Subject: Canadian Scientists Find Versatile Adult Stem Cells From Skin
Source: Reuters; August 13, 2001

Canadian Scientists Find Versatile Adult Stem Cells From Skin

Toronoto, CA -- Canadian scientists may have found yet another alternative
to embryonic stem cell research that can offer new treatment for
neurological conditions. They have isolated stem cells on the skin of
adult mice that can grow into brain cells according to a study published
on Monday.

"The hope is that the adult stem cells will provide an alternative
approach to using embryonic stem cells, but that still has to be proven,"
Karl Fernandes, one of the researchers, told Reuters.

The Canadian team found that stem cells isolated in the skin of adult mice
can grow into brain cells, fat cells or muscle cells. The research, led by
the Montreal Neurological Institute affiliated with McGill University, is
seen giving scientists new avenues to pursue in continuing stem cell
research.

"We believe our discovery is important as we have identified an exciting
new stem cell from a noncontroversial source that holds considerable
promise for scientific and therapeutic use," said Freda Miller, the lead
researcher.

The team has started preliminary experiments with human skin to see if
transplants of cells would eventually be possible, said Fernandes.

"We can isolate a population of cells from human skin, which at first
glance appear to be similar to the ones we get from rodents," said
Fernandes. He said the team has started "promising" transplants of
skin-type cells on rodents, focusing mostly on brain functions.

The study, published in the scientific journal "Nature Cell Biology," said
patients might be able to use stem cells from their own skin to repair
dysfunctions elsewhere in the body, avoiding the complications of organ
rejection linked to donor transplants.

The study shows that highly versatile adult stem cells may be easy to
access. "You could potentially take a small biopsy of skin and harvest the
patient's own stem cells, expand them (in a process that allows them to
proliferate in a laboratory dish) and then use them to treat that
patient," scientist Freda Miller said.

Unlike many other adult stem cells that have been studied, the ones Miller
worked with proliferated impressively in the laboratory. Being able to
generate large numbers of stem cells would be vital to allow for any
future transplantation of them into damaged tissue with the aim of
regeneration. In Miller's study, the only broad grouping of cells that the
mouse skin stem cells did not become was cells from organs such as the
liver. "And we're working very hard now to ask if they can become those
things as well," she said.