Is there such a thing as avian embryonic stem cells, meaning bird ESCs?
Yes, you can make ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from many species of vertebrates including birds. Some have been much harder to derive than others though.
Bird ESCs
In fact, for some species, certain tricks or additional materials are needed.
I remember seeing a talk where they reported that even having the matched species of growth factor was important (e.g., bovine FGF instead of human FGF) in the media. However, in many cases the species of growth factor may not matter.
Now we have this paper: Egg yolk proves key to establishing authentic embryonic stem cells from birds, MSN. Corresponding author on the Nature Biotechnology research paper Qi-Long Ying from USC told MSN: “In this study, we successfully derived and maintained true self-renewing and pluripotent ESCs from chicken, quail, pheasant, turkey, duck, goose, peafowl, and ostrich.”
That’s quite a flock of ESCs.
Here’s the research pub: Derivation of embryonic stem cells across avian species. These cells and methods are going to be very useful resources for the field.
There seems to be some disagreement about when the first true avian ESCs were produced. I thought it was in the 1990s.
Recommended reads
- California lawsuit accuses anthem blue cross of wrongfully denying stem cell therapy for MS patient, Law Commentary. This is an interesting case focusing on HSCT for MS. HSCT or hematopoietic stem cell transplant is an emerging therapy for certain kinds of MS. It uses initial partial chemo ablation of the immune system followed by autologous transplant of HSCs. While the published data now support HSCT for some MS patients via a kind of reset of the immune system, somehow it has not become the standard of care in the U.S. To be clear, this is entirely different than the many offerings of unproven stem cell clinics that wrongly claim they can treat MS such as with MSCs.
- FDA warning letter to Cellebration LLC. It’s funny as I just wrote about another firm called ReCeLLebrate in the perinatal space. There’s lots of opportunities for cute names based on “cell”.
- How President Trump’s remarks about autism hurt autistic people like me, STAT News. The administration’s attitude toward autism seems based on the wrong assumption that all autistic people need “fixing”.
- Here we go again: Another study is being misrepresented as evidence that COVID vaccines cause cancer, Science Based Medicine.
New FDA CGT draft guidances
There are three new FDA draft guidances about our field. I haven’t had a chance to dig into them, but they’re likely important.
- Innovative Designs for Clinical Trials of Cellular and Gene Therapy Products in Small Populations
- Expedited Programs for Regenerative Medicine Therapies for Serious Conditions
- Postapproval Methods to Capture Safety and Efficacy Data for Cell and Gene Therapy Products
Anyone have impressions of these so far?