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Stem Cells in Baby's Own Amniotic Fluid Used to Help Form New Organ Tissues

Scientists claim cells could be used to treat newborns with serious health problems diagnosed in utero

By Hilary White

SYDNEY, Australia, August 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A team of researchers at the Wake Forest University in North Carolina has extracted stem cells from amniotic fluid that have been found able to grow new organ tissue. This could be used, the scientists say, to treat newborns with serious health problems diagnosed in utero.

The technique of creating tissue from amniotic fluid and placental stem cells, said Dr. Anthony Atala, could potentially work to cure "any abnormality that would not be lethal before a baby is born".

Professor Atala told The Age newspaper, "The hope is … that if you have a baby diagnosed prenatally with a defect then you can take cells from the amniotic fluid and then expand those cells in large quantities and create the tissue or organ that is needed."

"You could turn the cells, for example, into liver cells … and have them ready for when the baby is born."

Presenting his team's findings at a conference on transplantation in Sydney, Australia, earlier this week, he said, "It's all still experimental, but … it shows we have the capacity to create these organs (for transplant)."

The team created liver, pancreatic, nerve and kidney tissue using stem cells found in the placenta and in amniotic fluid. Dr. Atala, a paediatric urologist and a leader in the field of stem cell tissue regeneration, said work with amniotic fluid-derived stem cells (AFS cells) shows great promise and suggests it could ultimately relieve the pressure to procure donor organs for transplants.

He said that the goal would be to create a tissue bank where stem cells derived from amniotic fluid are stored cryogenically for later use. Once a large enough system of banks is established, the technology can be expanded and those who have not saved their tissue could be aided by genetic matching of tissues.

The proof of success came in 2004, when Dr. Atala led the team that developed the first lab-grown organ, a bladder, to be implanted into a human.

Similar to embryonic stem cells (ESC), AFS cells, like those derived from umbilical cord blood, are "pluripotent", meaning they can potentially be manipulated to become many different types of mature tissues while avoiding not only the killing of embryonic human beings to obtain them, but also the problem of tumour formation immune system rejection. Dr. Atala has also said they are slightly easier to deal with and manipulate in animal trials, than ESC.

In 2006, he wrote that it may be possible to create "universal donor cells" that can be injected into the body that "will naturally migrate to the site of injury, where tissue repair and regeneration can occur, all without rejection".

"One could even have preventive 'cell tune-ups' to slow the natural process of ageing with periodic cell injections - using a needle-less system, of course."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Complete Bladders Grown from Patients' Own Cells
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06040405.html

Exciting Amniotic Stem Cell Discovery Backed up by New Study
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010805.html ;

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