How a Hairy Brain in Her Belly Changed Science (Teratoma)

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A woman wakes up with a headache. What seems like an ordinary case quickly becomes extraordinary when a hairy brain was discovered in her belly.
Teratomas are rare form of cancers that can contain teeth, eyes or brain tissue. Teratoma arise early during development when stem cells fail to function properly. Instead of following the tightly controlled development, pluripotent stem cells might get out of control and make all kinds of tissues which might develop into a teratoma. Teratoma can theoretically occur everywhere in the body but they are mostly found in the ovaries, the testes, the tongue, the neck or even the brain. Teratoma are mostly discovered during infancy or childhood but sometimes they remain undetected for years.
Teratoma are something we do not want to encounter in our lives. They do look horrific and, in some cases, can become life-threatening. But teratoma, also have been important for science. The teratoma assay has been especially crucial in stem cell biology. Here, we can test whether a stem cell is pluripotent by the ability to form teratoma. The teratoma assay has been used in many studies including Yamanakas study of induced pluripotent stem cells. By applying the knowledge of teratoma, scientists are now using induced pluripotent stem cells to grow tissues and organoids in the laboratory. Organoids (contrary to teratoma) are grown in the lab and only contain a few defined cell types. Brain organoids have been used to identify the zika virus as the cause of microcephaly in Brazil a few years back and other organoids are used for drug screens. One day we might even grow whole organs in the lab, then we will probably use teratoma assays as a safety measurement.

References:
CT's case is adapted from "Think Like a Doctor: An Unusual Headache
BY LISA SANDERS, M.D." https://archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/think-like-a-doctor-an-unusual-headache/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6447400/
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31381-7
https://thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-022-01402-2
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2021.700482/full#B98
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867406009767
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2021.740574/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923753419310774
https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13048-017-0313-8
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2475561/

0:00-4:50 How Do Hairy Brains Grow?
4:50-7:05 How Teratomas Changed Stem Cell Biology
7:05-10:44 Can we Grow Organs in the Laboratory?
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About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

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