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Monday, January 12, 2009 - 9:51 AM
Researchers have coaxed a mouse into releasing a flood of stem cells
from its bone marrow, and say these extra stem cells may then hustle
off to repair damaged tissue. If this technique proves effective for
repairing damage and can be transfered to humans, researchers say it
could help mend everything from broken bones to damaged hearts. Says lead researcher Sara Rankin:
“Suppose a person comes in to hospital having had a heart attack. You
give them these drugs and stem cells are quickly released into the
blood. We know they will naturally home in on areas of damage, so if
you’ve got a broken bone, or you’ve had a heart attack, the stem cells
will go there. In response to a heart attack, you’d accelerate the
repair process” [The Guardian]. http://71236louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
Researchers say this approach would be a more direct and less controversial way to get stem cells to patients. Instead
of injecting patients with stem cells from donors, embryos or stem cell
banks, doctors could simply inject the drugs and the patients would
produce the cells themselves. This would avoid complications of tissue
rejection and sidestep ethical objections to using stem cells
originating from embryos. “It’s promoting self-healing,” says Sara
Rankin…. “We’re simply boosting what’s going on naturally” [New Scientist]. http://71236louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
In the study, reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell,
researchers used two drugs to prompt the flood of stem cells. The first
drug, a growth factor, spurred the mouse’s bone marrow to produce more
stem cells, while the second drug caused the cells to spill out into
the bloodstream. Researchers have previously used a similar process to
trigger the release of stem cells that grow into blood cells, but with
this new drug combination Rankin’s team provoked the release of
mesenchymal stem cells, which promote the repair of bone and tissue,
and epithelial progenitor cells, which stimulate the growth of blood
vessels. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Rankin says the next step is to test whether flooding the blood with
these stem cells really does accelerate the repair of damaged tissue,
but some experts say that it’s far from certain that she’ll get such a
positive result. Says stem cell expert Paul Fairchild: “Mobilizing
those stem cells is an enormously important first step, but it’s only a
first step…. It’s expecting an enormous amount for those stem cells to
then find their way into a lesion, then to differentiate properly into
the cell type that’s required, to become integrated functionally and to
survive” [CNN].
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