeneration, and infertility Neutraceuticals : produce heterologous nutrients Understanding early embryonic development Model for in vitro drug and immunity screening Producing environment friendly animals eg. Phytase and methane Tissue remodeling and engineering Cell-cell communication and differentiation Conservation Germ stem cells challenge age old dogma of female born with fixed number of oocytes

Livestock stem cells

Farm animals are contributing in human health through

Nutrition Producing biomedicine Cell therapy

Xenotransplantation

With decoding of the genome sequences in animals, stem cell promise to resolve many mysteries of the developmental biology

Transgenic animals with important agricultural traits

Bovine alpha lactalbumin in mammary glands of sowsimproves lactation performance

Sheep carrying Kerartin IGF-1 construct shows expression in skin for clear fleece in transgenic animals

Transgenic pig bearing an hMt-pGH construct tightly regulated by Zinc feeding - improves traits as growth rate, feed conversion, body fat muscle ratio
Phytase gene exclusively expressed in salivary gland enables the pigs to digest phytate which can be metabolized by the intestine. Release low phosphorus in manure

Transgenic in Biomedicine
Proteins synthesized in farm animals milk

Bovine Caprine Ovine Pigs Rabbits

2 5 4 2 7

Human lactoferrin TPA Alpha AT AT III Alpha glucosidase