Aging stem cells

El_Machinae

24th July 2007 - 12:02 PM

http://www.physorg.com/news104472378.html

QUOTE

Aging HSCs exhibit a functional decline (yet an increase in cell number) and display a heightened stress and inflammatory response along with signs of epigenetic erosion.

Something to watch for is whether the aging stem cells can be reinvigorated with a technique similar to cloning (i.e., cellular reprogramming) or whether the cells just get old in some unchangable way.

If the cells just get old, then it might be a good idea to cryofreeze stem cells when one is younger and then use them for therapies when one is older.

googleplex

24th July 2007 - 03:07 PM

Good point.
I strongly recommend that folks pay for cryo storage of umbilical cord blood.
This is the only convenient method to obtain stem cells and it side steps the ethics issues. Not sure if they are the optimal kind of stem cells but i figure that it is infinitely better than nothing.
Not sure why health insurance doesn't cover it yet. I think one day it will be standard procedure.
Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow however they are not as versatile as the cord blood stem cells and have aged.

DiamondJim

26th July 2007 - 08:25 AM

Everything changes and every living thing uses chemical processes in doing so, so it is to be expected that the stem cells would age and in an irreversible way.

El_Machinae

26th July 2007 - 02:23 PM

Oh, there's absolutely degeneration. But it seems that a decent portion of 'aging' in a cell is due to how the DNA is currently 'programmed' (methylation or coiling). We'd want to know how much of the aging in the cell is due to programming (and can be unprogrammed) and how much is due to degeneration.

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