STEM cells can help treat diseases by releasing growth factors, not just by replacing diseased tissue.
A team at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has shown that injecting embryonic stem cells into female mice before they become pregnant partially corrects a genetic heart defect in their offspring (Science, vol 306, p 247).
“Cells in the mums were secreting factors that crossed the placenta,” says team member Robert Benezra. Identifying such factors might lead to new treatments for a range of diseases. Some researchers suspect stem cells help treat heart attacks by secreting growth factors, for instance …
