Stem Cells
Adult Stem Cells
Dr Peter Hollands continues to write about how stem cell technology has the potential to address and cure what are currently frightening and incurable diseases.
Adult stem cell technology continued to make great progress last year whilst embryonic stem cell technology continued on its’ wave of hype and false hope.
Cord blood stem cells continued to be transplanted in the treatment of blood disorders with great success and the basic research in this field continues to show the massive potential of cord blood stem cells in the general field of regenerative medicine. Perhaps the most exciting and significant development in stem cell technology last year was the creation of a new trachea for a patient using her own bone marrow stem cells.
Stem Cells – The Time Is Now!
This patient had a diseased trachea which needed surgical replacement. Collaborative scientists and clinicians in the UK and Spain used bone marrow stem cell technology to create a new trachea for this patient. They achieved this by firstly taking a donor trachea from an unrelated organ donor and treating this donor trachea to remove the surface cells to leave the basic ‘scaffold’ of the trachea.
Bone marrow stem cells, taken from the recipient patient, were then grown on the trachea scaffold in the laboratory. The recipient bone marrow cells coated the trachea scaffold with recipient patient cells effectively making the donor trachea into a perfect match for the recipient. The donor trachea scaffold, coated with recipient cells, was then transplanted into the recipient. The patient tolerated this procedure very well, did not require any anti-rejection drugs, and continues to make a very good recovery.
This represents a major step forward in adult stem cell technology and shows the clear clinical utility of adult stem cell technology compared to embryonic stem cell technology.
My own research at the University of Westminster in London, UK is also progressing well. My focus is on cord blood stem cells because I truly believe that these cells have enormous potential in regenerative medicine. There are three defined projects in my laboratory at the moment:
- Cord blood stem cell expansion technology. This technology will enable the stem cells in a single cord blood unit to be expanded in number so that the cord blood unit can then be used to treat adult patients. There are many others workers in this particular area and once the problem is solved the clinical utility of cord blood units will increase considerably.
- Differentiation of cord blood cells towards neuronal cells. This technology will develop nerve cells from cord blood stem cells which will then be used to study nerve development, test new drugs and possibly even be used to transplant into patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease or traumatic nerve damage. There is an enormous amount of work involved to take cells obtained in the laboratory to cells suitable for clinical use but with hard work and determination I know that these things are possible.
- Differentiation of cord blood cells towards insulin secreting cells. The concept here is to develop insulin secreting cells from cord blood which may be used to study diabetes in the laboratory and also to potentially provide a cell therapy for insulin dependent diabetes.
All three of these projects are currently being funded by the University of Westminster and if things progress well I hope to obtain additional funding from other external sources to support the work in the future.
Finally I am very proud to be involved with a project in Nigeria in which we hope to develop a significant cord blood processing and storage facility in order to provide cord blood stem cells for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia. There are few families in Nigeria who do not suffer from the symptoms of sickle cell anaemia which at its’ worse include severe pain and disability. Cord blood stem cells can be used as a transplant in these patients providing a safe and permanent cure to the disease.
I hope that 2009 continues to bring more exciting news in adult stem cells technology. The potential and the people are there. All we need now is for governments and research charities to recognise the importance of cord blood stem cells and to provide the proper support and funding for us to realise the amazing potential of adult stem cells.
Bumps 4D is working with Dr Peter Hollands to inform and assist pregnant women and their families understand and if they wish access facilities for the collection of cord blood.
Dr Peter Holland PhD(Cantab) CSci FIBMS
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science
University of Westminster
