Identified the stem cell source of the person with muscle recovery potential

Danh Phuong

For the first time, scientists at the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC ), for short, discovered a single group of stem cells in adults who obtained from Human muscles can be used to treat muscle damage and diseases such as heart attack and muscular dystrophy.

In a study using human muscle tissue, scientists from the Center for Stem Cell Research - led by two doctors Johnny Huard and Bruno Péault - isolated and characterized the stem cells taken from blood vessels (known as myocardial cells) easily separated using cell classification techniques, increasing the number of cells quickly and in the laboratory can be distinguished into cartilage cells, bone cells and muscle cells.

According to doctors Huard and Péault: These traits make them suitable as a potential treatment for muscle diseases and injuries.

Dr. Huard, an award-winning professor at Henry J. Mankin, vice president of Research at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said: 'The discovery of stem cells from human origin with us is a big breakthrough because it brings us much closer to a clinical application of therapy. '

'To be able to turn this into a therapeutic treatment, we will take a muscle biopsy sample from an infected or muscular patient, remove membranous intracellular cells and study in the room. experiment. The stem cells will then be injected back into the patient's body to restore muscle damage. Since this is a self-implantation method, which means taking the patient and implanting it for himself, the risk of non-adaptation will not happen, unlike transplanting with stem cells taken from another source. '

(Photo: flow-cytometry.de) Conducted research in mice with dystrophy while looking for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), 8 years ago the research team belonged to the lab. Dr. Huard pioneered the identification of a unique group of stem cells derived from muscle that could restore muscles.

Dr. Péault, professor of Pediatrics, Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, recognized the importance of determining the origin of these muscle-derived stem cells. Among other techniques, his team applied the techniques of microscopy and focus and cell classification using the "flow cytometry" ^{(*) that} led to the discovery in muscle biopsies. People, the cells of the inner lining of the heart muscle are located close to the walls of the blood vessels.

According to their study, myocardial cells derived from blood vessels are much more effective in muscle formation than stem cells derived from other sources such as inner membrane cells and defense cells. fine.

Thousands of intracellular myocardial cells are implanted in the injured skeletal muscle of immunocompromised mice, averaging 89 muscle fibers, compared to 9 fibers for endothelial cells, and 5 fibers for satellite cells. Membrane cells in the myocardium also show no tendency to form tumors, a concern for other stem cell treatments.

Dr. Huard, Péault and colleagues at the Children's Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC) are studying and developing many useful treatments with stem cell groups determined by the SCRC team. One of the most promising useful values ​​is for the treatment of DMD, which is an inherited disease that is estimated to be infected among 3,500 boys. Patients with DMD are deficient in dystrophin, a protein that helps build muscle cells.

Dr. Huard is an internationally renowned cell biologist who guides an experimental study into a useful stem cell disease treatment to study musculoskeletal diseases and orthopedic injuries. In the laboratory, Dr. Huard is developing cutting-edge therapies to revitalize bone and cartilage and restore damaged muscles. The application of these treatments can be ranked in order from restoring damaged heart muscle to heart attack to restoring muscle and cartilage injuries as well as bone due to the subject sports caused.

Dr. Péault is internationally renowned because his research mainly describes and identifies hematopoietic stem cells in humans in the future, which his laboratory has also been able to interpret during stem cells. This is only in the early stages of development. In addition to developing blood, his team is also studying cryptic stem cell groups but there are many potentials still in the tissues of adults, including those who do not necessarily like fat . Such cells will be invaluable for complex restorative therapies damaged by diseases such as trauma, aging and genetic disease.

The results of the study are published in the September issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Note: This report is adapted from a news release published by Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
^(*) "flow cytometry": is the method of using a laser beam through a liquid stream containing cells or other particles.