• Question: what does the MAN-1 do

    Asked by jkxbl to Sharon on 13 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 13 Mar 2011:

      Hi jkxbl,
      Man-1 is an embryonic stem cell line that was grown from an egg. The egg was not dividing properly so I treated it with 3 chemcals in order to kick start it into action, then I looked after it for 5 days in my incubator until it was a ball of about 100 cells. At this point, the embryonic stem cells were carefully cut out of the centre of the ball and grown until we had millions of cells. Now we have lots of MAN-1 cells, we keep lots of them frozen so we can use them later.
      Recently, scientists in ur lab have used MAN-1 to grow cartilage cells which could be used in the future to transplant into people who have trouble with their joints, or maybe have arthritis. To make the MAN-1 cells trun into cartilage, they need to be grown in a special fluid containing things called growth factors, some hormones and also salts and sugars in very precise amounts. If we wanted to make MAN-1 turn into different types of cells, then the growth factors and hormones used would be different.
      Hope this answers your question!

Comments

  • Photo: jkxbl

    jkxbl commented on :

    what are the 3 chemicals did u use to kick start it back up?

  • Photo: Sharon

    Sharon commented on :

    Hi,
    Firstly, it goes in a chemical called ionomycin. This is very similar to calcium and it increases the calcium levels in the egg. This is what happens when a sperm enters the egg at fertilisation. So the egg, which is a bit stupid, is tricked into thinking that a sperm is there and it wakes up from it’s arrested state.

    After this, the egg gets put into 2 more chemicals, called 6-dimethylaminopurine and cycloheximide These have slightly more complicated jobs nad are responsible for telling the genes in the egg to start dividing. Once this happens, the single cell egg divides to give 2 cells, then again to give 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on until a ball of about 100 cells forms. Not all of the eggs treated like this will make it this far, a lot of them get stuck at the 4 cell stage.