Faster Stem Cell Generation Reported

The Wall Street Journal reports that Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT), a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, has discovered a new method to generate a replenishable population of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from pluripotent stem cells.

The stem cell derived MSCs display potent immunomodulatory and therapeutic properties and have a greater than 30, 000 fold proliferative capacity, according to the researchers’ paper published online ahead of print in Stem Cell and Development.

The traditional sources of MSCs are from adult tissues and from bone marrow. These MSCs have limited expansion capacity and so must constantly be replenished from more donors and screened for pathogens. Researchers have also noted that there is an appreciable loss of potency upon propagation of adult MSCs in culture, which limits the scalability of their use in therapy.

The Journal writer reports that ACT’s researchers have taken advantage of a versatile precursor cell called the hemangioblast. The researchers claim that their pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that these hESC-MSCs have the capacity to respond to environmental cues, influence immune cell function, and reduce clinical symptoms in two different autoimmune disease models.

“This population of MSCs may have a therapeutic effect that could overcome many of the obstacles that currently plague the use of stem cells in regenerative medicine and may serve as a scalable alternative to current MSC sources, ” said Robert Lanza, MD, Chief Scientific Officer at ACT, and senior author of the study. “In addition to being easy to derive in large numbers, they appear to be more potent than adult MSCs and have a longer duration of action. If these cells prove to have a better therapeutic index than adult MSCs, they may provide for treatments of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions for which adult MSC treatment is currently not tenable.”

As reported in the study, the cells preserved kidney function and increased the lifespan of animals with lupus, a disease for which there is presently no cure. The Journal reported that most untreated animals died in the first few months, whereas all of the animals treated with two injections of the MSCs survived during the same time period. The company reports that its most advanced products are in clinical trials for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt’s macular degeneration.