A team of scientists from the Stanford University School of Medicine has figured out a way to develop bones and muscles derived from human stem cells. The team has achieved this breakthrough by identifying the chemicals and biological signals required to make them.
According to the team, the signals identified by them accounts for the requirement for production of bones, heart muscles and at least 10 other types of cells. The researchers believe that they can create bones and muscles using the signals and human stem cells within just a few days time.
If the researchers are quickly able to coax the human embryonic stem cells to manufacture a variety of cells, such as blood vessels, bones and skeletal muscles, then it would mark a significant breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine. Human embryonic stem cells, also known as pluripotent stem cells, possess a special property that they can be literally developed in any type of stem cells.
The findings could enable researchers to repair the damaged cardiac tissues in patients who have suffered a heart attack. In addition, the same technique could be used to repair painful and inflamed joints or produce a bone to help people who have suffered a trauma or a severe injury.
According to the senior author of the study, Dr. Irving Weissman, it took researchers several years to isolate brain-forming and blood-forming stem cells. The researchers used their knowledge of developmental biology to identify the negative and positive signals that guide the development choice of the type of organ stem cells and tissues.
Careful guidance of the stem cells choices enables researchers to create bone cell precursors. These, in turn, successfully created bone in mice.
The complete details of the study have been published in the journal Cell.
