|
Wharton's Jelly, Hair Follicles New Sources of Adult Stem Cells, Studies Find
Transplant News
13 May 2005
With the controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells showing no signs of abating, research on finding other sources for stem cells is yielding some surprising results.
At the University of Tennessee Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), a research team led by Dr. John Davies has discovered a new source of stem cells in the jelly-like mass surrounding the blood vessels of the umbilical cord, according to The Varsity, the campus newspaper.
While umbilical cord blood is now routinely procured, the material, called Wharton's Jelly, is routinely discarded at birth. However, only 1 out of 200 million cord blood cells is a stem cell, while 1 in every 300 of the jelly cells is a stem cell.
Davies said that while scientists first suggested in 1991 that Wharton's Jelly might contain precursor cells, no one really knew where to look.
"The most obvious location for the cells would be right around the blood vessels of the cord, for which they would get their nutrient supply," Davies told The Varsity. "Other investigators have seen the presence of the vessels as a complication, and discarded [the vessels] before recovering the remaining Wharton's Jelly."
Davies added that by removing the vessels, the most potentially useful cells were also removed.
Unlike adult stem cells, Davies found the cells isolated from the umbilical cord can divide and grow rapidly.
Davies is encouraged by the early results. "It would be very nice to think that many labs will want to use these cells for both their research and for cell-based therapies," Davies observed. "We have already shipped cells to labs in Germany and England-results from these labs confirm some of our most important findings. Thus, for those wishing to generate lots of mesenchymal cells, our cells could [be the answer.]
An even more unlikely source for stem cells - hair follicles -- has been reported by Yasuyuki Amoh and colleagues at AntiCancer, Inc. The results indicate these adult stem cells can develop into neurons.
Writing in the March issue of the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said they isolated stem cells from the whiskers of mice and tested their ability to become more sophisticated cell types, Scientific American.com reported. The cells were cultured and after a week the researchers found they had turned into neurons and 2 other cell types.
According to the report, when left for longer periods, the stem cells could differentiate into a variety of cell types, including skin and muscle cells.
|
