Hi Everyone,
Don't forget Gabriella is presenting this Friday. I have copied her references below for you to review prior to her seminar.
Articles for seminar on Friday, January 30th
http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0002870314001689/1-s2.0-S0002870314001689-main.pdf?_tid=ec3ede1e-a326-11e4-802a-00000aacb361&acdnat=1422035009_55e6667f0658cc5f33d1cece70760c54
http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0735109713013971/1-s2.0-S0735109713013971-main.pdf?_tid=17c5e546-a327-11e4-9aad-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1422035082_d6f8ddeb62a7ff115a48234578beb390
Let's have another great round of comments on her presentation!
I thought it was a very informative seminar with great questions from the audiance.
ReplyDeleteGabriella’s Presentation showed how Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) harvested from bone marrow and cardiac stem cells found in the heart can be used to treat cardiac diseases. Specifically to restore damaged cardiac tissue from coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction using improved methods like the C-CURE Trial and the PRECISE Trial.
ReplyDeleteQuestion- How do you think this cutting edge research of using stem cells to regenerate tissue could improve treatment in your field of study?
Ex. For me, since I work with muscles, this could be used to treat skeletal muscle deficiencies. The heart is made up of Myosin heavy chain 1 beta and myosin heavy chain 1 alpha. If the stem cells could differenciate into other skeletal muscle tissue, skeletal muscle mass could be regenerated in affected areas.
Another example of how to answer the question- for Dr. Cooper's lab, how can MCS's be used to possibly treat fungal infections or viral infections for Dr. Fagan's lab...
ReplyDeleteI don't think stem cells have any direct effect on my research per se but I think that my research topic...recombineering...can be used in studying the genes in stem cells. For instance, recombineering can be used to generate BAC (bacterial artificial chromosomes) constructs which can be used in studying mouse, human, and other species genomes. BACs can be used to build targeting vectors for experiments in which you would want to target specific genes within stem cells. BACs, due to their large size, can also be used to generate transgenes which can be used to induce expression of more desirable genes within the stem cells.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good job Gabby! Your topic was very interesting especially the study using adipose tissue.
ReplyDeleteStem cells don't get much mention when it comes to ecology and evolutionary biology. However, there is the idea that stem cell therapy can be considered going against the natural evolution of the population. Say a 20 year old woman has degrading heart tissue and will probably die in a couple years without stem cell treatment. Nature could take its course, and she could die without passing on her genes. Or she could receive treatment and live long enough to have a baby and pass on her genes (heart problems and all). Thie new gene pool of the population is now different from what it would have naturally been. Also, this woman and her baby would use alloted resources for the population throughout the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeletePlease note that I am in no way against life-saving medical treatment or people with health issues having children.. just proposing an evolutionary thought.
I’m in the same boat. I can’t think of a way my field of study would marry the topic of stem cells well. That being said, looking at the idea of stem cell treatment in terms of conservation sounds deeply intriguing. For instance, imagine when this process becomes cheaper and better understood and the first panda or elephant undergoes regenerative tissue treatment. In terms of the conservation of some organisms, the lives of just a few can be very important to saving a population. Also, Gabriella did a great job presenting.
DeleteMy area of study is also skeletal muscle system/development, and agree with Dylan in that these stem cells can be used in a regenerative capacity in weakening muscles, such as in the elderly, myasthenia gravis patients, and even muscular dystrophy patients; or in cases of muscle death which can release toxins and be very dangerous to the body as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI also think the adipose derived MSC's could be valuable in a research application, since adipose is more easily obtained than bone marrow. For example, I could use MSC to establish a myogenic lineage and more closely monitor/elucidate mechanisms for factors involved in this development. Same type of studies can be carried out in other forms of development biology.
Also Gabby did a wonderful job bringing to light cutting edge techniques to us, students.
My area of interest is in how the success of a total hip replacement can be compromised by structural changes in bone tissue due to aging and other factors. A common issue with total hip replacements is the weakening of the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles. This is due to the incision made through these muscles to access the hip joint. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) could be used in the healing process to help preserve the normal function of these muscles that is typically lost post surgery.
ReplyDeleteI work in the field of histologic research so my field is already a part of all MSC studies. It's up to scientists like me to interpret the cell and structural damage before treatment and determine if the correct cells are regenerating and aligning themselves properly. I am currently working with epidermal tissue and its accessory hair structures on alpacas. Being that fleece is the commercial crop produced by the alpaca I can see where MSCs could be used to improve wound healing if a animal suffered a severe injury that removed a large area of the epidermis/dermis, which is common with predator attacks.Through the wound healing research presented by Ray and research preformed on mice showing that MSCs can be used to regenerate hair follicles that are similar to those in the surrounding tissue areas the fiber crop produced by the animals could be regenerated, maintaining the usefulness of the animal. Of course this research would also help to combat alopecia in humans and that is the driving force behind the current hair regeneration research.
ReplyDeleteWell done Gabby!
