Fat Stem Cells Against Brain Damage
Indianapolis, IN -
The ability of autologous adult stem cells to mediate neural protection subsequent to brain insults has been previously documented. For example, it is known that after a stroke, bone marrow stem cells mobilize, and patients with higher degree of mobilization actually have better post-stroke recovery. There are also reports of autologous cord blood stem cells mediating therapeutic effects in children with cerebral palsy. Although no data as been published, media reports indicate that Joanne Kurtzberg from Duke has been performing such procedures.
In a recent paper (Wei et al. IFATS Series: The Conditioned Media of Adipose Stromal Cells Protect Against Hypoxia-Ischemia-Induced Brain Damage in Neonatal Rats. Stem Cells 2008 Nov 20), a model of a cerebral palsy-like condition was used to assess the effects of adipose stem cell conditioned media.
When conditioned media was administered 1 hour before or 24 hours subsequent to induction of neonatal ischemic injury, there was protection against loss of brain volume (hippocampal and cortical).
Conditioned media, but not control media, also preserved mental functions as demonstrated by the Morris water maze test.
IGF-1 and BDNF were identified as possible mediators.
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jonnyboy said...
Conditioned media of various cellular extracts has previously been used for numerous conditions. Many years ago a compound called Reptimed was being developed as a cancer agent from bone marrow conditioned media. More recently work using conditioned media from cow bile has given rise to a therapeutic formulation called Virilizin that has been developed by the company Lorus therapeutics.
There is a lot of interesting work being doing with conditioned media, this is important since there are many factors in the media that may act synergistically. This is similar to naturopathic medicine in which vrious plants have therapeutic activities but when you try to decipher which component is responsible, you end up finding that it is imporssible to separate out one component but it is the synergy of the numerous components.