3/3/2017: Complicated Papers x 2
Hey, everyone! I've finished thoroughly reading the papers (on cancer and stem cells) that I mentioned and will be talking about what I've learned in this post. I'll also discuss the SOP's I talked about in previous posts.
But, before I start, important updates on the horses! Cheyenne has been raised to orange alert and Lansdowne is on yellow alert. Because horses typically give birth during the night time, I will be going to the ranch later tonight (from 11 P.M. to 2 A.M.) on "barn-watch" duty, monitoring the two horses and being prepared to alert the team if either goes into labor. In my Week 4 post, I'll make sure to talk about this experience, as well as everything else I've done during my fourth week with AniCell.
This post, as the title states, will be about two different types of complicated papers.
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES GALORE
The first type of complicated paper I'll be discussing is, you guessed it, scholarly articles. As of now, I've read three papers (all of which my advisor, Dr. Barcelo, recommended and sent to me) which have to do with how stem cells and other substances from the amnion have been used to help treat cancer. These readings essentially encapsulate the independent part of my project at the moment, for my current focus is on how the usage of stem cells can be expanded to treating cancers.
Reading these papers was quite the experience. Of course, there was no way I could understand everything, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well I could follow along. Here, I'll attempt to summarize the most important parts of each paper in simple language.
1) Conditioned medium derived from rat amniotic epithelial cells confers protection against inflammation, cancer, and senescence
Don't let the long complicated title scare you away. This paper talked about how stem cells can be used to guard against cancer, but it started with data showing why amniotic epithelial cells (AEC's) can be effectively used as a treatment for various types of problems. The first reason is that AEC's retain stemness properties, meaning they can differentiate into a large variety of cell types. The second reason is that they have a low immunogenicity, making them protected against rejection by a foreign body. The way in which these facts were determined is very complicated, so I will abstain from going into that here.
Going more into the main parts of the study, the paper showed how a medium derived from AEC's could be used to inhibit tumor cell growth in the lab, and greatly slow down tumor cell growth in an organism.
The diagram above shows how AEC-derived medium inhibited tumor growth in the lab. The blue portion of the chart (G0/G1) indicates how many cells of a population were found to stay in this preliminary stage of the cell cycle, and not contribute to cancerous behavior by dividing. As you can see, using the AEC-derived medium (AEC-CM) greatly increased the percentage of cells staying in this stage within two different cancer cell lines.
Other notable facts this study/this paper discussed include how AEC-CM can delay cell senescence (deterioration with age) and decrease inflammation.
2) Effect of amniotic membrane proteins in human cancer cell lines: an exploratory study
This study actually focuses on proteins found in the amniotic membrane rather than stem cells. When human amniotic membrane (hAM) proteins were incubated with different cancer cell lines, many showed signs of inhibition. However, some were also stimulated by the proteins. Although the causes are still mostly unknown, this makes hAM proteins an interesting prospect of study.
This diagram shows overall proliferation of different cancer cell lines following incubation with hAM proteins. The ones that are under 100 are the ones being inhibited (there's quite a few) and the ones that are over 100 are the ones being stimulated. This is an exploratory study, so its main purpose was to show how hAM proteins can have such effects on cancer cells, rather than trying to explain why. The results are definitely interesting.
3) Human amniotic membrane-derived epithelial stem cells display anticancer activity in BALB/c female nude mice bearing disseminated breast cancer xenografts
Longest title of them all, but don't worry. This study goes back to the actual stem cells and how they can express anti-breast cancer activity. It was conducted because breast cancer is the leading cause of mortality in women and current treatments have very undesirable side effects. The study ended up showing that human amniotic membrane-derived epithelial stem cells (hAECs) actually inhibited the growth of cancer cells in the lab, and inhibited the growth of breast tumors in mice. Overall, the cells were also shown to prolong the survival time of mice with breast cancer.
This diagram shows how using stem cells to treat the tumors greatly decreased overall tumor growth. The lowest peak on the right graph is a current standard treatment, and although it led to an overall smaller tumor size, the side effects of this treatment are very harmful. On the other hand, using stem cells also decreased the tumor volume greatly (the right two peaks), and produced no side effects in the animals. The graph on the left shows how the control (without stem cells) tumor kept on growing in size at a decent rate. The other three lines (indicative of the standard treatment + two different ratios of stem cell treatment) show how they greatly decrease tumor growth over time.
