“Latest Stem Cells News”

Parkinson’s Disease – Medical world has struggled in finding permanent cure for this condition that usually affects men over the age of 50 years, but now this maybe changing with the advent of stem cell based research in regenerative medicine. A significant clinical human trial using these technique now seems feasible in the near future.

Stem Cells and its Potential:

Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Stem cell therapy in Parkinson’s disease:

The race to find permanent cure for Parkinson’s disease seems to be on with many exciting and rapid developments taking place in stem cell based regenerative research. However on a cautious note it remains to be shown whether stem cell-derived dopamine neurons can efficiently reinnervate the regions of the brain like the striatum and provide functional recovery in Parkinson’s patients.

The transplantation of the human foetal midbrain tissue in animals and humans has provided knowledge of a number of requirements for establishing a clinically competitive Stem Cell-based therapy in Parkinson’s disease.

The stem cell grafts should:

1. Exhibit a regulated release of dopamine and molecular, electrophysiological, and morphological properties similar to those of substantia nigra neurons(substantianigra lies in the midbrain immediately dorsal to the cerebral peduncles);
2. Enable survival of more than 100,000 dopamine neurons per human putamen(round structure located at the base of the forebrain);
3. Re-establish the dopamine network within the striatum and restore the functional connectivity with host extra-striatal neural circuitries;
4. Reverse the motor deficits resembling human symptoms in animal models of Parkinson’s disease and induce long-lasting andmajor symptomatic relief in patients;
5. Produce no adverse-effects such as tumor formation, immune reactions and gastric disorders.

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Understanding the genetic underpinnings of the biology of stem cells is crucial for their use in disease research and treatment. Scientists have identified a variety of genetic factors that maintain self renewal properties in embryonic, fetal, and adult stem cells. But whether these cell types are controlled by the same or different molecules is a persisting question.

Recent work from HSCI Principal Faculty Konrad Hochedlinger, PhD, begins to crack that mystery. Sox2 is a gene whose expression is required for maintaining pluripotency in early embryonic cells and regulating tissue development in the fetal stage. But until now, Sox2 expression had only been observed fleetingly in a few adult stem cells.

Hochedlinger and his team have shown that Sox2 is nearly pervasive among adult stem cells, absent in only a few tissue types such as muscle, blood, and heart. The work, which establishes Sox2 as the only known factor to control self renewal across all three stem cell types, provides fertile ground for a variety of investigations.

In particular, since Sox2 expression can be seen as a marker for adult stem cells, it may provide an easier way to isolate and manipulate the otherwise difficult cellular population. Additionally, manipulating Sox2 expression could help generate particular adult stem cell types from embryonic stem cells, as well as particular desired tissue types from adult stem cells.

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What are the differences between embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells? Where do the experts expect the next medical application will be for stem cells? Do stem cells promote regeneration? How are cell types interacting? How can induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells revolutionize drug discovery? Can cell therapies be made into a viable business? How close are we to finding the right business model? Are investors interested in stem cells today? What is the political and ethical landscape like now that the Obama administration has taken over the White House?

This is the Episode 1 of the Stem Cell Review, aired on October 1st, 2009

from http://www.biobusiness.tv/videos/201

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