Cuddling Stem Cells

by | Jan 16, 2015 | animal research, animals helping animals, animals helping humans, Conditions, Imaging & Diagnostics, Medical Research, treatment

Amazing new video of blood stem cells taking root may help cancer patients, people with blood diseases, and improve bone marrow transplants. 

The video, from Harvard School of Medicine, shows blood stem cells budding off from the aorta in zebra fish. They then take a whirl around the body via the circulatory system until the find their “niche” in the fish’s tail, squeeze outside the blood vessel, and begin to interact with other cells. Scientists have dubbed the interaction “cuddling” or making the cell happy in its new home before it attaches to a “nurse” cell and eventually begins dividing before leaving for the future sight of blood formation. 

The study also took a look at mammalian blood stem cells in mice and found the process remarkably similar. This gives hope for human blood stem cells to be “spurred on” by a compound shown to promote the interface of the “niche” and stem cells in the zebra fish to increase overall cell production. 

 

http://www.dddmag.com/news/2015/01/image-captures-how-blood-stem-cells-take-root

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