Embryonic Stem Cells Turned Into Three Types of Heart Cells
By Amanda Gardner
WEDNESDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- A multinational team of
researchers has succeeded in turning human embryonic stem cells into
three types of human heart muscle cells.
When transplanted, the cells also improved heart function in mice.
The findings have a number of implications, the most immediate of
which would be to use the cells to test drugs.
"We have now a supply of human heart cells for biotech and drug
companies to start testing the beneficial effects of drugs or the
toxic effects of drugs," said Gordon Keller, senior author of a paper
published in this week's issue ofNature. "There are really no
roadblocks in beginning to set up such tests."
Researchers may also be able to use the cells to make artificial
heart tissue, which could then be transplanted into an actual human
heart.
"It's not clear how effective injecting cells directly into the heart
ever will be," said Keller, who is director of the McEwen Centre for
Regenerative Medicine at University Health Network in Toronto. "A
huge advantage we have is that these unique progenitor cells can make
three of the major types of cells in the heart, so we hope we can
simply seed these progenitor cells onto scaffolding and make what
might be an artificial piece of heart tissue and possibly
transplanting such small pieces of tissue, and engrafting them into
the heart, would be more effective than transplanting the cells
themselves."
Keller's lab had previously succeeded in coaxing cardiac cells out of
mouse embryonic cells.
For this study, the team used similar principles, applying specific
growth factors at different stages of development, but in human
embryonic stem cells.
"They're showing that different 'recipes' can induce different types
of cardiac cells," said Paul Sanberg, director of the Center for
Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida College of
Medicine in Tampa.
In this way, the researchers were able to isolate heart progenitor
cells then coax them into three different types of heart cells,
called cardiomyocytes, which make up functioning heart muscle.
"Now we have our hands on a cell that doesn't have the same
developmental potential as embryonic stem cells but can still make
three of the major types of heart cells," Keller explained. "When we
have these cells in isolation, we have a better handle on directing
their pathway to cells that beat, or other [cardiac] cells. That's
much more difficult when we haven't isolated the cells."
Also, when these cells were transplanted, they didn't form tumors,
which often happens when a group of cells is more mixed. "In essence,
we have isolated the most immature human heart cells, and we think we
can control these cells much better than we would if we were starting
with embryonic stem cells," Keller said.
The findings will help researchers better understand how the heart
develops in humans, but therapeutic applications are still a ways
off.
"It's important that we understand the basic biology," Sanberg
said. "But it's still going to be a while till we see this in the
clinic."
More information
The National Institutes of Health has more on stem cells.
SOURCES: Gordon Keller, Ph.D., director, McEwen Centre for
Regenerative Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto; Paul R.
Sanberg, Ph.D., director, Center for Aging and Brain Repair,
University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa; April 24,
2008,Nature
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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