Therapeutic ES Cells
Nara, Japan -
Liver cirrhosis afflicts numerous members of population, being the result of excessive fibrosis which ends in hepatic decompensation and death. To date little is available in terms of therapeutic solutions for advanced cirrhosis. Accordingly, the use of stem cells for this indication is promising.
In a recent paper (Moriya et al. Embryonic stem cells develop into hepatocytes after intrasplenic transplantation in CCl(4)-treated mice. World J Gastroenterol. 2007 Feb 14;13(6):866-73) the administration of genetically labeled ES cells (GFP) was performed into the CCl4 induced murine model of cirrhosis. 100,000 ES cells were administered intrasplenically. Not only was GFP positivity detected on cells morphologically similar to hepatocytes, but also double positivity between GFP and hepatic markers such as alpha-1 antitrypsin, cytokeratin 18, and hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha was observed.
EVEN THOUGH THE CELLS WERE UNDIFFERENTIATED ES CELLS NO TUMOR FORMATION WAS OBSERVED.
This study suggests that in certain situations it may be feasible to use ES cells in undifferentiated states.
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notch1 said...
Similar morphology and sharing of markers (hepatocytes) and labeled cells still not enough to call this process "differentiation in vivo caused microenviroment". You should do more assays to exclude fusion between cells. For me it's look like fusion.
Yes, risk of tumor-formation dicrease dramatically if you transplant ES into mice with normal immune system or with injured organ or human ES. But nevertheless translation to human clinic (undifferentiated ES) still under the risk.
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Masahide Yoshikawa said...
Yes, your description about our paper was accurate. Thank you for the pick-up of our work.
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