From: Gina Miller (echoz@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 29 1999 - 00:15:42 MDT
Adult Human Brain Stem Cells Reproduce In Vitro
Brain stem cells recovered from living adult human tissue have
successfully reproduced in vitro at the University of Tennessee-
Memphis health science center. Additional research from the same
laboratory also shows successful isolation and cultivation of mouse
brain stem cells recovered as long as five to seven days postmortem.
Scheduled this month for publication in a special issue of
Experimental Neurology, these findings could provide a possible
alternative to the research use of embryonic stem cells, an approach
in stem cell biology and its possible therapeutic use that raises
controversial ethical issues.
Dr. Valery G. Kukekov of UT-Memphis and Methodist Healthcare of
Memphis, is lead author on the paper detailing the growing of adult
brain stem cells recovered from surgical specimens taken from
patients ranging in age from 24 to 57. The paper is titled
"Multipotent Stem/Progenitor Cells with Similar Properties Arise from
Two Neurogenic Regions of Adult Human Brain."
Dr. Eric D. Laywell of UT-Memphis is lead author of the paper
detailing the growing of brain stem cells recovered from mouse
cadavers five to seven days postmortem. Laywell's paper is titled
"Multipotent Neurospheres Can Be Derived from Forebrain Subependymal
Zone and Spinal Cord of Adult Mice after Protracted Postmortem
Intervals."
The work is from the laboratory of Dr. Dennis A. Steindler, UT-
Memphis professor of neurobiology and a co-author on both papers.
Describing the work, Steindler said, "This new era of applying
knowledge gained from genetics, molecular, cellular and developmental
biology is much more than just the discussion of the ethical issues
surrounding embryonic and fetal cell research, and the controversy
over cloning animals and human beings.
"This new research showing that stem/progenitor cells from adult
brains can be expanded in culture (ex vivo) offers hope for future
studies which could someday lead to autologous stem cell transplants
for self-repair regenerative approaches," said Steindler. "It now is
possible to think about using our own population of stem cells
because it appears they survive well into mature adulthood."
Kukekov's research recovered cells from the hippocampus and the
subependymal zone (SEZ). The SEZ is a remnant left over from the
fetal/baby brain region remaining in the adult brain that surrounds
the fluid-filled spaces called ventricles.
Kukekov said, "These results are encouraging because it means that
even senior persons have these cells. This gives us the opportunity
in the future, as the research expands, to take a small biopsy
specimen from a diseased person, grow the necessary cells and then
transplant them back to the same person."
Kukekov said the research team is now working on describing the
molecular biologic characteristics of the cultured cells. "We cannot
move forward and be successful in experiments with propagation
without knowing how genes are expressed in the process and what
molecular events are occurring."
Laywell's work with cadaveric mice successfully isolated and
recovered stem cells up to five to seven days after death when the
mice were kept at 4 degrees C. The cells were retrieved from the
adult mouse spinal cord and forebrain SEZ. Using the culturing
technique developed by Kukekov, the mouse cells grew and multiplied
and gave rise to both neurons and glia.
Laywell said the number of surviving cells drops off rapidly with
time, but since they appear to be stem cells, only one is needed to
multiply in culture.
Laywell said, "Bone marrow stem cells have been repopulated from
cadavers, so it seems to be a property of stem cells in general that
they can survive in conditions that other cells can't."
Laywell's paper includes a single human-cadaver unpublished
observation which produced results similar to those found with the
mice.
The research is an international collaborative effort with co-
investigators in Bonn, Germany; Japan, and Memphis. The adult brain
tissue was provided with patient consent by Dr. Keith G. Davies, a
neurosurgeon with UT-Memphis and Semmes-Murphey Clinic and a co-
author on the adult cell paper.
Kukekov's work was funded by the Methodist/Le Bonheur Healthcare
Foundation.
Laywell's work was funded by the Spinal Cord Research Foundation of
the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA). Steindler's work was funded
by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Daimler-Benz
Foundation funded the work of co-author Dr. Bjorn Scheffler. - By
Claire Lowry
[Contact: Claire Lowry]
28-Apr-1999
For More Science Coverage: UniSci Science and Research News
http://unisci.com
Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
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"The science of nanotechnology, solutions for the future."
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