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I'm not sure that having a liver cell living in the pancreas equals cancer, unless it starts replicating uncontrollably into more liver cells, and ignores normu

I'm not sure that having a liver cell living in the pancreas equals cancer, unless it starts replicating uncontrollably into more liver cells, and ignores normular cellular signaling.

vikramkr 7y ago
If it's a liver cell in the pancreas, it's already ignoring normal cellular signalling. And in terms of replicating, these are derived from stem cells. Cancer is partly defined by cells becoming more stem-cell like and being able to replciate, so by definition they've already been turned into a state where they're predisposed to be cancerous (or basically are cancers by definition), and the coaxed to become a pancreatic cell, but unsuccessfully, so it's not a good place for it to go wrong. It's a known problem though and not an insurmountable one. There's been a lot of work with encapsulation of these cells in a barrier that will prevent the barely controlled tumor that is an artificial pancreas from breaking out and wrecking havoc. And methods that are getting better at controlling these cells like the one in this thread are promising ways of mitigating this risk moving forward as well.
- jf- 7y ago
  > And in terms of replicating, these are derived from stem cells. All of everyone’s cells are derived from stem cells. The issue is still how prone to uncontrolled proliferation they are, not so much having a population of a particular cell type in the wrong place.
  - vikramkr 7y ago
    I was being less technical with my terminology for a layperson audience - but to clarify - these are derived from induced stem cells, which are cells engineered to go back into a stem type state, which means they're basically induced to be cancers. These are not zygotes from germline fells formed in the niche where they are supported to differentiate correctly etc. IPSCs are not embryonic stem cells, and even ESC derived stem cell lines have been growing so long in culture that they do not behave like germline cells. And even then, the method of differentiation and control is not what happens in normal development, we're sending them different pathways. Turning somatic cells into stem cells is fundamentally giving them the ability to proliferate, and their failure to differentiate into the cells we want shows a failure to control them. Like I said, this is a known problem and one with significant investment behind it as people are finding better and better ways to isolate artificial pancreases to prevent the (currently) inevitable carcinogenesis of these ipsc derived cells

I'm not sure that having a liver cell living in the pancreas equals cancer, unless it starts replicating uncontrollably into more liver cells, and ignores normular cellular signaling.

vikramkr 7y ago

If it's a liver cell in the pancreas, it's already ignoring normal cellular signalling. And in terms of replicating, these are derived from stem cells. Cancer is partly defined by cells becoming more stem-cell like and being able to replciate, so by definition they've already been turned into a state where they're predisposed to be cancerous (or basically are cancers by definition), and the coaxed to become a pancreatic cell, but unsuccessfully, so it's not a good place for it to go wrong. It's a known problem though and not an insurmountable one. There's been a lot of work with encapsulation of these cells in a barrier that will prevent the barely controlled tumor that is an artificial pancreas from breaking out and wrecking havoc. And methods that are getting better at controlling these cells like the one in this thread are promising ways of mitigating this risk moving forward as well.

jf- 7y ago
> And in terms of replicating, these are derived from stem cells. All of everyone’s cells are derived from stem cells. The issue is still how prone to uncontrolled proliferation they are, not so much having a population of a particular cell type in the wrong place.
- vikramkr 7y ago
  I was being less technical with my terminology for a layperson audience - but to clarify - these are derived from induced stem cells, which are cells engineered to go back into a stem type state, which means they're basically induced to be cancers. These are not zygotes from germline fells formed in the niche where they are supported to differentiate correctly etc. IPSCs are not embryonic stem cells, and even ESC derived stem cell lines have been growing so long in culture that they do not behave like germline cells. And even then, the method of differentiation and control is not what happens in normal development, we're sending them different pathways. Turning somatic cells into stem cells is fundamentally giving them the ability to proliferate, and their failure to differentiate into the cells we want shows a failure to control them. Like I said, this is a known problem and one with significant investment behind it as people are finding better and better ways to isolate artificial pancreases to prevent the (currently) inevitable carcinogenesis of these ipsc derived cells