Researchers at Ansary Stem Cell Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College recently announced that they have made a breakthrough in their studies that show endothelial cells, the most basic building blocks of the human vascular system, produce growth factors that can grow huge amounts of adult stem cells over the course of weeks. Before this breakthrough, adult stem cell cultures would die within four or five days despite the best efforts to grow them.
Stayin’ alive
Maintenance of endothelial cells has been a cumbersome process in the lab. If the cells were not “fed” a constant supply of growth factors, they immediately died. To get around this problem, the researchers have learned they can place the endothelial cells in “suspended animation” by introducing a gene cell cloned from adenoviruses.
“This is groundbreaking research with potential application for regeneration of organs and inhibition of cancer cell growth,” says Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College.
Ensuring availability
By “co-culturing” endothelial cells with stem cells, researchers have discovered the means to manufacture an unlimited supply of blood-related stem cells that may eventually ensure that anyone who needs a bone marrow transplant can have one. Up until this point, there has been a shortage of genetically matched bone marrow blood cells, limiting the number of patients who can receive therapy.
If this vascular-based stem cell expansion strategy continues to be validated, physicians could use any source of blood-producing stem cells, propagate them exponentially, and bank the cells for transplantation into patients.
Other possibilities
The vascular-cell model established in this study could also be used to grow abundant functional stem cells from other organs such as the brain, heart, skin and lungs.
An article detailing these findings appears in the March 5, 2010, issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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