During the end of the 1990s and early 2000s scientists nourished great hopes that adult stem cells would be able to develop into all sorts of cells. If so, it would not be necessary to use the ethically more problematic embryonic stem cells. However, newer studies have shown that while adult stem cells are very good at producing different types of cells in their own respective organs, they have little or no ability to form cells in other organs.
"Both we and two American research teams have used various methods to replicate a study from three years ago that appeared in Nature. It was about transplanting blood stem cells to create new heart muscle cells to repair a heart after a heart attack. But all of our results univocally indicate that this is not possible," says Jens Nygren. He is a doctoral student and part of research team headed by Professor Sten Eirik Jacobsen at the Stem Cell Center.
What the Lund scientists have found is that the transplanted cells that remain in the infarcted area retain their identity as blood cells. On the other hand, outside the infarcted area a so-called fusion did occur between the transplanted cells and heart muscle cells.
Such fused cells can sometimes look as if they had been formed from a transplanted stem cell. In other words, fusions may explain the first promising studies: the scientists believed they were looking at cells produced by maturation of blood stem cells, whereas in actual fact they were seeing a tiny number of fused cells.
Now it is time for second thoughts, a
'"/>
Contact: Ingela Bjrck
ingela.bjorck@info.lu.se
46-46-222-76-46
Swedish Research Council
6-May-2004