Canadian researchers convert skin into blood cells

Canadian researchers convert skin into blood cells: skin becomes blood. Canadian researchers have transformed adult skin cells into blood cells.

Canadian researchers have been able to convert skin cells into blood. This could make blood donations a thing of the past, as any needy patient could receive blood transfusions made from his own skin.

Doctors complain about a lack of blood donations
Physicians have been complaining for a long time that people donate too little blood. However, the Canadian research team headed by Mick Bhatia at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario has found a solution. Scientists have made blood cells from human skin cells without having to resort to stem cells. The study results of Mick Bhatia and colleagues were published in the current issue of the journal „Nature“ released.

12 square centimeters of skin for a blood transfusion
According to the Canadian research group already twelve square centimeters of skin enough to gain enough blood for a transfusion. In particular, cancer patients, who so far often have to wait long for transfusion blood, could benefit from the hope of the scientists of the new method. Also for chemotherapy patients could offer advantages, since a continuous treatment over a longer period would be possible without the hitherto usual therapy breaks, so the statement of the scientists in the current „Nature“-items.

Skin cells converted into blood progenitor cells
So far, it has only been possible to derive blood cells from skin cells when physicians use the detour via the transformation into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). However, this is very time consuming, expensive, and ethically controversial. The newly developed method has enabled scientists to reprogram the skin cells to form progenitor cells that can evolve in the human body into all major blood cells such as red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes) or platelets (platelets). „Our method is faster (than traditional methods) and produces just the right kind of cells in one step“, said Mick Bhatia, head of the Hamilton Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute. Ethically, the new approach also offers advantages, as it does without the iPS, which are not as controversial as embryonic stem cells, but are still judged critically by many people.

Only one gene of skin cells changed
The transformation of skin cells into blood cells is based on the introduction of a gene into the corresponding cells, but Mick Bhatia and his research colleagues first had to analyze the genetic changes needed to achieve the desired transformation. They concluded that altering one gene (OCT4) is sufficient to allow skin cells to transform into the progenitor cells of all blood cells. However, a mixture of cytokines had to be added to the cells to initiate the mentioned development. Cytokines are glycoproteins that regulate cell growth and differentiation of cells. The Canadian researchers have taken samples of human skin cells, multiplied them in the laboratory and modified the gene OCT4 and injected the cytokines. Thus, they have succeeded in transforming the skin cells of adult humans into blood progenitor cells, which can be used as blood transfusions and then take on the form of the required blood cells in the human body. „We were able to show for the first time that it is human skin. We now know how it works and can certainly further optimize the process“, Mick Bhatia emphasized in the context of the current „Nature“-Article.

Hope for blood cancer or blood diseases
"Of course, we can not yet say when it will actually come to a clinical application," said the study director, but the research team was confident that their approach will be more practicable faster than the detour via the induced pluripotent cells. For example, according to scientists' hope, in the near future, for example, blood needed for transfusions during surgery could be extracted from the skin tissue of the patient. This would on the one hand, the lack of stored blood and on the other hand, the search for a suitable blood donor would be unnecessary. For example, the researchers could also open up completely new treatment options for patients with blood cancer (leukemia) or other blood diseases such as anemia or anemia. „The next step is now to make enough blood cells“ and to „test whether the cells can freeze to be in stock when a patient needs them, "Mick Bhatia concluded. (fp, 10.11.2010)

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Picture: Xenia B.