There will be Blood

Scientists have coaxed adult human skin into producing blood, a breakthrough that could offer an alternative source of the vital fluid to cancer patients or those undergoing surgery .

What's more, the procedure is simple -there is no need to first convert the skin cells to "pluripotent" stem cells (which actually deliver the different types of cells), a step that is essential to other such processes. The work, by researchers at McMaster University in Canada, was reported in the online version of Nature yesterday. Stem cells are the building blocks of every organ and tissue in the body. They can be turned into any type of cell -bone, muscle or blood -through a process called cellular differentiation. The scientists -led by Mickie Bhatia, director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and main author of the study -found that a protein called OCT4 can reprogramme skin stem cells obtained from a patch of human skin into blood without resorting to any intermediary steps.

They further refined the process by adding several other growth factors, which improve the efficiency. Normally, blood is produced in the bone marrow. For scientific and therapeutic applications, in recent times, blood cells have also been harvested from preserved umbilical cords and placentas. This has given rise to a whole new industry that works towards preserving cord blood for future use. While stem cells are full of promise -theoretically, they have the potential to replace diseased and damaged tissue -there are several ethical issues involved in their use, the foremost being the way they have to be procured. The most efficient stem cells are embryonic stem cells which, as the name suggests, are derived from human embryos. Apart from ethical issues, there are biological concerns that the cells might be rejected when transplanted into an adult and also that their source is limited.

In 2006, scientists found a way out -they discovered that skin stem cells could be induced to be pluripotent, and thus converted to any type of human cell. Most of these advances, however, are still in the laboratory stage and are yet to be proven clinically. But scientists are concerned about an emerging wave of stem cell tourism in many countries, including India. They fear it may lead to exploitation of hapless patients. This is not the first time that Bhatia's group has created blood cells in the lab. Last year, his team tweaked stem cells to make blood cells. But the latest finding is more significant as it does not involve stem cells and hence could sidestep many ethical and biological issues. Besides, it is more efficient and easy to perform. "It is for the first time that this has been shown in an organism. It has potential applications in cell transplantation / transfusion medicine," Bhatia told KnowHow. Also, direct differentiation makes it more efficient, he adds.
B hatia hopes that clini cal trials will begin in 2012. Being able to make larger quantities of blood cells at a higher efficiency will be a boon for a variety of patients. These include patients with blood disorders like anaemia or leukaemia, as well as those undergoing cancer therapy where the treatment itself destroys the blood system. "An alternative would allow them to continue chemotherapy which would give them greater chances of eradicating the tumour," says the scientist.

Scientists have hit upon a way of converting human skin stem cells into blood.
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Blood cells created thus belong to the myeloid cell type, one of the four broad groups of blood cells. These white blood cells are capable of destroying invading bacteria. Other prominent blood types are lymphoid -which make antibodies, erythrocytes or red blood cells, and megakaryocytes that form platelets. "The work is significant. But there is a long way to go as it doesn't make all types of blood cells," says Maneesha Inamdar, a stem cell researcher at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. For Bhatia, however, this is only a start. "We can now look at developing other types of human cell types from skin cells, as we already have encouraging evidence." The discovery was replicated several times over two years using skin from both young and old people.

"The finding is gratifying personally as well as professionally. In my 30 years as a practicing blood specialist, my colleagues and I have been pleased to help cancer patients whose lives were saved by bone marrow transplants. But the illness became more and more frustrating when we could not find a perfect donor match in a patient's family or community. This discovery could help us help this important group of patients," says John Kelton, a haematologist at McMaster. Kelton is not associated with the research. Here's hoping we will all be saved by the skin.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/