Stem cells obtained from adult muscle can multiply as often as stem cells from embryos, indicating that adult-derived cells could be cultivated for treatment purposes.
The findings challenge the notion that embryonic stem cells can be grown in the lab for longer periods than adult stem cells and thus have more therapeutic potential, said lead investigator Johnny Huard, a muscle stem cell expert at Children’s Hospital.
“The embryonic stem cell is a very interesting topic of research, but the adult-derived stem cell is not so bad, either,” he said. “You can do a lot of things with them.”
For the study, published in next month’s issue of the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell, stem cells from newborn or young mice were collected and purified.
Co-investigator Bridget Deasy let them grow for 228 days without interference. The cell population doubled more than 300 times, producing an estimated googol, or 1 followed by 100 zeros, of cells.
