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Article: Researcher makes adult stem cells multiply.
- Article from:
- Blood Weekly
- Article date:
- December 18, 2003
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2003 DEC 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a finding that may help create unlimited quantities of therapeutically valuable adult stem cells, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researcher fortified adult rat liver stem cells with a metabolite that allows them to multiply like embryonic stem cells.
In the absence of the metabolite, the cells revert to acting like normal adult stem cells, which produce differentiating cells without increasing their own numbers. Stem cells proliferating unchecked can cause cancer.
"If we want to do cell replacement therapy with stem cells, we have to be able to monitor them and avoid mutations that cause tumors ...