Friday, August 22, 2008

Stem cells target bowel disease

By Mass High Tech Staff

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators this week announced that infusions of a specific bone marrow stem cell may help to control inflammatory bowel disease.

In a report published in the journal Stem Cells, the researchers from the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine said that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) allowed the regeneration of the gastrointestinal lining in mice with a genetic mutation leading to multiorgan autoimmune disease.

The lead researcher, Biju Parekkadan, said the findings suggest that MSC therapy could become a useful treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. Parekkadan noted that previous studies have show that the cells have an ability to inhibit specific subsets of T cells and relieve symptoms in particular autoimmune disorders, but claimed that the MGH research is the first demonstration of their ability to suppress a broad-based autoimmune reaction and protect gastrointestinal tissue.

Inflammatory bowel disease also has been targeted by New England companies such as Millennium Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, now branded as Millennium: the Takeda Oncology Co., which recently said it is moving into Phase 3 trials of its drug Velcade, claimed to be the world’s first proteasome inhibitor, as a treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases.

There have been estimates that irritable bowel syndrome, the name for the aches and pains that come with irregular bowel activity, afflicts about 27 million Americans and is linked to nearly $20 billion in costs in the United States.