Neostem's VSEL Cells Have Biological Significance

Katowice, Poland -

Biological significance is a very important factor to look at when evaluating various stem cell technologies or types of stem cells.  While companies usually like to believe that their stem cells are "the best", it is often important to ask the question whether the stem cells play a natural role in the body, and if therapeutically that role can be augmented. 

After a heart attack we know that stem cells get mobilized from the bone marrow, in part through an SDF-1 dependent manner.  This has been demonstrated with conventional CD34 stem cells, as well as endothelial progenitor cells. 

The publicly traded company Neostem (which trades under the ticker NBS on AMEX) licensed rights to the very small embryonic like (VSEL) stem cell from Dr. Ratajczak at University of Louisville.  This new stem cell appears to share some properties with embryonic stem cells, such as large expansion capacity and expression of Oct-4 and Nanog.

In a recent publication (Wojakowski et al. Mobilization of Bone Marrow-Derived Oct-4(+) SSEA-4(+) Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem Cells in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction. J Am Coll Cardiol 2009 Jan 6;53(1):1-9) it was demonstrated that circulating levels of VSEL are almost 3 times higher after cardiac infarcts as compared to controls.  Levels of circulating VSEL are elevated 24 hours after infarct and 5 days, subsequently they decrease.

Interestingly older patients had a suppressed increase in VSEL cells in circulation after infarct.

This important biological finding will position Neostem to hopefully investigate using VSELs for post infarct cardiac repair. 

Many interesting other possibilities exist...since Neostem is so involved in the autologous adult stem cell banking, we at StemCellPatents.com suggest they considered reverting VSELs into iPS cells and banking autologous iPS cells.  I know that I would pay for my own autologous iPS.  Plus if VSELs indeed express Oct4 and Nanog, retrodifferentiation should be easier than the current methods that use fibroblasts.

Good luck Neostem !!!