Posted on 05/10/2007 6:53:25 PM PDT by Coleus
NEW ORLEANS, May 1 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has partly resolved the mystery of how small amounts of adult stem/progenitor cells can repair damaged brain, pancreas, and kidney cells. The researchers in the laboratory of Darwin Prockop, director of Tulane University's Center for Gene Therapy, found the cells not only differentiate to replace injured cells, but also stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells already present in the injured tissue.
Prockop said a better understanding of the different mechanisms of the stem/progenitor cells suggests multiple strategies for developing new therapies for a broad range of diseases, as well has helping make such treatments more effective and minimizing potential dangers. Prockop described his research in Washington during a weekend meeting of the American Association of Anatomists, held as part of the Experimental Biology 2007 conference.
The Tulane Center for Gene Therapy is the only National Institutes of Health-designated center that distributes human stem cells taken from healthy volunteers' bone marrow and from mice.
Work is progressing with MAPCs *multipotent adult progenitor cells)
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