Researchers from Technion and Rambam Create Blood Vessels from Newly Programmed Embryonic Stem Cells
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
January 13, 2011
Rambam and Technion Researchers Create Blood Vessels from Newly Programmed Embryonic Stem Cells
The Technion and it’s Medicine faculty together with the Rambam Hospital made a big breakthrough research that will have big impact in our daily life.
The Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology at Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, produced ‘pericytes’ that are the cells that play a crucial role in blood vessel building and function. The scientists created these cells during the differentiation stage of the embryonic stem cells using characteristic markers found on the cell membranes.
This research was directed by by Prof Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, head of Rambam’s Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, and the Stem Cell Laboratory of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, along with Dr Ayelet Dar-Vaknin.
When injected into the leg muscles of mice whose blood vessels had been almost completely blocked, the pericytes created new blood vessels and rehabilitated muscle cells that had been damaged from inadequate oxygen supply. This experiment simulates the treatment of muscles or membranes damaged as a result of disturbances to the blood supply, a phenomenon linked with widespread illnesses such as cardiac and vascular disease, and diabetes.
The pericytes were produced from embryonic stem cells that originate in fertilized eggs donated for research and from induced stem cells, cells taken from adults and reprogrammed through genetic manipulations to possess embryonic properties. Induced stem cells, like embryonic ones, can differentiate into all cells or membranes in the human body. As the cells are produced from the patient himself, transplanted pericytes from induced cells can heal harmed membranes without being rejected by the patient’s body.
The research was published in the prestigious journal, Circulation, of the American Heart Association, and was discussed in detail in the same journal. This research is significant in both understanding processes of blood vessel development and in treatment of diseases that hinder the blood supply to the heart, limbs and other body parts.
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