ReplyDeleteThis question is really quite simple for me since my research is using mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate tissue and improve wound healing. So not much of a stretch…
Instead I’ll go ahead and talk about their possible use from an immunological standpoint and some examples for how stem cells might be used to treat certain diseases.
In general stem cell therapeutics may be incredibly useful in order to establish healthy immune function. Bone marrow transplants have been utilized in efforts to institute healthy stem cell and leukocyte populations in people afflicted with diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. And as we talked about with Ray’s presentation, certain stem cells may possess quite powerful immunomodulatory properties which can be beneficial for treating autoimmune disease. This includes diseases like Crohn’s and type I diabetes. There has been significant interest in the use of hematopoietic stem cells to treat advanced lupus which is characterized by self-antigen recognition throughout different organs and large portions of the body. Lupus is incredibly difficult to treat since it is so unpredictable and immune-self interactions can seem almost completely random. The objective of the treatment is to kill off the auto-reactive immune cells and replace them with a new functioning immune system by isolating, expanding, and subsequently injecting the patient with hematopoietic stem cells.
Although, my area of research primarily focuses on the the Human Microbiome (The microbes that inhabit our bodies), I can still see a way in which stem cell therapies can be used in my field. Research suggest the the micorbiome plays a role in host immune funciton. Evidence suggests that a host microbiome is fairly stable over, but can me altereted by diet, antibiotics and age. Alterations of the these microbes can intern cause immunological problems for the host. For example, Crohn's has been shown to associated with host genotype as well as a change in microbial community structure of the gut. Perhaps the use of probiotics, which contain beneficial mircrobes that may assist in immune development, can be used simultaneoulsy with stem cells.
DeleteLike Zach, my project was also in wound healing and used BM-MSC therapeutically in a similar way to how they're used with Gabby's project; that is, to enhance the way the tissue heals and improve the overall healing outcome. Stem cell therapy is blowing up right now, and it seems like almost every day researchers are finding new applications for them.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Gabby
Response to Summary:
ReplyDeleteGabriella’s presentation highlighted a cutting-edge and unique area of both medical-based and scientific-based research. What made this presentation so interesting to me was that it is a method of directly treating heart damage rather than trying to manage or prevent its occurrence. Obviously this research focused on heart treatment, but the use of MSCs has significant potential in many types of damaged tissue treatment. The development of new technologies, such as the injection methods, was interesting as well since it combined technological and biomedical engineering practices with the actual scientific and medical research.
Response to Questions:
Stem cell treatments would be unlikely to aid in direct treatment of P. marneffei infections, but they could potentially be used to treat damaged tissues that are the result of a late-stage disseminated infection that would most likely occur in immunocompromised individuals. P. marneffei can develop pronounced lesions on an individual’s skin which, after treatment, could benefit from any type of enhanced healing.
Summary: Gabby’s presentation was a great portrayal of future medical treatments that could benefit both heart disease patients and individuals with other types of tissue damage/ailments. The development of specialized delivery needles, unique treatment equipment, and multiple methods of delivery of the MSCs highlighted how these treatments are on their way to becoming mainstream treatment methods. It will be interesting to see what other uses are found for these kinds of procedures.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: P. marneffei most likely could not be prevented with MSCs, but just like with any type of ailment that can cause tissue damage, the research that Gabby discussed could have potential uses for patients infected with this fungus. Looking at the poster outside Ward Beecher’s auditorium, it’s easy to see that a P. marneffei infection, if allowed to spread in a susceptible patient, can produce significant growths and lesions to both the face and body. Even after successful treatment of the infection, there would probably be significant skin damage that could potentially benefit from future MSC treatments.
In the PRECISE trial and in the future/ongoing ATHENA trial, researchers obtained stem cells from adipose tissue (fat). Since the main method to extract MSCs is through bone marrow this cutting edge research to extract MSCs from fat could change the way we obtain stem cells. It would be advantageous to use adipose (fat) derived MSCs not only on their ease of extraction but also due to the fact that 1 gram of fat contains approximately 5,000 stem cells while 1 gram of bone marrow only contains approximately 50 adult stems cells.
ReplyDeleteAlso if you are interested about the ATHENA trial using adipose (fat) derived MSCs here's a link to the trials website: http://www.theathenatrial.com
I am researching on a protein on HIV. Just like Sarah's and Josh's area of research MSCs might not have a direct curative effect on HIV but might be able to alleviate health related complications resulting from its infection. HIV-1 infection leads to disorders of other tissue types. Ironically, administration of long term anti-retroviral therapy has been associated with the emergence of specific toxicities of both bone and lipid tissues. Due to the pluripotency nature of MSCs they can differentiate into cells, amongst others, of osteoblast and adipocyte lineage. Thus they can play a vital role in repair and response to injury to both bone and lipid tissues in an HIV infected person.
ReplyDeleteAll of the comments above were excellent! I appreciate how you folks are working on this blog. Let's see if we can get anyone outside the class to respond. Talk up the blog. I've emailed all the faculty. Try chatting with your fellow grad students.
ReplyDelete