PHCbi-Panasonic eBook - 11

Cell Therapy Today * New Developments in Immunotherapy * Benefits of Oxygen Control in the Cell Culture Incubator

chromosomal abnormalities as well as genomic
and epigenomic aberrations.17
These mutations could lead to tumorigenesis
or affected downstream results. Because many
types of stem and progenitor cells often reside in
a physiological microenvironment with oxygen
between 1-5%, exposure to hyperoxic conditions
may lead to deleterious effects.

Furthermore, ES cells revealed more robust
growth under hypoxic oxygen conditions with
a significant reduction in differentiation as
compared to ES cells exposed to ambient air.
Hypoxic conditions helped promote full pluripotency of embryonic stem cells.

When investigators seeking to corroborate this
hypothesis cultured stem cells under physiological oxygen concentrations, the outcome
was better genomic stability and maintenance of
stemness in adult stem and embryonic stem (ES)
cells.18

In contrast, culturing rat peripheral and central
nervous system stem cells at physiological
oxygen levels promoted their differentiation
into neurons. It appears that oxygen's modulation of stem cell fate is a complex mechanism
dependent on the tissue. This data is an example
of continuously evolving research that represents the role oxygen control plays in stem cell
research.

Physiological oxygen levels have also been
shown to influence stem cell growth rates and
differentiation. One study found that culturing
rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in
5% oxygen yielded increased proliferation and
colony-forming ability than when cultured at
20% oxygen (atmospheric).19

While oxygen regulates stem cell differentiation and genomic integrity in ways still not
completely understood, researchers have been
studying the effects of oxygen via HIF. Results
suggest that HIFs affect stem and progenitor cell
differentiation. In one study, it was shown that
trophoblast stem cell differentiation in placenta

| GENengnews.com

The environmental
principles that
dictate cell
differentiation
and proliferation
can be easily
translatable to
other research
areas, such as stem
cell research or
cancer biology.

http://www.GENengnews.com

PHCbi-Panasonic eBook

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PHCbi-Panasonic eBook