{"id":2931,"date":"2011-09-09T10:13:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T00:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2012-03-21T09:32:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T22:32:18","slug":"first-stem-cells-from-endangered-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/nature\/first-stem-cells-from-endangered-species\/","title":{"rendered":"First stem cells from endangered species"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

The drill monkey is the most endangered primate in Africa. Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Scientists have used skin cells to produce the stem cells from the drill monkey and the Northern white rhinoceros.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2006 the director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo<\/a>, Oliver Ryder, contacted the Scripps Research Institute<\/a> to suggest producing stem cells from endangered species. Ryder had established the Frozen Zoo, a collection of skin cells and other material from over 800 species.<\/p>\n

Five years later, the researchers have successfully produced stem cells from this material. The process involved skin cells taken from adult individuals, instead of embryonic stem cells that have been isolated from an embryo.<\/p>\n

“Induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells are almost exactly alike,”\u009d said Scripps Research Institute scientist Jeanne Loring, lead author of the study published in <\/em>Nature Methods<\/em><\/a>. “For endangered species, we obviously could not make stem cells from embryos, so we used skin cells and reprogrammed them.”\u009d<\/p>\n

The technology used was first developed in 2007 by Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist in Kyoto. Fibroblasts (cells) are grown from the skin samples from the endangered species in culture dishes.<\/p>\n

“(We) then add genes called “reprogramming factors” to turn them into cells that are pluripotent, which means they can make every cell type in the body. Cells made in this way are called “\u02dcinduced pluripotent stem cells’.”<\/p>\n

Ryder suggested the drill monkey and the Northern white rhinoceros as candidates for the research. The drill is the most endangered primate in Africa and its similarity to humans, the researchers thought it would be possible to reprogram the cells of a deceased male drill monkey, Loon, using methods developed for humans.<\/p>\n

“The Northern white rhinoceros was chosen because it was expected to be a huge challenge- we thought that our methods would probably not work, but it was worth trying because there are only seven living animals of this species,”\u009d Dr Loring said.<\/p>\n

This method could be used to improve genetic diversity among endangered species populations, which often have health and reproductive problems as a result of inbreeding. “By introducing new genomes- the DNA from new individuals- into a population, it makes the population healthier and more likely to survive.”\u009d<\/p>\n

The technology could also be used for medical treatments, such as cell replacement therapy for drills, which tend to suffer from diabetes in captivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have used skin cells to produce the stem cells from the drill monkey and the Northern white rhinoceros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,56,64,88,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-conservation","category-ecology","category-genetics","category-nature","category-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2931"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4266,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions\/4266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}