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“Counting” stem cells to measure the body’s ability to regenerate

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“Counting” stem cells to measure the body’s ability to regenerate

Stem cells have been talked about for decades as a revolution in regenerative medicine. Certainly stem cell transplants have changed the treatment of some haematological cancers, have allowed the development of treatments to repair damaged skin and cornea in case of burns, but not always – or not yet – have revolutionized clinical practice, and the dream of producing organs on demand thanks to cells capable of regeneration is far from coming true. Research on stem cells is certainly in that direction, but not only, as the Italian Society of Multi-specialty Regenerative Medicine and Surgery (SIMCRI) recalled today during an event in Rome to take stock of research in the field. Studying stem cells, in fact, could open new branches in the oncology field, as well as better understand which patients could recover sooner after a cardiovascular event. How? With a blood sample, trying to photograph the number and quality of circulating stem cells.

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“Counting” the stem cells

The research line presented by Eugenio Caradonnapresident of SIMCRI: that of a regenerative score, a sort of score that, taking into account the stem cells circulating in patients, estimates the regenerative capacity of the body. How? By measuring the stem cells found in the blood, similar to what is done for blood sugar, BUN or cholesterol. But it is not a question of merely proceeding with a numerical measure of their abundance: the idea is rather to frame this value with the age, the level of physical activity and the physical and metabolic conditions of the patient in order to have an indicator of the level of well-being. of the patient.

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Many different stem cells

The speech, as always when it comes to stem cells, is complex. First because the term stem identifies very heterogeneous groups of cells, of different origin and potential – for example, there are embryonic, hematopoietic, mesenchymal, muscle and skin stem cells – all accumulated by one characteristic: the ability to give rise to different types of cells, with different functions. But this inherent regenerative capacity, this plasticity – to put it in the words of Pietro Formisano of the Federico II University of Naples and member of the SIMCRI scientific committee – it is not the only characteristic of clinical interest: also the ability to release factors, and therefore in this way to modulate the behavior of cells and tissues, has made stem cells an object of searches all over the world.

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Stem cells and tumors

But the matter is even more complex when it comes to stem cells and tumors, he recalled Francesco Cognetti, oncologist president of the Together Against Cancer foundation and member of the SIMCRI scientific committee: “In oncology we talk about stem cells in different terms: on the one hand by identifying the cell therapies used for years against some forms of lymphoma and leukemia for therapeutic purposes, from another refers to the stem cells that feed the growth of tumors, the so-called neoplastic stem cells. They are cells that the tumor uses to grow, a kind of natural tumor reserve. In this case, the interest is to identify, thanks to genetics and molecular biology, molecular bases that can be targeted with specific drugs, in a personalized way, paving the way for new treatments in the future “.

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