What a coincidence!

Just as I finished writing the post about modeling Progeria disease with stem cells, I came across this tweet from New Scientist:

The children who grow old before they grow up>> Could they hold key to longer lives? 

 

My take on this, is that Progeria is caused by the presence of Progerin, a mutated form a LMNA. So unless old people get this mutation and accumulate high levels of Progerin protein, it is a tough call to say that we can deduce conclusive information about the normal process of ageing from studying Progeria Syndrome.

Disease in a plate

All thanks to Dr Shinya Yamanaka, we are now able to make patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). If you are a stem cell virgin, please refer to my FAQs about stem cells page. 

Diagram from http://www.rndsystems.com.

For example, let’s look at a rare congenital disease, Hutchinson Gilford Progeria syndrome. Progeria syndrome causes premature ageing in children.

Progeria patient. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progeria

The wrinkled facial features, wasted bodies, loss of hair, and stunted growth make this heart-wrenching disease familiar to the general masses.


Movies such as “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Jack” were said to have been inspired by this disease. Progeria patients generally die in their early teens due to heart attack or stroke.

There is currently no treatment for Progeria syndrome.

In the above study, patient's skin cells were reprogrammed into iPSCs. These Progeria iPSCs were made into different cell types of the body to study how the disease emerges.


By making a "Progeria-patient-on-a-plate", they discovered which cell types were afflicted in these patients, and how. Such studies could be further used to test for drugs that treat these cell types!


Here's a cartoon to summarize the work flow for using stem cells for disease modeling.

Diagram modified from Colman and Dreesen Cell Stem Cell 2009. 

Gaga's Bad Project

This has got to be the BEST geek parody I've seen. Great effort!

Which is worse? Having a bad project or having bad romance?

Stem cell clinical trials to treat eye diseases

The highly anticipated clinical trial for stem cells-derived retinal pigmental epithelial cells (RPE) is on the way!

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-stem-cell-trial-ucla-20110714,0,4920946.story

Minoxidil for balding?

Went for Miss Singapore Universe Gala dinner last weekend and one of the awards given out was Miss Crowning Glory. 18 year-old Amanda Leong bagged the prize.

 Amanda Leong, 1st runner up and Miss Crowning Glory of MSU 2011.

That reminded me of the bottle of Minoxidil I have sitting at home. Well, unlike Miss Leong, I have very thin and fine hair. A few months back, I consulted a skin specialist and asked if there is anything I could do to have fuller hair. I was prescribed with 5% Minoxidil and told to use it religiously twice daily everyday for the rest of my life. After 2 weeks, I gave up because I found it made my hair too oily.

However I thought I should share this article:

Here, the researchers compared the efficacy, safety, and acceptability of once daily application of 5% minoxidil topical foam (MTF) with twice-daily 2% MTS in women with hair loss problems.

113 women with female version of male-pattern baldness were given either 5% or 2% MTS for 24 weeks. The researchers conclude that once-daily application of 5% MTF just as effective as twice-daily 2% MTS, in promoting hair growth and increasing hair width.


Do note that this study was supported by a medical grant from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Co Inc. Dr Blume-Peytavi is a consultant for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Co Inc and Dr Garcia Bartels was a consultant for Pfizer GmbH Germany until 2008.

Take home message: According to this study, 5% Minoxidil once daily works. HOWEVER, my skeptical scientist brain still finds it a bit dubious. The exact mechanism of how Minoxidil works is unknown, and there has yet to be any (long enough) study on its long term effects.

Nonetheless, finding a treatment for balding is a very lucrative topic of research and there's much going on in the labs world wide. Will keep you updated on the latest advances! Have faith, ladies and gentlemen, one day we'll all have hair like JLo and Lucy Liu.

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P.S. Anyway, I decided to start trying out the Minoxidil again. Experiment on myself!

How does a baby come about?

Do not get carried away and think that I am going to show you ways to make baby. For that, please go to Kamasutra on Cosmo.  

I can't compare it to the process of making babies, but I find the events that happen after the sperm-egg union pretty awesome too! It is an intricately orchestrated process of cell movement, replication and transformation. 

 
Sperm meets egg to form a zygote. 

The one-celled zygote then divides.

Early beginnings of life (Diagram from Univ of Maryland Geology Website)

In humans, around 5 days after fertilization, the embryo enters the blastocyst stage. It is now a hollow ball of cells. The inner cells constitute the inner cell mass (ICM), from which the embryo proper develops. The external cells (the trophectoderm) will eventually become the placenta. The embryo acquires a fluid-filled cavity called blastocoel.

Around the end of the fifth day, the embryo implants into the uterine wall. Extensive tissues form between the blastocyst and the uterine wall. Particularly, the syncytiotrophoblast cells actively invade the uterine wall to allow for nutrient exchange between mother and foetus.

The ICM develops into the late epiblast, a layer of cells that give rise to all cell types of the body. To make the different organs, the epiblast first undergoes a process called gastrulation. This forms the ectoderm (which becomes skin, brain etc), mesoderm (becomes heart, muscle etc), and endoderm (becomes liver, pancreas etc).  

Genes for stuttering

Do you remember the scene in the movie whereby King George VI was taken to Westminster Abbey by his speech therapist to practice his coronation speech? Well, I recently found out that it was filmed at Ely Cathedral!

 

Ely Cathedral is less than 30min drive from Cambridge and is one of the most stunning piece of architecture in the region.

Another discovery that I made after watching King's Speech, is that the first genes for stuttering were only identified 1 year before the movie was screened. 

Although the underlying causes of stuttering are unknown, many studies have suggested a genetic linkage for this disorder.

In this study, Dr. Drayna's team identified mutations in 3 genes, GNPTAB, GNPTG and NAGPA. These genes make enzymes that are involved in the digestion of excess or worn out cellular components.

This finding is cool because it opens new research avenues into possible treatments for stuttering. For example, the problematic enzyme/s could be manufactured and injected it into a person’s bloodstream to help deal with the stuttering problem.

I shall end this post with a hilarious video of Ben's brother's Stuttering (Kiss Me Again) 

Information obtained from original article and NIH News.