Stem Cells from Menstral Blood? .. Yep ..
Related News: Heart / Cardio News, Stem Cell ResearchStem cell researchers in Japan have found that stem cells can actually be harvested from human menstrual blood.
Sure enough, the stem cells are sound very much like hematopoietic stem cells in that they can differentiate into specialised heart cells. Naturally, the goal is to investigate if these cells may be able to be used to treat heart damage.
At American College of Cardiology meeting, Dr Shunichiro Miyoshi reported that he and his team at Keio University in Tokyo collected menstrual blood from six women. The stem cells they harvested originated in the lining of the uterus.
What actually makes it interesting is that the researchers were could obtain almost 30 times more stem cells from menstrual blood than from bone marrow.
The stem cells differentiated to heart cells and after about five days the cells contracted "spontaneously, rhythmical and synchronously, suggesting the presence of electrical communication" between the cells, Miyoshi says.
Posted on March 14, 2006 02:47 PM