A protein known as REST blocks the expression of a microRNA that prevents embryonic stem cells from reproducing themselves and causes them to differentiate into specific cell types, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Nature. Researchers show RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST) plays a dual role in embryonic stem cells, said senior author Sadhan Majumder, Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson’s Department of Cancer Genetics. “It maintains self-renewal, or the cell’s ability to make more and more cells of its own type, and it maintains pluripotency, meaning that the cells have the potential to become any type of cell in the body.”

The paper posted online March 23 in advance of publication grew from M. D. Anderson research on the protein’s role in medulloblastoma – an exceptionally aggressive pediatric brain cancer.

Embryonic stem cells are essentially blank slates. They have the unique ability to develop from identical, unspecialized cells and then differentiate … Continue Reading »