A few decades ago, the idea of regenerating human tissue may have seen like something from a science fiction movie. It is now a possibility thanks to some incredible scientific breakthroughs involving stem cells.
Researchers are using mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate tissue and believe that in a few years they will be able to repair or replace many different types of organs.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are capable of changing into many different types of cells including bone cells (osteoblasts), fat cells (adipocytes), muscle cells (myocytes), and cartilage cells (chondrocytes). This makes them very useful for repairing or regenerating tissue and the subject for many research projects.
Unfortunately, there are a few barriers to using mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate tissue. One of those barriers is understanding how to create a 3-dimensional organ from a collection of cells. Scientists also need to understand the processes that stem cells use when regenerating tissue.
Dr. Kelly Schultz is one of the scientists working to answer these questions. Schultz recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health grant (NIH) and will use the funding to learn how cells remodel their microenvironment to form tissue.
By understanding these processes, researchers will gain valuable insight into the operation of stem cells. They can use that information to learn how wounds heal and how tissue regenerates.
Dr. Schultz has already used mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate tissue and performed some ground breaking research on the topic. Schultz and her team have already discovered that MSCs operate differently in the body than expected. In a recent study, they monitored MSCs in a hydrogel solution and recorded the dynamic interactions that the cells had.
Schultz’s team found that MSCs pause intermittently and while stationary they secrete an enzyme. The enzyme then consumes material surrounding the cell before the cell moves on. Identifying this behaviour helped scientists understand the movements of cells as they regenerated tissue.
The findings have helped scientists work on improving the speed that MSCs heal tissue. Further research indicates that modified MSCs may be able to heal tissue twice as fast as standard biological processes. This research may lead to injuries in the body being repaired very quickly.
Source: Engineering adult stem cells to regenerate tissue twice as fast
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