Scientists have found a way to prove that biochemical signals sent from cell to cell play an important role in determining how those cells develop, findings that can help explain how stem cells differentiate and how cancer arises and proliferates, possibly leading to new treatments.
The study from researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences was published in the journal Development on Dec. 22.
A little background
- All cells within the body begin as stem cells.
- In simplest terms, blood forms when stem cells in bone marrow develop along one of three paths to become either oxygen-carrying red cells, immune-system white cells, or platelets, which clot to stop bleeding.
- Scientists have long accepted that communication between cells can affect their fate, but they have largely found it too complex to study directly.
- Cells can communicate by sending growth factors, hormones or other molecules back and forth.
What’s new
- USC Dornsife’s Adam MacLean, assistant professor of quantitative and computational biology, and doctoral candidate Megan Rommelfanger, found a way to better understand how cell-to-cell communication affects the way blood stem cells develop.
- The scientists discovered that the communication process can change the formation of blood cell types dramatically.
- They also found that distance between cells matters.
«We discovered that the communication process can change the formation of blood cell types dramatically, and that cells that are closer to one another have a greater influence on each other’s fate,» MacLean said.
A controversy resolved
Researchers trying to determine what early factors nudge a cell down one developmental path or another have wondered if random fluctuations within the cell are enough to decide which path is taken. Many models have suggested they were, but recent breakthrough studies showed that random fluctuations were not enough, that something else drives cells toward their fate.
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Materials provided by University of Southern California. Original written by Darrin S. Joy. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.