DEV2011

Practical Week 11
Lecture Review Questions

These questions relate to lecture material from Week 10. Complete the
questions prior to your Practical Class in Week 11, where the answers will be reviewed.
These are NOT assessed.

Lecture 27) Developmental disorders and how we study them

Question 1: What are 3 approaches we can use to determine whether a foetus may be
developing abnormally?

1. The four marker serum test
2. Blood test
Ultrasound
3. Test amniotic fluid

Question 2: You are assessing foetal cells through a karyotype analysis to determine
whether the foetus may have Down syndrome. 1) What information does this provide, and
2) What would it show if the foetus had Down syndrome?

1. Chromosomal complements and
2. A trisomy of chromosome 21

Question 3: What are three of the major clinical features of Down Syndrome?

1. ____________________ 2. ____________________ 3. __________________
Intellectual disability Specific facial features Short stature, cardiac diseas

Question 4: Down syndrome is a complex disorder, involving many genes.
1) Describe what has been done to produce an excellent model of Down syndrome in mice
2) Have these mouse models been useful in the development of new therapeutic
approaches?

1. The Ts65Dn mouse has a trisomy of chromosome 16, resulting in very similar features to a trisomy of chromosome 21 in humans.
It has 132 genes that are syntenic with human chromosome 21
2. Yes, the mouse models have given us information about the genes involved in intellectual disability, and mice treated with Prozac
have shown significant improvement in the levels of neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus.
The Ts65Dn mice also show delays in developmental milestones, like forelimb grip and the righting reflex. Treatment of mouse
embryos with neuroprotective peptides has shown to reduce the delay.






Question 5: Why is it that not all of the genes on Chromosome 21 are involved in the Down
syndrome condition?

1.
___________________________________________________________________________
There are multiple layers of regulation controlling expression, so even with an extra copy of a gene, a balance can be achieved


Question 6: If you had an embryo that you thought might be carrying a mutation at a single
base pair of DNA, what method would you use to detect it?

a) Confocal microscopy
b) Sequence analysis
c) Microarray
d) RT-PCR
e) OPT

Question 7: What does the phrase correlation is not causation mean, and give an
example of when correlation has been incorrectly attributed to a cause?

1. _________________________________
It means that just because something looks like it may cause something, it is not always the case. It may just occur at the same
time or in parallel to the real cause.
2. ________________________________
Vaccinations do not cause autism, but there is a correlation between the age that vaccinations are given (and that they can
cause a fever which can induce autism) and the time that autism devlops
 Lecture 28) Stem cell biology I

Question 1: What are the two major types of stem cells?

1. ____________________________ 2. _________________________________
Adult stem cells Embryonic stem cells Pluripotent stem cells

Question 2: What are the 3 defining properties of a stem cell?

1. _______________________ 2. _______________________ 3. ____________________
Not terminally differentiated It can divide without limit When it divides, each daughter cell can either
become another stem cell, or it can go on a course
towards terminal differentiation

Question 3: Out line what each of these levels of stem cell potency is, and tick the type that
you might find in the adult bone marrow?

Totipotent _______________________________________________
Can produce an entire organism

Pluripotent _______________________________________________
Gives rise to all three derivatives of the germ layers

Multipotent ______________________________________________
Gives rise to multiple cell types, but not cell types from all germ layers

Question 4: There are tissues in the adult that contain well-characterised stem cell niches.
Name 2 of these, and why the stem cells are needed.

______________ ________________________________________________________
Intestine The intestines need to constantly replace dead cells at the surface that are damaged by the environment

______________ ________________________________________________________
Blood New blood cells need to be constantly made in the bone marrow

Question 5: What is a disease that can result from alterations in stem cell division?

__________________________
Cancer



Lecture 29) Stem cell biology II

Question 1: List 3 types of adult stem cells that have been used in current or potential
regenerative medicine?

1. ______________________ 2. ________________________ 3. ____________________
Neural Epidermal Bone marrow

Question 2: Briefly define therapeutic cloning

_________________________________________________________________________
Growing stem cells from an embryo to use as a treatment


Question 3: What are the 4 factors required to generate iPS cells?

Oct 4, c-myc, Sox2 and Klf4

Question 4: What is one method used to generate iPS cells?

___________________________________________________________________________
Yamanaka


Question 5: List 2 reasons why iPS cells are considered to have huge therapeutic potential

1. _________________________________________
Patient specific - no immune rejection

2. _________________________________________
Can form any cell type

Test your understanding:

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived in culture from which tissue?
Potential use

A. Embryonic endoderm __________________________
B. Foetal liver __________________________
C. The trophectoderm cell layer of the blastocyst __________________________
D. The male pronucleus of single cell embryos __________________________
E. The inner cell mass of the blastocyst __________________________

For the answers you have indicated are incorrect, what might be a use for stem cells
derived from those regions of the embryo? NOTE: there is no single answer here use your
imagination!

NOTE: While there will be no Practical Class/Tutorial in Week 12, Lecture
Review questions (and an answers version) covering the Week 11 material
will be available on Moodle at the end of Week 11.