2009-12-16
In a new article, Ph.D. student Jenny Nelander verifies that mice and men are reassuringly alike.
– We have done a comparative study between mouse and man. So much is being published about what happens during the formation and development of dopamine-producing cells in mice, but nobody has known if it looks the same in humans. As we’re trying to produce dopamine-producing nerve cells from human stem cells, we want to know if the same factors and genes that are expressed in these cells in mice are also expressed in humans. All researchers use a collection of markers to identify these cells, and until today, we have only assumed that it looks the same in humans, says Jenny Nelander.
– We have done a developmental study where we have investigated a list of proteins and transcription factors that we know are important in the development of dopamine-producing cells in mice, and tested the antibodies for them on human tissue. Are they present in the region, do they have the same expression pattern?
And what did you find?
– In most cases, it looks the same in mice and men, but we have found differences. In the article there is a list of twelve antibodies that we have used, and with those you can be sure to mark the right cells in a culture. We will continue to test more, so that you don’t risk identifying something that isn’t there. It feels reassuring to know that we are on the right track.
The article is titled Organization of the human embryonic ventral mesencephalon. Authors: Nelander J, Hebsgaard JB, Parmar M. Gene Expr Patterns. 2009 Dec;9(8):555-61. Epub 2009 Oct 13.
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Last modified: 2009-12-16
