Breathing
Easier
with Adult Stem Cells
Several recent reports, using animal models, provide evidence for
treating lung disorders with adult stem cells.
Premature babies are often placed on ventilators to deliver oxygen and
expand underdeveloped lungs, but the high oxygen and mechanical
ventilation can lead to lung inflammation, inhibit proper lung growth,
and lead to long-term complications. Work out of Children’s Hospital in
Boston found that bone marrow stromal cells, a type of adult stem cell,
can reduce inflammation in lung tissue. Using newborn mice as a model,
the researchers injected adult bone marrow stem cells intravenously.
The cells migrated to the lungs and prevented inflammation. The cells
seem to work by secreting protective and stimulatory factors that help
the lung cells and blood vessels; the same effects could be obtained by
injecting the growth medium in which the adult stem cells had been
grown. The results are published in the American Journal of Respiratory
and Critical Care Medicine.
Similar results have been published by an international team, led by
Canadian scientist Dr. Bernard Thébaud at the Stollery
Children’s
Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta. Using a rat model, the scientists found
that adult stem cells from bone marrow could repair lung damage in
newborn rats as well as prevent further damage. According to Dr.
Thébaud:
“The really exciting thing that we discovered was
that stem cells are like little factories, pumping out healing factors.”
These results are also published in the American Journal of Respiratory
and Critical Care Medicine.
More breathable news comes from a team in South Korea led by Dr. Won
Soon Park from the Samsung Medical Center. Using newborn laboratory
rats with oxygen-deprived lung injury, the researchers found that
mesenchymal stem cells, a type of adult stem cell from umbilical cord
blood, had a protective effect against low-oxygen-induced lung injury.
They noted that their findings could have important therapeutic
potential for the currently untreatable hyperoxic neonatal lung
disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), in premature human
infants. The easy availability of umbilical cord blood is also an
associated benefit. The results are published in the journal Cell
Transplantation.
And in a final breath of adult stem cell fresh air, a team at the
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine identified adult
stem cells in the bone marrow of mice that could prevent and treat
acute lung injury. The researchers discovered a way to grow and
stimulate the adult stem cells, and when injected into mice with acute
lung injury, the cells repaired the lung injury, prevented fluid
build-up and improved survival of the mice. Results were published in
the journal Stem Cells.
So take a deep breath in appreciation of adult stem cells.
Contact: David Prentice
Source:
FRCBlog
Publish
Date:
December 2, 2009
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