PatIntNews

A breakthrough research of deriving authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats, for the first time has been accomplished by the researchers at the University of Southern California (USC). Disclosed by the university in a press release on Wednesday, (will be published on the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Cell) this research will open up possibilities for scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a wide range of human diseases.

Qilong Ying, a native of China and the study's principal investigator comments that the availability of rat ES cells is one of the major developments in the field of stem cell research as rats are more closely related to humans than mice in many aspects of biology and this research in itself is capable of changing the research direction of many labs around the world .

The scientist are able to create "knockout" rats that is, animals that are genetically modified to lack one or more genes, for biomedical research. The creation of these rat models will help the researchers to identify the function of the gene and whether it is linked to a specific disease thereby helping in the study of different human diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, addiction and autoimmune diseases .

A Nobel Prize awardee in Medicine or Physiology, Martin Evans of Cardiff University, Britain was the first one to develop ES cell lines from mice in 1981 and since then researchers have long been working on establishing rat ES cells.

The USC researchers used the "3i medium" to derive and grow rat ES cells , which inhibit three specific gene signaling components, thus insulating the stem cell from signals that induce differentiation. These insulated cells can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory in the primitive embryonic state, which have otherwise failed to propagate.

These breakthrough findings at USC will have a major impact on the future of biomedical research through their current project on generating the first gene knockout rat through ES cell-based technologies. The feasibility of the technology will lead to generation of different types of gene knockout rat models by labs worldwide.