Pinto-do-ó, P., Cumano, A., Mesquita Peixoto, M. et al / Jem
Cell Map of the Embryonic Liver
An i3S team published the first cellular map of the embryonic liver. The work, the result of more than ten years of investigation, can help respond to the needs of blood cells – to which the adult’s bone marrow has not given.
A team of researchers from the Institute of Health Research and Innovation at the University of Porto (I3S) and the Pasteur Institute, published the First Cell Map of the Embryonic Livera fundamental body for the development of Stemal cells of blood or hematopoietic.
Researchers expect this new tool to contribute to the discovery of mechanisms to successfully multiply stem cells hematopoietic for therapeutic use.
The stem cells of the blood were the First Stem Cells to be isolated and the first to be used with great success in clinical practice, namely bone marrow transplants to treat more than 80 diseases.
These cells are Present in very specific bone marrow areas of the adult and in the blood of the umbilical cordbut in both cases, in reduced number, which limits its use.
Moreover, whenever you try to expand your number outside the body (dividing yourself ex living) These cells begin to suffer some kind of differentiation, losing the full initial therapeutic potentialthat is, continuously generate any other type of cell.
Egidio Santos / U.Porto
Perpetual teams Pinto-doo (pictured), in the i3s, and Ana Cumano, at the Pasteur Institute, studied the embryonic liver, where the stem cells of the blood develop before moving to the bone marrow
It is therefore urgent find ways to multiply these cells In laboratory so they can then be transplanted successfully and in number. And this depends on understanding which signs and which controls neighboring cells and the environment where these cells reside over them to the point of keeping them in this state.
The teams of Perpetual Pinto-doomain researcher of the I3S Regenerative Biology Group, and Ana Cumanoteacher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, opted for an alternative path and decided to study the embryonic liver – organ in which the stem cells of the blood develop before moving into the bone marrow
In the course of the study, which was presented in a recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicinethe team got, for the first time, Map in detail the location of the stem cells in this embryo organ.
“ after so many years the adult’s bone marrow has not given response For the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells, perhaps the solution is in the embryo liver, ”he said Márcia Mesquita Peixotoresearcher at the Pasteur Institute and first author of the article.
“This is how we started studying in detail the microenvironment in which these cells acquire skills to reconstruct the blood and the adult’s immune system and we got not only mapping known populations as well as Identify new populations of embryonic liver cells And its relative location in the fabric, ”adds the I3S researcher.
These results, the researchers explain, represent “a unique contribution to the Understanding of the cell microenvironment where the first stem cells of blood end their formation and increase the number where they will be available in the bone marrow during adulthood. ”
The way the embryonic liver is organized “It is very different from the marrow bone, ”they advance Perpetual Pinto-Do and Ana Cumano.
“Therefore, perhaps the key to realizing what controls the division capacity and the regenerative potential of these cells can be more easily accessed if realize what happens in the microenvironment of the embryonic liver; Perhaps you are here Answer that was never found in the bone marrow“They add.
“The first stepwhich was the construction of this thorough Atlas Celular, is already given, ”concludes the researchers.
