New Scientist
Image: TheJCB
Scientists have discovered a dark side to stem cells. The restorative properties that could make adult stem cells so useful in tissue repair may also help cancers to spread and grow.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that are found in bone marrow can differentiate into a variety of cell types, making them prime candidates for stem cell therapies. They usually circulate through the blood system, waiting to be called to damaged tissue to help rebuild it, says Robert Weinberg at MIT.
“But MSCs are also recruited into tumours, possibly using the same recruitment mechanisms as those operating during wound healing,” he says.
Now, Weinberg’s team has shown that MSCs can enhance the spread of tumours throughout the body. They mixed human breast cancer cells with human MSCs and injected the cocktail into mice. The mice quickly developed breast tumours, and over the course of 12 weeks the cancer spread to their lungs. Another group of mice was injected with human breast cancer cells but no MSCs – they still developed breast tumours, but more slowly, and the cancer did not spread to the lungs. Read more on newscientist.com…