All of these papers were very interesting and show how much potential stem cells and other substances found in the amnion have in treating diseases like cancers. I can't wait to get my next batch of recommendations from Dr. Barcelo and keep reading!
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES
This is the second type of complicated paper I'll be talking about, and these are very different than the scholarly articles I discussed above. To recap from previous posts, Standard Operating Procedures are essentially detailed instruction manuals for specific aspects of working either in the lab or on the ranch. I was instructed to create one of these SOPs for Environmental Care on the ranch. In the SOP, I talked about weeding/mowing, bucking hay, waste disposal, and plant maintenance. I've mentioned the first three in other posts, but plant maintenance is something new, so I'll take a second to specifically talk about that.
It's important to check what plants are growing on the ranch because a lot are poisonous to horses, including many which aren't harmful to humans. This is why all unknown plants should be tamed and proper precautions should be taken before trying to grow anything on the ranch. In the SOP, I talked about this and included a list of common plants which can be harmful to horses.
Here's a low-quality screenshot showing some of what I have so far. As you can see, because these documents need to be official and very detailed, they end up seeming very complicated, even regarding simple issues like mowing. My description of waste disposal sounded especially ridiculous. There is something very satisfying about creating official documents like these, though.
But, before I start, important updates on the horses! Cheyenne has been raised to orange alert and Lansdowne is on yellow alert. Because horses typically give birth during the night time, I will be going to the ranch later tonight (from 11 P.M. to 2 A.M.) on "barn-watch" duty, monitoring the two horses and being prepared to alert the team if either goes into labor. In my Week 4 post, I'll make sure to talk about this experience, as well as everything else I've done during my fourth week with AniCell.
This post, as the title states, will be about two different types of complicated papers.
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES GALORE
The first type of complicated paper I'll be discussing is, you guessed it, scholarly articles. As of now, I've read three papers (all of which my advisor, Dr. Barcelo, recommended and sent to me) which have to do with how stem cells and other substances from the amnion have been used to help treat cancer. These readings essentially encapsulate the independent part of my project at the moment, for my current focus is on how the usage of stem cells can be expanded to treating cancers.
Reading these papers was quite the experience. Of course, there was no way I could understand everything, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well I could follow along. Here, I'll attempt to summarize the most important parts of each paper in simple language.
1) Conditioned medium derived from rat amniotic epithelial cells confers protection against inflammation, cancer, and senescence
Don't let the long complicated title scare you away. This paper talked about how stem cells can be used to guard against cancer, but it started with data showing why amniotic epithelial cells (AEC's) can be effectively used as a treatment for various types of problems. The first reason is that AEC's retain stemness properties, meaning they can differentiate into a large variety of cell types. The second reason is that they have a low immunogenicity, making them protected against rejection by a foreign body. The way in which these facts were determined is very complicated, so I will abstain from going into that here.
Going more into the main parts of the study, the paper showed how a medium derived from AEC's could be used to inhibit tumor cell growth in the lab, and greatly slow down tumor cell growth in an organism.
 |
| Pie Charts |
The diagram above shows how AEC-derived medium inhibited tumor growth in the lab. The blue portion of the chart (G0/G1) indicates how many cells of a population were found to stay in this preliminary stage of the cell cycle, and not contribute to cancerous behavior by dividing. As you can see, using the AEC-derived medium (AEC-CM) greatly increased the percentage of cells staying in this stage within two different cancer cell lines.
Other notable facts this study/this paper discussed include how AEC-CM can delay cell senescence (deterioration with age) and decrease inflammation.
2) Effect of amniotic membrane proteins in human cancer cell lines: an exploratory study
This study actually focuses on proteins found in the amniotic membrane rather than stem cells. When human amniotic membrane (hAM) proteins were incubated with different cancer cell lines, many showed signs of inhibition. However, some were also stimulated by the proteins. Although the causes are still mostly unknown, this makes hAM proteins an interesting prospect of study.
This diagram shows overall proliferation of different cancer cell lines following incubation with hAM proteins. The ones that are under 100 are the ones being inhibited (there's quite a few) and the ones that are over 100 are the ones being stimulated. This is an exploratory study, so its main purpose was to show how hAM proteins can have such effects on cancer cells, rather than trying to explain why. The results are definitely interesting.
