New Method for Creating Long-Lived Stem Cells Used for Bone Replacement

Dec. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- New Rochelle, NY, December 4, 2012—Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) can develop into bone cells and are useful for tissue engineering and regeneration. However, when grown in the laboratory they quickly lose their ability to continue dividing and they die. A method for genetically engineering hMSCs so they become immortal and still retain their ability to become bone cells is described in an article published in BioResearch Open Access, a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the BioResearch Open Access website at http://www.liebertpub.com/biores.

D.S. Bischoff, N.S. Makhigani, and D.T. Yamaguchi, Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and The David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, inserted a gene called human telomerase (TERT) into hMSCs. The authors provide evidence to support the ability of human TERT to enhance the growth capacity of hMSCs in "Constitutive Expression of Human Telomerase Enhances the Proliferation Potential of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells." They demonstrate that they were able to produce a stable hMSC cell line that can be grown in culture through repeated cell divisions and that the stem cells can differentiate into osteoblasts for potential use in bone engineering applications.

“Generating a stable human mesenchymal stem cell line that retains osteoblastic and adipogenic potential has important benefits for bone engineering studies, particularly those which require a large number of cells," says Editor-in-Chief Jane Taylor, PhD, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

About the Journal
BioResearch Open Access is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal that provides a new rapid-publication forum for a broad range of scientific topics including molecular and cellular biology, tissue engineering and biomaterials, bioengineering, regenerative medicine, stem cells, gene therapy, systems biology, genetics, biochemistry, virology, microbiology, and neuroscience. All articles are published within 4 weeks of acceptance and are fully open access and posted on PubMedCentral. All journal content is available on the BioResearch Open Access website at http://www.liebertpub.com/biores.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website at http://www.liebertpub.com.