CELLS FROM SKIN

Canadian Scientists Find Versatile Adult Stem Cells From Skin

Toronoto, CA -- Canadian scientists may have found yet another alternative to embryonic stem cell research that can offer new treatment for neurological conditions. They have isolated stem cells on the skin of adult mice that can grow into brain cells according to a study published on Monday.

"The hope is that the adult stem cells will provide an alternative approach to using embryonic stem cells, but that still has to be proven," Karl Fernandes, one of the researchers, told Reuters.

The Canadian team found that stem cells isolated in the skin of adult mice can grow into brain cells, fat cells or muscle cells. The research, led by the Montreal Neurological Institute affiliated with McGill University, is seen giving scientists new avenues to pursue in continuing stem cell research.

"We believe our discovery is important as we have identified an exciting new stem cell from a noncontroversial source that holds considerable promise for scientific and therapeutic use," said Freda Miller, the lead researcher.

The team has started preliminary experiments with human skin to see if transplants of cells would eventually be possible, said Fernandes.

"We can isolate a population of cells from human skin, which at first glance appear to be similar to the ones we get from rodents," said Fernandes. He said the team has started "promising" transplants of skin-type cells on rodents, focusing mostly on brain functions.

The study, published in the scientific journal "Nature Cell Biology," said patients might be able to use stem cells from their own skin to repair dysfunctions elsewhere in the body, avoiding the complications of organ rejection linked to donor transplants.

The study shows that highly versatile adult stem cells may be easy to access. "You could potentially take a small biopsy of skin and harvest the patient's own stem cells, expand them (in a process that allows them to proliferate in a laboratory dish) and then use them to treat that patient," scientist Freda Miller said.

Unlike many other adult stem cells that have been studied, the ones Miller worked with proliferated impressively in the laboratory. Being able to generate large numbers of stem cells would be vital to allow for any future transplantation of them into damaged tissue with the aim of regeneration. In Miller's study, the only broad grouping of cells that the mouse skin stem cells did not become was cells from organs such as the liver. "And we're working very hard now to ask if they can become those things as well," she said.