BBSRC, MRC and NIH
A team of researchers from the UK, Sweden and the USA has discovered that instead
of one type of stem cells making up the bones of the shoulder and neck and another
type making the muscles, a particular group of stem cells make both the muscles
and bones as a sort of 'composite' at the point where it joins the skeleton.
The research
This unexpected finding could aid understanding of human spinal malformations
such as those in Klippel-Feil syndrome, Sprengel's deformity and Arnold-Chiari malformation.
The latter is involved in about 25% of 'sudden infant death syndrome' cases. It
also helps to explain the evolution of the highly mobile head and shoulder regions
of today's mammals from the immobile structures of their very early fish ancestors.
The researchers used a new genetic technique to tag embryonic stem cells of mice
and then track their location in the adult animals. The research suggests that the
skeleton and muscles of the vertebrates should not be seen as separate, but instead
as composites with the boundaries between cell groups remaining cryptic but distinct.
The collaboration
The research was initiated by two BBSRC grants under the Comparative Development
(CODE) initiative on evolution and development. The research has since received
additional funding from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, the National Institute of Health
in the USA and the international Human Frontiers Science Programme Organisation.
It took place in the UK led by Professor Georgy Koentges, who carried out much of
this research at UCL, but who is now at the University of Warwick.
Quotation:
Professor Georgy Koentges explains how important this research is:
"If you had studied an individual disease you would never have realised that
there was a connection between it and other diseases. You would never have appreciated
that they could each be caused by different mistakes – but mistakes in the same
group of cells. This was only possible because we traced the cells genetically –
and found out where went and what they did."
Contact:
Professor Georgy Koentges
Tel: +44 (0) 24761 50253
Link:
BBSRC news release (21 July 2005)