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Device Able to Pull Stem Cells From Blood

Posted on: Saturday, 26 January 2008, 00:00 CST

A tiny, implantable device can pull adult stem cells out of a living rat with greater purity than any present technique, a U.S. study found.

The device was designed by Michael R. King, who was studying how white blood cells, called neutrophils, know how to migrate to a point of infection. He observed that near an injury, the walls of the nearby blood vessels expressed an adhesive protein and if passing neutrophils brushed against selectins they stick to the vessel wall, but did remain struck, the neutrophils rolled to the site.

Together with Jane Liesveld, a hematology clinician doing work on bone marrow stem cells at the University of Rochester, King found that the basic rolling mechanism was the foundation of a number of other processes, including stem cell transplantation -- a natural phenomenon where stem cells move in and out of bone tissue via the blood.

In the study, published in the British Journal of Haematology, the researchers implanted the device in a living rat and they were able to capture stem cells straight out of the bloodstream,

One of our ultimate goals is to develop an implantable device that will selectively remove metastatic cells from the blood, King said in a statement.

Source: United Press International

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