Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania may have found a way to avoid the ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells.
Hans Sch??ler, professor of animal biology at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, and his colleagues found a protein that restricts the embryonic stem cell's ability to form a plethora of different cell types.
A previously known gene, Oct4, binds to the newly discovered protein, dubbed GCNF, thereby deactivating Oct4. Once this happens, the cell is no longer pluripotent.
\The identification of GCNF as a repressor of Oct4 expression opens up several new avenues for understanding Oct4 regulation and, therefore, the control of the pluripotent state,"" wrote Peter Donovan of Thomas Jefferson University in an analysis appearing in the November issue of Nature Genetics. ""The identification of a nexus between Oct4 and GCNF provides some critical clues as to how the differences between pluripotent and differentiated cells are established and maintained.""
This finding is likely only part of the picture, many more similar genes most likely play a similarly important role in embryonic stem-cell development.
