A little more than a decade ago, researchers discovered that all cells secrete tiny communications modules jammed with an entire work crew of messages for other cells. Today, a team of researchers, led by stem cell researcher Raj Kishore, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM), is harnessing the communications vesicles excreted by stem cells and using them to induce the damaged heart to repair itself.
"If your goal is to protect the heart, this is a pretty important finding," Dr. Kishore said. "You can robustly increase the heart's ability to repair itself without using the stem cells themselves. Our work shows a unique way to regenerate the heart using secreted vesicles from embryonic stem cells." The group is also beginning to determine which members of the “work crew” within the vesicles may be responsible for the damage repair.
The heart, for all its metronomic dependability, has little ability for self-repair. When heart muscle is damaged in a heart attack, the organ cannot replace the dead tissue and grow new. Instead, it must compensate for its lost pumping ability. That compensation comes with a high price: the heart grows large and flabby, and heart contraction weakens. Congestive heart failure ultimately contributes to, or causes one in nine deaths in the United States, and heart disease is the nation's leading killer.
Circulation Research - Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes Promote Endogenous Repair Mechanisms and Enhance Cardiac Function Following Myocardial Infarction
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"If your goal is to protect the heart, this is a pretty important finding," Dr. Kishore said. "You can robustly increase the heart's ability to repair itself without using the stem cells themselves. Our work shows a unique way to regenerate the heart using secreted vesicles from embryonic stem cells." The group is also beginning to determine which members of the “work crew” within the vesicles may be responsible for the damage repair.
The heart, for all its metronomic dependability, has little ability for self-repair. When heart muscle is damaged in a heart attack, the organ cannot replace the dead tissue and grow new. Instead, it must compensate for its lost pumping ability. That compensation comes with a high price: the heart grows large and flabby, and heart contraction weakens. Congestive heart failure ultimately contributes to, or causes one in nine deaths in the United States, and heart disease is the nation's leading killer.
Circulation Research - Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes Promote Endogenous Repair Mechanisms and Enhance Cardiac Function Following Myocardial Infarction
Read more »
