GLASGOW, September 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- British researchers announced this week that they may have
discovered a cure for wrinkles using stem cells taken from a person’s
blood. A Glasgow based biotechnology company, Pharmacells, has announced
they will begin human clinical trials next year on a method of inducing
stem cells taken from blood to replace the skin’s own cells as they
break down during the aging process.
Athol Haas, the company’s chief executive, told British media, “The
skin has a natural elastic property which comes from cells known as
fibroblasts.
“The ability of the body to produce this elastic material slows down with age because the number of these fibroblasts decrease.
“By introducing large numbers of stem cells into the right place, we
are increasing the ability of the body to produce this material. It is
still in its early stages but we hope to begin phase one trials within
the next 12 months.”
Pharmacells owns the patent on a method of harvesting, isolating and
storing a newly discovered type of blood derived adult stem cell. The
company says they have created a private stem cell bank, which people
can use to store their cells “for future use in personalised medicine”.
“We also supply ‘our’ adult cell line into many types of research
projects, allowing others access to one of the more significant stem
cell lines available anywhere in the world.”
Older methods of obtaining stem cells from fat are not as successful,
he said, being able to produce only five or ten million at a time. The
company says that as many as 500 million stem cells can be obtained from
only a small amount of normal blood, collected in the same way as any
regular blood test.
“By introducing large numbers of stem cells into the right place, we
are increasing the ability of the body to produce this natural material.
It will be long lasting, we think at least five years if not longer,”
Haas added.
Blood-derived, or haematopoietic stem cells are currently used in
treatment of some cancers, and researchers are working towards using
them to treat a variety of illnesses including leukemia and kidney
diseases. Pharmacells hopes to use its method of extracting stem cells
to work towards treatments for heart disease and osteoarthritis.
