Researchers at the University of Nottingham discovered a totally synthetic substrate material that could grow billions of stem cells at a time, an advance that may allow industrial-scale biomedicine to materialize sooner than we think.
“The possibilities for regenerative medicine are still being researched in the form of clinical trials. What we are doing here is paving the way for the manufacture of stem cells in large numbers when those therapies are proved to be safe and effective,” Morgan Alexander, professor of biomedical surfaces at University of Nottingham, said.
Stem cell factories of the future
The mass production of stem cells could turn out to be revolutionary–providing an off-the-shelf product for clinical use in the treatment of the heart, liver, and brain. Scientists hope that laboratory-based research may eventually turn into large-scale production.
Clinical trials are still ongoing, yet if man-made human embryonic stem cell “factories” could get commercialized and validated by regulators, patients could have access to treatment in two to three years, researchers said.
Supply and Demand
Researchers said that overall the field of regenerative medicine has “snowballed” in the last five year. In the future, a lot more patients will be receiving stem cell treatments.
However, in the new research published in the journal Nature, scientists mentioned that more than 1 billion cells for each patient are needed to replace losses during heart attack, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
“Producing this number of cells is challenging.” Researchers are now thinking outside-the-box to provide technology that can be scaled to meet the needs of millions of patients per year and improve their chances of survival.
Why are stem cells important?
Perhaps the most important potential application of stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues. Today, the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply.
To match supply with demand, scientists have been looking for polymer substrates on which human pluripotent stem cells can be concurrently grown in numbers in the billions, yet free from possible contamination.
According to the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), research in this field holds tremendous promise for medical treatments, but scientists still have much to learn about how stem cells, and the specialized cells they generate, work in the body and their capacity for healing.
What do you think of “factory-produced” stem cells and the advancements in the regenerative medicine field? Share you opinion in the comments section below.
