Stem Cells From Fat

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/3874702.html

By: Steve Nicoles, Reporter
KCRG.com...Cedar Rapids, IA

CORALVILLE - The controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells is not going away, but a group of doctors in Coralville has side-stepped the debate while still moving forward with stem cell research.

A new source for stem cells has doctors thinking big. If you thought liposuction was just for Hollywood, think again. It is as popular as ever right here in Iowa.

But what happens to the pounds and pounds of fat sucked out of stomachs? The fat is generally discarded and thrown away in the trash can, but a local company wants the fat. All of it.

Dr. Alan Moy is the president and CEO of Cellular Engineering Technologies, or CET. He said, “So we ask them to save that and donate it to science."

CET is taking your fat and harvesting its stem cells. The process includes melting the fat until it separates. Moy said, “Isolated specific stem cells from that discarded fat."

Those stem cells are more generic than cells from bone marrow. So doctors believe they can use the cells to treat almost anything and anyone. Right now their focus is Parkinson's disease. Moy said, “The outcome of this research is definitely geared toward treatment."

Moy says fat is readily available. His company has liters of the lipo lard. And adults get liposuction, so he says the morality issue surrounding embryonic stem cells is moot. So with more research, America's fat, which is commonly considered bad, could end up saving countless lives.

Moy hopes to have companies testing his theories in another year or two.

Story Created: Sep 8, 2006 at 5:38 PM CST
Story Updated: Sep 11, 2006 at 7:46 AM CST

This is one of those things that makes be ask myself: should I laugh or cry? Actually it sounds quite gross that they would have large quantities of human body fat stored and that it has (possibly) the potential to give old brains new life. The question that came to my mind was: would that mean that we could have a bit of our own Body fat Lipoed (is that a word) and we wouldn't have to deal with rejection issues associated with transferrring something of one person's tissue to another. Or is that just a issue with organs? Sounds strange , but what the heck. If it works who am I to question it!

its nice to know i have copious quanities of a substance that will eventually help me......

I wouldn't mind "banking" some of mine, for a "just in case" in the future of course. If they're willing to take it out, I'm ok with that.

I read about this a couple of years ago. Here's an old article about it (I searched for adipose and "stem cells" in scholar.google):

Vol. 13, Issue 12, 4279-4295, December 2002

Human Adipose Tissue Is a Source of Multipotent Stem Cells

Patricia A. Zuk,*dagger Min Zhu,* Peter Ashjian,* Daniel A. De Ugarte,* Jerry I. Huang,* Hiroshi Mizuno,* Zeni C. Alfonso,Dagger John K. Fraser,Dagger Prosper Benhaim,* and Marc H. Hedrick*

*Departments of Surgery and Orthopedics, Regenerative Bioengineering and Repair Laboratory, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095; and Dagger Department of Medicine and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095

Much of the work conducted on adult stem cells has focused on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found within the bone marrow stroma. Adipose tissue, like bone marrow, is derived from the embryonic mesenchyme and contains a stroma that is easily isolated. Preliminary studies have recently identified a putative stem cell population within the adipose stromal compartment.

This cell population, termed processed lipoaspirate (PLA) cells, can be isolated from human lipoaspirates and, like MSCs, differentiate toward the osteogenic, adipogenic, myogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. To confirm whether adipose tissue contains stem cells, the PLA population and multiple clonal isolates were analyzed using several molecular and biochemical approaches. PLA cells expressed multiple CD marker antigens similar to those observed on MSCs.

Mesodermal lineage induction of PLA cells and clones resulted in the expression of multiple lineage-specific genes and proteins. Furthermore, biochemical analysis also confirmed lineage-specific activity.


In addition to mesodermal capacity, PLA cells and clones differentiated into putative neurogenic cells, exhibiting a neuronal-like morphology and expressing several proteins consistent with the neuronal phenotype. Finally, PLA cells exhibited unique characteristics distinct from those seen in MSCs, including differences in CD marker profile and gene expression.

Mesoderm: One of the three primary germ cell layers -- the other two are the ectoderm and endoderm -- in the very early embryo. The mesoderm is the middle layer. It differentiates to gives rise to a number of tissues and structures including bone, muscle, connective tissue, and the middle layer of the skin. Some cells in mesodermal tissues retain the capacity to differentiate in diverse directions. For example, some cells in the bone marrow (mesoderm) can become liver (endoderm).

MU Researchers Grow Neural, Blood Vessel Cells from ADULT Stem Cells
munews ^ | 09.18.06 | Christian Basi

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Scientists have predicted that embryonic stem cells might lead to cures for various diseases and conditions such as heart disease, Parkinson's or spinal cord injuries. Now, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has isolated adult stem cells from blood that can be directed to turn into five types of cells, including bone, blood vessel and nerve cells. The study is the cover article in the August edition of Stem Cells and Development.

"Embryonic stem (ES) cells are able to give rise to the remarkable diversity of cell types that constitute a whole organism such as a human," said Elmer Price, a scientist at the MU Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center and associate professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

"However, this 'pluripotency,' or the ability of the cells to become anything, can also be a curse because ES cells can be misled by biochemical signals when they are transplanted into an adult during cell transplantation experiments.

This often leads to the generation of unwanted cell types and, on occasion, tumor formation. Because of this, ES cell transplantation can raise serious safety issues.

In this study, we developed adult stem cells from the blood of an mature animal that were able to be directed into specific cell types such as neurons and blood vessel cells, but they were not as pluripotent as ES cells. We have not observed any evidence of tumor formation."

Price extracted the adult stem cells from pigs' blood. These particular pig cells are unique because the pigs also contained a gene that makes their cells fluorescent.

This allowed Price to track the cells as they developed into nerve or blood vessel cells or upon transplantation. The fluorescent pigs were created by MU animal scientist Randy Prather, who along with MU researcher Mike Foley, is a co-author of this paper.

In the study, Price was able to develop and sustain adult stem cell lines and then induce them to turn into specific cell types by exposing them to different chemical signals, depending on which type of cell he wanted to develop.

For successful adult stem cell transplantation therapy, different diseases will require different cell types.

Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are difficult to grow as pure cell populations and can develop into tumor-type tissue, Price's adult stem cells efficiently developed into specific cell types with no abnormal tissue.

"In theory, embryonic stem cells have the ability to become almost any cell type or organ," Price said. "Very complex chemical signals need to be in place with embryonic stem cells in order for them to develop into the appropriate type of cell.

However, we have shown that if you can isolate adult stem cells, you can make them generate the appropriate type of cell with much more ease and specificity.

One day, we may be able to isolate similar adult stem cells from a patient, manipulate the cells in a petri dish, and then re-introduce them back into that same patient as a therapy."

The next step is to determine if enough cells can be produced with Price's method, as well as whether similar cells can be isolated from humans. So far, he has been able to grow cells for more than a year, creating large numbers of nerve and blood vessel cell precursors. However, since human treatment is the ultimate goal, large numbers of the correct type of cells will need to be produced.

"We think that these blood-derived adult stem cells are normally used by the body for regeneration and repair, and we have been able to isolate these cells, grow them in a lab, and direct them toward a specific cell type for eventual therapeutic use," Price said.

"In humans, aging, chronic disease, and a lack of exercise may result in a lowered production of these cells, so it's important to lead a healthy lifestyle to maintain the body's own circulating population of stem cells."

that we have short term hope again, or is this another "fat chance"
It would be great if it works, i've been praying that SOMEBODY will just discover some cell procedure that just plain works, and shuts up the fetal stem cell nay sayers so they can go back to bashing whatever it was that they last bashed before they got hold of the stem cell issue cs