Expanding the donor pool

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Expanding the donor pool

Indian scientists develop mechanism to rejuvenate aged stem cells


In cases such as bone marrow transplantation,which involves the transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells, namely  stem
cells that give rise to other types of blood cells, a younger donor age results in a better outcome. A group of Indian scientists have now developed a mechanism that can rejuvenate stem cells from older donors, making them useful for transplantation.

 The mechanism development by researchers at the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, involves rejuvenating aged hematopoietic stem cells in a short­term culture using
micro­vesicles secreted by young stromal cells. This approach, they
hope, will expand donor cohort.

 The fnding has relevance in clinical bone­marrow transplantation, wherein  aged donors are usually not preferred as their stem cells could have compromised engraftment ability due to ageing. With
the new mechanism, it might be possible to rejuvenate aged stem cells and thereby expand the donor pool.

 “Stromal cells are support cells present in the micro­environment of stem cells. We have shown that these cells display activated
AkT signalling as they age. This leads to a loss of autophagy­inducing mRNAs in their micro­vesicles. If this signalling is blocked by using chemical inhibitors in aged stromal cells in culture, they become ‘younglike’ and secrete good quality micro­vesicles containing autophagy­inducing mRNA that can rejuvenate
aged stem cells,” explains Dr. Vaijayanti P. Kale, who
led the research team. The findings have been published in the scientific journal, Stem Cells.

Study using mice

For the study, researchers used 6­8 week (young) and 18­24 month (aged) old mice because age­associated changes in human hematopoietic stem cells are similar to those observed in
mice, suggesting that hematopoietic ageing is an evolutionarily­conserved process. Their bone marrow derived lineage­negative
cells were treated with extra­cellular vesicles, microvesicles or exosomes isolated from a conditioned medium of mesenchymal
stromal cells for 36 hours. The output cells were subjected to phenotypic, functional and molecular characterisations. They
observed that young mesenchymal stromal cells rejuvenate aged hematopoietic stem cells.

 “Our data indicates that such rejuvenation may also
be possible for othertissue specific stem cells. We propose to extend our research towards stem cells from other tissues,” says Dr. Kale. She also adds that this research has the potential to
improve the outcome of regenerative medicine therapies using this approach. —

India Science Wire 

 Source : the Hindu



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