Researchers have found a gene in fruit flies that determines if a specialized cell can return to being a stem cell.

Revealing the genetic traits that allow cells to transform into stem cells plays a key role in regenerative medicine, said a study by researchers from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona and the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

Like Us on Facebook

A type of stem cell, which is referred to as "facultative," forms parts of tissues and organs with the help of other cells. There is seemingly nothing that differentiates these cells from other cells present in the body.

Facultative stem cells, however, have a very special trait. They have the ability to return to their stem cell stage.

The phenomenon has been observed in the liver, an organ with cells that promote the growth of tissues and allows the organ to regenerate in cases that require transplants. Finding out the underlying mechanism that allows cells to retain the ability to return to stem cells is a crucial issue in the field of regenerative medicine.

Jordi Casanova, a research professor from IBMB, and Xavier Franch-Marro, a CSIC tenured scientist at the Instituto de Biologia Evolutiva, published a study that revealed the mechanism by which cells return to their stem cell stage.

Toiling away on Drosophila melanogaster's larval tracheal cells, the duo found out that the crucial feature of the cells was they didn't go through a modified cell cycle in which a cell reproduces its genome a number of times without the need to divide in a process called endocycling.

"The function of endocycle in living organisms is not fully understood," comments Franch-Marro. "One of the theories is that endoreplication contributes to enlarge the cell and confers the production of high amounts of protein"

Researchers observed cells that go through the endocycle lose their ability of returning to stem cells.

"The endocycle is linked to an irreversible change of gene expression in the cell," explains Casanova, "We have seen that inhibition of endocycle entry confers the cells the capacity to reactivate as stem cells."

TagsDrosophila melanogaster, Fruit Fly, stem cell, Regenerative medicine, Liver, Differentiated cell, Specialized cell