New research suggests that it may be possible to accelerate healing by using a combination of drugs that significantly increases the release of specific types of stem cells that help to regenerate damaged blood vessels, bone, and cartilage.
The release of stem cells is a normal part of the healing process, whereby different types of stem cells are released depending on what type of tissue has been damaged, however recovery can take a considerable amount of time and is not always totally successful. The theory behind this research was that by finding a method of boosting the amount of stem cells released, it may be possible to speed up and improve recovery. Scientists already know how to boost levels of blood producing stem cells from the bone marrow, however, it was not known if it was possible to enhance levels of endothelial stem cells, which help to regenerate blood vessels, and mesenchymal stem cells, which regenerate bone and cartilage.
Research by Dr Sara Rankin and colleagues at Imperial College London suggests that it is possible to increase the numbers of these types of stem cells by using a combination of factors. They treated mice with a growth factor combined with the drug Mozobil, results showed that the mice released as many as 100-times more endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells than untreated mice.
The researchers hope that clinical trials of the therapy will be possible within the next ten years, and conclude that their findings “can be exploited to provide efficacious stem cell therapy for tissue regeneration.”
Pitchford SC, Furze RC, Jones CP, Wenger AM, Rankin SM. Differential Mobilization of Subsets of Progenitor Cells from the Bone Marrow. Cell Stem Cell. 2009;4:62-72.doi:10.1016/j.stem.2008.10.017
