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Scientists
turn fat tissue into muscle cells |
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Copyright 2006 HT Media Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
Hindustan Times
July 25, 2006 Tuesday 2:03 PM EST
LENGTH: 417 words
HEADLINE: Scientists turn fat tissue into muscle cells
BYLINE: Report from the Asian News International brought to you by the Hindustan
Times
DATELINE: Washington
Washington, July 25 -- Researchers claim to have transformed adult stem cells
taken from human fat tissue, into smooth muscle cells, which help the normal
function of organs like the intestine, bladder and arteries.
The study may help researchers to engineer and repair smooth muscle cells, which
are found within the human body in the walls of hollow organs like blood vessels,
bladder, and intestines and contract and expand to help transport blood, urine,
and waste through the body's systems.
"Fat tissue may prove a reliable source of smooth muscle cells that we can
use to regenerate and repair damaged organs," said Dr. Larissa V. Rodriguez,
lead researcher and assistant professor, Department of Urology, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA.
Rodriguez and colleagues first cultured the adipose-derived stem cells in a nourishing
mixture of growth factors, human proteins that encouraged the cells to become
smooth muscle cells.
Dr. Benjamin Wu at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science who aided Rodriguez in the research, developed a special device
to evaluate the cells' ability to contract by tracking movement of microbeads
dispersed in a collagen gel embedded with the cells. Researchers added different
pharmacologic agents known to cause contraction or relaxation in smooth muscle.
"We found that the cells did indeed function just like smooth muscle. The
new device allowed us to evaluate drug-induced changes in the physical properties
of smooth muscle at the cell level - previously we've needed tissue samples to
observe this phenomena," said Wu.
To make sure they could reproduce the smooth muscle cells and to confirm the
transformation, Rodriguez and her team cloned one of the primitive stem cells
from the adipose tissue and repeated the experiments on a cloned population of
cells with similar results.
Rodriguez notes the many advantages of using a patient's own fat stem cells for
organ re-growth and tissue regeneration, including no need for anti-rejection
medications. In patients with a diseased or absent organ, who cannot use their
own organ tissue for regeneration, adipose stem cells offer an alternative.
The next step, she said, involves identifying and developing the growth factors
that will induce transformation of cells more quickly. She is also starting to
use smooth muscle cells for tissue engineering in the urinary tract, including
the urethra.
Published by HT Media Ltd. with permission from Asian News International.
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