A step closer to the confident production of blood stem cells for regenerative medicine microbiologystudy

Stem cells can produce any other cell type, it is just a matter of telling them in the right way. From a biological perspective, this means activating the proper genetic program by pressing the right keys, that is, the right genes, at the right moment. Quite often, blood cancer patients require the replacement of their blood stem cells in the bone marrow, the tissue producing blood cells where their cancer grows.

Unfortunately, finding a compatible donor happens to be too challenging sometimes. What if we could produce the cells that make blood in the lab, right from basic stem cells, and use them to regenerate new and healthy bone marrow?

To do this, you would need to know what genes to activate in a stem cell. In a tour de force, the team led by Dr. Anna Bigas screened thousands of genes in the mice genome to see which were able to transform an embryonic stem cell into a blood precursor or, more technically, a hematopoietic stem cell (HPSC). The screening identified a group of seven genes apparently able to accomplish the task.

In subsequent experiments, the team confirmed that the timely activation of the seven genes was sufficient to transform mouse embryonic stem cells into HSPC, and that these newly produced cells were able to regenerate and sustain a functional blood system, producing all kinds of blood cells, including the immune lineages, in adult mice.

The research, published in the journal Blood, was first-authored by Dr. Luis Galan Palma, a researcher from the Bigas Lab, in collaboration with other researchers including Dr. Clara Bueno and Dr. Pablo Menéndez, experts in developmental and pediatric leukemia, also at the Josep Carreras Institute.

Dr. Bigas is confident that the results obtained in mice can be translated into the human system since, despite the differences, the mechanisms driving stem cells differentiation are so fundamental that they are shared between species.

Dr. Bigas says, “We know that those genes are also present in the human genome, and they are highly conserved. That is, their genetic sequences are almost identical.” Research is on the way, but chances are they really play the same role in humans as in mice.

This research is a proof-of-concept for the Bigas Lab’s project “Making Blood,” a highly ambitious endeavor to develop a technological platform aimed at the production of human HSPC off the shelf. If successful, we are just a few years away from a new era in the treatment of leukemia and other blood disorders, based on the long-awaited regenerative medicine.