Vitamin C stem cell success -- Alexandre's Web forum

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Date Posted: 16:30:24 04/07/03 Mon
Author: Gordon
Subject: Vitamin C stem cell success
In reply to: Andrey 's message, "Link to steam cell research" on 17:39:47 12/06/02 Fri

Vitamin C stem cell success

Heart damage might be repaired one day
Scientists have managed to cook up new heart muscle cells for transplant, with vitamin C the vital ingredient.
They have managed to take cells from the embryo of a mouse and convert them into heart muscle cells.

If the findings can be reproduced in humans, it could make it easier to produce a supply of cells for transplantation into humans who have suffered heart muscle damage during a heart attack.

Stem cells are seen by many researchers as one possible way to repair damaged organs or even perhaps produce new ones.

They are the "master cells" of the body, found in abundance in the embryo.

As the embryo develops, and needs to grow various different types of tissue, the stem cells are converted to form whatever is needed.

Scientists believe that they could one day turn a test tube full of embryo stem cells into brain, muscle or liver cells to fit the needs of their patient.

Tissue growth

Finding ways to coax the embryo cells to grow the way they want has not been easy.

But scientists from Harvard Medical School believe they have found some useful clues in that process.

We are excited about anything suggesting that we can grow more heart cells

Dr Richard Lee, Harvard Medical School
In an exhausting process, they mixed stem cells with a total of 880 "bioactive" substances to see if any of them nudged the embryonic cells into heart muscle cells.

Only one had any effect whatsoever - vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, which turned the embryonic stem cells into cardiac myocytes - heart muscle cells.

Professor Robert Bonow, president of the American Heart Association, said: "Although the findings are very preliminary with respect to their impact on human lives, this line of research has enormous implications for the future care of thousands of patients who develop heart failure each year."

Dr Richard Lee, who led the study, said: "We have been taught for decades that when your heart cells are dead, they are dead and there is nothing we can do about it.

"We are excited about anything suggesting that we can grow more heart cells."

Not there yet

The experiment still leaves scientists a long way short of a heart cell transplant into humans.

First, experts will have to confirm that the same thing happens to human stem cells when vitamin C is added.

Then, the technology of heart cell transplantation will have to be created from scratch.

"A really big issue is going to be whether we can encourage the heart to fix itself, or whether we will need to implant cells of some sort," said Dr Lee.

The study was published in the journal Circulation.

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Replies:

Stem cells found in baby teeth -- Alexandre, 20:44:12 04/24/03 Thu