Introducing stem cells

A life story…
 What is a stem cell?
stem cell

SELF-RENEWAL DIFFERENTIATION
(copying) (specializing)

specialized cell
stem cell
e.g. muscle cell, nerve cell
 What is a stem cell?
Stem cell Stem cell

SELF-RENEWAL DIFFERENTIATION
(copying) (specializing)

Identical stem cells Specialized cells

 Why self-renew AND differentiate?
1 stem cell

1 stem cell 4 specialized cells

Self renewal - maintains Differentiation - replaces dead or damaged
the stem cell pool cells throughout your life
 Where are stem cells found?

embryonic stem cells tissue stem cells

blastocyst - a very early fetus, baby and throughout life
embryo
 Types of stem cell:
1) Embryonic stem cells
 Embryonic stem (ES) cells:
Where we find them
blastocyst
cells inside
= ‘inner cell mass’ fluid with nutrients

culture in the lab

embryonic stem cells taken from to grow more cells
the inner cell mass
outer layer of cells
= ‘trophectoderm’
 Embryonic stem (ES) cells:
What they can do

differentiation
embryonic stem cells

PLURIPOTENT

all possible types of specialized cells

 Embryonic stem (ES) cells:
Challenges

on s A skin
ndit i
co
under
gr ow
grow under con
ditions B neurons
grow
unde
embryonic stem cells r con
gro ditio
ns C
w
un
de blood
rc
on
dit
ion

?
sD

liver
Types of stem cell:
2) Tissue stem cells
 Tissue stem cells:
Where we find them
surface of the eye brain

skin breast

testicles intestines (gut)

bone marrow
muscles
 Tissue stem cells:
What they can do

blood stem cell

differentiation

found in
bone marrow only specialized types of blood cell:
red blood cells, white blood cells,
MULTIPOTENT platelets
 Types of stem cell:
3)Induced pluripotent (iPS)
stem cells
 Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells)
‘genetic reprogramming’
= add certain genes to the cell

cell from the body induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell

behaves like an embryonic stem cell

differentiation

culture iPS cells in the lab

all possible types of

Advantage: no need for embryos! specialized cells
 Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells)
genetic reprogramming
cell from the body (skin) pluripotent stem cell
(iPS)

differentiation
 Stem cell jargon

Potency A measure of how many types of specialized cell a stem cell

can make

Pluripotent Can make all types of specialized cells in the body

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent

Multipotent Can make multiple types of specialized cells, but not all types
Tissue stem cells are multipotent
Stem cell biology in more detail
Tissue stem cell types
and hierarchies
 Tissue stem cells:
Principles of renewing tissues

Stem cell

stem cell:
- self renew
- divide rarely
- high potency committed progenitors:
- “transient amplifying cells” specialized cells:
- rare
- multipotent - work
- divide rapidly - no division
- no self-renewal
 Tissue stem cells:
Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)
NK cell

T cell

B cell

dendritic cell

megakaryocyte platelets

HSC erythrocytes

macrophage

neutrophil
bone marrow

eosinophil

basophil

committed progenitors specialized cells

 Tissue stem cells:
Neural stem cells (NSCs)
Neurons

Interneurons

Oligodendrocytes

NSC

Type 2 Astrocytes

Type 1 Astrocytes

brain
committed progenitors specialized cells
 Tissue stem cells:
Gut stem cells (GSCs)
Paneth cells

Goblet cells

GSC
Endocrine cells

Columnar cells

Small intestine
committed progenitors specialized cells
 Tissue stem cells:
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)

Bone (osteoblasts)

MSC Cartilage (chondrocytes)

bone marrow
Fat (adipocytes)

committed progenitors specialized cells

BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN USING
OF STEM CELLS
BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN USING OF STEM
CELLS
 Using of stem cells especially embryonic stem (ES) cell in the
research and treatment of the human diseases may implicate
in the arising of ethical problems
 Several ethical issues
 Is the use of embryo in the research that implicates in the
death of embryo itself violates the human right?
 Is the use of excessive embryos from the IVF procedures
for the research permitted ethically?
 Is the research to make human embryos in which their
body parts are used for treatment of human diseases
ethically permitted?

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BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN USING OF STEM
CELLS
 The main issue is the resource of stem cell itself
 Embryonic stem (ES) cells are obtained commonly from several
resource
 abortion, the excessive embryo from IVF procedure and cloning process
 Cloning of human embryos in order to get the stem cells is
the controversial issue
 It has correlation with the issue of “the beginning of life” and the
respect of life itself
 Cloning of human embryo is prohibited by all of the religions
 The procedures in harvesting the stem cells from human
embryos will destroy the embryo and make the embryo to
be death
 There is the argument that the status of human embryo is same with
the human itself.
 All of the procedures in collecting the stem cells from human embryo
are not permitted by the religion

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BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN USING OF STEM
CELLS
 The status of human embryo is still debatable
 Does the human embryo has to be appreciated as the human
 it has a potency to be the human
 it is a part of human life
 Furthermore Is it true that the developing human embryo is
an organism?
 Using of embryos obtained from the excessive human
embryo in the IVF procedure are still controversy
 There is a moderate argument
 it is better to use those embryos in research and therapy of
human diseases rather throw them away
 But it is also an other argument
 those embryos have to keep alive until they die naturally

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There is a fundamental question: Does
the stem cell has a potency to become a
cancer in the future?

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Future Experiments????

ButterCat CatCow
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Future Experiments

Catrilla
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Future Experiments

SparrowBoxer TigerOwl
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We Need More Basic Research on Stem
Cells

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 Credits
Picture credits
Many thanks to the following people for permission to reproduce images:
Slide 17, iPS cells: Keisuke Kaji, University of Edinburgh, UK
Slide 27, blood cell diagrams: Jonas Larsson, Lund Univeristy, Sweden
Slide 29, intestinal cell diagrams: Hans Clevers and Nick Barker, Hubrecht
Institute, The Netherlands
Should you wish to re-use any of the images listed above, please contact the
owner. All other images in this presentation can be re-used freely.

Acknowledgements
Particular thanks to Dr Christele Gonneau for creating these slides and
working tirelessly to help ensure the notes are correct.
Thanks also to Freddy Radtke of EPFL, Switzerland, whose slide we copied to
make slide 27 on tissue stem cells.
Stem Cells and its potencies in the future/AAJ/Histologi-FKUI
Thank You
For
Listening.
^_^
God Bless!

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