Medical researchers were surprised when they discovered a new way to turn stem cells into bone cells—and ultimately trigger bone growth in mice.
The team expected the stem cells to become fat cells.
“This was not what we expected. This was not what we were trying to do in the lab. But what we’ve found could become an amazing way to jump-start local bone formation,” says Janet Rubin, a professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine.
Rubin and colleagues used cytochalasin D, a naturally occurring substance found in mold, as a proxy to alter gene expression in the nuclei of mesenchymal stem cells to force them to become osteoblasts (bone cells).
By treating stem cells—which can become fat or bone cells—with cytochalasin D the result was clear: The stem cells became bone cells. Further, injecting a small amount of cytochalasin D into the bone marrow space of mice caused bone to form. This research, published in the journal Stem Cells, details how the scientists altered the stem cells and triggered bone growth.
“And the bone forms quickly,” says Rubin, the paper’s senior author. “The data and images are so clear; you don’t have to be a bone biologist to see what cytochalasin D does in one week in a mouse.”
At the center of the discovery is a protein called actin, which forms fibers that span the cytoplasm of cells to create the cell’s cytoskeleton. Osteoblasts have more cytoskeleton than do adipocytes (fat cells).
Continue reading to find out why the researchers were so surprised when they discovered this process….
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