Scientists have found that certain self-renewing stem cells have built-in tracers — made out of sugars — that can do the job without added chemical ‘labels’ when injected into mouse brains. The finding, made with stem cells widely engineered into experimental therapies for multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, was a welcome surprise, the investigators say.
«There is an entire scientific field dedicated to chemical and genetic cell labeling, because otherwise, we can’t see where specially and expensively engineered therapeutic cells travel and whether they get to the intended spot in a body to repair or replace diseased tissue,» says Jeff Bulte, Ph.D., professor of radiology and radiological science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of cell imaging for the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.
If confirmed with subsequent experiments, the new study should, Bulte says, streamline and advance restorative research for diseases of the brain, an organ considered the most difficult in which to track therapies because of the sensitive nature of the brain and its blood-brain barrier.
In Bulte’s experience, he says, labeling therapeutic cells that are ready for human clinical trials in any organ is a costly and difficult process, requiring extensive safety studies and keeping teams of scientists focused on finding better ways to track therapeutic cells damaged by multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.
For such research, scientists have long been using so-called mesenchymal stromal cells, a type of stem cell found in the bone marrow that can develop into many types of cells, and also reduce inflammation.
In the new proof-of principle study described Feb. 7 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Bulte and his research team found that these mesenchymal stromal cells contain high levels of a sugar called mannose, which is similar to glucose and can be spotted easily and successfully with a standard imaging method based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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Materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.