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Human Adult Stem Cells Regenerate Muscle

Posted on: Thursday, 15 February 2007, 15:01 CST

Italian scientists have found human adult stem cells taken from blood vessels can regenerate muscle in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy.

Giulio Cossu and colleagues from the Stem Cell Research Institute in Rome showed such cells isolated from young golden retrievers regenerated the muscles of dystrophic dogs when injected into their circulation. A new study by the same team demonstrates cells with similar properties can be isolated from human juvenile and adult blood vessels.

The same researchers isolated those types of stem cell from juvenile dystrophic patients and grew them in cell culture. Muscular dystrophy is linked to a mutation in dystrophin, a gene required for muscle formation, and the authors genetically modified the stem cells to make them express the corrected version of the gene.

After injection into the blood vessels of dystrophic mice, the cells found their way to skeletal muscle, which they were able to partly regenerate. Importantly, say the researchers, the cells were shown to reconstitute the muscle's own stem cell population.

The scientists suggest the isolation of the stem cells raises hope for treating muscular dystrophy using a patient's own cells.

The research appears online in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Source: United Press International

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