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Ability to track stem cells in tumors could advance cancer treatments
June 17, 2008New therapies offer promise for patients, say researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting, June 14-18
NEW ORLEANS, La.-Using noninvasive molecular imaging technology, a method has been developed to track the location and activity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the tumors of living organisms, according to researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting. This ability could lead to major advances in the use of stem cell therapies to treat cancer.
"Stem cell cancer therapies are still in the early stages of development, but they offer great promise in delivering personalized medicine that will fight disease at the cellular level," said Hui Wang, a postdoctoral fellow from Prof. Xiaoyuan (Shawn) Chen's group of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Department of Radiology at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., and lead researcher of the study, Trafficking the Fate of Mesenchymal Stem Cells In Vivo. "Our results indicate that molecular imaging can play a critical role in understanding and improving the process of how stem cells migrate to cancer cells. Eventually, this technique could also be used to determine if gene-modified stem cells are effective in fighting cancer."
MSCs are adult stem cells that have the ability to transform into many different types of cells, such as bone, fat or cartilage. Many scientists believe that stem cells show great promise in treating different types of diseases-and a few stem cell therapies are already used to fight some types of cancer. Leukemia patients who haven't responded to chemotherapy, for example, may receive bone marrow transplants, through which stem cells of a healthy bone marrow donor are injected into the patient's blood stream. If the transplant is successful, the stem cells will migrate to the patient's bone marrow and begin producing healthy cells that will replace the cancer cells. For other types of cancer, researchers are experimenting with modifying stem cells that could be engineered to deliver chemotherapy more precisely to specific tumor sites.
For these types of treatments to be successful, the ability to track what happens to stem cells after they are injected into a living organism is essential. Currently, three different tracking techniques are used: radiolabeling, which consists of using a radioactive substance to tag the cells; magnetic labeling, or using magnetic nanoparticles to tag cells for magnetic resonance imaging; and reporter-gene tracking, which involves engineering genes that can adhere to cells and be tracked with molecular imaging technologies. Of these, reporter gene techniques are highly sensitive and able to monitor cell migration, survival and proliferation over time in living organisms.
In their research, Wang and her team isolated stem cells from adult mice and engineered a reporter gene that would be both luminescent and green under a special microscope. Two tumor models were also tagged with reporter genes that were luminescent and red. The tumor cells were injected into live mice either intravenously or under the skin, followed days later by injection of the engineered stem cells.
The study produced solid evidence that the injected stem cells migrate to the tumors and don't begin to differentiate into other types of cells until they are at the tumor sites. In some of the mice, the breast cancer cells had begun to spread to the lungs. Researchers found that the injected stem cells also migrated to the lung cancer tumors. In addition, the stem cells that migrated to lung tumors differentiated into bone cells, while the stem cells that migrated to breast cancer tumors differentiated into fat cells. The results indicate that stem cells can migrate both to breast cancer cells and their lung metastasis. In addition, the MSCs differentiate into distinctly different cells. "The next logical step of this study is to incorporate therapeutic genes into MSCs and use multimodality molecular imaging techniques to follow the distribution, homing, survival, proliferation and cell/gene therapy efficacy of the MSC platform," said Wang.
Society of Nuclear Medicine
MSCs are adult stem cells that have the ability to transform into many different types of cells, such as bone, fat or cartilage. Many scientists believe that stem cells show great promise in treating different types of diseases-and a few stem cell therapies are already used to fight some types of cancer. Leukemia patients who haven't responded to chemotherapy, for example, may receive bone marrow transplants, through which stem cells of a healthy bone marrow donor are injected into the patient's blood stream. If the transplant is successful, the stem cells will migrate to the patient's bone marrow and begin producing healthy cells that will replace the cancer cells. For other types of cancer, researchers are experimenting with modifying stem cells that could be engineered to deliver chemotherapy more precisely to specific tumor sites.
For these types of treatments to be successful, the ability to track what happens to stem cells after they are injected into a living organism is essential. Currently, three different tracking techniques are used: radiolabeling, which consists of using a radioactive substance to tag the cells; magnetic labeling, or using magnetic nanoparticles to tag cells for magnetic resonance imaging; and reporter-gene tracking, which involves engineering genes that can adhere to cells and be tracked with molecular imaging technologies. Of these, reporter gene techniques are highly sensitive and able to monitor cell migration, survival and proliferation over time in living organisms.
In their research, Wang and her team isolated stem cells from adult mice and engineered a reporter gene that would be both luminescent and green under a special microscope. Two tumor models were also tagged with reporter genes that were luminescent and red. The tumor cells were injected into live mice either intravenously or under the skin, followed days later by injection of the engineered stem cells.
The study produced solid evidence that the injected stem cells migrate to the tumors and don't begin to differentiate into other types of cells until they are at the tumor sites. In some of the mice, the breast cancer cells had begun to spread to the lungs. Researchers found that the injected stem cells also migrated to the lung cancer tumors. In addition, the stem cells that migrated to lung tumors differentiated into bone cells, while the stem cells that migrated to breast cancer tumors differentiated into fat cells. The results indicate that stem cells can migrate both to breast cancer cells and their lung metastasis. In addition, the MSCs differentiate into distinctly different cells. "The next logical step of this study is to incorporate therapeutic genes into MSCs and use multimodality molecular imaging techniques to follow the distribution, homing, survival, proliferation and cell/gene therapy efficacy of the MSC platform," said Wang.
Society of Nuclear Medicine
Stem Cells Current Events and Stem Cells News RSSFirst use of antibody and stem cell transplantation to successfully treat advanced leukemia
For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have reported the use of a radiolabeled antibody to deliver targeted doses of radiation, followed by a stem cell transplant, to successfully treat a group of leukemia and pre-leukemia patients for whom there previously had been no other curative treatment options.
Magnetic nanoparticles to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat
Whether it's magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) giving an army of 'therapeutically armed' white blood cells direction to invade a deadly tumour's territory, or the use of mNPs to target specific nerve channels and induce nerve-led behaviour (such as the life-dependant thumping of our hearts), mNPs have come a long way in the past decade.
Of mice and men: Stem cells and ethical uncertainties
The recent creation of live mice from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) not only represents a remarkable scientific achievement, but also raises important issues, according to bioethicists at The Johns Hopkins University's Berman Institute of Bioethics.
NIH-funded researchers transform embryonic stem cells into human germ cells
Researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have discovered how to transform human embryonic stem cells into germ cells, the embryonic cells that ultimately give rise to sperm and eggs.
Stem cell therapy may offer hope for acute lung injury
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have shown that adult stem cells from bone marrow can prevent acute lung injury in a mouse model of the disease.
Placental precursor stem cells require testosterone-free environment to survive
Trophoblast stem cells (TSCs), cells found in the layer of peripheral embryonic stem cells from which the placenta is formed, are thought to exhibit "immune privilege" that aids cell survivability and is potentially beneficial for cell and gene therapies.
Endocrine Society calls for expanded scope and funding for stem cell research
Stem cell research holds great promise for the treatment of millions of Americans with debilitating and possibly fatal diseases.
Experimental treatments restore partial vision to blind people
Two experimental treatments, a retinal prosthesis and fetal tissue transplant, restored some vision to people with blinding eye diseases. The findings, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health, may lead to new treatments for the blind.
Scientists demonstrate link between genetic defect and brain changes in schizophrenia
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have found that the 22q11 gene deletion - a mutation that confers the highest known genetic risk for schizophrenia - is associated with changes in the development of the brain that ultimately affect how its circuit elements are assembled.
Small mechanical forces have big impact on embryonic stem cells
Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed cell differentiation include therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicine.
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