Stem Cells reverse liver failure in mice

[Guest guest]

Hello Everyone,

A member of my local PSC support group is a medical researcher and he keeps up

on liver research. The following is an excerpt of an email he sent me. It's

kind of hard to understand but hopefully and you other scientists

and doctors in the group can understand it. The " " he refers to is

Bowlus, hepatologist and PSC researcher. We haven't heard back from

yet. Mouse research is a long way from human treatment but this does give

hope:

This Fall, Harvard researchers halted liver failure by injecting

mice with a medium that contained bone marrow-derived stem cells. They also

injected labeled immune cells (lymphocytes) into the mice and could see them

leave the liver after the treatment. This seems to be a shift in the type

of immune response (from TH1 to TH2). I sent the papers a couple of

months ago.

I believe that this is the first time that liver failure has been stopped.

Plus it is a very different use of biological therapy (cytokine therapy). I

am really excited about this discovery. The damage to the liver appears to

be mediated by these destructive immune cells (cytotoxic T lymphocytes and

natural killer cells). The destructive process is a chain with many links.

We only need to stop one link in the chain and we can slow or stop the liver

damage -- even reverse it. I am extremely positive about this finding. It

promises to be a new way to use stem cells for therapy, and I see no reason

why it should not slow, stop or even reverse liver damage in PSC patients.

One key cytokine secreted by the stem cells is IL-10 (Interleukin 10). This

cytokine is known as one of the main factors that changes the immune

response from TH1 to TH2. TH1 is the response that results in destroying

cells.

We know of over 200 cytokines. These are little protein signals that

control immune responses. The problem is that, with so many different

cytokines, it would take a long time to figure out what combination to use

to have a certain effect, such as the effect here: calling off the dogs that

attack the liver. The beautiful thing is that the stem cells just happen to

put out the right combination of cytokine signals. To me, it seems that

they show up in the liver to rebuild it, so when they get there they call of

the demolition crew.

(Sacramento dx UC and PSC 2001)