Study Finds Amazingly Versatile Adult Stem Cells

[Max]

Study Finds Amazingly Versatile Adult Stem Cells
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Stem Cell Research Debate


By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells located in the skin of adult mice can transform into nerve, fat and muscle cells, and cells in the human scalp appear to possess similar qualities, researchers said on Monday in a finding that points to the potential of using one's own cells to treat disease.

These adult stem cells -- master cells that can turn into other cell types -- showed impressive versatility, highlighting the promise for therapeutic applications involving stem cells, aside from those harvested from live human embryos.

In a study appearing in the journal Nature Cell Biology, scientists led by Freda Miller at McGill University in Montreal took skin samples from the backs and abdomens of adult and juvenile mice and isolated stem cells. In a laboratory, the scientists then prompted the mouse stem cells to turn into neurons, several types of glial cells (cells that support the nerve cells), smooth muscle cells and fat cells.

The researchers then decided to see if similarly flexible stem cells existed in human skin. They found stem cells in skin from adult human scalps. Using the same prompting methods they used with the mouse cells, they guided the human stem cells into transforming into cells very much like nerve cells.

``Some adult stem cells might not be as restricted as we had thought,'' Miller said in an interview.

The skin cells in Miller's research were not from the outer layer of skin, but rather from an underneath layer.

Scientists hope to harness the transformational abilities of stem cells to craft treatments for various human diseases. The idea would be to use stem cells to regenerate healthy tissue to replace tissue damaged by disease or injury.

The neural cells created in the study are like those that potentially could help patients recover from a spinal cord injury or a brain disorder like Parkinson's disease (news - web sites).

Embryonic stem cells have displayed a wondrous ability to transform into virtually any cell type in the body, suggesting that they might be the most useful in tackling disease.

It had been thought that stem cells taken adult tissue is less versatile, but Miller's work and other recent studies suggest that might not be the case.

HOW VERSATILE ARE ADULT STEM CELLS?

The new study, she said, places adult stem cells ``somewhere on the continuum between embryonic stem cells, which make everything easily, and most adult stem cells, which would prefer to be one thing but can, if pushed, perhaps do something else, maybe. The key question for us as scientists is how much can they become?''

The study shows that highly versatile adult stem cells may be easy to access. ``You could potentially take a small biopsy of skin and harvest the patient's own stem cells, expand them (in a process that allows them to proliferate in a laboratory dish) and then use them to treat that patient,'' Miller said.

Using cells from a patient's own body would eliminate the possibility of transplant rejection that could occur with a treatment involving embryonic stem cells that the body's immune system could interpret as a foreign invader.

Unlike many other adult stem cells that have been studied, the ones Miller worked with proliferated impressively in the laboratory. Being able to generate large numbers of stem cells would be vital to allow for any future transplantation of them into damaged tissue with the aim of regeneration.

``Most adult stem cells are very tissue-biased in the sense that they really would like to become cells of their tissue of origin,'' she said. For example, stem cells from skin generally want to turn into skin cells rather than brain cells.

Embryonic stem cells are the building blocks of the developing baby, explaining why they can turn into so many cell types. Adult stem cells serve more as spare parts for limited repairs, explaining why they may not be as versatile.

But in Miller's study, the only broad grouping of cells that the mouse skin stem cells did not become was cells from organs such as the liver. ``And we're working very hard now to ask if they can become those things as well,'' she said.

McGill University licensed the patents on the technology used in the study to Aegera Therapeutics Inc., a privately held Montreal-based biotech firm that has formed a partnership with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Curis Inc. .


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Study: Adult stem cells show promise


Reuters

WASHINGTON - Stem cells in the skin of adult mice can transform into nerve, fat and muscle cells, and cells in the human scalp appear to possess similar qualities, researchers said yesterday in a finding that points to the potential of using one's own cells to treat disease.

These adult stem cells - master cells that can turn into other cell types - showed impressive versatility in the study, highlighting the promise for therapeutic applications involving stem cells, aside from those harvested from live human embryos.

In a study appearing in the journal Nature Cell Biology, scientists led by Freda Miller at McGill University in Montreal took skin samples from mice and isolated stem cells. In a laboratory, the scientists then prompted the mouse stem cells to turn into neurons, several types of glial cells (cells that support the nerve cells), smooth muscle cells and fat cells.

The researchers then discovered they could guide stem cells from adult human scalps into transforming into cells very much like nerve cells.

"Some adult stem cells might not be as restricted as we had thought," Miller said.

Scientists hope to use stem cells to regenerate healthy tissue to replace tissue damaged by disease or injury.

The neural cells created in the study are like those that potentially could help patients recover from a spinal-cord injury or a brain disorder like Parkinson's disease.

Embryonic stem cells have displayed a wondrous ability to transform into virtually any cell type in the body, suggesting that they might be the most useful in tackling disease.

It had been thought that stem cells taken from adult tissue is less versatile, but Miller's work and other recent studies suggest that might not be the case.

