WEBVTT - How Stem Cells Work 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.080 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.160 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant that makes the 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:23.119 Stuff you Should Know, featuring Jerry Good Afternoon, Good afternoon, Charles. 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.880 How are you? I'm good? A little little wackier than 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:30.680 usual by maybe like three or four percent. Yeah, we're 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.080 both a little wacky today. Usually we depend on the 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.639 other to not be wacky. So this episode is going 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.320 to suck. No, it won't suck. You don't think. How 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.640 are you being optimistic? I see? I think if this 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.560 is good? I learned a lot about this topic. Yes, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.480 thank you for not blowing the big secret. That's right. 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:54.080 We're talking about stem cells today. It's out there. Yep. 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.920 You can't take it back. Nope. Um, did you know 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.480 much about stem cells before? You researched the little bit? 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:02.560 Keep up with the news a little bit on it, 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.959 but I hadn't done a ton of research. It's really fascinating, Yeah, 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.880 it really is. What's funny is what I knew about 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.480 it before, what I assumed, um, which is just this 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.839 very primitive idea of like taking a cell and making 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:18.720 it turn into some other cell that you want and 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.640 then injecting it into the affected area. That's actually what 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.720 stem cell therapy is. Yeah, that's the goal of it 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.839 at this point pretty much yet one of them. Yeah, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.959 so basically it's the Caveman stream. That's what stem cells are. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.200 Is that what it is? Yeah? I thought that was 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:40.360 warm soup, warm soup alright, So after that, after warm 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.839 soup was invented, they turned their attention to stem cells. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.800 Warm soup than cold beer stem cells. Yeah, that may 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.360 have come first. You remember from the beer episode the 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.640 idea that bread was created to make beer easier to make. Yeah, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.600 that's such an awesome idea. I love it. That's a 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.360 T shirt right there. Yeah, it's a little plunk. I 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.640 think we need to work on bread before beer. Oh 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:04.920 well there you go. Yeah yeah, he thought I was 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.760 gonna put the whole thing. Yeah, it kind of keeps 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.760 going onto the back of the shirt. Right. Oh, wow, 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:12.680 you are in a weird mood today or inside? I know, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.360 I just like, I let even know what that was. Okay, 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:20.359 let's let's take this seriously. Yes, so, um, there are 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.200 plenty of diseases out there, chuck that affects cells like 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:31.000 Parkinson's um. The neurons that produce dopamine, the neurotransmitter dopamine, 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.840 which helps control movements. UM, those cells die and as 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.639 a result, you lack dopamine and as a result of that, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.040 you can't control your movements, and then you have the 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:47.040 characteristic tremors of parkinson Um. Heart failure is apparently the 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.760 result of well, your heart failing, but the heart failure 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:55.399 comes from your heart cells dying off. It's all cellular 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.960 death for the most part, well a lot of it is, right, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.400 there's a lot of disease out there, type one die abetes. UM. 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.400 I believe you're not producing insulin like you're supposed to 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.560 the pancreas. Yeah, So the reason why cell death in 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.200 the pancreas. So there's this whole idea that if you 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:16.800 can just figure out how to reintroduce these cells, then 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.080 the caveman's dream will be realized because you will have 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.040 a healthy pancreas and therefore no more type one diabetes. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.800 You'll be producing UM dopamine again, no more Parkinson's and 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.760 possibly no more Alzheimer's either, yea, no more. A lot 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.400 of stuff, yeah, And it all comes down to the 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.520 fact that we are losing cells in a in an 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.640 unnatural way, and there therefore, by replacing those cells, we 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.720 could conceivably cure these diseases. Yeah, I guess we shouldn't 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.680 say no more, but we should say reversible, you know, 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.280 because you would still get Parkinson's, but then you'd be 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:53.480 able to reverse the effects. We're not talking about eradicating. 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.640 Oh yeah, yeah, you know that's a that's a good point. Um, Yeah, 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.920 we're talking about curing these things once you already have them. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:06.760 Just saved us some pedantic emails. So the whole point 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.400 to all this, the whole idea beneath it um was 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:15.320 discovered in when some researchers figured out that there are 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.440 cells in mice that are what are called undifferentiated, meaning 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.239 they're not really any kind of cell, Like they don't 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.480 carry oxygen in the blood, they're not capable of it, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.880 they're not capable of UM transmitting neurotransmitters, they don't they 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.279 didn't really seem to do anything. But then further and 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.600 further research revealed like, oh my god, these cells can 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.960 do anything. Yeah. They're like a little child, like what 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:42.320 kind of cell do you want to be when you 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.640 grow up? And those are stem cells, and then I 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.479 think they finally isolated them in humans because the big 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.040 problem with stem cells is they look and seem just 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.840 like all the other cells that they're around until you 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.240 figure out how to isolate them, which is something they're 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.640 actually still working on. That's right, and uh, they and 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.680 we'll get to how they can mark these things, which 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.800 is pretty neat in a bit. But um, there are 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.840 not nearly as many stem cells as uh is one 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.640 of the main differences. Yeah, depending on where you look. Yeah, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:16.600 for the adult and we'll get onto the different types 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.080 as well, but for adult stem cells, it's about one 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.520 for every one thousand regular cells. Yeah, and again, like 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:24.839 in the blood, that's the case. In the bone you 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.480 might find one for every ten thousand. But the point 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.800 is there's not nearly as many stem cells because you 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.880 don't need as many. And the the analogy that I 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.160 guess they made in this article is that stem cells 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.800 are kind of like the body's repair kit. Yeah. The 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:46.240 thing is is they don't necessarily do all the repairs 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.160 that we need, Like you can still get Parkinson's and 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.000 there's not a stem cell that automatically activates and cures 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.880 your Parkinson's. If so then this we wouldn't be having 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.599 this conversation, that's right. So the goal of stem cell 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.559 therapy used to figure out how to take these stem 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:06.120 cells and make them do what you want them to do. Yeah, 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:11.040 manipulating these cells to to turn into helpful cells. Regular 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:15.040 cells can only replicate um to be another kind of 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.800 that cell, but stem cells are. They have different levels 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.120 of what's called potency, which is an ability to change, 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:27.279 ranging from a tote potent which can develop into anything anything, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.919 like it can turn into a car if it wants to. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.840 That's not true, it's like the Wonder Twins. Yeah, it 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:35.960 can turn to anything, so long as it's water based, 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.520 that's right. Uh. And then you have other levels of 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.000 potency to pluripotent, multipotent, um. And we'll cover all this 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.440 in detail as we go, because each one has a 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.200 different potency level, right. But I think that was descending 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:53.080 order from uh capability, right, Like toted potent is anything, Yeah, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:58.720 pluripotent is almost anything. Then multipotent is a few things. Um. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.719 And we have uh, these stem cells, like we said, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.400 around the body in different places and and like you said, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.440 their their job is to basically hang out in there. 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.720 Call it like their host organ or their host tissue. Yeah, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:14.760 like we're all in the liver. We're liver cells, right, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.960 So you need a new you need a few liver cells. Here, 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.880 I'm going to divide. I'm gonna divide into some more 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.000 and then bam, no more cirrhosis, or at least it's 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:29.840 staved off for another year. UM. With the bone marrow 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.040 in particular, UM, there's a type of cell, or a 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.520 type of stem cell called stromal stem cell, and that 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.560 one UM creates all sorts of different types of blood cells. UM. 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.360 Because your blood cells that's how they regenerate. Your stem 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.200 cells they don't self regenerate, and they only last about 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.280 twenty eight days. Now, is that why you can use 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.400 UM cells from bone marrow to treat other diseases like leukemia, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:59.600 other blood diseases? Exactly? And that is a procedure. It's 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.160 actually stem cell therapy that predated our awareness that stem 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.360 cells even existing. We just didn't call it a stem 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.560 cell at the time. Yeah, it's a bone marrow transplant. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.000 That's what people still call it now we understand that 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:14.080 what you're actually doing is transplanting that marrow that includes 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:19.440 some bone marrow stem cells. Yeah, into another person, and 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.360 then those stromal stem cells will start to regenerate and 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.760 help the person who has accepted this donation. That's right. 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.560 So that was the that's that that happened even before 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.000 we understood what stem cells were. But sin Um, all 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.280 of this research has really been focused on, Okay, how 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.600 can we make this a little more guided and laser 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.960 focused rather than accidentally transplanting stem cells from one person's 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.280 bone marrow to another. And so what they started to 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.280 investigate and found, Chuck, was that, uh, there's something called 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.080 embryonic stem cells. And these were the first ones that 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.720 were like this is awesome. Yeah, And like you said, 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.319 they were isolated in humans and due to private funding, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.040 which is important designation because we'll get to all the 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:12.679 controversies and federal funding coming up soon. But they are embryonic. 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.040 They're in the embryo, the fetus, or the umbilical cord blood, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.400 which is why a lot of times um mothers will 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.960 save their umbilical cord or not themselves. They don't give 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:30.559 it to them here you go, because that could come 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.520 in handy later on um and it depends on what 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.480 it's harvested. But they are the ones that are pluripotent, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.000 depending like I said, on when you get them. They 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:44.800 can also very early on the the ultimate uh tote potent. