Yes - stem cells are down there too!

Some of you might be surprised to learn that stem cells are also found in the testicles. These are adult stem cells known as spermatogenic stem cells. (Embryonic stem cells are cells that are so new that they can still grow into any tissue) Spermatogenic stem cells eventually become the sperm cells that fertilize eggs. It takes several stages to reach the final stage. Spermatogenic stem cells are shaped like regular cells then divide several times until they divide into cells with only one set of chromosomes. After that, these cells continue to develop and begin to take on the more familiar shape of spermatozoa – head, midpiece and tail. In the human male this entire process takes about 64 days.

Most interestingly, is that this process of maturation does not occur by itself but actually occurs inside of another cell that is acting as a "nurse" cell. These nurse cells are known as Sertoli cells and are one of the most interesting cells to me. The testicles are filled with seminiferous tubules which are lined with millions and millions of these Sertoli cells.

In the electron micrograph above, you can see the bottom half of a cross section of a single seminiferous tubule. In green are the strangely shaped Sertoli cells and the spermatogenic stem cells are in purple. The red cells with tails (closer to what would be the center of the tubule) are the mature sperm cells that will flow through the tubule and then pass into the vas deferens for ejaculation.

Who knew males could be so complicated?

- Just a peasant


Photo from the University of Delaware

Misaki Ito – あまですね!

失礼しました。　私　は　日本語　を　はなす　ことが　できません。伊東美咲　さん　は　きれい　と　面白い　です。　いま、好きな　俳優　です！！　電車おとこ　と　さぷりを見ました。彼等　は　素晴らしい　です。伊東美咲　が　日本の　Sandra　Bullock　です。　わかりますか？　ごめんなさい。

とにかく　－　もっと　伊東美咲の映画を見たいです。やれ　やれ！！　Peace　Out。

- Just a peasant

P.S. Misaki Ito rocks!!

One more from Antigua

A flower from Antigua - to anyone that needs it tonight.

-Just a peasant

Antigua

This was a view from my room in Antigua. It was basically in the middle of the island on a hill. I really should learn to take more pictures. I missed a lot such as the streams of children in their colorful school uniforms or the ocean sunsets.


-Just a peasant

Friendships

The Japanese drama Ganbatte Ikimasshoi is a nice story about a girl’s division high school rowing team. It’s a “friends for life” story – a theme that has somehow evaded my own life. From my high school years there is no one. From my years in the music business there is no one. From my days doing Thai boxing and MMA there is no one either. From my years in college there are but three.

But that’s the trade off I guess. I move around a lot and I like to explore new paths. There’s a lot of cool memories too. Like sleeping on a deserted beach in the middle of the Pacific Ocean: dark jungle behind me, a pile of sand as a pillow, a million stars above, and a distant storm flashing out on the far horizon. Or hitchhiking through Arizona one summer: the sunset lights the desert on fire with pinks, golds, reds, and bronze while I brush a tiny scorpion off my shoe. Or having a newborn baby fall soundly asleep in my arms. Or drawing faces on boxes and then wearing them to play with a six-year old. Or sitting quietly high above the Columbia Gorge with a brilliantly colored dragonfly as my sole companion.

Of course, I will always meet a lot of new and interesting people. Those friendships will be short but they will be sweet. And that’s how it’ll go until the end. And that’s alright with me.

- Just a peasant

Photo of my friends from (temporary) medical school

My lucky little embryos

At 8:35 am the lights flickered briefly. The last two weeks have been funny with the construction on the street next to us. It made the microscopes shake and vibrate. It’s not easy to read morula stage embryos when the scope vibrates. Then the lights flickered again.

Then the lights were out. Everything went out. Including the incubators. The lady upstairs, who owns the sushi restaurant, is arguing with the street construction crew right now. Smoke is coming out of the manholes. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

There’s no music in our lab – I was listening to a Azumi Inoue CD. Our phones are also out so I can’t call any clients to alert them. The network is out too. But I still have three hours on my laptop battery. Maybe I do need a cell phone after all.

There are over a thousand bovine embryos in the incubators that will expire in the next several hours if the power does not return. A thousand little cows are in the cold right now.

At 9:05 am we are told it will be a whole day before the power is restored. My poor tiny embryos. I don't think Heat Shock Protein 70 will be enough to save you.

At 10:45 am the power returns!! What about the incubators?

CO2: 4.2% TEMP: 38.5C SYSTEMS OK

Oh my lucky little embryos!

Raspberries to you Sir!

So Senator Joseph “Goebbels” Lieberman, you want to start limited bombing of Iran? Of course I’m sure you will ask for limitless funds and limitless time frames. I’m sure you will NOT limit this to Iran. Who else has been accused of supporting the Iraqi insurgents? Oh right, Syria for one. We’ll have to bomb them too. As usual it doesn’t matter what America bombs as long as we bomb something and someone. Oh yes, weren’t a large number of “terrorists” actually flowing in from Saudi Arabia? We should bomb Saudi Arabia back to the time of the Arabian Nights. Hey, that reminds me - Australia’s wheat exporter was breaking the rules and paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. Screw Sydney – let’s blow it to hell. Oh yeah, and there’s a bunch of Christian missionaries roaming Baghdad now – better take them out just in case. Oh, and Indonesia has a lot of Muslims too. Let’s kill them before they get us.

There's just no limit to the number of limited bombings we can initiate if we just put our Lieberman to it. I think it will work - I know I'm already afraid.

Why are we always cursed with ignorant and bloodthirsty leaders? Like I said - Don’t trust them.

- Just a peasant

It's just an idea - but what an idea!

So right now I’m designing an experiment that is focused on developing a new technique for organ transplant surgery. The problem is that I can’t do it alone so I have to recruit people to collaborate with. The tricky part is that I have to tell them enough to convince them that it is a hypothesis worth testing, but not give away every detail of the final application.

This time I failed. Scientists are not generally stupid people. I already bounced the idea off a couple of other people who loved it. But as I explained the concept to one person in a neurobiology lab, she began automatically extrapolating the concept to current work in her own laboratory. Finally, I just had to ask her straight out not to give away the idea to anyone. It was really kind of awkward.

I really hate those kind of moments. I mean, it’s just a hypothesis after all. It may be utterly useless. But what if it isn’t? Not only would it provide a powerful new tool in transplant surgery and prolong the lives of a lot of people, but it would probably redefine the next 20 years of my own research life - in a good way.

Now I am chained to a new project- in order to publish it first - when I had so many other things to do first. What crazy situations I get myself into sometimes.

I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Let's just hope something substantial comes of it all.

- Just a peasant