Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered how the sponginess and stickiness of stem cell nuclei controls how they "differentiate" into specialized cells.
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have been quantifying how different batches of mesenchymal stem cells respond to the mechanical stiffness.
New level of control over stem cells will help accelerate research, lead to therapeutic applications
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have been quantifying how different batches of mesenchymal stem cells respond to the mechanical stiffness of their environments. They focused on how certain proteins were localized in cell nuclei and found key trends in how this changed with stiffness. Their findings explain inconsistencies between previous findings and may guide how scientists control the state of stem cells for research and medical treatments.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are important progenitor cells that can transform into muscle, cartilage, bone or fat cells. In 2006, pioneering work by Engler and coworkers showed that they could control what cell type mesenchymal stem cells transformed (or differentiated ) into by simply placing them on surfaces with a different mechanical stiffness, or
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