Stem cell niche II Flashcards
What are the disadvantages of a 2D culture of cells?
- Simplistic
- Often fails to recapitulate the in vivo phenotype (cells lose their phenotype and behaviour due to the unnatural environment)
- Drug responsiveness/disease modelling may not be predictive of the in in vivo context
What are the properties of a 2D cell culture?
- ABSENT soluble gradients (cells see an isotropic gradient)
- FORCED apical-basal polarity
- Unconstrained spreading and migration in x-y
- Adhesions restricted to X-y (not 3D)
- High stiffness of the plastic (hardness of bone/tissue in the in vivo environment is much lower)
- Layer of matrix coats the dish –> presented as a continuous layer of matrix
Why is the 3D approach to cell culture a more representative model to culture cells?
More of a realistic representation of how cells exist in the tissue:
- SOLUBLE gradients present
- No prescribed polarity
- Discrete matrix fibrils (not a continuous layer of matrix)
- Spreading and migration is sterically hindered
- Adhesions distributed in ALL 3 dimensions (3D)
- Low stiffness of the culture
What method allows us to take cells from the in vivo environment and grown them in vitro to enable them to do the same functions/exist how they would in the body?
Form ORGANOIDS
How are organoids formed?
- Take pluripotent (or adult stem cells)
- Aggregate the cells and give them:
Soluble cues
Biomaterials - The cells then SELF-ORGANISE and create 3D structures that recapitulate some of the major features of the organs they come from
Order the biological model systems from low physical relevance to high
2D cell culture
3D cell culture
Organoids
Model organisms
Humans
Order the biological model systems from high experimental tractability to low
2D cell culture
3D cell culture
Organoids
Model organisms
Humans
What comes with an increase in physiological relavence?
A decrease in experimental tractability
What is the definition of an organoid?
What does this imply?
A structure that resembles an organ, implying:
1) Multiple specific cell types (as are found in the organ in vivo
2) Capable of recapitulating some specific function of the organ (eg. excretion, filtration, neural activity, contraction)
3) The multiple cell types of the organoid must be grouped together and spatially organised similar to an organ
What does organoid formation recapitulate?
Both the major features of SELF-ORGANISATION during development:
1) Cell sorting
2) Spatially-restricted lineage commitment
What is ‘self-organisation’?
When a group of HOMOGENOUS cells can SPONTANEOUSLY create fine-tuned structures without major EXTERNAL influences
What is the classical example of a ‘self-organising’ structure?
Experiment to show this?
Sea-sponges
- Dissociate the cells into single cells
- Cells then spontaneously rebuild the basic body structure in the correct SPATIALLY organised manor when they are reaggregated
What experiment did Townes and Holtfreter 10 (1955) do that showed self-organisation?
- Took presumptive epidermal cells (from one embyro)
- Took neural plate cells (from another embryo)
Dissociated the cells and allowed them to spontaneously reaggregate
–> Created a correct body plan (with epidermal cells on the outside and neural cells on the inside)
What hypotheses are there that may explain how the cells know where to go to when they self-aggregate?
1) Differential adhesion hypothesis
2) Spatially restricted lineage commitment
What is the differential adhesion hypothesis based on?
Describe this
Based on the differentiation cell adhesion properties:
- Different cells have different CAMs on their surface
- When put cells together –> cells will organise in a manner where the similar cells form more bonds with each other rather than the cells of a different cell type
What is the spatially restricted lineage commitment hypothesis?
Progenitor cells give rise to more differentiated progeny due to:
1) SPATIAL CONSTRAINTS of the tissue
2) Cells orienting their division
This causes cells to be forced into a more superficial position and further away from the self-renewing signals –> causing the cells to change fate
What cell types have organoids been derived from?
- Pluripotent stem cells
- Adult stem cells
What adult-stem cell derived organoid is critical to gain knowledge of the intestinal stem cell and niche?
The gut organoid
What is the turnover of the intestinal epithelium?
4-5 days
What are the features of the intestinal epithelium?
- Villi (small protrusions) that project into the lumen
- Many differentiated cell types
- Also contain stem cells and transit amplifying cells (lining the crypt)
What is the function of the vili in the gut?
Increase SA for absorption
What are the different differentiated cell types of the intestinal epithelium and where are they?
1) Enterocytes (cover the surface of the vili and extend into the crypt
2) Paneth cells (at the bottom of the crypt)
3) Goblet cells
4) Entereoendocrine cells
What is the function of Enterocytes?
Absorption of nutrients/water from the lumen
What is the function of paneth cells?
1) Secretion of anti-microbial compounds - important in innate immunity
2) Maintenance of the intestinal stem cells
What is the function of goblet cells?
Secret mucin and other products
Help to move material across the gut
Where is the stem cell located in the gut epithelium?
At the bottom of the crypt
Between the Paneth (support) cells
What do the stem cells at the bottom of the crypt do?
1) They divide to make copies of THEMSELVES
2) They divide to make TRANSIT AMPLIFYING CELLS (progenitors)
What do the transit amplifying cells do?
What happens as they do so?
Proliferate RAPIDLY and move up the walls of the crypt (with each division - eventually giving rise to differentiated cells)
As they the cells migrate upwards:
1) They begin to differentiate into the cells of the gut (goblet cells and enterocytes)
2) Carry out the essential roles of the intestine
What happens when the differentiated cells reach the top of the vilus?
They undergo APOPTOSIS and SHED into the lumen of the small intestine