Canadian researchers generate pluripotent stem cells from horses Special

Montreal - Researchers in Toronto and Montreal are opening a new line of defense in treating degenerative conditions by using pluripotent stem cells from horses.

Lead by Dr. Andras Nagy at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Dr. Lawrence Smith at the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Veterinary Science scientists are studying stem cell therapies in veterinary medicine. Because equine muscle and tendon systems are similar to human ones this research shows promise for human applications. In regenerative medicine the fight often is finding a way to create living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to damage or disease. While there are several studies on other species this is the first that is being conducted from changeable cells in horses. "Equine iPS cells bring new therapeutic potential to the veterinary field, and open up the opportunity to validate stem-cell based therapies before clinical studies in humans," Dr. Nagy said in a press release. "As well, stem-cell based studies using the horse as a model more closely replicate human illnesses, when compared with studies in mice." The study focuses on pluripotency, referring to the ability of a stem cell to be able to be used in different cell types found within the body. "This means that the cell lines passed all the tests available to us for determining if they truly are what we think they are: pluripotent and a good source for future regenerative applications," said Kristina Nagy, research associate in the Nagy laboratory and lead author of the study. Research is ongoing to develop clinical treatments for long-term disability. During a phone interview Dr. Lawrence Smith said that the study begin after a medical conference in Denmark. Smith discussed the use of horses in stem cell research after talking to a colleague about the studies being conducted in mice. "We are very happy with the results." Horses and humans both have similar muscle and bone diseases because of their size. "The ability to understand how stem cells, muscles and bone treatments work is easier done with horses because of the size of the animal," Smith said, "The research being conducted is mostly with muscle and bone repair." Smith said that new treatments in human pose an ethics problem that isn't there in the treatments for horses. By learning how to improve the outcomes in these conditions in horses pre-clinical work is able to be done for humans. "We are now perfecting techniques that could in the future be used for humans," Smith stated, "A lot of treatments could be coming from our current research."