Growing Stem Cells

Growing Stem Cells

One of the key issues is any use of stem cells is being able to grow them successfully. This is especially important in any therapeutic environment, where contaminated cells could cause significant harm to the treated persons. Contaminated cells are part of what brough Hwang Woo Suk down, and the embryonic stem cells lines eligible for federal funding have been contaminated with mouse cells from the feeder layer of the culture; they can’t be used for any treatment. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently created an animal-free culture medium. Now researchers at Yale University have developed an embryonic stem cell nutrient mix for cell growth. According to the press release, it contains the growth factor Wnt3, basic fibroblast growth factor, insulin, transferrin, the B-cell activating factor April/BAFF, cholesterol, and albumin.

Drug Testing on Stem Cells

Drug Testing on Stem Cells

This is kind of interesting. A press release from the biotech company Neuralstem, Inc., says that cultured human neural stem cells could be used to replace animals in testing the toxicity of various drugs and chemicals. The cells would be differentiated (using patented technology, of course) and then the chemicals or drugs would be applied to them in the Petri dish. I’m all for this, not only because testing on human cells is probably more accurate than testing on animals, but also because I favor anything that reduces animal experimentation. The press release does not state the origin of the original neural stem cells; it talks about the company’s ability to extract them but does not say from what. The company is also intending to use its extraction and differentiation procedures in creating potential therapies.