Tissue Regeneration Discovery

Researcher Ellen Heber-Katz once studied autoimmunity in mice to model lupus however; a small observation in these mice caused her to switch to study in autoimmune disease and transplant rejection. In the original research, mice, with and without lupus, had holes poked into their ears for identification purposes. However, the holes in the mice with lupus would keep closing to heal with little or no scarring which is not a normal response.

Cells from lupus and normal mice were compared and it was found that the lupus mice had “healer” cells which could be dedifferentiated. Dedifferentiation means that matured cells become more like immature undifferentiated cells that are not of a specified type. These cells were also multinucleated, which is commonly seen in cells that are about to divide, and they expressed many stem cell markers. There was one thing these healer cells did not express, the p21 gene.

Suppressing the p21 gene along with its regulator, p53 which is a tumor suppressor, causes an increase in the production of induced pluripotent stem cells, matured cells that are reprogrammed to behave like a stem cell. The suppression of p21 allows for the enhancement of healing and regenerating tissue. Current ways of regenerating tissue are done by culturing stem cells on a synthetic scaffold using chemicals outside of the body.

I found this article to be very interesting because this discovery can be utilized in the future for many medical applications. For instance, a patient who needs extensive surgery can heal a lot faster and with less scarring. Also, we could maybe find a way to suppress this gene with medicine so that new tissues can be grown in the body instead of outside which is the current method.

This article can be found at:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=case-closed-wound-healing

Kelsey Smegner
VTPP 435-501