Scientists from the University of California, San Diego have discovered a simple, easy and effective method of managing the conversion of human pluripotent stem cells in bone tissue cells, as described in this article on the basis of published experiments. Under the influence of molecules of adenosine, stem cells turn into bone tissue, restoring damage without causing the appearance of tumors and without exposing the body to the risk of contracting infection.
In addition, using a similar method to quickly and inexpensively grow artificial bone that is fully compatible with the patient, which may replace their own which was damaged as a result of trauma or injury.
Pluripotent stem cells can turn into any cell type of the human body including tissues such as muscle tissue, heart tissue, skin and bone, a process called differentiation.
However, artificial differentiation of the transformation of stem cells is a complex multistage process, using an extensive list of drugs. This makes it extremely expensive and sometimes ineffective.
The second problem of regenerative medicine lies in the fact that in some tissues and organs grown from embryonic stem cells, there are benign tumors composed of other types of tissue.
These tumors called teratomas arise when stem cells begin to “cheat”, turning into the wrong types of tissue required in this case.
Working on a quest to simplify the process of differentiation of stem cells, Californian scientists found that by simply adding adenosine molecules in the culture medium, where the cultivation of stem cells takes place, forces them to turn into functional osteoblasts – the cells are young cells of bone tissue. These osteoblasts, tested by transplanting them in animals with bone defects, formed new tissue near the defect with no sign of forming teratomas.
“It is surprising that the only molecule of a substance can decide the fate of embryonic stem cells. We no longer need a complex cocktail of different drugs for bone tissue. In the future we are going to find the same simple methods that make stem cells turn into cells of a strictly set type,” the scientists wrote. Currently, researchers have determined that the appearance of molecules of adenosine results in the transfer of stem cells depends on a certain signal transferred to it via the receptor A2bR.
The mechanism of formation and transmission of this signal requires further research, in which scientists will try to find stem-cell receptors that respond to molecules and other substances.
Ukraine also made great strides in the development and application of advanced stem cell technology. Ukrainian biotechnology has grown bone, tissue and nerve cells. This technologies has been used to restore damaged joints and limbs in wounded ATO soldiers, returning them to function and mobility.
Currently the collection of funds for the treatment five wounded Ukrainian solders as part of the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project is under way, while four more are waiting in line to join the project. For them biotechnology offers the only chance of recovery. Since the state, through legislative and other restrictions, does not support biotechnology in the treatment of wounded soldiers their only hope lies in donations from people like you.
Get involved.
