L1 - Introduction

Question 1

What are the translational implications of stem cells?

Answer 1

Stem cell therapy 
Disease modelling 
Congenital birth defects 
Ageing related conditions 
Cancer

Question 2

What are the 5 stages of early embryonic development?

Answer 2

1. Zygote – first diploid cell to arise following fertilisation
2. Morula
3. Blastocyst
   a. Inner cell mass
   b. Trophoectoderm – gives rise to extra embryonic tissues
   c. Blastocoel – fluid filled cavity
4. Implantation
5. Post-implantation epiblast

Question 3

What is cell potency?

Answer 3

Ability of a cell to differentiate to other cell types

Question 4

What are stem cells?

Answer 4

Drivers of both embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis
Exhibit multiple degrees of potency

Question 5

What do stem cells have the ability to do?

Answer 5

Undergo self-renewal in a niche

Make one or more different cell types under the influence of specific signals

Question 6

What are embryonic stem cells?

Answer 6

Pluripotent
In vitro culture – embryonic stem cells = induced pluripotent stem cells
- Can give rise to every single cell of the body

Question 7

What are the applications of pluripotent stem cells?

Answer 7

Cell replacement therapy
Disease modelling
Drug screening
Modelling embryonic development

Question 8

What is an example of an adult stem cell?

Answer 8

Intestinal epithelium

• Undergoes constant turnover
• Driven by cells in the intestinal crypt at the base of the villi
• Can also be captured in vitro giving rise to organoids resembling a crypt

Question 9

What is senescence?

Answer 9

Age related decline in function

Question 10

What are some factors of senescence?

Answer 10

DNA damage, reactive oxygen species

Question 11

What is regeneration?

Answer 11

Ability of the fully developed organism to replace organs by growth/repatterning of existing tissue

Question 12

What is growth and cell division driven by?

Answer 12

Driven by the cell cycle

• Consists of 4 phases
• Resting phase = G0
• Driven by cycling and CDKs

Question 13

What is an oncogene?

Answer 13

A gene capable of transforming a normal cell into a tumour cell

Question 14

What is a tumour suppressor gene?

Answer 14

Restrict proliferation

Question 15

What is one example of an oncogene?

Answer 15

Neuroblastoma – common solid tumour in infants and young children
Aggressive neuroblastomas express high levels of the transcription factor MYCN

Question 16

What is one example of a tumour suppressor gene?

Answer 16

Normally function in DNA damage/repair and induces cell cycle arrest or apoptosis
Mice with mutation in p53 have higher incidence of tumours

Question 17

Where do neuroblastomas originate?

Answer 17

Originates in embryonic cell types called neural crest which generates peripheral neurons

Question 18

What does ectopic overexpression of MYCN lead to?

Answer 18

In normal neural crest cells gives rise to neuroblastoma like tumours

Question 19

What are pharmacogenetics?

Answer 19

Study of individual gene-drug interactions

Usually one or two genes that have dominant effect on a drug response

Question 20

What are pharmacogenomics?

Answer 20

Study of genomic influence on drug response

Often using high-throughput data