Researchers in the Harvard Medical School have found that the stem cells drawn from the blood system of adult humans or the umbilical cord blood of newborns, injected into mice, formed viable vessels that may one day deliver oxygen-rich blood to damaged organs. After one week, the cells spontaneously connected to one another and to the existing blood vessels of the rodents to form extensive networks that continued to transport blood over the next three weeks.

The process can be proved to be a better and effective treatment option for the blood-starved regions of organs that have been damaged by heart attacks or other conditions that impair circulation. However like the earlier studies on the similar subjects, the researchers here didn’t perform any genetic manipulation. The associate professor of the Harvard and Children’s Hospital Boston said,

“It’s kind of a self-assembly process; they do the job on their own. We mix them together and they talk to each other and give directions on how to form a blood vessel.”

As part of the study, the team drew samples from blood and bone marrow, isolated the stem cells within each, then mixed them with a gel material that is liquid when cold and solidifies at body temperature. The gel, after firming, formed scaffolds the cells could grow on. The materials were combined into a single suspension and injected into mice.

Before the method can be tested in humans, researchers will need to show that the cells they’ve isolated and expanded are pure and uncontaminated by other cell types. The technique will need to be proven safe in many more animals and the process will need to be done in a completely sterile environment that’s certified by regulators.

Source: Bloomberg.com