March 2009
Main source material
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203081620.htm
Thailand stem cell therapy for anti-aging has been quite popular, helping keep the body young, vigorous and healing damage that you didn't even know had occurred. However, even the healers themselves need help sometimes! We look at a new chemical that may help keep stem cells themselves young and assist in stem cell therapy.
With the recent discovery that anti-oxidants may not be the key to anti-aging that we once thought, attentions are turning elsewhere and stem cell therapy is filling the void just as it has for so many other seemingly incurable diseases. Where we once ate blueberries and drank green tea for their supposed anti-aging effects, a small worm named C. elegance has shown that the body's ability to fight oxidation actually leaves its lifespan relatively unchanged. Now scientists are turning to other new therapies, especially those that have been practically proven to work for some diseases, like stem cell therapy. Thailand stem cell therapy has had huge effects on patients who've suffered strokes, had autism and multiple sclerosis, and generally repairs damage in the body. Now scientists have discovered a key chemical that may help stop stem cells themselves from aging and in the process may make adult stem cell cures for aging much more effective.
The aging process in stem cells usually means that different cell types have been formed - in nature; stem cells do not create other stem cells. However, scientists at the University of Bath and Leeds have developed a chemical that stops stem cells differentiating into other types of cells, meaning that new medical treatments will be more pragmatic and potent. The chemical was developed for embryonic stem cells, rather than the adult stem cells which are used for most procedures currently. Scientists need large stocks of cells to perform research on, in order to make currently available stem cell therapies in Thailand more effective, and to develop new ones. However, supply is limited by outside factors. The breakthrough will allow scientists to simply grow as many stem cells as they need for research, and should eventually help doctors grow as many as they need for transplantation.
The team that developed the chemical was led by Professor Melanie Welham of the University of Bath, and Professor Adam Nelson of the University of Leeds. “Unfortunately, when you grow stem cells in the lab, they can spontaneously develop into specialized cells, making it difficult to grow large enough stocks to use for medical research", said Professor Welham. The particular chemical they discovered works by blocking the GSK3 enzyme, a critical part of the cell's mechanism for knowing when to change to a differentiated adult stem cell. The chemical will put the process on hold for several weeks, and the cells only remain un-specialized for as long as they are in contact with the chemicals, so they still have the ability to differentiate and repair damage down the track.
While anti-aging procedures using Thailand stem cell therapy are already available and generally use autologous (self-derived) adult stem cells harvested from a patient's own fat, this anti-aging procedure for stem cells themselves will mean that scientists have the potential to discover even more ways to help cure human diseases and advance stem cell treatments in general.
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