title: Nature vs. nurture: gold perpetuates "stemness".
abstract: Adult tissues contain quiescent reservoirs of multipotent somatic stem cells and pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells (ELSCs). Credited with regenerative properties gold is used across both -contemporary and -ancient medicines. Here, we show that gold exerted these effects by enhancing the pool of pluripotent ELSC while improving their stemness. We used hESCs as an in-vitro model to understand if gold could enhance self-renewal and pluripotency. Swarna-bhasma (SB), an ancient Indian gold microparticulate (41.1 nm), preparation, reduced spontaneous-differentiation, improved self-renewal, pluripotency and proliferation of hESCs. Colloidal gold-nanoparticles (GNP) (15.59 nm) were tested to confirm that the observations were attributable to nanoparticulate-gold. SB and GNP exposure: maintained -stemness, -karyotypic stability, enhanced pluripotency till day-12, increased average colony-sizes, and reduced the number of autonomously-derived differentiated FGFR1 positive fibroblast-niche-cells/colony. Particulate-gold induced upregulation of FGFR1 and IGF2 expression, and decrease in IGF1 secretion indicates IGF1/2 mediated support for enhanced pluripotency and self-renewal in hESCs.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biosurface Technology, Biomedical Technology Wing Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695012, India.
authors.forename: Willi
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Chandra P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Kaushik Dilip
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Deb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001151:Arsenic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D031107:Calotropis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D004338:Drug Combinations; D058732:Embryoid Bodies / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D007840:Latex / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D010316:Particle Size; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D055153:Stem Cell Niche / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; D007840:Latex; D014131:Trace Elements; C468516:swarnabhasma; D007854:Lead; D006046:Gold; D001151:Arsenic