Another Type of Stem Cells in Cord Blood

Another Type of Stem Cells in Cord Blood

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified an additional population of stem cells in cord blood which may be capable of differentiating into other kinds of cells. The stem cells commonly found in cord blood are hematopoietic, or blood-producing stem cells, which cannot differentiate into other kinds of tissue such as skin or bone. The newly found cells are “more primitive,” and when transplanted into the brains of rodents, some of them differentiated into neurons. Strokes had been induced in the rodents, and after transplantation the brain lesions decreased and the rodents had increased mobility.

The press release is on EurekAlert.

This is pretty exciting news, but it is still very young. I don’t know how difficult the procedure for extracting these cells is, what the survival rate of cells in culture and after transplantation is, what kinds of factors are needed for differentiation, and so on. Do they survive freezing? And of course we don’t know what human brains would do. It also seems important to try to grow stem cell lines from these cells and see what the mutation patterns are, if tumors arise, or if there are any other issues.

Tissue Engineering Stem Cell Research News

Tissue Engineering Stem Cell Research News

Researchers at Rice University in Houston have used stem cells to create a growth medium in engineering new bone tissue. The press release is on EurekAlert. In tissue engineering, the new tissue is generally grown on a scaffold of titanium or some other material. The stem cells are treated with growth factors to differentiate, and the scaffolding gives them shape. In the new study, the researchers treated titanium mesh with stem cells and encouraged it to form the extracellular matrix of the bone. Stem cells grown on the new constructs calcified much faster than those on standard titanium scaffolds.

Of note—the lead author in the study was an undergraduate (senior). She will be going to medial school in the fall. She was able to do this because she participated in research from the time she entered the university. Obviously Rice made some fantastic opportunities available, and I hope that lots of other schools do the same thing.

New York Buzz

New York Buzz

No real events here, but the stem cell bill in New York State that was recently passed by the Assembly is getting some press. Yesterday the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, spoke about it to a group known as New Yorkers for the Advancement of Medical Research. He criticized Governor George Pataki as being wary of alienating conservatives, while Republican Joseph Bruno accused Democrats of playing politics. An article about this appears in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle; much of the text of Silver’s speech is reprinted in the North County Gazette. The Albany Times Union ran a column on the subject on Sunday calling for Pataki to let the research go forward.