3) Human amniotic membrane-derived epithelial stem cells display anticancer activity in BALB/c female nude mice bearing disseminated breast cancer xenografts
Longest title of them all, but don't worry. This study goes back to the actual stem cells and how they can express anti-breast cancer activity. It was conducted because breast cancer is the leading cause of mortality in women and current treatments have very undesirable side effects. The study ended up showing that human amniotic membrane-derived epithelial stem cells (hAECs) actually inhibited the growth of cancer cells in the lab, and inhibited the growth of breast tumors in mice. Overall, the cells were also shown to prolong the survival time of mice with breast cancer.
 |
| More Graphs |
This diagram shows how using stem cells to treat the tumors greatly decreased overall tumor growth. The lowest peak on the right graph is a current standard treatment, and although it led to an overall smaller tumor size, the side effects of this treatment are very harmful. On the other hand, using stem cells also decreased the tumor volume greatly (the right two peaks), and produced no side effects in the animals. The graph on the left shows how the control (without stem cells) tumor kept on growing in size at a decent rate. The other three lines (indicative of the standard treatment + two different ratios of stem cell treatment) show how they greatly decrease tumor growth over time.
All of these papers were very interesting and show how much potential stem cells and other substances found in the amnion have in treating diseases like cancers. I can't wait to get my next batch of recommendations from Dr. Barcelo and keep reading!
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES
This is the second type of complicated paper I'll be talking about, and these are very different than the scholarly articles I discussed above. To recap from previous posts, Standard Operating Procedures are essentially detailed instruction manuals for specific aspects of working either in the lab or on the ranch. I was instructed to create one of these SOPs for Environmental Care on the ranch. In the SOP, I talked about weeding/mowing, bucking hay, waste disposal, and plant maintenance. I've mentioned the first three in other posts, but plant maintenance is something new, so I'll take a second to specifically talk about that.
It's important to check what plants are growing on the ranch because a lot are poisonous to horses, including many which aren't harmful to humans. This is why all unknown plants should be tamed and proper precautions should be taken before trying to grow anything on the ranch. In the SOP, I talked about this and included a list of common plants which can be harmful to horses.
Here's a low-quality screenshot showing some of what I have so far. As you can see, because these documents need to be official and very detailed, they end up seeming very complicated, even regarding simple issues like mowing. My description of waste disposal sounded especially ridiculous. There is something very satisfying about creating official documents like these, though.
 |
| University Level How To's |
I'll be discussing my SOP with my advisor tomorrow, and will make sure to include any updates in my next post. Also, once the final version is ready, I'll include a link to the document if anyone is interested in checking out the whole thing.
That pretty much sums up my discussion of these two types of complicated papers, and therefore sums up this post! Keep your eyes open for my Week 4 post, where I will be discussing a lot of experiences, including working with actual amnion. Until next time!
Hey Vijeeth! This looks really interesting and somewhat complicated! In post for week one, you had made a list of important questions. Have you been able to form answers for the some of the questions? It seems like you have made advancements in your project! Keep it up and I look forward to reading more:)
ReplyDeleteHey Ritika! Thanks for the encouragement! As for the questions, I'm slowly beginning to see how some might be answered, but more importantly, how some might be modified to better envelop the impact this research could have. Specifically, I've learned a lot about how treatment could be translated to humans (especially for conditions other than wounds) and why AniCell's treatments work. I still need to venture more into the business side of AniCell to answer question number 4.
DeleteHey this is extremely intriguing and I look forward to hearing more about your laboratory experiences as well as your continuing time with the actual horses on the ranch. Based on your posts, I'm assuming that this is a pretty involving project, as you even have nighttime shifts watching horses, and it seems like a great experience. I hope you gain a lot out of it and have fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aniruddh! It is a very involving project, and I look forward to keeping you all updated on my experiences!
DeleteAs a physics kid, not a biology kid, most of this is way beyond me, but it looks fascinating! Do you happen to know why horses tend to give birth at night? I've never heard of an animal with that sort of predilection. Hope you get to keep doing hands-on research, not just reading other people's. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jack! I'm not too well versed on the subject, but horses generally give birth at night (about 80% of the time) because:
Deletea) they prefer privacy when foaling and this is more likely in the middle of the night
b) they've evolved that way over time
It's definitely an interesting question I didn't think of though, and I'll ask my mentor more about it!