Reprogrammed Amniotic Fluid Cells Could Treat Vascular Diseases

Researchers at Weil Cornell Medical College discovered a new effective approach for converting amniotic fluid derived cells into endothelial cells to repair damaged blood vessels in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and trauma. The team has discovered a way to utilize diagnostic prenatal amniocentesis cells, which reprograms those stable endothelial cells capable of regenerating damaged blood vessels and repairing injured organs. This amniotic fluid containing non embryonic cells would be treated with a trio of genes that reprograms them quickly into billions of endothelial cells-the cells that line the entire circulatory system. These new endothelial cells can be frozen and banked, similar to blood, and patients in need of blood vessel repair would be able to receive the cells through a simple injection. This therapy could I prove treatment for disorders linked to a damaged vascular system, including heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases. In damaged vessels, these cells provide the plumbing to move new blood, produce growth factors that actively participate in organ maintenance, repair and regeneration.

To date, there have been many failed attempts to clinically produce endothelial cells that can be used to treat patients. Isolation of endothelial cells from adult organs so they can be grown in the laboratory is not efficient.  Using pluripotent stem cells to produce endothelial cells grow poorly, and if not fully differentiated could potentially cause cancer. Therefore researchers at Weil Cornell searched for a new source of cells that they could turn into a vast supply of stable endothelial cells; they probed human amniotic fluid-derived cells. Amniotic cells are not as plastic and unstable as endothelial cells derived from embryonic cells or as stubborn as those produced from reprogramming differentiated adult cells, which can produce endothelial cells.

I found this particular article interesting because I have always been interested in the advances of bioengineered therapy methods. Converting amniotic fluid derived cell into endothelial cells can have countless positive effects on numerous diseases including heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases such as emphysema, diabetes, and trauma. Therapeutic research is a continuous process that has endless possibilities and has so much potential to affect many lives in the future.

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