 |
 |
THE VANCOUVER SUN Monday, June 23, 2003 Stem cells can regenerate damaged organs in animals Now scientists are wondering if they can be used to trick the human body into healing itself Margaret Munro CanWest News Service Monday, June 23, 2003 Canadian scientists have discovered that stem cells can trigger regeneration of severely damaged organs in animals, a feat that suggests it may be possible to trick the human body into healing itself. "It certainly raises intriguing therapeutic possibilities," says Dr. Mickie Bhatia, head of the team at the Robarts Research Institute in London, Ont. The scientists injected bone marrow stem cells into diabetic mice, who were cured or back to normal within seven to 14 days. But the "most amazing" finding, said Bhatia, is that the stem cells triggered the rodents' damaged pancreases to regenerate on their own. He believes the same thing may work in humans. "There is no reason to think it wouldn't," he said, cautioning that much research must be completed before it could be tried as a therapy for people with diabetes or other diseases. The scientists injected the bone marrow stem cells into diabetic mice, thinking the new cells would replace the rodents' damaged insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. They were so surprised to see them trigger regeneration that they repeated the experiment several times. "This is a completely unprecedented property of bone marrow stem cells," said Bhatia. Stem cells are believed to have the potential to turn into many types of cells in the body. There has been much talk of growing them in labs and using them to repair damage in the brain, heart, liver and other tissues. The new findings "are very, very cool" and open up a whole new area to investigate, Bhatia said. It is not clear how the stem cells triggered the regeneration in mice, but the scientists suspect the stem cells may produce potent molecules. Bhatia is keen to find that molecular mechanism, saying it may be possible to produce the molecules and use them to heal organs and tissues. "We could just administer the molecule. You wouldn't have to do cellular therapy." Diabetes research using the more controversial human embryonic stem cells could begin this fall with an Edmonton surgeon expected to go ahead with his new experiments. Stem cells are able to divide almost indefinitely, producing specialized cells such as beating heart cells, insulin- producing pancreatic cells, or nerve cells. They're found in small embryos, designed by nature to turn into every type of cell in the body. They do that in the womb as an embryo grows into a baby, but they also can be manipulated in the lab to create whatever cell type is needed for a specific treatment. That raises a tricky ethical debate over whether doctors should be allowed to destroy the life of a five-day-old embryo to potentially save a patient's life. The alternative is using what initially were believed to be less flexible stem cells in tissues of children or adults, including skin, bone marrow, muscle, brain tissue, umbilical cords and baby teeth. So-called "adult" stem cells typically produce only the major specialized cell types of the particular tissue or organ in which they are found. Human stem cell research has been held up as Parliament reviews new laws that would regulate such research. Bhatia now wants to find out if bone marrow stem cells can trigger regeneration of other tissues such as kidneys. In the mouse experiments, the scientists destroyed the rodent's insulin-producing pancreatic cells with chemicals. The animals soon developed symptoms of severe diabetes. Then the scientists injected bone marrow stem cells from healthy rodents into the diabetic mice. The injected cells were tagged with a fluorescent green marker which allowed the scientists to follow their fate. The cells did not end up in the pancreas as expected. Instead, the organs repaired themselves. Within days, the animals' insulin and blood-sugar levels returned to near-normal. "The bone marrow stem cells interacted with the pancreas and basically triggered the pancreas to regenerate on its own," said Bhatia. Diabetic mice that didn't receive stem cells became sicker and eventually had to be killed. - - - BRITISH DOCTORS OPEN STEM CELL LAB Selling futures: Two British doctors have opened a stem cell laboratory in Sussex, in a bid to take on the U.S. giant behind a multi-million dollar business. Cells 4 Life, founded by Dr. Giles Davies and Dr. Jeff Drew, offers parents-to- be the chance to store stem cells from their newborn children at almost half the price of U.S. giant Cryo-Cell's U.K. affiliate, which has dominated the market. So far, the umbilical cords of 30 children are stored with the company, in the hope that if a child becomes ill later on the cells can be used in transplants. The company hopes this number will grow massively as parents become aware of the opportunity. "We started the company because we wanted to protect our own children's stem cells and offer the same opportunity to other parents,'' Davies said. SOURCE: The Vancouver Sun http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=7FC5B48B-9649-4356-A0EE-382B78FB3341 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn