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Biologists around the world are in shock following the discovery of a revolutionary third way of producing pluripotent cells, which can grow into any type of mature organ. The new research is the brainchild of a 30-year-old Japanese woman who triumphed over academic adversity, according to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun (which also publishes the Japan News):
Haruko Obokata of the Kobe-based Riken Center for Developmental Biology came up with the idea for her research six years ago. She later developed a surprisingly simple method to create stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells, which can develop into various cells.
Her paper was initially rejected by the British journal Nature, which was not convinced of her findings, but thanks to the helping hands extended by some experienced Japanese researchers, her research has finally been featured in the journal.
The article went on to say that Obokata’s decision to get involved in stem cell research resulted from attending a talk given by Nobel Prize laureate Shinya Yamanaka, a Professor at Kyoto University, in 2006. Later that year, Professor Yamanaka developed a technique to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – an achievement that shot him to international fame. Two years later, Obokata got an idea of her own for reprogramming cells cells, while doing research in the United States:
It was in 2008 while studying at Harvard University that Obokata came up with the idea of reprogramming cells by exposing them to external stresses — the inspiration that eventually led to her latest achievements.
During experiments, Obokata found that she could produce more stem cells than expected when mouse cells went through ultrafine glass tubes.
“I wondered if the stimuli that mouse cells were exposed to while passing through a very narrow space might have worked as a catalyst [for creating more stem cells],” Obokata said.
Obokata asked American experts to help her research her new idea, but nobody was interested in working with the young novice. Her lucky break finally came in 2010, when she visited Teruhiko Wakayama, the first person in the world to clone a mouse, who was working at the Riken’s research center at the time. Wakayama was skeptical at first, but he thought it would be great if Obokata’s crazy-sounding idea actually worked, as it would place Japan at the forefront of international research in the field.
In 2011, Obokata became a guest researcher at the Riken center, where she continued her attempts to reprogram cells by subjecting them to environmental stresses such as toxins and lack of nutrition. In winter that year, she and Wakayama achieved success, with the creation of a mouse from cells they had grown using their new technique.
Obokata submitted a paper to Nature but was rudely rebuffed. One of the paper’s reviewers even told her that she was making a mockery of the entire field of cell biology with her ridiculous ideas. Despite her discouragement, she refused to give up:
Obokata was depressed but had support from others including Yoshiki Sasai, 51, a top stem cell scientist and the center’s deputy director.
With that support, Obokata reanalyzed the data and resubmitted the article last March and it was accepted.
What made Obokata’s new ideas so revolutionary was that if she was right, stem cells could be produced very easily. The two other techniques used by biologists to create stem cells – embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) – both require advanced techniques, as well as interference of a very radical kind: ES cells have to be harvested from human embryos, which are destroyed in the process, while iPS cells require the introduction of three to four different types of genes using viral vectors to forcibly “reset” skin cells. However, with the new STAP technique developed by Obokata and her team, white blood cells known as lymphocytes (pictured above, image courtesy of Wikipedia) can be reset simply by being subjected to strong stimuli.
The new technique has additional advantages, described by Nobuhiko Harada and Tatsuo Nakajima in an article written for the Yomiuri Shimbun and later published in the Japan News:
While it takes two to three weeks to produce iPS cells, STAP cells can be produced in as little as about two days.
Furthermore, STAP cells are considered to be in a more embryonic stage as they can be transformed into placental tissue, a potential that ES cells and iPS cells do not have…
In addition, STAP cells are unlikely to turn cancerous in the body.
The technique also has a high success rate: about 30%, compared with 0.1% for induced pluripotent stem cells and 50% for embryonic stem cells.
Unlike ES cells and iPS cells, STAP cells do not multiply readily in the body. However, Obokata’s research team has developed a technique to enhance their proliferation by exposing them to a culture solution, the details of which remain shrouded in secrecy.
Readers with an interest in Intelligent Design may be interested to know that somatic cells in plants can be reset simply by the application of environmental stimuli. Haruko Obokata and her team, working in tandem with Harvard Medical School, were the first to demonstrate that the same technique could work for animal cells as well. The new technique promises to revolutionize the field of medicine:
Dr. Charles Vacanti of Harvard Medical School, a coauthor of the paper, believes the study proves the team’s hypothesis that in injured or otherwise damaged tissues, mature cells revert to stem cells to repair damage…
The finding is a major discovery likely to change the framework of life science research, said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology Inc., a U.S. biotechnology company that specializes in clinical applications of pluripotent cells.
But there’s more. Harvard University has already used STAP cells to cure a monkey paralyzed from the waist down, writes reporter Tatsuo Nakajima:
According to Prof. Koji Kojima of Harvard Medical School, a member of the research team, STAP cells were created from cells collected from the monkey, whose legs and tail were disabled due to spinal cord damage, and transplanted them into the monkey.
After the treatment, the monkey became able to move its legs and tail, he said.
As might be expected, patent applications are in the pipeline, and there is sure to be fierce international competition over intellectual property rights to apply the new technology in the area of regenerative medicine.
Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka has applauded the new research.
Credits: The image of the human lymphocyte above was produced by Dr. Triche, of the National Cancer Institute, in 1976.