The new study, she said, places adult stem cells "somewhere on the continuum between embryonic stem cells, which make everything easily, and most adult stem cells, which would prefer to be one thing but can, if pushed, perhaps do something else, maybe. The key question for us as scientists is how much can they become?"

The study shows that highly versatile adult stem cells may be easy to access. "You could potentially take a small biopsy of skin and harvest the patient's own stem cells. . .and then use them to treat that patient," Miller said.

Using cells from a patient's own body would eliminate the possibility of transplant rejection that could occur with a treatment involving embryonic stem cells that the body's immune system could interpret as a foreign invader.

Unlike many other adult stem cells that have been studied, the ones Miller worked with proliferated impressively in the laboratory. Being able to generate large numbers of stem cells would be vital to allow for any future transplantation of them into damaged tissue with the aim of regeneration.

"Most adult stem cells are very tissue-biased in the sense that they really would like to become cells of their tissue of origin," she said. For example, stem cells from skin generally want to turn into skin cells rather than brain cells.

Embryonic stem cells are the building blocks of the developing baby, explaining why they can turn into so many cell types. Adult stem cells serve more as spare parts for limited repairs, explaining why they may not be as versatile.

But in Miller's study, the only broad grouping of cells that the mouse skin stem cells did not become was cells from organs such as the liver. "And we're working very hard now to ask if they can become those things as well," she said. *

[Max]

A sci-fi dream come true?

Montreal research finds cells that may be flexible enough to regrow organs
CHARLIE FIDELMAN
The Gazette



ALLEN MCINNIS, GAZETTE
Freda Miller examines the protein composition in stem cells at the Neurological Institute as fellow researcher Anne Aumont works in background.


It sounds like tabloid headlines or a sci-fi movie plot: a Montreal scientist is growing cells in a lab to replace lost limbs and damaged organs.

But McGill University researcher Freda Miller of the Montreal Neurological Institute has been doing just that.

"People have discussed growing organs. It's almost science fiction but that's what we're shooting for," said Miller, whose discovery about human adult stem cells is generating huge interest.

"The dream scenario would be to take someone with spinal cord injuries, say an 18-year-old, take a biopsy from their skin and use that to treat the injury in the same patient."

Experts suggest stem cells hold the key to cures for terrible diseases, including Alzheimer's, juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's and cancer.

The hope is they can eventually be used to grow organ replacements and to treat a wide range of degenerative diseases.

Until recently, scientists believed that adult stem cells were limited to the brain or bone marrow.

Miller found them in skin.

"That was just not on the radar screen in terms of the way any of us were thinking," she said. "The idea of lots of stem cells in different tissue is a very, very new one. Can it be true that you could get a stem cell from one place and it would make another kind of cell? We didn't believe it ourselves."

The medical implications are enormous.

Stem cell research is currently at the heart of a fiery ethical debate in the United States.

The debate raged since last fall when Virginia medical school scientists revealed that they mixed eggs and sperm to create human embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting stem cells.

Cells extracted from human embryos are capable of developing into virtually any cell, tissue or organ in the human body.

But such research is highly controversial.

Is it acceptable to generate human embryos for the sole purpose of research or treatment of another human being?

Opinions vary but the prevailing view in North America seems to be that obtaining stem cells from human embryos, even to cure diseases, is considered immoral. The embryo is destroyed in the process.

Fast Duplication

Miller's research opens the door to other possibilities.

"We gave it two months," said Miller of the research into skin-derived stem cells. "But it worked right from the beginning. Every step of the way it's been an 'I can't believe that it's true' experience."

As a bonus, the isolated cells growing in grape clusters duplicated quickly, every two to three days, an amazing speed.

To the research team's surprise, they also found that the stem cells produced different types of cells.

"It was almost a hybrid or a more promiscuous version of those adult stem cells," Miller said.

The under layer of skin, the dermis, is a collection of smooth muscles, connective tissue, glands, fibre and fat, she explained.

Perhaps stem cell for that kind of tissue needs to be flexible, Miller suggested, because the job it's called on in real life "is much less specialized than making nervous system cells for the brain."

In a similar vein, amphibians regenerate cut-off or injured limbs from cells that also come from the dermis, she added.

"I'm wondering whether what we stumbled upon is the mammalian equivalent or remnant of that," said Miller, who got the first hint of results about two years ago.

The team got its first successful results with mouse skin and the success was replicated with human skin later.

Miller and her colleagues, Jean Toma, Mahnaz Akhavan, Karl Fernandes, Fanie Barnabe-Heider, Abbas Sadikot and David Kaplan, published their findings today in the scientific journal Nature Cell Biology.

"It's very exciting," said Miller, who initially presented the results at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in the U.S. "The feedback was amazing."

Part of the research was funded by a Montreal biotech company, Aegera Therapeutics Inc., and the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research, a branch of Health Canada.

"We had a hypothesis but in reality it was just a crazy idea that we tried. And it worked."


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[andrea]

Dr Young,
wasn't this something we relly needed for a new duble step ahead ?

This might speed up the whole field.

Andrea