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.000 But that's um, that's super early. Yeah, you have to 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.520 have a quick hand like this total day or so 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:56.240 right old um. So those are the embryonic versions. Then 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.160 you've got adult stem cells and um. Strangely a ault 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.440 stem cells are found from infants on. So I think 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.240 the adult refers to the actual stem cell rather than 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:09.800 the person who has that type of stem cell. Yeah. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.360 I think it's like I guess, just sort of like 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:16.000 post embryonic is the way I looked at it. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.359 that makes sense. It is multipotent, which means it can 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.200 uh differentiate or change itself into a lot of different 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.280 helpful things, but not as many as pluripotent. No. Um. 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.200 And then lastly, in two thousand and six, some Japanese 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:35.400 people figured out that you could English. Were they English too? Well, 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.400 those two guys who won the Nobel Prize, it was 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.880 Japanese one was they both deserve it because they figured 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.320 out that you can take uh sell any kind of 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.880 cell and make it regress back into a stem cell. 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:57.240 And that was huge because in part or mostly because 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.400 of the big controversy around embryonic stem cells, which you said, 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.080 we'll get into it in depth. Yeah, those are called 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.320 induced pluripotent stem cells or I P S C S 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.400 induced because they're inducing it in pluripotent because they revert 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:15.680 back to uh, the very handy uh pluripotent stage. Uh. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.840 Those are the main three that's in general, and we'll 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.480 talk about all of them a little more in that 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:25.599 right after this. All right, so let's start with embryonic. 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.320 That seems like the logical place. Uh. If you listen 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:35.040 to our in vitro fertilization podcast recently, you know all about, UM, 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.680 how an embryo is formed. We have an egg fertilized 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.199 by a sperm that divides becomes an embryo. It's basically 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.640 that simple. I encourage you to go listen to that podcast, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.560 though you'll learn all about all kinds of stuff. When 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.400 you undergo IVF though, like we talked about in that episode, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.840 a lot of times you will have more embryo's not 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:54.960 always um, but a lot of times you have more 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.520 embryos than you're gonna use, and so you can freeze 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.439 those and save them for later in case you get 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.000 pregnant and that doesn't work out, um or it just 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.280 becomes medical waste. You get pregnant, you're like, we don't 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.800 need those anymore. You can just discard them, or you 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.120 can go with option three, which is to donate them 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.880 uh to science to be used in stem cell cloning, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.439 therapeutic cloning. UM. The reason that they would want your 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.760 embryos is because, like you said, there at some point 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:30.000 total potent and definitely plural potent, very very versatile as 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.880 far as stem cells go. UM, and you can it's 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.480 very It's not easy. I don't think it's I don't 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.920 think that's the right word. But you can take a 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.680 embryonic stem cell and culture it and let it divide 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.520 into more and then culture those and culture those, and 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.600 as long as they stay undifferentiated, you have a line 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.320 of stem cells that can just keep replicating more and 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.320 more stem cells. They're never going to turn into a 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.920 certain kind of cell, that's right. So what you've just 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.560 created is an embryonic stem cell line. The thing is, 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.120 and this is what people have a problem with. To 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.840 harvest these things, you have to destroy the embryo. You 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.559 have to you have to let it become a blasticist, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.240 which takes a couple of days, and by the time 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.679 it becomes a blasticist, it's about a hundred cells wide 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.760 or deep. There's and then inside this is the the 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.360 embryonic stem cells. So basically you have to crack the 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.280 blast eist open and then harvest the stem cells, and 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.760 then there's nothing left to do with the the blasticist. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.040 If you're a religious type and you believe that life 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.600 begins at conception, then the problem is is you've just 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.760 taken a life by destroying a blasticist, and uh, that's 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.760 just one of the controversies. The therapeutic cloning is also 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.959 controversial because that's when they merge a cell. You've got 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.800 a patient who needs the therapy, and they merge that 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.360 cell with a donor's egg and then remove the nucleus 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.880 from that egg, replace it with the patients and it 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:06.640 basically is like their own. Now it's it's not likely 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.760 to be rejected, which is a big problem. You're just 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:14.240 basically using someone else's egg for its structural capabilities, and 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.440 but the nucleus the thing that's saying like here, build this, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.600 go do this. It's it's going to look like you, 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:24.640 not them. Yeah, but anytime you use that c word, uh, cloning. Yeah, 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:26.920 well it's going to be controversy is going to ensue, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.800 of course indeed. But it's also a double controversy too, 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.080 because you have to do the same thing. You're still 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.480 forming an embryo that you destroy once it gets the 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.800 blasts of stage. It's just a freak of nature because 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.520 you cloned it. It's called a double whammy. Right. So 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.480 that was that's embryonic and you know, there's a lot 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.160 of controversy around it. Um and we'll talk about that 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.160 a little more later. But there's another type of stem 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.400 cell um that isn't nearly as controversial, if at all, 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.280 and that's the adult stem cell which we mentioned, which 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.800 doesn't mean you have only when you're an adult, but 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.080 it's a type of stem cell that it's like the 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.280 kind that hangs out in your bone marrow. It's it 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:13.680 has a more of a specialized um job. Yeah, or 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.680 it can become specialized, which is the key. Uh. And 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.080 as you said, it hangs out and it can divide 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.560 and help out the liver if it needs to, or 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:27.080 the pancreas if it needs to. And um, that's the 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:31.560 main differentiate is that it's it's multipotent instead of pluripotent. 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:36.680 It still has limits. UM, And it's basically again this 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.120 is these are the ones that are your They're not 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.680 there to create you the human for the first time. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.480 They're there to kind of keep you from wearing down 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.280 too fast. Yeah, I wonder if I wonder if they're 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.920 left over or if they're supposed to be there. I 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.640 know that sounds like a weird differentiation. I don't know, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.800 because I did see somewhere that um, they're still trying 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:02.280 to figure out although this Japanese research may have figured 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.160 it out, but they're trying to figure out why some 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.160 types of stem cells, adults stem cells, we'll just sit 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.960 there and just hang out for a very long time, 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.200 and then all of a sudden they start to divide. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.880 So I don't know, maybe they are original cells. If 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:18.840 they're just kind of hanging out doing nothing, why would 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.520 they age? I don't know. You know, it's weird. So 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.000 we mentioned earlier that they one of the difficulties in 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.360 working with stem cells, especially these adults them cells as 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.760 they looked like other cells. So they have a really 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.560 cool way of of marking them, or what they call 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:36.080 lighting them up um or cells. UM. Every cell has 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.520 a unique protein called a receptor on the surface and 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.480 they bind these chemical messages. That's how cells talk to 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.560 each other basically, And so they use these markers UM 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.560 to identify the adults them cells. They basically tag them, 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:54.640 tag these chemical messages with fluorescent molecules and then once 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.960 they put that fluorescent chemical in there, it lights up 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.920 under a fluorescent light, so they make them kind of 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.320 glow in the dark. Yeah, because that chemical message is 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.399 now bound to the only type of cell that's it 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.320 will bind to the stem cell. So then yeah, when 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.199 you hit it with the black light, somebody should have 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.880 won a Nobel price for that too, in my opinion, 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.240 black light. But it's the same as embryonic stem cells. UM. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.160 You can grow these in a petri dish. You can 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.600 establish a new cell line, and they are extremely useful. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.680 And like you said there, they naturally say in the liver, 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:37.800 create new liver cells. But they have been shown UM 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.840 trans differentiation to undergo trans differentiation where they can be 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:48.320 induced to do something slightly different. So like a liver 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.320 stem cell can produce insulin, which is typically produced in 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.400 the pancreas, right, and they haven't. Um, they haven't quite 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.000 figured that out yet, right, No, No, they do not 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.439 know this. Like they know that stems somehow can be 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.399 induced to do different things, they don't know how to 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.439 do it yet. Yeah, this is all super new stuff 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:08.560 for the most part, I mean, if you're talking since 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.240 not a long time. They did recently figure out these 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:19.040 uh hemo poet poietic Yeah, hemopoietic stem cell, which is 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.320 a it's a type of blood stem cell that makes 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.720 all different kinds of blood cells. It's a very important one. 