Enzyme linked to stem cell behaviourRSS Feed

Spinal injury patients may see an advance in stem cell research after scientists discovered why certain stem cells do not become another type of cell.

A team from John Hopkins University in the US isolated an enzyme, NURF, which alters the way DNA is "packaged" in cells that allow particular genes to be "turned on or off".

The enzyme determines how tightly packed a cell is with its DNA structure, the team establishing that genes that are more densely packed less likely to be "turned on" and therefore given the chance to change into another type of cell - such as neurons in the spinal cord.

Professor Erika Matunis from the John Hopkins School of Medicine said the experiment was tricky.

"As soon as you remove NURF from these cells, they leave, so you have to take a lot of samples to see how the cells are moving, since we are not looking at living moving cells but rather individual flashes in time," she explained.

The news comes after US scientists isolated a single gene that controls motor neurons in the spinal cord.

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Posted by Paul Breen

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