Post subject: Scientists create anti-cancer cells

University of Minnesota researchers have turned embryonic stem cells into cancer-fighting cells in the lab.

The research at the Stem Cell Institute doesn’t offer an immediate cancer treatment, but the findings suggest that stem cells eventually could be used to boost the body’s ability to fight tumors.

Using one of the federally approved embryonic stem cell lines, scientists first coaxed the cells to turn into blood cells, including “natural killer cells.” These naturally occurring cells produce proteins that attack tumors.

Then the research team mixed the killer cells with cancer cells in a culture dish and watched as the cancer cells died, according to a report in the Journal of Immunology.

“This is really the first evidence that we can harness human embryonic stem cells to make a cell population that is able to kill tumor cells,” said Dr. Dan Kaufman, an assistant professor at the institute and coauthor of the report.

Researchers next plan to test whether stem cell-derived killer cells will attack tumors in mice, he said. Similar studies elsewhere using adult stem cells have successfully attacked cancer cells in lab animals, Kaufman said.

In theory, boosting the body’s natural killer cells should help battle cancers. It remains unclear whether adult or embryonic stems cells will be more promising in such efforts.

Kaufman said researchers eventually may be able to target natural killer cells to attack tumor cells. For that to work, more embryonic cell lines may be needed, he said. Government rules now limit the number of such stem cell lines available for federally funded research.

Aaron

Post subject: Re: Scientists create anti-cancer cells

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I wonder what "federally approved" actually means... what are they approving exactly?

Aaron

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