(원문)
Cells sprout into bits of human bone when implanted in mice.
Human stem cells that give rise to bone, cartilage and other skeletal tissues have been isolated for the first time, opening the door to new treatments for debilitating conditions such as osteoarthritis.
Stem cells mature into many types of tissue. Previous research has identified mouse stem cells that develop into a range of skeletal tissues, but the human equivalent has proved elusive.
Charles Chan and Michael Longaker at Stanford Medicine in California and their colleagues discovered human cells that showed the same pattern of gene activity as mouse skeletal stem cells. A subset of these human cells successfully generated human bone, cartilage and bone-marrow cells after being transplanted into mice.
To test whether the stem cells would replenish bone after an injury, the researchers fractured human bone that they had grafted into mice. In response, the human skeletal stem cells proliferated more at fracture sites than at stretches of unbroken bone.