The fact of risk
Stem cells can stimulate tumor growth
Denis Gritsenko, Izvestia
The Kurchatov Institute has completed a series of experiments, the results of which showed that mesenchymal stem cells used in medicine can accelerate the growth of malignant tumors. Therefore, therapy with their use can be dangerous for patients with oncological diseases. In addition, it turned out that the own mesenchymal cells contained in adipose tissue also contribute to the growth of neoplasms, so obesity can be considered an additional risk factor not only for cardiovascular diseases, but also for cancer.
Dangerous treatment
Specialists of the Kurchatov Institute conducted a series of experiments aimed at finding out how connective tissue stem cells interact with tumor cells in the body. It turned out that during histological examination, in addition to tumor cells, mesenchymal stem cells are found in malignant formations.
Malignant tissue growths cause their migration from adipose tissue and bone marrow. These cells settle and secrete various growth factors that stimulate the proliferation of tumor cells. Due to this, it increases in size faster. At the same time, MSCs from adipose tissue produce significantly more of these stimulating factors and contribute more to the growth of neoplasms than those isolated from bone marrow.
These cells are a powerful stimulator of regeneration, which is used by the body to eliminate damage. Doctors use mesenchymal cells for the treatment of various diseases. Today, there are technologies that make it easy to produce MSCs from adipose tissue without a long procedure for their cultivation.
Due to their unique properties, they can find a variety of medical uses. Already now they are used in the treatment of wounds, burns, joint injuries, as well as in aesthetic medicine to combat wrinkles and improve the condition of the skin. Transplantation of hematopoietic bone marrow stem cells has been successfully used for many years in the treatment of certain forms of leukemia.
In the near future, thanks to scientific research, the scope of MSCs can expand significantly.
The results of the work of scientists of the Kurchatov Institute suggest that in the presence of tumors, including dormant ones, such treatment can be dangerous, and before its appointment, patients should be sent for additional examination beforehand.
– The tumor stimulates the migration of mesenchymal cells from the bone marrow and nearby adipose tissue that support its growth, – Elizaveta Moskaleva, deputy head of the Kurchatov Complex of NBICS-nature-like technologies of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", told Izvestia.
Under her leadership, a series of laboratory experiments on mice was conducted.
The animals were vaccinated with breast adenocarcinoma and melanoma with and without the addition of MSCs. Tumors with the addition of connective tissue stem cells grew much faster, and melanoma began to metastasize to the lungs earlier. This effect, according to Elizaveta Moskaleva, is due to the fact that for the development of malignant formations, it was not necessary to wait for mesenchymal cells to arrive naturally from the bone marrow or adipose tissue of the body, since during the experiment they were added to the body immediately together with tumor cells. At the same time, the histological structure of neoplasms grafted with and without the addition of stem cells did not differ.
There was also no growth of stem cells in the composition of those tumors that appeared when a mixture of mesenchymal and malignant cells was introduced. The formations increased in size only due to the acceleration of the proliferation of tumor cells under the influence of factors secreted by stem cells.
Another important consequence of the work of the staff of the Kurchatov Institute was the understanding of the relationship between the risk of cancer and the amount of adipose tissue in the body. Mesenchymal cells can migrate from it to a closely located tumor and stimulate its growth. Thus, obesity can be considered as a risk factor for the development of not only cardiovascular diseases, but also malignant neoplasms.
– We have shown that mesenchymal cells from adipose tissue stimulate the development of tumors much more strongly than such cells from bone marrow, – said Elizaveta Moskaleva.
Side effects
Today, stem cells are used for the correction of various injuries, anti-aging therapy and regenerative medicine, so it is fundamentally important for patients and physicians to know about all possible side effects of such treatment, Maria Vedunova, director of the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine of UNN, explained to Izvestia.
– The problem of oncology is that a person may not know until late stages that he has a tumor and it is growing. If MSCs and stem cell products are used in this case, then it is possible to stimulate the growth of a neoplasm without knowing about it," the specialist warned. – This, of course, should be evaluated as a side effect of therapy and the benefits should be commensurate. For example, if it is justified in regenerative medicine, then in cosmetology – most often not.
Indeed, with systemic administration of MSCs, presumably, they can modify the microenvironment of an existing tumor and both contribute to its progression and suppress it, confirms the conclusions of the study of the Kurchatov Institute, corresponding member of the RAS, Head of the Laboratory of Cell Biology of the N.K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of the RAS Ekaterina Vorotelyak.
– In this regard, preclinical studies of biomedical cell products provide for the study of tumorogenicity, that is, the ability of the injected cells themselves to form a tumor, and oncogenicity – the ability of the body cells to form a tumor under the influence of the injected cells. Based on the expert opinion of the relevant regulatory authorities, additional tests may be introduced," Ekaterina Vorotelyak explained.
The Kurchatov Institute has indeed received very interesting data, but it is necessary to interpret them with great care in the context of the therapeutic use of stem cells in humans, says Vladislav Sarzhevsky, Deputy Chief Physician for Oncology at the Pirogov Center.
The specialist recalled that in classical medical practice, stem cell transplantation is used in patients suffering from potentially fatal diseases. And peripheral stem cell transplantation is performed in those patients in whom all other methods of treatment cannot lead to recovery. And a thorough examination before performing the proposed transplantation almost completely eliminates the possibility of not noticing another malignant tumor.
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