Grow your own prostate
Thursday, 23 October, 2008
Researchers from US biotech Genentech have generated new prostates in mice after isolating a cell-surface marker that identifies a rare population of prostate stem cells.
The marker, CD117, is expressed predominantly in the area of the prostate proximal to the urethra and is upregulated when the prostate shrinks after castration. These are both considered characteristics of a prostate stem cell marker.
When used in combination with other markers such as Sca-1, CD133 and CD44, CD117 can isolate single cells that can generate functional, secretion-producing prostates when transplanted in vivo.
The stem cells also have a long-term self-renewal capacity.
The research, led by Wei-Qiang Gao, is reported online by Nature.
The authors believe it is the first instance of prostate generation from a single adult stem cell. In 2006, researchers from Melbourne’s WEHI led by Dr Jane Visvader and Dr Mark Shackleton, were able to grow a mammary gland from a single stem cell.
“Generation of a prostate from a single adult stem cell” by Kevin G Leong et al is published online in Nature [doi:10.1038/nature07427].
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