Without ‘Notch’ signal, cells swap jobs

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo allows scientists to change a cell’s destiny. The findings could lead to new ways of making replacement organs.

Researchers made the discovery in the University of California, Santa Barbara, laboratory of Joel H. Rothman, a professor in the department of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. They report their findings in Genes and Development.

“At some point along the way toward becoming part of a complete individual, cells become destined to choose a particular identity and long-term profession,” Rothman notes. “Once a cell chooses who it will be, it locks onto that identity for the remainder of its life.”




“If Oz’s wizard possessed the powers he claimed, and had a spare brain lying around, he could switch it to a heart as a gift for the Tin Man. And he could reverse the trick for the Scarecrow,” Rothman says.

Similarly, the researchers have found a way to unlock cells’ destinies and lead them to take on a new profession.

The scientists found that a widely used cell signaling system, known as “Notch” signaling, causes cells to commit to a particular occupation, such as a skin or brain cell. When they blocked the signal by genetic manipulation, the researchers discovered that they could force a cell to change its destiny, such that they instead became cells of the intestine.




“The later cells seemed to remember what had happened to their great-grandparent cells,” Rothman says. “Imagine if the experience of your great-grandparents predestined you to become a lawyer, dentist, or coal miner, and you could not choose to change your professional destiny. That is what is happening to cells whose cellular ancestors received the Notch signal.”

The discovery could someday help scientists develop new ways to produce tissues and organs in the laboratory that could be used to replace a patient’s injured, diseased, or aged organs.

By unlocking a cell’s normal destiny, it may be possible to change it into an altogether different type of cell that could be used to grow a new organ for a patient.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine supported the research.

Source: UC Santa Barbara