Genes, Immunity, and Stem Cells

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Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and Duke University Medical School have discovered that a particular gene within the blood system stem cells may play an important role against infection.
The gene is apparently triggered by stress responses and may help blood production to recover from toxic drug or infection. This gene may also help to regenerate a blood system following a bone marrow transplant. It is the first time that a link between activating a stem cell and infection has been connected. Future studies need to be continued to determine why this gene has an impact on stem cells. The gene is called an interferon inducible GTPase Leg-47.

The latest discovery has appeared in a recent journal called Cell Stem Cell. Dr. Margaret Goodell, professor of pediatrics, and her colleagues performed various experiments with mice. "In the mice with the defective gene, the stem cells could not wake up," said Goodell. "It is the first time anyone has shown a link between infection and activating stem cells".

The mice with defective genes had stem cells that did not function well. While under normal circumstances, such cells could make blood, when stressed by disease causing organisms that attacked the blood cells; the stem cells did not recover adequately. New discoveries are opening up new paths of exploration in many blood borne diseases and conditions which may help to provide treatments and cures in the future.

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