Pig-induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies More Dependable Than Rodent-based Models

Stem cell research conducted with pig cells may perhaps be an improved way to settle on the safety of future stem cell therapies than over using mice in stem cell research.

Rodent studies are likely inadequate for testing many human therapies-including pharmaceuticals-since 50 percent of all chemicals test positive as carcinogens in rodents regardless of their source or identity, according to Thomas Hartung, a professor in the Bloomsburg College of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Bone Marrow Transplantation - Types - Procedure - Indications - Complications
Preferred Term is Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In this stem cell from bone marrow are injected into a recipient after treating them with growth factor.

UGA faculty Steve Stice and Franklin West introduced 13 pigs that have shown promise in unlocking the path to new therapies. The pigs recently produced another positive finding: These adult-cell-sourced stem cells don't form tumors in pigs.

"Pluripotent stem cells have significant potential for stem cell therapies," said West, an animal science researcher and assistant professor in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

"However, tests in mice often resulted in tumor formation that frequently led to death," he said.

Epigenetics
In the recent years ‘epigenetics’ represents inheritable changes in gene expression that do not include DNA alterations.

The formation of tumors has raised concerns about the safety of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, and cells derived from these stem cells. Until now, all iPSC safety studies have been performed in rodent models.

"Being able to safely use iPSCs without the potential of causing tumors is essential for this promising stem cell therapy to become a viable treatment option," said Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Brain Development in Mice Affected by Nanotech Particles
The expression of genes related to the central nervous system in developing mice is affected by maternal exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (TiO2).

"We now have graduate students working on making neural cells from the human and pig stem cells to help further the studies," he said.

"The human stem cells were effective in a rodent model for stroke, but rodent studies are not rigorous enough to start human clinical trials," he added.

Neuroscientists Use Genetics and New Memory-Enhancing Drug to Boost Memory
Mice learn and remember better when the activity of a molecule, usually elevated during viral infections is inhibited in the brain, report researchers in the journal Cell.

Additionally, Stice and West have now bred the pigs produced from iPSCs and have proven the stem cells did pass to the offspring.

This finding opens the door for better animal-sourced tissue for human regenerative medicine such as islet cells that produce insulin for diabetic patients.

Their research results were published in the October issue of Stem Cells.

Source-ANI