Discovery

MILESTONES: U-M STEM CELL DISCOVERIES

Cancer stem cell therapies. By revealing the inner workings of a common cell-to-cell signaling system, University of Michigan biologists have uncovered new clues about mysterious and contentious creatures called cancer stem cells.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6464

Neurofibromatosis. Two U-M teams looked for the cell responsible for neurofibromatosis type 1, a disfiguring, incurable hereditary disorder, identified. They studied neural crest stem cells and Schwann cells in mice, and concluded that the latter are most likely to blame for NF1 tumors. The two papers appeared in the journal Cancer Cell in February 2008.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6310

BRCA1 link. The BRCA1 gene plays a role in regulating breast stem cells, the small number of cells that might develop into cancers. The finding may explain why women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene face up to an 85 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer. Study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January 2008.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2008/brca1.htm

Breast test? The new molecular marker suggests a potentially simple test to help determine the best treatment for breast cancer. Levels of the enzyme ALDH1 can be used to identify stem cells and determine how aggressive the tumor is, the team reports in Cell Stem Cell, December 2007.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/cancermarker.htm

Key player. The gene Sox17 is required for the maintenance of blood-forming stem cells in fetal mice, but not adult mice. The discovery, reported in Cell in July 2007, provides critical insight into the mechanisms that distinguish fetal blood-forming stem cells from their adult counterparts. It could also lead to a deeper understanding of diseases such as childhood leukemias.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=5959

Pancreatic cancer. U-M scientists find the small number of cancer stem cells that fuel the growth of pancreatic stem cell tumors. Researchers looked at cell markers on the surface of tumor cells and identified a small number of cells that quickly produced new tumors. In Cancer Research, February 2007, they suggest that these cells are the pancreatic stem cells.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/pancancer.htm

Head and neck cancer. Researchers have found a marker on head and neck tumor cells that indicates which cells are capable of fueling the cancer’s growth. The finding is the first evidence of cancer stem cells in head and neck tumors.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/headneckcancer.htm

Degenerative diseases. Discovery that old tissues have less capacity to repair themselves because old stem cells shut themselves down as they age. The shutdown may protect cells against becoming cancerous due to genetic defects that accumulate with age. The findings, reported in the journal Nature in September 2006, suggest new approaches to fighting cancer and age-related degenerative diseases.
http://141.211.144.29/newsevents/discoveries/2006-09-01

Tumor killers. U-M researchers find a way to target and kill cancer stem cells without harming healthy stem cells. The technique detects differences in the mechanisms that cancer cells and normal stem cells use to proliferate. In Nature, May 2006, the scientists describe using the drug rapamycin to block leukemic stem cells while preserving normal blood-forming stem cells in mice.
http://141.211.144.29/newsevents/discoveries/2006-05-25

Bone marrow. First images of individual blood-forming stem cells living at the outer edge of the bone marrow in a mouse leg bone. The finding will make it possible to study these elusive adult stem cells – which form all the blood and immune cells – undisturbed in their natural environment. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2006.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/stemcells.htm

Blood-forming cells. New technique to separate blood-forming stem cells from their more advanced descendents, progenitor cells already committed to becoming one type of blood cell. The advance, reported in the journal Cell in June 2005 and accomplished in mice, will streamline scientists' efforts to separate rare blood-forming stem cells from other cells in a blood sample.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/stemcells.htm

Fountain of youth. Discovery of a gene, Bmi-1, that controls the ability of diverse adult stem cells to make new copies of themselves throughout life.
Since cancer cells share the secret of self-renewal with adult stem cells, the two October 2003 Nature studies raised the possibility that inappropriate activation or over-expression of Bmi-1 in stem cells could lead to uncontrolled growth and cancer.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/fountainofyouth.htm

Hirschsprung's disease. Defects in stem cell function cause Hirschsprung's disease, a sometimes life-threatening intestinal disorder that affects one in 5,000 newborn infants. The August 2003 report in Science, along with subsequent work published by the same U-M researchers in Neuron, show that the major genetic defects that cause Hirschsprung's disease impair the function of the neural crest stem cells that give rise to the nervous system that regulates intestinal function.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/hirschsprung.htm

Solid evidence. Cancer stem cells discovered in human breast cancer tumors. Although similar cells had been found in blood-borne cancers, U-M researchers were the first to see them in solid tumors, providing compelling evidence for the idea that "cancer stem cells" maintain and spread various types of malignant solid tumors. The results showed that not all cancer cells are equally malignant and suggested that therapies should be directed against the most malignant cancer stem cells. Results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February 2003.
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/tumorsc.htm

Gut check. Detection of neural crest stem cells – primitive cells that generate the peripheral nervous system – in the gut of adult laboratory rats. This discovery upsets the widely held belief that neural crest stem cells disappear in animals before birth, once the peripheral nervous system develops. Reported in the journal Neuron in August 2002.