Old stem cells can be restored to youth

A way to rejuvenate the stem cells of elderly patients has been found

Stemcells.RuIn practice, autologous cell therapy often turns out to be significantly less effective than could be expected according to the results of preclinical trials.

One of the main reasons for this is the elderly age of patients, which reduces the ability of stem cells to proliferate and differentiate into certain types of specialized cells.

Canadian scientists from the University of Toronto carried out a study aimed at identifying the mechanisms of age-related deterioration of stem cell functions and finding methods to restore these functions.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were isolated from bone marrow in patients with cardiovascular diseases. When MSCs were cultured, it was found that the rate of cell proliferation and the number of colonies negatively correlated with the age of patients. Myogenic differentiation of MSCs in culture induced by 5-azacitidine also correlated with age – it was suppressed in elderly patients.

Using real-time PCR, scientists identified the genes regulating the WNT/beta-catenin signaling pathway and found that the transcription level of CTNNB1, LEF1, FZD8, WNT3A and SFRP4 negatively correlated with age, and the transcription level of FOSL1, LRP6 and FZD6 positively correlated.

Treatment of MSCs obtained from elderly patients with lithium chloride, which increases the bioavailability of β-catenin, restored the ability of cells to myogenic differentiation. In the case of beta-catenin knockdown ("shutdown") with the help of small interfering RNAs, lithium chloride did not have such an effect.

Thus, the results of the study showed that a decrease in the bioavailability of beta-catenin in the nucleus of MSCs in elderly patients determines the deterioration of the functions of these cells.

It is very important that a way has been found to restore the impaired functions of the MSCs of elderly patients, which opens the way to a significant increase in the effectiveness of autologous cell therapy of various diseases and to the overall rejuvenation of the body.

The research materials are presented in the article by Brunt et al. Role of WNT/beta-Catenin Signaling in Rejuvenating Myogenic Differentiation of Aged Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Cardiac Patients (Am J Pathol. 2012 Sep 28, epub ahead of print).

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.10.2012