• Question: what do you mean by talk to stem cells?

    Asked by vsidaway to James on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi vsidaway,
      Cheers for Q!
      Well, stem cells respond to a whole load of different chemicals. These cells have receptors on them – basically, they are like the cell’s eyes, nose, ears… they detect chemical signals and do things depending on what signals they are. The chemical signals can make them start making more of themselves (replicate) or move towards the chemical, or turn into different types of cells. So, our idea is if we can get the stem cells to move towards the broken bits of the bone and then turn into bone cells, then this can help speed up the healing process. So by talking to stem cells, I mean to get them to do what we want by giving them the right chemical signals.

      check out the link for animations! I hope you like it!
      http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12578388/stem%20cells%20and%20broken%20bones.pptx

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