limb regeneration

Stories that caught our eye: FDA grants orphan drug status to CIRM-funded therapy; stunning discovery upends ideas of cell formation; and how tadpoles grow new tails

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

Gut busting discovery

Intestinal stem cells: Photo courtesy Klaus Kaestner, Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine

It’s not often you read the word “sensational” in a news release about stem cells. But this week researchers at the University of Copenhagen released findings that are overturning long-held ideas about the development of cells in our stomachs. So perhaps calling it “sensational” is not too big a stretch.

In the past it was believed that the development of immature cells in our stomachs, before a baby is born, was predetermined, that the cells had some kind of innate sense of what they were going to become and when. Turns out that’s not the case. The researchers say it’s the cells’ environment that determines what they will become and that all cells in the fetus’ gut have the potential to turn into stem cells.

In the “sensational” news release lead author, Kim Jensen, says this finding could help in the development of new therapies.

“We used to believe that a cell’s potential for becoming a stem cell was predetermined, but our new results show that all immature cells have the same probability for becoming stem cells in the fully developed organ. In principle, it is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Here signals from the cells’ surroundings determine their fate. If we are able to identify the signals that are necessary for the immature cell to develop into a stem cell, it will be easier for us to manipulate cells in the wanted direction’.

The study is published in the journal Nature.                             

A tale of a tail

African clawed frog tadpole: Photo courtesy Gary Nafis

It’s long been known that some lizards and other mammals can regrow severed limbs, but it hasn’t been clear how. Now scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK have figured out what’s going on.

Using single-cell genomics the scientists were able to track which genes are turned on and off at particular times, allowing them to watch what happens inside the tail of the African clawed frog tadpole as it regenerates the damaged limb.

They found that the response was orchestrated by a group of skin cells they called Regeneration-Organizing Cells, or ROCs. Can Aztekin, one of the lead authors of the study in the journal Science, says seeing how ROCs work could lead to new ideas on how to stimulate similar regeneration in other mammals.

“It’s an astonishing process to watch unfold. After tail amputation, ROCs migrate from the body to the wound and secrete a cocktail of growth factors that coordinate the response of tissue precursor cells. These cells then work together to regenerate a tail of the right size, pattern and cell composition.”

Orphan Drug Designation for CIRM-funded therapy

Poseida Therapeutics got some good news recently about their CIRM-funded therapy for multiple myeloma. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted them orphan drug designation.

Orphan drug designation is given to therapies targeting rare diseases or disorders that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. It means the company may be eligible for grant funding toward clinical trial costs, tax advantages, FDA user-fee benefits and seven years of market exclusivity in the United States following marketing approval by the FDA.

CIRM’s President and CEO, Dr. Maria Millan, says the company is using a gene-modified cell therapy approach to help people who are not responding to traditional approaches.

“Poseida’s technology is seeking to destroy these cancerous myeloma cells with an immunotherapy approach that uses the patient’s own engineered immune system T cells to seek and destroy the myeloma cells.”

Poseida’s CEO, Eric Ostertag, said the designation is an important milestone for the company therapy which “has demonstrated outstanding potency, with strikingly low rates of toxicity in our phase 1 clinical trial. In fact, the FDA has approved fully outpatient dosing in our Phase 2 trial starting in the second quarter of 2019.”

New findings about muscle stem cells reveals the potential for growing replacement organs

/ Pallavi Penumetcha / Leave a comment

Chrissa Kioussi’s group at Oregon State University has made exciting advances in further unraveling the scientific mysteries of stem cells. In work detailed in Scientific Reports, this group found that muscle-specific stem cells actually have the ability to make multiple different cell types.

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Pumping up our knowledge about muscle stem cells

Initially, this group was interested in understanding how gene expression changes during embryonic development of skeletal muscle. To understand this process, they labeled muscle stem cells with a kind of fluorescent dye, called GFP, which allowed them to isolate these cells at different stages of development.  Once isolated, they determined what genes were being expressed by RNA sequencing. Surprisingly, they found that in addition to genes involved in muscle formation, they also identified activation of genes involved in the blood, nervous, immune and skeletal systems.

This work is particularly exciting, because it suggests the existence of stem cell “pockets,” or stem cells that are capable of not only making a specific cell type, but an entire organ system.

In a press release, Dr. Kioussi said:

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Chrissa Kioussi, PhD

“That cell populations can give rise to so many different cell types, we can use it at the development stage and allow it to become something else over time… We can identify these cells and be able to generate not one but four different organs from them — this is a prelude to making body parts in a lab.” 

This study is particularly exciting because it gives more credence to the idea that entire limbs can be reconstructed from a small group of stem cells. Such advances could have enormous meaning for individuals who have lost body parts due to amputation or disease.

How a funny-looking creature could unlock the secrets of limb regeneration

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments

The axolotl, also known as the Mexican salamander

In the world of funny-looking creatures, the Axolotl would have to rank in the top ten alongside such notables as the naked mole rat and the blob fish (the official mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society). But the Axolotl does have one attribute that makes it attractive to more than just another Axolotl. That’s because this Mexican salamander has the ability to regenerate entire limbs.

Now, even as you read this, many stem cell researchers are hard at work trying to figure out ways to regenerate damaged or diseased tissues and organs in humans. That’s why the Axolotl is so intriguing. If we can understand how they are able to repair their own damaged limbs, maybe we can use that knowledge to help people repair or even replace a lost finger, hand or arm.

It’s a fascinating idea and one that is explored in this video from STAT, an online publication produced by the Boston Globe, that explores science and health.

It’s only four minutes long and is definitely worth watching. It shows that there is beauty in even the strangest creatures, if only you know what to look for.