Challenged mature stem cells

2002/03/14 Carton Virto, Eider - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Medikuntza

Any news about stem cells generates great turmoil, and today it will be no less. I have already read that adult stem cells do not serve medical applications. It is not that, of course, what has been published in the journal Nature, but as it is a subject that is at its peak, it hardly flees from sensationalism. Moreover, one of the arguments in favor of the prohibition of using embryonic stem cells is the validity of adult stem cells.

Today, the belief that adult stem cells have the ability to reprogram their DNA and convert it into stem cells equivalent to embryo stem cells has great strength, especially because in some studies it has been seen that blood stem cells are capable of becoming neurons or muscle cells. It is therefore considered that adult stem cells can be a way to treat degenerative diseases without resorting to embryos. However, many researchers are very skeptical and claim that the capacity of adult stem cells is much more limited, that is, that being adult they cannot become any cell.

Hybrid cells

The journal Nature presents the detailed and technical preliminary results. Researchers from the universities of Florida and Edinburgh, in order to demonstrate the ability to ‘rejuvenate’ adult stem cells, have added adult stem cells from the spinal cord and brain to embryo stem cells. And they have seen that adult stem cells merge with embryo stem cells, that is, although they seem to be “rejuvenated”, the results are hybrid cells. Hybrid cells act as embryo stem cells, separate into other cells, but also present a large anomaly: They have duplicate DNA, i.e. the DNA of adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.

Cell fusion is a rare phenomenon that has been observed by these researchers in very special conditions, but has generated great concern. In fact, hybrid cells would not be acceptable for medical use. Researchers in Edinburgh and Florida have stated that more attention must be paid to the phenomenon of fusion and, before talking about medical applications, mechanisms must be well understood; as important as knowing whether adult stem cells can become muscle or neuron is to be clear on how it occurs. Fused cells can be a source of disease.

More information: Nature magazine website