• Question: What are adult mesenchymal stem cells?

    Asked by penguin27 to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      Hi Penguin,
      Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, are multipotent stem cells. This means that can be persuaded to change into a variety of cell types.

      Cell types that MSCs have been shown to turn into ( differentiate) include osteoblasts ( bone cells)
      chondrocytes ( cartilage cells)
      myocytes ( muscle cells)
      adipocytes (fat cells)

      MSC’s are normally found in bone marrow, although they do exist in other places. Mesenchymal stem cells have been studied in great detail and scientists have lots of knowledge about how to grow these cells in an incubator in the lab. The MSC’s can then be transplanted into patients where they can the make new cell types which can hopefully repair any damaged cells that patients might have.

    • Photo: Kara Cerveny

      Kara Cerveny answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      Mesenchymal stem cells can generate many different cell types within the mesodermal lineage, including bone, muscle, fat, and connective tissue cells. Many people hope that by culturing and understanding these cells, we will be able to develop replacement therapies for injuries and diseases. For more information, the wikipedia page is pretty good. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesenchymal_stem_cell)

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Good Q.
      Let’s break this down.
      As you probably know, stem cells are special cells in the body that are able to turn into different types of cells – this process is called differentiation.
      So most of the cells in your body are ‘differentiated cells’ – which means they are specially adapted to do certain things, or ‘specialised’ e.g. nerves are specialised in conducting electrical signals, the cells in your gut are designed to absorb nutrients and water, bone cells are designed to give your body support and make blood cells etc etc.
      Stem cells are non-specialised cells that have the ability to differentiate into different specialised cells so long as you give them the right signals. But there are different types of stem cells. So mesenchymal stem cells are those that can turn into specialised fat, bone or cartilage cells, but cannot turn into nerve cells, for instance. Although they are called ‘adult’, they can be found in fully formed humans – anybody older than a foetus. So I could extract them off you! Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, are obviously found in embryos, but they are able to literally turn into any type of cell you want.
      The reaons adult mesenchymal stem cells are exciting is because we think they can be used to help healing of wounds. People have used them to try and heal hearts after heart attacks and bones after breaks. Also, there aren’t the ethical issues that surround embryonic stem cells.
      Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types including: osteoblasts (bone cells), chondrocytes (cartilage cells), adipocytes (fat cells), endothelial cells (make up blood vessels), different blood cells etc etc.

      They can also be called ‘stromal cells’. They are called adult because they are found in formed mesenchymal tissue, rather than coming from an embryonic source

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