In the future patients who need transfusions for surgery and cancer treatment can get it from their own skin. Canadian researchers have made great strides by doing transforasi adult skin into the blood directly. The results of this study in detail can be seen in the November 7 issue of Nature. With the much-needed new source of blood is not only for surgical and cancer patients, but also for patients suffering from blood disorders such as anemia.
This new method looks much more promising than trying to convert embryonic stem cells into the blood. That approach is very disappointing because it is not efficient in converting stem cells into mature cells for transplantation. In addition, the method that produces blood cells embryos can not be transferred to adult.
Cynthia Dunbar, Head of Molecular hematopoiesis from U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health said that on the contrary, a new shortcut that was pioneered by Canadian researchers has a major advantage to produce adult cell is one type of blood is not blood cells of the fetus as an expert, Dunbar describes the current research as paradigm changes in making blood cells.
The researchers also tried to reprogram stem cells from adult skin to make blood, because they avoid the ethical problems of embryonic stem cells and immune system complications that may reject foreign biological material. But adult stem cells have limited amounts. Adult stem cells also produce embryonic blood cells as they rearrange internally to become embryonic stem cell region. So the adult stem cells can not be used for transplantation for adults.
Canadian Researchers looking through all the problems with growth factors (substances that regulate cell division and survival) that directly can reprogram skin cells into blood cells that do not just pass the stem cell stage with all the problems, but creating adult blood cells can be used for transplantation in adults.
By avoiding the stem cell stage also means that researchers can now make blood cells in a number of much larger, because they avoid the inefficiency of the conversion to go to and from the stem cell stage.
Mick Bhatia, a writer and head of the Scientific Study of Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada say at this time the researchers will continue to work to develop the kinds of cell types in human skin, as has been evidenced from previous studies.
Bhatia team has been conducting research to turn the skin into the blood cells for more than two years. They also use human skin both young and old to prove that human skin can work for every human being regardless of age. Clinical trials began immediately carried out in 2012.