Stem Cells
What are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are cells that have the ability to self-replicate and differentiate into specialized cells such as heart, brain, nerve, liver, skin, and bone and therefore potentially have the ability to treat diseases and injuries involving these organs. Stem cells must not be confused with progenitor or precursor cells; whereas stem cells have the ability to transform into multiple cells types, progenitor cells are committed to a certain linage. For example, a hematopoietic cell is destined to become only blood cells.
True pluripotent stem cells only exist in the first 14 days of life of embryo. WE DO NOT USE FETAL OR EMBRYONIC STEM CELL. The usage of embryonic stem cells has unresolved ethical concerns, known to be tumorigenic and is not permitted in Malaysia. At Cytopeutics, we are harvesting only adult stem cells. Among our core adult stem cell types is the Mesenchymal Stem Cells, which is multipotent and has the ability to transform into multiple cell types.
What is Mesenchymal Stem Cell ?
Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) is true adult multipotent stem cell that has been shown differentiate or trans-differentiate into fat, cartilage, bone, skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, neurons, mesangial cells, epithelial cells and liver cells. MSC can be found mainly in bone marrow which is widely acknowledged as the purer, richer and safer source of MSC. Other adult sources of MSC are umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood and fat. Researchers found that MSC are very rare in peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood and cannot be consistently obtained. Some used growth factors to stimulate “stem cells” into blood circulation, however mainly hematopoietic progenitor cells but not MSC that were being stimulated. This process has also led to high rates of coronary stent restenosis (blockage of the coronary stent) in some heart patients.
MSC Collection Method
MSC is purest and most abundant in bone marrow MSC make up 1:1000 BMMNC population
Bone marrow is currently known to be the purer, richer and safer source of MSC; therefore in order to get the MSC as pure and unadulterated as possible it is best to harvest from the bone marrow, which is regarded as the “stem cell niche”. MSC are collected from patient’s own bone marrow via Bone Marrow Aspiration (BMA) by a qualified physician. BMA is a common procedure undertaken by hematologists or qualified physicians in which a small amount of bone marrow is aspirated from patient’s pelvic bone, normally the iliac crest. It is a simple, convenient, safe and quick procedure where the whole process usually requires less than 20 minutes and it can be done under local anesthesia. Collected bone marrow cells are then sent to our Clean Room 100 laboratory to be processed by our highly qualified scientist with utmost professionalism and care.
MSC Research
Research on MSC is expanding exponentially. Researchers around the world, including Cytopeutics have proven that MSC not only can differentiate into tissues of mesodermal origin such adipocytes, chondrocytes, osteocytes, cardiomyocytes, but also can trans-differentiate into tissues of ectodermal origin such as neurons and epithelial cells, and endodermal origin such as insulin-producing islet cells and hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo.
In addition, Cytopeutics is one of the few groups that have successfully induced MSC into mesangial cells and nerve cells apart from heart cells, cartilage cells and skin tissues. We are also actively researching into stem cell treatment for kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and exploring the possibility of allogenic MSC treatment (stem cells transplantation from one donor to another individual).
MSC Clinical Trials and Potential Therapies
Since MSC are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into many cell types, the potential clinical indications for MSC becoming endless. MSC have been explored in treating heart failure, myocardial infarction (heart attack), osteoarthritis, stroke and spinal cord injury around the world and the results are promising. In addition, the results of thousands of patients whom have received MSC so far had shown MSC are safe and feasible to be transplanted into patients without any short- or long-term side effects up to 10 years.
MSC is also immunopriviledged and immunosuppressive with strong anti-inflammatory properties that allow it to be tested against autoimmune diseases such as Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD), Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
In Malaysia, we currently have concluded our research in heart failures, heart attack, refractory angina, osteoarthritis, peripheral artery disease and foot ulcer, and we will progressively offer clinically-tested pilot programmes under observation with utmost professionalism.
Our Publications
Wong et al., Differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into mesangial cells in post-glomerular injury murine model. Pathology 2008
Choong et al., Generating neuron-like cells from BM-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in vitro. Cytotherapy 2007
Choong et al., Mesenchymal stromal cell-like characteristics of corneal keratocytes. Cytotherapy 2007
Lian et al., Derivation of Clinically Complaint MSCs from CD105+, CD24-Differentiated Human ESCs. Stem Cells 2007
Mok et al., In vitro expression of erythropoietin by transfected human mesenchymal stromal cells. Cytotherapy 2008