Extracellular matrix Flashcards
Which celebrities have an ECM disease?
Lena Dunham, Sia, and Jameela Jamil all have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. This is a group of disorders affecting the joints and skin. The syndrome is rare, but
combined, its forms affect at least 1 in 5,000 across
the world. The syndrome is often overlooked by many who may have it and mistake it for chronic pain
What 3 things make the ECM clinically relevant?
- Tumor microenvironment
- Stem cell therapy
- SynVisc one
Tumor microenvironment
The immediate environment of the tumor. This contributes to the heterogeneity of cells in the tumor, which influences the behavior of the tumor cells and cancer stem cells. Cancer cells also influence the behavior of immune cells and fibroblasts in the microenvironment.
SynVisc One
Synvisc-One is an injection that supplements the fluid in your knee to help lubricate and cushion the joint, and can provide up to six months of osteoarthritis knee pain relief. The injection contains a gel-like mixture made from an ECM protein called hyaluronan that comes from chicken combs. Categorized as a medical device by the FDA.
Extracellular matrix (ECM)
Diverse collection of molecules that are not passive but rather very dynamic
ECM functions
- Cell adhesion
- Cell to cell specificity
- Filter matrix or barrier like the basal lamina- basement membrane
- Promote/maintain cell differentiation. Ex- stem cell differentiation
- Tendon/bone strength
- Charged surface
- Receptors- integrin receptors
ECM and tissue engineering
The ECM is critically important to products as as Epiderm (MatTek corporation). It is a tissue model consisting of normal, human-derived epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK)
What is a challenge to growing human embryonic stem cells?
Mouse “half dead” (irradiated)feeder layers are typically required for growing hESCs. However, this introduces animal proteins and frowned upon by the FDA due to the possibility of viruses, animal proteins. New feeder cell-free plates and media have been developed
Magnetic Levitation Approach (stem cells)
Magnetic cell levitation is a recent method which has been developed, which offers an alternative method for spheroid generation. During magnetic levitation, cells are pre-loaded with magnetic nanoparticles and encouraged to form multicellular spheroids within several hours via an external magnetic field. The resultant spheroids are easily manipulated by virtue of their magnetic qualities and also confer benefits including cell tracking and imaging. This is a method that does not require ECM or a feeder layer.
Type 1 collagen
Easy to isolate. Forms microfibrils and collagen fibrils, which can aggregate into collagen fibers. They connect muscle to bone and therefore have a lot of tensile strength.
Osteogenesis imperfecta
Caused by autosomal dominant mutations in genes encoding type 1 collagen. Mutations in glycine result in unstable alpha helices.
Type 2 collagen
More mesh-like structure. Found in cartilage along with type 9 collagen. Type 2 fibers are smaller in diameter than type 1 fibrils and oriented randomly in a proteoglycan matrix
What is one example for why ECM is critical to stem cells?
Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells
were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a clinic in Florida. One, 72, went completely blind from the injections, and the others, 78 and 88, lost much of their eyesight. Before the procedure, all had some
visual impairment but could see well enough to drive. Cells were fat derived mesenchymal stem cells (autologous transplant) but the stem cells were in a different niche or ECM environment
US stem cell/Bioheart
A loosely regulated clinic selling unproven stem cell treatments. Several women suffered vision loss after stem cells were injected into their eyes. Another patient had a catastrophic reaction after visiting a South Miami clinic. The 59-year-old
woman felt faint and started vomiting two hours after receiving
injections for arthritis pain. The FDA’s slow response has permitted U.S. Stem Cell to continue operating years after those first reports of blindness. Although the company stopped injecting its fat-derived
treatments into eyes after the patients sued, it continues to sell the therapy to people with spinal injuries, Parkinson’s disease, MS, and other serious chronic conditions
Kristin Comella
Former CSO of US Stem Cell. She stated in the Washington Post about their procedures:
“Of course, we don’t understand the mechanisms of action, I suppose you would have to talk directly to God to get that.” “Dr.” Comella has a PhD from a non-accredited virtual university out of Panama and resigned in 2019.
Age related macular degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration of the eye is
the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. This loss of vision is caused by the death of the photoreceptors (the rods and cones) resulting from the degeneration and
death of the underlying retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells
Stem cell therapy to treat age related macular degeneration
One problem has been immune rejection of the
transplanted stem cells. But, scientists in Sweden say they have discovered a way to refine the production of retinal cells from embryonic stem cells
for treating blindness in the elderly. Using
the CRISPR/Cas9 (Nobel Prize 2020) gene
editing, they have also managed to modify
the cells so that they can hide from the immune system to prevent rejection
Classic experiment of cell to cell specificity
Used a living sponge (animal). Cells were stained and dissociated, then the cell reorganized. The stained cell would be in the same place when they reorganized, suggesting that cells could recognize their neighbors and know where they were.
4 families of cell adhesion molecules
- Cadherins
- Immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily
- Integrins
- Lectins
Cell-adhesion molecules
The interactions between cells of the body are achieved via cell adhesion molecules. They have diverse structures and expression levels depending on where they are found in the body. Adhesion receptors can mediate binding through homophilic interactions (molecules of the same type) or heterophilic interactions.
Cadherins
Characteristic of the adherens junction. E-cadherins mediate cell-cell adhesion by forming homophilic cross bridges with identical E-cadherins on adjacent cells. They can also bind to E-cadherins on the same cell. Ubiquitous in all known substrate dependent cells, require calcium to function. Have a strong cis-trans configuration.
Immunoglobulins
Can form homophilic or heterophilic linkages and can serve as cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion receptors
Cell junctions
CAMs can be clustered in separate regions on the plasma membrane. Cell junctions and be tight and long lasting or weak and transient.
Homophilic binding
When a CAM on one cell binds directly to the same kind of CAM on an adjacent cell.
Heterophilic binding
A CAM on one cell binds to a different class of CAM
Cis interactions
Also called lateral (in the same cell) interactions. Monomeric CAMs on one cell bind to one or more CAMs on the same cell’s plasma membrane.
Trans interactions
Also called intercellular or adhesive interactions. CAMs on one cell bind to CAMs on an adjacent cell.
E-cadherin and the cytoskeleton
The cadherin adhesion complex bridges neighboring cells and the actin-myosin cytoskeleton, and thereby contributes to mechanical coupling between cells which drives many morphogenetic events and tissue repair.
What ion does E-cadherin require to function?
Calcium. Cadherins depend on calcium for their function: removal of calcium abolishes adhesive activity, renders cadherins vulnerable to proteases and, in E-cadherin, induces a dramatic reversible conformational change in the entire extracellular region.
E-cadherin and MDCK cells
Experiments have been conducted using a green fluorescent protein labeled form of E-cadherin. It has shown that clusters of E-cadherin mediate the initial attachment of cells and the subsequent zippering of cells into sheets.