You’ve probably heard of cells, those tiny things that make up your body and have your DNA inside them. But cells are not all the same: your skin is different from your bone. How does that happen if your genetic material, DNA, is the same in all of them? Confused? Don’t be.
PULP – “Babies”
It all starts with babies… Or a zygote (the result of the fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm). A zygote is a totipotent stem cell: it can give rise to a whole baby as well as all the other stuff that it needs to develop in utero. There are also pluripotent stem cells that can generate a whole organism, but not the extra-embryonic membranes (that will make the placenta and umbilical cord) and multipotent stem cells that can give rise to a limited range of cell types but not the entire embryo. Do you feel the knowledge yet?
Arctic Monkeys – “Fluorescent Adolescent”
Eventually, a baby becomes an adolescent. It’s the same with stem cells: they start to define themselves and lose the ability to generate some types of structures. Different types of cells express different markers that can be recognized and used to make the cells fluorescent and isolate them.
Joni Mitchell – “All I Want”
One type of multipotent stem cell is the hematopoietic stem cell that can give rise to all the cells that make up your blood and immune system. These cells are very rare and lonely and travel through your circulatory system around all your body. Sad, lonely cells.
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper – “Crane Your Neck”
However, even though they travel, their home is the bone marrow. And they usually fall asleep until there’s the need to create new blood cells.
LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”
They really like to see their friends and interact with them; the stem cell niche. They literally need that stimuli to survive. Cells can interact with each in two different ways: By cell-cell interactions mediated by cell surface proteins or by secreting soluble factors that can deliver different messages. It’s basically like how you dance to this song when it comes on, except not at all.
Linda Martini – “Ratos”
In vivo studies are very important to stem cell research. With them, it is possible to study cell behavior inside a real organism. Most of the time, these studies are performed in mice or rats (“ratos”, in portuguese).
The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
One of those tests that is performed to see if a cell really is a pluripotent stem cell is teratoma formation. It’s not pretty and you can google it if you want, but it involves the formation of a tumor with hair and teeth
