Stem Cells: In Sickness and in Health

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with the ability to proliferate and convert to different types of differentiated cells that make up the various tissues and organs in the body. They exist both in embryos as pluripotent stem cells that can differentiate into the three germ layers and as multipotent or unipotent stem cells in adult tissues to aid in repair and homeostasis. Perturbations in these cells' normal functions can give rise to a wide variety of diseases. In this review, we discuss the origin of different stem cell types, their properties and characteristics, their role in tissue homeostasis, current research, and their potential applications in various life-threatening diseases. We focus on neural stem cells, their role in neurogenesis and how they can be exploited to treat diseases of the brain including neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Next, we explore current research in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) techniques and their clinical applications in regenerative and personalized medicine. Lastly, we tackle a special type of stem cells called Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) and how they can be responsible for therapy resistance and tumor recurrence and explore ways to target them.

Epidermal Growth Factor Is Essential for the Maintenance of Novel Prostate Epithelial Cells Isolated From Patient-Derived Organoids

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality and morbidity among males worldwide. Deciphering the biological mechanisms and molecular pathways involved in PCa pathogenesis and progression has been hindered by numerous technical limitations mainly attributed to the limited number of cell lines available, which do not recapitulate the diverse phenotypes of clinical disease. Indeed, PCa has proven problematic to establish as cell lines in culture due to its heterogeneity which remains a challenge, despite the various in vitro and in vivo model systems available. Growth factors have been shown to play a central role in the complex regulation of cell proliferation among hormone sensitive tumors, such as PCa. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of novel patient-derived prostate epithelial (which we named as AUB-PrC) cells from organoids culture system. We also assessed the role of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in culturing those cells. We profiled the AUB-PrC cells isolated from unaffected and tumor patient samples via depicting their molecular and epithelial lineage features through immunofluorescence staining and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), as well as through functional assays and transcriptomic profiling through RNA sequencing. In addition, by optimizing a previously established prostate organoids culture system, we were able to grow human prostate epithelial cells using growth medium and EGF only. With these data collected, we were able to gain insight at the molecular architecture of novel human AUB-PrC cells, which might pave the way for deciphering the mechanisms that lead to PCa development and progression, and ultimately improving prognostic abilities and treatments.