Stem cell treatments are used to treat a range of diseases, including cancer, genetic conditions and blood disorders. But these types of transplants rely on the availability of such stem cells from cord blood banks, bone marrow donors and other sources.
Now, researchers have found a molecular process that prompts blood stem cells to self-renew while retaining their stem cell-like properties, a discovery that could allow scientists to regrow enough cells in a lab for transplantation. The method, detailed in a study in PLOS ONE, could potentially be used to treat cancer patients as well as those with inborn immunodeficiency and metabolic conditions and autoimmune diseases.
In collaboration with Taiga Biotechnologies, a team from the University of Colorado School of Medicine developed protein products that can be directly applied to blood stem cells--also known as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)--in a dish to prompt them to multiply without the need for genetic modifications to recreate embryonic-like cells.
"The value of doing that is by making more cells you can enable transplantation in ways that we currently can't," Yosef Refaeli, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Colorado and one of the study's lead scientists, told FierceBiotechResearch in an interview.
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| Yosef Refaeli--Courtesy of the University of Colorado |
For example, one individual may need two or three units of cord blood for a stem cell transplant. With the approach that Refaeli and his colleagues developed, scientists could simply stimulate a small number of blood stem cells to generate more.
HSCs are found in the bone marrow and in umbilical cord blood. In addition, peripheral blood stem cells are found in the bloodstream. Stem cell transplants can use cells from any of these sources.
Scientists tested their protein products in all of these sources, finding that each had the ability to regenerate outside of an organism.
The university team's collaborator Taiga said it plans to launch clinical trials using the blood stem cell expansion technology.
- read the PLOS ONE article
- get the press release