Professor Seung U. Kim of the University of British Columbia writes of
"a possible break through in stem cell research obtained from my laboratory".
1) Recently we have obtained preliminary results showing that immortalized human neural stem cells (we developed earlier with thehelp of the Canadian Myelin Research Initiative) differentiated into oligodendrocytes when they were transduced with olig2 gene, a master gene that directs stem cells to become oligodendrocytes. This work was done in Korea, but we are currently reproducing the results in Vancouver. If these findings are right, then we could generate endless supply of human oligodendrocytes at will.
2) Since v-myc oncogene in our immortalized neural stem cells may cause tumour formation and this is the reason why we cannot use the cell line for the clinical trial [we initiated a different approach]. Recently we have generated new human neural stem cell line using "tet-on system" but which only in the presence of tetracycline neural stem cells divide but in the absence of tetracycline the cells differentiate into neurons and glial cells.
3) A paper is accepted for publication in Journal of Neuroscience Research reporting that when immortalized human neural stem cells transduced with a vector carrying beta-glucuronidase (deficiency of this enzyme causes mucopolysaccharodosis VII, Sly disease in children) were transplanted into MPS VII mouse brain, pathology in the brain was cleared completely. Japanese collaborators in Tokyo completed this work and acknowledge support of the Canadian Myelin Research Initiative in the study.
4) When immortalized human neural stem cells were injected via tail vein of rats suffering from ischemia/stroke, most of the injected cells migrated into the lesion sites and considerable improvement in behaviour was observed (rotating rod test and corner test). A paper was published in Neuroscience Letters recently.
5) Proactively transplanted immortalized human neural stem cells prevented neuronal cell death in rat model of Huntington disease indicating that brain transplantation of neural stem cells could rescue neural cell death in early phase HD patients' brain.
6) We have generated a new cell line of human bone marrow stem cell line from foetal bone marrow tissue and neurons and glial cells, bone, cartilage and fat tissue were all induced from the cell line indicating that the cell line has pluripotent potentials.
With kindest regards, Seung Kim, MD
posted by Canadian Myelin Research Initiative at 7:28 PM
