hematopoietic stem cells (hscs) are capable of renewing themselves, and transforming into various other types of mature blood cells, making them a prime candidate for disease treatment research. however, not much is known about the process of transplanting hscs into another person.
but researchers at massachusetts general hospital and boston university school of medicine have found some genes expressed by hscs that can survive the process, which means better odds of treatment for patients.
the research was published in the journal
nature communications
this week.
in adults, hscs are usually found in the bone marrow or the bloodstream. before birth, however, they’re found even more often in the liver, where they can multiply and transform into different types of cells.
this process can be seen to an even greater degree in the fetal liver of animals.
the hope with this research is that scientists will be able to expand the cells outside of the body, or to transform other types of stem cells into the right type of cell that could potentially aid the bloodstream.
scientists examined the gene patterns that are unique to these stem cells and combined their information with a number of experiments to fully understand the protein expression. the scientists were looking to determine why these bone marrow cells were so much better at adapting when in the liver, if they’re not found there in grown adults.
“this in-depth analysis revealed that these stem cells express a protein on their surface called cd201 that correlates very closely with this engraftment potential and can be used to isolate functional stem cells away from other cell types,” alejandro b. balazs, co-senior author of the study said in a
statement
. “this will help us improve the process of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation by allowing us to purify these cells.”
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