Posted on 08/27/2006 6:51:29 PM PDT by Coleus
Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells injected directly into the central nervous system are safe and feasible for the treatment of neurological disorders. "Congenital neurodegenerative diseases exhibit progressive postnatal neurologic impairment leading to premature death and are intractable to systemic therapies such as bone marrow transplantation.
"We injected bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the CNS of young adult rhesus macaques to evaluate their safety and feasibility as vectors for direct intervention of neurologic disorders," scientists writing in the journal Molecular Therapy report. According to L.A. Isakova and colleagues at Tulane University in New Orleans, "Levels of engrafted male, donor MSCs were quantified in the CNS of female transplant recipients by real-time PCR using an SRY gene-specific probe.
"Analysis of coronal brain slices encompassing one-third of the total brain volume revealed engraftment levels ranging from 0.026x10-3 to 0.163x10-3% of the total DNA content of brain tissue." "Fine-mapping revealed male DNA distributed within specific anatomic structures along the neuraxis where label-retaining MSCs were visualized in histological sections by immunohistochemistry.
"Double labeling of sections confirmed that engrafted donor cells lacked expression of the macrophage marker CD68, the astrocytes marker GFAP, and neuronal markers NeuN and MAP2," wrote investigators. Isakova continued, "MSC engraftment had no adverse effects on animal health, behavior, postural and locomotor patterns, or upper limb motor performance evaluated over a 6-month period post-transplantation."
"Therefore," concluded researchers, "MSC-based therapies represent a safe alternative for clinical intervention of CNS disorders." Isakova and colleagues published their study in Molecular Therapy (Preclinical evaluation of adult stem cell engraftment and toxicity in the CNS of rhesus macaques. Mol Ther, 2006;13(6):1173-1184).
Additional information can be obtained by contacting D.G. Phinney, Tulane University, Health Science Center, Center Gene Therapy, SL-99, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. The publisher of the journal Molecular Therapy can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc. Elsevier Science, 525 B St., Ste. 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA.
I guess it's too much to hope that the headline writers would make it clear when the stem cell promise is from *adult* stem cells. {sigh}
Uh--from the article---"bone marrow derived stem cells"--also known as "adult stem cells" (you don't get embryonic stem cells from bone marrow).
Read the headline again. It just says "stem cells". Then ask a few "men on the street" what stem cells are.
For too many people, "stem cells" are embryonic stem cells.
So what. The article gives the correct information--that the stem cells are NOT embryonic.
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