Stem cells will cure osteoporosis
Canadian researchers from the University of Toronto and the Ottawa Clinic, working under the guidance of Professor William Stanford, claim that one systemic injection of stem cells is enough to restore bone tissue in age-related osteoporosis to a normal structure.
Osteoporosis affects 200 million people worldwide every year. Unlike post-menopausal osteoporosis type I, the age-related form of this chronic disease (type II) is equally common in both women and men. With age-related osteoporosis, the internal structure of bones is destroyed, which leads to their thinning, a decrease in bone density and loss of its ability to perform its functions. Every year, this disease leads to 8.8 million fractures worldwide. Hip neck fracture – one of the most common fractures in age–related osteoporosis – leads to a significant loss of mobility, and in some cases - to the death of patients.
In an earlier paper, Professor Stanford demonstrated the existence of a causal relationship between the development of age-related osteoporosis in mice and a decrease in the number or functionality of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in animals. Based on this, the researchers suggested that transplantation of healthy mesenchymal stem cells can prevent the development of osteoporosis or cure it.
To test their theory, they gave mice with simulated age-related osteoporosis systemic injections of mesenchymal stem cells from healthy animals. In addition to the ability to differentiate into different types of cells, including bone cells, mesenchymal stem cells have a unique ability that makes them an ideal candidate for use in cell therapy. They do not cause an immune response and even suppress it to a certain extent, which makes it possible to transplant donor cells without their selection by histocompatibility antigens.
Six months after the introduction of cells, which corresponds to about a quarter of the lifespan of mice, healthy functional bones surprisingly turned out to be in place of osteoporosis-affected animal bones. The authors note that they expected a general improvement in the condition of bone tissue, and the complete restoration of the internal "coral-like" structure of bone tissue turned out to be an unexpected pleasant surprise for them.
The results obtained by the researchers may soon make a revolution in the treatment of osteoporosis, and, perhaps, will allow postponing the development of this disease for an indefinite period. Currently, they, together with colleagues from the USA, are conducting additional clinical studies in which mesenchymal stem cells are injected into elderly people, after which they look at the reaction from various organs and tissues. The authors plan to analyze the blood samples of the participants in these studies for the content of biological markers of growth and bone resorption. When registering signs of improvement in the condition of bone tissue, larger clinical studies devoted to a more detailed study of this issue will be conducted over the next 5 years.
Article by Jeffrey Kiernan et al. Systematic Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Transplantation Prevents Functional Bone Loss in a Mouse Model of Age-Related Osteoporosis published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of Toronto: Stem cell therapy reverses age-related osteoporosis in mice.
18.03.2016