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That title isn't news to regular readers of this blog. However, I am posting on this article today because it includes an informative interview with Dr. Joshua Hare, the head of the University of Miami's new Stem Cell Institute. In layman's terms, he describes very well what repair (adult) stem cells are and how they work. Read on:
While researchers until recently believed adult stem cells were limited because they could develop only into cells similar to them bone marrow cells only into blood cells, for example evidence is growing that they, too, may become the tissue for hearts, brains, kidneys and other organs.Hare expounds on these developments:Q. You've said that the basic idea behind your work is that a healthy human body is creating stem cells all the time to keep its organs healthy, and you're trying to tap into this ability to expand its powers?A: That's the theory. It does sound fantastic. Actually, it happens in the body all the time, in tiny amounts. In our blood, to survive, we have red blood cells that carry oxygen, white cells that regulate the immune system and platelets, which are tiny cells that seal off cuts. They come from stem cells in the bone marrow. The marrow is the source for all red blood cells, platelets and some white blood cells.The cells circulate in the blood all the time. Unless there's a signal that says, "Come here and do this," they will just keep circulating. If you get a cut, the cells will be recruited to that area to do what they do.Q: Could such cells heal a heart attack all by themselves?A: Experts believe the ability of the body to heal itself without help is limited. The system can slowly replace missing cells here and there, over a lifetime. But it's not designed to repair a massive injury like a heart attack. That's where we as doctors can intervene.Q: In fact, you are intervening. You've led two studies at Johns Hopkins University and University of Miami in which you have harvested immature, or "mesenchymal" adult stem cells from the bone marrow, multiplied them many times in the lab, then injected them into the damaged heart. Is the idea that the bone marrow stem cells become heart cells?A: This is where the biology gets somewhat murky. We don't understand all the elements. We do have evidence that the cells differentiate, develop into healthy heart tissue.Q: And this could be true with a damaged liver, kidney or brain?A: In theory.Q: You've said other kinds of adult stem cells are at work too?A: Many cells are involved in the body's attempts to heal itself. Some are from blood cells from bone marrow. But also, within the organs themselves, there are resident precursor cells that are stem cells. They're sitting there like front-line soldiers in an injury. We think those cells form collections that talk to each other and can go out and do healing. So we are engaging in a new study that will look at cardiac stem cells.We can take pieces of heart tissue during surgery, multiply the stem cells in the lab and have a large amount to give back to the patient.Click here to see the full interview with Dr. Hare