All species, from bacteria to humans, can be reborn. Regeneration is guided by molecular mechanisms that control gene expression to regulate tissue regeneration, recovery, and growth. Collaboration between researchers in the Department of Biological Engineering and the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University identifies an important mineral role in regulating gene expression, thereby regulating the amount of protein a cell should make, thus promoting tissue regeneration and redefining cell ownership.
This research paves the way for future studies to identify the role of specific minerals, as well as how they can be synthesized to design the next generation of mineral medicine to treat damaged tissue.
Minerals are an inorganic component that plays many important roles, working in conjunction with vitamins, enzymes, hormones and other nutrients to regulate thousands of body biological functions. Although several minerals have been shown to regulate gene expression and cell function, very little work has focused on understanding the basic mechanisms of cells.
This engineering research team is led by Drs. AkhileshGaharwar, associate professor of biomedical engineering and Presidential Impact Fellow, in collaboration with Drs. Irtisha Singh, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Cell Medicine at Texas A&M and co-author of a study in which a new class of mineral-based nanoparticles has been introduced to direct human stem cells to bone cells. stem cell division.
These nanosilicates are disk-shaped mineral-nanoparticles 20-30 nanometers (nm) in diameter and 1-2 nm in diameter. These nanoparticles are highly biocompatible and are easily absorbed by cells. Once inside the cell, these nanoparticles slowly dissolve into individual minerals such as silicon, magnesium and lithium.
Nanosilicates break down into individual minerals within cells and open up a “set” of important genes that lead to the flow of information across cells, known as signaling pathways. These signaling pathways are responsible for directing cells to perform certain functions, such as converting one cell to another or initiating a healing process by dissecting certain tissue proteins known as the extracellular matrix.
Combining multicultural techniques and biomedical engineering methods and genomics methods, the lead authors of this study, medical students Anna Brokesh and Lauren Cross, identify and display key genes that are “open” and activated by a variety of signaling pathways for treatment. with minerals. One of the major findings of this study is that minerals such as silicon, magnesium and lithium are involved in the formation of endochondral ossification, a process in which stem cells are converted into soft and strong tissues such as cartilage and bone in adolescents.
In this study, they analyzed complete transcriptomic sequencing data (RNA-seq) to evaluate the effect of nanosilicates and ionic degradation products on gene expression profiles of stem cells. RNA-seq, a transcriptome-wide high throughput sequencing assay, provides an all-in-one and complete overview of genetic profiles to identify ways that are affected by specific therapies.
“There are a lot of people who want to understand how minerals affect the human body, but there is little evidence to suggest how they affect the cellular level,” Brokesh said. “Our study is one of the first studies to use impartial transcriptome-wide sequence to determine how mineral ions can direct the end of a stem cell.”
The proposed approach addresses the long-standing challenge in current therapies that use supraphysiological doses of growth factors to guide tissue research. Such a large amount of growth factors cause a series of problems, including uncontrolled tissue formation, inflammation and tumorigenesis.
Gaharwar said the impact of this work is far-reaching because understanding the mineral effect of achieving the desired control of cellular activity has great potential to open up new clinical development approaches to regenerative medicine, drug delivery and immunomodulation.
Source Journal Reference: Anna M. Brokesh et al, Dissociation of nanosilicates induces downstream endochondral differentiation gene expression program, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl9404
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