Testes found to yield versatile stem cells
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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(01-12) 17:34 PST STANFORD --
Stanford researchers have isolated powerful stem cells from human
testes and say the cells could ultimately yield a wide variety of
human tissues including cells of the nervous system, the liver,
heart, skin and blood vessels.
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The development adds crucial new diversity to sources of stem cells,
as researchers take the science beyond the controversial use of human
embryos to create replacement tissue damaged or destroyed by a wide
range of defects, injuries and diseases.
"We have a battery of tools now, and we're moving rapidly down the
long road toward their use in human medicine," said Renee A. Reijo-
Pera, who led the team that made the discovery. "I'm really amazed at
the progress the science is making, and I'm certain we'll be ready
for clinical trials of some stem cell therapies within the next five
to 10 years."
The team's finding was reported in the journal Stem Cells, and almost
simultaneously a similar report on experiments with human testes
appeared in the journal Nature from a German team at the University
of Tubingen. That group had earlier isolated testes stem cells from
mice and shown they could morph into a variety of mouse tissues in
their experiments.
The Stanford researchers began their work by analyzing tissue
obtained from biopsies of 19 men being treated for infertility
problems by Dr. Paul J. Turek, a specialist on male fertility at his
Turek Clinic in San Francisco.
Samples from two of the men yielded stem cells, but one of the men
dropped out before the experiments could continue. The tissue from
the remaining man yielded abundant stem cells that proved able to
transform themselves into a variety of other tissue cells when they
were injected into mice bred with impaired immune systems, Reijo-Pera
said Monday.
"This is extremely interesting and important work," said Alan
Trounson, president of the California Institute of Regenerative
Medicine, which provides grants for California stem cell researchers
from its $3 billion fund approved by voters under Proposition 71. The
institute supports Reijo-Pera's work.
Arnold Kriegstein, director of stem cell research at UCSF, where
Reijo-Pera formerly worked, said the reports both from Stanford and
the German team could be considered breakthroughs in finding new stem
cell sources that should ultimately prove useful in human medicine.
In fact, stem cell research all over the world has seen amazing
international progress in the past decade since James Thompson and
his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin first isolated human
embryonic stem cells and proved that the undifferentiated cells could
become any of the cells that make up the tissues of the human body.
The discovery raised huge ethical questions, however, because
experiments with newly formed human embryos - barely more than clumps
of a few cells obtained from embryonic tissue discarded in fertility
clinics - are considered by some to be destroying the life of human
beings. President Bush has limited the embryo research to cell lines
already in use and barred further development of new embryonic cell
lines - a limit that President-elect Barack Obama's administration is
expected to reverse.
Researchers have long been seeking to isolate similarly powerful stem
cells from adults that are as capable of yielding varied tissues as
embryos are. Aside from that, scientists in the field consider it
vital to have as wide a variety of stem cell sources as possible so
that as many diseases and injuries as possible can eventually be
treated.
Turek, a co-author of the Reijo-Pera paper, pointed out that stem
cells from the sperm-producing testes of men - much like the egg-
producing ovaries of women - are very close in their development to
the cells of embryos, and thus it is not surprising that they would
also prove extremely versatile in their ability to morph into so many
different types of tissue.
The search for lines of stem cells outside of embryos first led to
human skin, which yielded powerful stem cells capable of transforming
themselves into nerve cells and microscopic clumps of human heart
tissue.
That discovery, reported only two years ago, came from Shinya
Yamanaka and his colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan. Yamanaka
has also set up a lab at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institute of
Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco and is continuing his
research here as well as in Japan.
Now the adult human testis is showing its potential as a stem cell
source, and soon other adult tissues are likely to join the valuable
array.
E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicl
This article appeared on page A - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.
f=/c/a/2009/
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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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