Epigenetics has a big say in the formation of blood -
blood stem cells have the potential to turn into any type of blood cell, whether the cell red that carry oxygen, or the many types of white blood cells of the immune system that help fight infection. How exactly the fate of these stem cells is regulated? Preliminary results of research conducted by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of the Hebrew University begin to reshape the conventional understanding of the decisions the fate of stem cells so blood are controlled through a new technique that epigenetic analysis 'they have developed. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms (environmental influences other than genetics) cell fate could lead to the study of molecular mechanisms of many diseases, including immune disorders, anemia, leukemia, and many more. It also lends strong support to findings that environmental factors and lifestyle play a more important role in the development of our destiny
The process of differentiation -. In which a stem cell becomes a specialized blood cell maturity - is controlled by a cascade of events in which specific genes are turned "on" and "off" in a highly regulated and precise order. Instructions for this process are contained in the DNA itself in short regulatory sequences. These regulatory regions are normally in a "closed" state masked by special proteins called histones to ensure against unwarranted activation. Therefore, to access and "activate" the instructions, this DNA mask should be "open" by epigenetic histone modifications so that it can be read by machines needed.
In an article published in science , Dr. Ido Amit and David Lara-Astiaso Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute, in collaboration with Professor Nir Friedman and Weiner Assaf the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, compiled for the first time the dynamics in the development of blood time histones. Thank you to the new epigenetic profiling technique they developed, wherein a handle cells - as little as 500 - can be sampled and analyzed accurately, they identified the exact DNA sequences, and the various regulatory proteins which are involved in regulating the processes of fate of blood stem cells
Their research unexpected results also gave :. up to 50% of these regulatory sequences are set up and open during the intermediate stages of cell development. This means that epigenetics is active at stages in which it was thought that the cell fate has already been set. "It changes our whole understanding of the decision process of the fate of blood stem cells," says Lara-Astiaso, "suggesting that the process is more dynamic and flexible than previously thought."
Although this research was conducted on mice blood stem cells, scientists believe that the mechanism may be true for other types of cells. "this research creates a lot of excitement in the field because it lays the foundation to study these regulatory elements in humans, "says Weiner. Discover the exact regulatory DNA sequence control stem cell fate as well as understanding of its mechanism are promising for the future development of diagnostic tools, medicine personalized, potential therapeutic and nutritional interventions, and medicine perhaps regeneration, in which committed the cells could be reprogrammed to their full potential of stem cells.
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