Supplement your stem cells
Published: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 18:50 in Health & Medicine
A nutritional supplement could stimulate the production of stem cells
integral for repairing the body.
Research published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of
Translational Medicine suggests that a commercially-available
supplement can increase the blood circulation of hematopoietic
stem cells, which can give rise to all blood cells, and endothelial
progenitor cells, which repair damage to blood vessels.
Thomas E. Ichim from Medistem Incorporated, USA worked with
a team of 13 researchers from industry and academia to further
investigate whether this supplement, containing a cocktail of green
tea, astralagus, goji berry extracts, 'good' bacteria Lactobacillus
fermentum, antioxidant ellagic acid, immune enhancer beta 1,3
glucan and vitamin D3, was able to increase the number of stem
cells circulating in the blood.
They recruited 18 healthy adults aged between 20 and 72 who
stopped any other dietary supplements 4-5 days before starting
a two-week course of this supplement, taking it twice daily.
The researchers took blood from the participants before they
started the course and on days 1, 2, 7 and 14 to test for signs
of stem cell activity by looking for cells expressing the genetic
stem cell markers CD133, CD34 and KDR.
They then confirmed whether taking the supplement changed
the overall levels of hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial
progenitor cells in the blood by using HALO (Hematopoietic
Assay via Luminescent Output) and colony forming assays
respectively.
Hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells
increased after taking the nutritional supplement, suggesting
that the supplement may be a useful stimulator for both types
of stem cells.
In this study, the levels of these stem cells peaked at 2-7 days
and started to drop at 14 days, suggesting that this supplement
could be used for continuous treatment for conditions associated
with decreases in these stem cells such as Alzheimer's Disease.
Other therapeutic treatments used to recruit hematopoietic stem
cells are not viable as long-term solutions due to costs and
increased health risks caused by the extremely high levels of stem
cells that these treatments maintain in the blood.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating profound
mobilization effect with possible clinical significance by a food
supplement-based approach", say the authors, adding, "Indeed it may
be possible that our supplement could be beneficial in conditions
associated with reduced progenitor cells such as diabetes or in
smokers which possess lower baseline values as compared to
controls".
Although they are quick to add, "However, given commercial
pressures associated with this largely unregulated field, we
propose detailed scientific investigations must be made before
disease-associated claims are made by the scientific community".
Source: BioMed Central
------