Spare parts for your body

Stem cell therapy has been used for many degenerative diseases in recent years. But often, after the treatment, the patient comes back to the hospital with a teratoma, a tumour with different types of tissues.

A paper in PNAS published online on August 5th, gives a possible solution to the roadblock in the use of stem cell therapies.

Scientists now know that teratoma, in such cases is often caused by some pluripotent cells or cells that can form any type of tissue.

The mitochondria of these undifferentiated cells often contain certain small molecules, whereas the differentiated stem cells that make up the organ, do not contain them.

So they can be targeted and removed by inducing programmed cell death. This result makes stem cell therapy more long lasting and without undesirable outcome of tumor growth.

Stem cell therapy could potentially challenge the organ transplantation process by growing liver, retina and even heart valves. A perhaps will be the basis for a niche industry for highly individualised spare parts for your body.

PNAS  Published online August 5, 2013, E3281–E3290