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:30.040 And they found that by looking at zebra fish embryos, 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.480 which are totally transparent. Um, they actually watched these things 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.080 form and they just found out, like within the last 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.199 couple of weeks that these require what they're calling a 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.600 buddy cell to become the type of stem cell that 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.920 forms blood. Right, So now they think that they're one 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:53.760 step closer to figuring out these hemopoieticum stem cells. They 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:55.520 don't know what the buddy cell is or where it 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.400 comes from, but then now they know that it needs 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.880 a buddy so that these are kind of like these 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.760 of the kind of piecemeal steps that we're making towards 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.120 understanding stem cells. All right, and then we have our 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:08.640 well maybe not final because you've already told us about 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.159 the fourth, but the third uh type is what we 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:17.320 call the induced pluri potent stem cell. And um, that's 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:22.159 the one that we mentioned was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka. 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:27.280 And Sir John almost said, Sir John Gruden. So, Sir 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:31.520 John Gerdon, Well, who's John Gruden? And sounds so familis 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:36.080 the NFL coach that looks like, oh yeah, Chucky Job's play. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.640 He didn't win a Nobel Prize though, but for their 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.320 efforts in two thousand twelve, they did win a Nobel Prize. 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.000 And uh, basically, like you said, they found a way 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.840 to induce these cells to return to their embryonic state, 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:57.480 which is amazing. Yeah, it sounds like basically they're using epigenetics. Yeah, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.879 that's a dangerous word to say, too. Well, think of 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.000 so like a cell. What they found is that cells 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.840 change and become the way that they later become, like 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.879 a liver cell or a bone cell or a neuron 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.120 or something like that, because they all have the same 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:17.000 genetic code in them. But then certain gene sequences are 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.480 either turned on or off in that cell and that 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.560 changes or tells them or directs them to become what 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.520 kind of cell they become. Right, what these guys have 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.720 done is introduced what are called stem cell factors that 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.480 go in and switch everything off to turn them back 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.640 into these plury potent stem cells. The thing that they 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:39.760 haven't figured out how to do yet is to now 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.560 activate them, to say, here's some new markers to change 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:51.480 your your gene sequence and uh now become uh liver cell. 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.879 Keep coming back to liver cells. I'm fixated on that. Um, 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.040 that's that's the next step. Yeah. And the great thing 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.560 about the I P s C is that it doesn't 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.800 involve embryos, so that kind of skirched the ethical and 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.480 political side of things. Yeah, because you can take a 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.200 skin cell and again, these guys are having a one 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.440 percent success rate, which is not bad. No, but if 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.879 you if if this, uh this other researcher has figured 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:21.760 out how to make them at that's even better. Yeah. 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.520 And these are it's such a new um, a new 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.159 process with the I s PC is they need to 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.480 do research to see how effective they are in treatment. Uh, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.520 if they are identical to embryonics themselves, or if they 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.560 just behave a lot like them. Um, So the proof 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.600 in the pudding will becoming hopefully in recent and uh 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.440 in the coming years exactly, not recent years, in coming years, 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.000 in coming years. So Chuck, let's talk about how they 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.720 hope to actually use stem cells in the future once 0:21:52.760 --> 0:22:06.280 they have mastered these things after this. Okay, So using 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:08.800 the stem cells is very important. You can create all 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.399 these cell lines and they can live a very great 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.560 life in a petri dish. But unless we're saving lives 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.919 and reversing disease, um, what good are they? Well, so 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.520 far no good. But hopefully what they're what they're thinking of, 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:24.640 is they'll be able to use these things for say 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.080 like drug drug trials. Yeah, that's huge, because right now 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:29.679 what you have to do is test something on an 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:33.400 animal and then think, all right, well, if it does 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.160 this in a mouse, let's try and figure out how 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.600 it might work in a human instead of just testing 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.320 it directly on human cells. Apparently the steps you followed 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:48.560 are mouse, monkey, human, unless there's in a bowl outbreak 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.040 and then you just go straight to human. Get the 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:55.080 FDA to pass it. Right. So, if you're if you're 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.520 creating like a heart drug or something, and you can 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.679 induce some um, stem cell else to become heart cells, 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.880 heart tissue, and then test the drug out on this. 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:08.600 You're basically just running human trials right there. Yeah, you're 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.960 skipping steps, you're saving time, you're saving money, cutting corners. Ah, yeah, 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:18.160 that is a negative. So that's one that is one 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.680 idea behind a good way to use these stem cells. 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.400 Let them stop living their life of leisure and start 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:30.520 contributing for once. Yeah, and forget the drug trials. Maybe 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.240 they can actually, like you said earlier, I think of 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:37.240 the beginning, just inject it right into the heart, let's say, 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:41.320 to repair damage tissue. And they they've actually had some 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:44.240 success with this and mice. Again, our understanding of some 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:47.720 stem cells and what they're doing is kind of primitive. 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:52.400