The detection of immortal DNA strand co-segregation as a method of adult stem cell identification

Abstract

The study of stem cells is one of the most fascinating topics in biology. Adult stem cells (ASC), which play the prime role in the maintenance and restoration of tissues, are thought to hold great potential for the advancement of medicine. It has been postulated that adult stem cells are able to retain "immortal" DNA template strands over successive generations by non-random chromosome co-segregation, and in so doing, to protect the long-term genomic fidelity of whole tissue compartments. The investigation of this theory may yield insights into areas such as the development of cancer and the process of aging. In addition, it may lead to the discovery of an effective method for the unique identification of adult stem cells, the study of which has thus far suffered from the lack of unique identifiers. Thus, the goal of this research was to develop an assay for the detection of immortal DNA strand co-segregation that could be applied to the detection and analysis of adult stem cells. It is proposed that such an assay may in itself serve as a unique identification method for adult stem cells. In this thesis, the development of such an assay is described. This assay, referred to as the label release assay, has provided further evidence for the existence of immortal strand co-segregation in model cell lines, and will potentially be useful in the study of adult stem cells in tissues.