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Thursday, August 3, 2006
K-STATE RESEARCHERS PIONEERS IN
NON-CONTROVERSIAL STEM CELL RESEARCH
MANHATTAN -- What if there was a non-controversial, inexhaustible supply
of stem cells? What if the cells could be harvested and transplanted
into animals yielding promising results with a disease such as
Parkinson's?
The answer to each question is yes, there is such a supply. At Kansas
State University, three researchers took a stridently different approach
to stem cell research. Much controversy surrounds embryonic stem cell
research so the K-State team asked themselves: What if stem cells are
located in the umbilical cord? What if those cells could be harvested
after birth?
Then, it happened. Mark Weiss and Deryl Troyer, in the anatomy and
physiology department in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Duane
Davis in the department of animal science and industry in the College of
Agriculture, began to study the material inside the umbilical cord.
That's when they discovered that, indeed, stem cells exist within that
matrix and the cells are available in great number.
The researchers collect the matrix material following birth. For
centuries, these matrix stem cells – which aren't embryonic-type cells,
umbilical cord blood or adult stem cells – have literally been going to
waste because the umbilical cord along with the placenta or so-called
"afterbirth" is generally discarded.
Recent work at K-State indicates the umbilical cord blood and the matrix
material of the umbilical cord may be a precious and inexhaustible
resource of therapeutically valuable stem cells. For example, umbilical
cord blood transplants are clinically proven and are used to treat about
44 different diseases.
In preclinical work, the umbilical cord matrix stem cells were shown to
be therapeutic in a Parkinsonian rat model. After receiving the stem
cells, one rat's symptoms of the disease were reduced by 90 percent.
Further work is needed to translate this bench-top science into the
clinical trials. During the 2006 Legislative session, the Kansas
Legislature appropriated $150,000 to fund the researchers' work through
the Midwest Institute of Comparative Stem Cell Biology.
"We are grateful for the support we received and the state money will
extend our research," Weiss said. "For example, Dr. Troyer's preliminary
work indicates that umbilical cord matrix cells home in on cancerous
lung tumors and the cells can be engineered to release chemotherapeutic
agents," Weiss said. "We want to aggressively pursue this with dedicated
lab space and dedicated students who can move us forward in our
research. To conduct the necessary preclinical and clinical safety
testing, additional funding will be needed."
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