Many labs take advantage of a medium supplement that is both
necessary for healthy cell cultures, and saves time and
effort. This cocktail consist of insulin, transferrin, and
selenium, or as most of us know it, ITS (pronounced I-T-S). We
already spoke about insulin so now we’ll talk about the other
two: Transferrin and selenium.
I can spend days talking about recombinant DNA technology. It has
fast become one of the most used tools in biomedical research and
promises to be useful for a good long time. Most of us can’t
think of too many people who DON’T utilize this tool in one way
or another. But, I will keep this light and focused on today’s
topic: Recombinant insulin.
Insulin is a peptide hormone. Specifically, it is a 51 amino acid
peptide with a molecular weight of 5.8 kDa. Together with other
hormones, it regulates our body’s metabolism and is essential for
regulating fat and carbohydrate (sugar) metabolism. It is made by
the pancreas and removes the glucose from the blood stream by
storing it in our muscle, liver, and fat cells as glycogen.
Basically, it allows our cells to take up glucose and store it
for future use, keeping our blood free from excess sugars.
It’s February. For most people, this month conjures up thoughts
of Valentines, romantic dinners, chubby toddlers wielding bows
and arrows, and copious quantities of chocolate….which leads me
to this month’s featured product: Insulin.
The new kid on the stem cell block has a lot of people talking.
It has been touted as the next best thing in regenerative
medicine (rightfully so). What’s the deal? Well, for starters,
they don’t start off as stem cells at all. These Induced
Pluripotent Stem Cells start off as a fully mature adult cell
types, such as skin fibroblasts. They are then transfected with
the genes known to maintain the pluripotent state in embryonic
stem (ES) cells. This, in effect, pushes the cells to re-discover
and maintain the qualities of ES cells.
I made up a protein: Pluripotency Inducing Factor” so I can have
a catchy title. OK, maybe not a TOTALLY made up protein,
but as far as I can tell, no one calls one specific protein by
that name. Also, “PPF (pluripotency Promoting Factor) doesn’t
rhyme with LIF. But on a slightly more serious note, LIF is so
ubiquitous in mouse ES cell labs that one may wonder if it has
ever served any other purpose under a cell culture hood.
I’ve spent many hours preaching to students, colleagues, and even
perfect strangers (at least the ones that stuck around long
enough to listen) about having the right tools for the right job.
Perhaps I should have spent a little more time on the importance
of maintaining one’s tools so they do what they’re supposed to
do….And what better place to do this than a blog about embryonic
stem (ES) cells?
Hi everyone, I’m Dr. J, Gemini’s Scientific blogger-type
guy. With my first (and thus far most impressive)
blog, I wanted to introduce myself before I move on to our newest
product…one that ought to grab the attention of the stem
cell biologists out there: Leukemia Inhibitor Factor, or LIF.
