ACT achieves vascular repair with hES cells

USA-based Advanced Cell Technology has reported evidence that, for the first time, hemangioblast precursor cells derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells achieved vascular repair. The firm's research, which appears in the May 7 on-line edition of the journal Nature Methods, describes an efficient method for generating large numbers of bipotential progenitors - known as hemangioblasts - from hES cells that are capable of differentiating into blood vessels, as well as into all blood and immune cell lineages.

Robert Lanza, vice president of research and scientific development at ACT, and senior study author, said: "our results suggest the possibility of using nature's early cellular developmental components to restore vascularization and function in patients with vascular disease. An injection of these cells may be able to prevent a patient from having a leg amputated or from dying after a heart attack."

According to the Nature study, cells were injected into animals that had damage to their retina due to diabetes or ischemia-reperfusion injury of the retina. The cells migrated to the site of injury and showed robust reparative function of the entire damaged vasculature within 24 to 48 hours, with a similar regenerative capacity in animal models of both myocardial infarction (50% reduction in mortality rate) and hind limb ischemia, achieving restoration of blood flow to near normal levels. Maria Grant, another author on the paper, noted that "these cells have a robust vascular reparative ability under what is typically considered very adverse growth conditions, making them potentially ideal for treatment of diabetic vascular complications where profound tissue compromise exists and healing is typically severely-compromised."