Human stem cells. (credit: Nissim Benvenisty)
For years, stem cell-based therapies have promised myriad breakthroughs in healthcare—from cancer treatments and re-growing teeth to preventing brain damage and degeneration. While some therapies have met with much more success than others, they all face the same challenge of working with live cells. This work can be tricky. Getting some types of cells can pose ethical issues; a patient’s immune system can attack those cells once they're used; and stem cells can sometimes go haywire and generate tumors.
But for one promising stem cell therapy—one that thwarts brain damage—scientists may have found a way around the problems.
By extracting wee cellular bundles called microvesicles from stem cells, scientists can harness the same neuro-protective and healing properties seen with whole stem cell treatments. Microvesicles normally act like cell-to-cell mail, and they bud from one cell, bearing proteins and snippets of genetic material that tame the immune system and coordinate neighboring cells. In rats with irradiated brains, the bundles safeguarded brain structures, reduced inflammation, and preserved cognitive functions compared with rats that didn’t get the cellular cargo, researchers report.
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