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Stem cell success points to way to regenerate parathyroid glands
September 30, 2009Embryonic stem cells provide model; goal is to prevent bone loss
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - An early laboratory success is taking University of Michigan researchers a step closer to parathyroid gland transplants that could one day prevent a currently untreatable form of bone loss associated with thyroid surgery.
The scientists were able to induce embryonic stem cells to differentiate into parathyroid cells that produced a hormone essential to maintaining bone density. The laboratory results in live cell cultures, published in Stem Cells and Development, need to be tested in further pre-clinical studies.
Parathyroid glands, four glands each the size of a rice grain that lie next to the thyroid in the neck, are easily damaged when surgeons operate on patients with cancerous or benign thyroid tumors. Without their calcium-regulating hormone, patients can develop osteomalacia, a severe form of bone loss similar to rickets that affects tens of thousands of people in the United States with muscle cramps and numbness in the hands and feet.
"We used human embryonic stem cells as a model for ways to work out the recipe to make parathyroid cells," says Gerard M. Doherty, M.D., chief of endocrine surgery and Norman W. Thompson Professor of Endocrine Surgery at U-M Medical School.
The research illustrates the payoff of rapidly increasing knowledge about how embryonic stem cells give rise to other kinds of cells. That knowledge can be the springboard for influencing other cells to regenerate damaged parts of the body.
Doherty's team used embryonic stem cells from a Bush administration-approved embryonic stem cell line to test a way to produce functioning, differentiated parathyroid cells to transplant into a patient and restore function.
With the recipe worked out, Doherty's team anticipates developing a treatment that doesn't use embryonic stem cells.
"We anticipate taking a person's own cells and making them into parathyroid cells," Doherty says. Using the patient's own cells should eliminate the risk of rejection.
What's next
Having demonstrated a method for leading embryonic stem cells to produce parathyroid cells, the team hopes to be able to repeat those steps using cells from the patient's own thymus gland. The method involves no genetic modification of cells, a key goal of Doherty's team.
"We want to have a process that will allow us to reintroduce cells into the patient's body safely," Doherty says.
Any successful treatment in people is five to 10 years away.
University of Michigan Health System
Parathyroid glands, four glands each the size of a rice grain that lie next to the thyroid in the neck, are easily damaged when surgeons operate on patients with cancerous or benign thyroid tumors. Without their calcium-regulating hormone, patients can develop osteomalacia, a severe form of bone loss similar to rickets that affects tens of thousands of people in the United States with muscle cramps and numbness in the hands and feet.
"We used human embryonic stem cells as a model for ways to work out the recipe to make parathyroid cells," says Gerard M. Doherty, M.D., chief of endocrine surgery and Norman W. Thompson Professor of Endocrine Surgery at U-M Medical School.
The research illustrates the payoff of rapidly increasing knowledge about how embryonic stem cells give rise to other kinds of cells. That knowledge can be the springboard for influencing other cells to regenerate damaged parts of the body.
Doherty's team used embryonic stem cells from a Bush administration-approved embryonic stem cell line to test a way to produce functioning, differentiated parathyroid cells to transplant into a patient and restore function.
With the recipe worked out, Doherty's team anticipates developing a treatment that doesn't use embryonic stem cells.
"We anticipate taking a person's own cells and making them into parathyroid cells," Doherty says. Using the patient's own cells should eliminate the risk of rejection.
What's next
Having demonstrated a method for leading embryonic stem cells to produce parathyroid cells, the team hopes to be able to repeat those steps using cells from the patient's own thymus gland. The method involves no genetic modification of cells, a key goal of Doherty's team.
"We want to have a process that will allow us to reintroduce cells into the patient's body safely," Doherty says.
Any successful treatment in people is five to 10 years away.
University of Michigan Health System
Embryonic Stem Cells Current Events and Embryonic Stem Cells News RSSFirst reconstitution of an epidermis from human embryonic stem cells
Stem cell research is making great strides. This is yet again illustrated by a study carried out by the I-STEM* Institute (I-STEM/ Inserm UEVE U861/AFM), published in the Lancet on 21 November 2009. The I-STEM team, directed by Marc Peschanski has just succeeded in recreating a whole epidermis from human embryonic stem cells.
UCI embryonic stem cell therapy restores walking ability in rats with neck injuries
The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries - a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage.
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.
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.
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.
Fate Therapeutics announces creation of small molecule platform for commercial-scale reprogramming
Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced today the generation of human induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using a combination of small molecules that significantly improves the speed and efficiency of reprogramming.
A major step in making better stem cells from adult tissue
October 15, 2009 A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells.
New strategy for mending broken hearts?
By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" to repair heart tissue damaged by disease.
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