debby
06-15-2006, 15:27 PM
Another breakthrough in cell therapy research occurred last week in Australia, where scientists at the Bernard O’Brien Institute announced that they had, for the first time ever, grown three-dimensional structures of human cells using adult stem cells.
Cells replacing cells After all, that’s what stem cells do. These cells, inside the body, are the ones that cause our skin cells to replace themselves as they die. They’re the ones that supply the body with the millions of new red and white blood cells that it needs each day, as millions of old ones die off.
They are what makes all of our organs grow from the beginning, back when we’re not much more than a clump of a few cells no larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
So these cells have massive, nearly unlimited potential. Over the years, we’ve worked on manipulating that potential — getting them to do what we wanted them to. For example, scientists have used cultured stem cells to grow sheets of human skin for severe burn patients.
In these cases, the recipients are horribly burned and need skin grafts — but don’t have enough usable skin left to transplant. A few cells from their armpits or buttocks can grow enough transplantable skin to save their lives.
However, that lab-grown skin was only a few cells thick. It saved the lives of many burn victims, but it was a tenuous fix at best — the grown skin was so fragile that it needed long periods of time to mesh with the victim’s body.
Cell function Moreover, that breakthrough procedure didn’t afford researchers any hints at how to attempt more difficult procedures. They could make a few cells multiply in a dish, but weren’t any closer to getting those cells to replicate the processes they underwent in the body.
Well, the Australian research has now passed that milestone. In a lab near Melbourne, a group of cardiac cells beats to its own rhythm. A cluster of pancreas tissue secretes insulin. These lab-grown cells are able to perform the functions they would normally carry out in nature.
By using scaffolds and moulds to guide the development of these cells, and by manipulating the cells’ local environment, the Australian team has been able to get these stem cells to grow into particular types of tissue, and to take on the shapes and functions that they would inside the human body.
Now, carry-out kidneys or hearts are still a long way off, but this was an important milestone. Working in two dimensions might as well be like running computer simulations — it isn’t replicating the conditions of nature, but rather testing the theory or technique of the researcher.
It is this type of work — three-dimensional tissue engineering — that will one day lead to replacement organs, grown from a patient’s own stem cells. This research is also furthering our understanding of the human body. After all, what better way to understand the inner workings of the human heart than to try to make one, and see how its tissue grows, bonds, and functions?
Stem cell research is one of the most promising fields in medical history. Its early phases have already provided many major medical breakthroughs, such as the skin transplants I described above. It holds the promise of curing many of mankind’s most brutal diseases, from leukemia to Parkinson’s, and allowing us to replace or repair organs that were once thought to be untouchable.
Get yourself “Cell-ducated”
It’s this unbelievable potential that has attracted the Red Zone Group to host its next teleconference on stem cell research. On July 7, some of the finest minds in the field will join us to break down the popular mythology on the subject and honestly assess where the field will go in the coming months and years.
http://www.americancapitalist.net/
Cells replacing cells After all, that’s what stem cells do. These cells, inside the body, are the ones that cause our skin cells to replace themselves as they die. They’re the ones that supply the body with the millions of new red and white blood cells that it needs each day, as millions of old ones die off.
They are what makes all of our organs grow from the beginning, back when we’re not much more than a clump of a few cells no larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
So these cells have massive, nearly unlimited potential. Over the years, we’ve worked on manipulating that potential — getting them to do what we wanted them to. For example, scientists have used cultured stem cells to grow sheets of human skin for severe burn patients.
In these cases, the recipients are horribly burned and need skin grafts — but don’t have enough usable skin left to transplant. A few cells from their armpits or buttocks can grow enough transplantable skin to save their lives.
However, that lab-grown skin was only a few cells thick. It saved the lives of many burn victims, but it was a tenuous fix at best — the grown skin was so fragile that it needed long periods of time to mesh with the victim’s body.
Cell function Moreover, that breakthrough procedure didn’t afford researchers any hints at how to attempt more difficult procedures. They could make a few cells multiply in a dish, but weren’t any closer to getting those cells to replicate the processes they underwent in the body.
Well, the Australian research has now passed that milestone. In a lab near Melbourne, a group of cardiac cells beats to its own rhythm. A cluster of pancreas tissue secretes insulin. These lab-grown cells are able to perform the functions they would normally carry out in nature.
By using scaffolds and moulds to guide the development of these cells, and by manipulating the cells’ local environment, the Australian team has been able to get these stem cells to grow into particular types of tissue, and to take on the shapes and functions that they would inside the human body.
Now, carry-out kidneys or hearts are still a long way off, but this was an important milestone. Working in two dimensions might as well be like running computer simulations — it isn’t replicating the conditions of nature, but rather testing the theory or technique of the researcher.
It is this type of work — three-dimensional tissue engineering — that will one day lead to replacement organs, grown from a patient’s own stem cells. This research is also furthering our understanding of the human body. After all, what better way to understand the inner workings of the human heart than to try to make one, and see how its tissue grows, bonds, and functions?
Stem cell research is one of the most promising fields in medical history. Its early phases have already provided many major medical breakthroughs, such as the skin transplants I described above. It holds the promise of curing many of mankind’s most brutal diseases, from leukemia to Parkinson’s, and allowing us to replace or repair organs that were once thought to be untouchable.
Get yourself “Cell-ducated”
It’s this unbelievable potential that has attracted the Red Zone Group to host its next teleconference on stem cell research. On July 7, some of the finest minds in the field will join us to break down the popular mythology on the subject and honestly assess where the field will go in the coming months and years.
http://www.americancapitalist.net/