Many of us have heard of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, right? Well, a team of scientists recently discovered a new variety of stem cells in the gut of a mouse embryo, cells not like those previously described in the gut. They knew they were able to grow the cells at just the right conditions for them to form mature intestinal tissue, and with this knowledge they transplanted these cells into adult mice with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It took just 3 hours for the cells to repair infected areas of the gut. Scientists took human stem cells similar to the mice stem cells and are setting up another experiment to see whether the same method works for humans. Let's stay hopeful. My question to you is this: Do you think treatment could really have been this easy all along? Why hasn't this been done before now?The Research paper can be found here.
I guess the aim here is to aid in repair of damaged tissues, which is good. However, the body will typically repair and regenerate in the normal course of events anyway. The problem with autoimmune diseases such as IBD is the chronicity of inflammation. If the underlying mechanism of inflammation can be halted, then perhaps this therapy can be helpful in the recovery phase. The cause(s) of IBDs are unknown. In some cases, even getting the proper diagnosis as to which type you have can be difficult. This therapy seems a little like putting the cart before the horse (I like idioms). Just surviving the stem cell transplanation is a major hurdle that would not justify its usage (basically you need to be dying (ie. cancer) for it to be considered, ethically speaking). Also, the damage to the intestinal walls in IBD leads to scar tissue, especially in severe cases. You may have badly scarred intestinal tissue underlying the upper layers of new 'normal' tissue. Peristalsis in the intestines is counter to the rigidity that comes with the scarring. How would this therapy address the presence of such tissue that is beyond resuscitation?
ReplyDeleteMind = Blown
DeleteWe're actually studying stem cells in adv. cell biology right now. From the article, it seems that they used adult stem cells and directed the differentiation of these cells. From my understanding, it can be somewhat difficult to find the optimum conditions to direct the differentiation of these cells. So, it probably took them awhile to find the right factors to direct the differentiation of these stem cells.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have said it better myself
DeleteIt seems like the process would be a little more complicated just due to the fact that finding and maintaining optimum conditions can be difficult. That being said it seems like they have been able to accomplish the difficult task which can potentially help many people.
ReplyDeleteThe picture of the mouse cracks me up!
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like treatment is super easy and should shave been discovered years ago, but I imagine that this study has been going on for some time and something has always gone wrong until now.
I'm not sure if it relates, but the idea reminds me of a blog post I did not too long ago. The idea behind the post was that Clostridum difficile could be cured with a transplant of good microbes from someone else's feces to cure the infection within the gut.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, if it is possible, I think this would be awesome. Only thing is, when there is good, there is bad. I wonder what would come of this.