New source studied to `grow' blood vessels
Engineers look to hair-follicle stem cells as way to regenerate tissue
By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new blood
vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look no further than
the hair on their patients' heads, according to new research
published earlier this month by UB engineers.
This smooth muscle progenitor cell derived from a hair folicle
expresses calponin (in read), a marker for smooth muscle cells. The
cell nucleus is shown in blue. The image is magnified 600 times.
"Engineering blood vessels for bypass surgery, promoting the
formation of new blood vessels or regenerating new skin tissue using
stem cells obtained from the most accessible source—hair follicles—is
a real possibility,
paper in Cardiovascular Research and associate professor in the
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Researchers from other institutions previously had shown that hair
follicles contain stem cells.
In the current paper, the UB researchers demonstrate that stem cells
isolated from sheep hair follicles contain the smooth muscle cells
that grow new vasculature. The group recently produced data showing
that stem cells from human hair follicles also differentiate into
contractile smooth muscle cells.
"We have demonstrated that engineered blood vessels prepared with
smooth muscle progenitor cells from hair follicles are capable of
dilating and constricting, critical properties that make them ideal
for engineering cardiovascular-
In addition to growing new skin for burn victims, cells from hair
follicles potentially could be used to engineer vascular grafts and
possibly regenerate cardiac tissues for patients with heart problems.
Since smooth muscle cells comprise the muscle of numerous tissues and
organs, including the bladder, abdominal cavity and gastrointestinal
and respiratory tracts, this new, accessible source of cells may make
possible future treatments that allow for the regeneration of these
damaged organs as well.
Andreadis and his colleagues previously engineered functional and
implantable blood vessels with smooth muscle and endothelial cells
originating from bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
A key advantage of mesenchymal cells is that they typically do not
trigger an immune reaction when transplanted, he said.
"Preliminary experiments in our laboratory suggest an exciting
possibility—that stem cells from hair follicles may be similar to
bone-marrow mesenchymal cells," Andreadis said.
"The best-case scenario is that from this one very accessible and
highly proliferative source of stem cells, we will be able to obtain
multiple different cell types that can be used for a broad range of
applications in regenerative medicine," he said.
Co-authors on the paper are Jin Yu Liu, research assistant professor,
and Hao Fan Peng, a doctoral candidate, both in the Department of
Chemical and Biological Engineering.
The work was funded by the John R. Oishei Foundation. Previous work
by Andreadis has been funded by UB's Integrative Research and
Creative Activities Fund in the Office of the Vice President for
Research.
http://www.buffalo.
olicle.html
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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