Rice University and Texas Children’s Hospital scientists are using stem cells from amniotic fluid to promote the growth of robust, functional blood vessels in healing hydrogels.
In new experiments, the lab of bioengineer Jeffrey Jacot combined versatile amniotic stem cells with injectable hydrogels used as scaffolds in regenerative medicine and proved they enhance the development of vessels needed to bring blood to new tissue and carry waste products away.
The results appear in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A.
Jacot and his colleagues study the use of amniotic fluid cells from pregnant women to help heal infants born with congenital heart defects. Such fluids, drawn during standard tests, are generally discarded but show promise for implants made from a baby’s own genetically matched material.
He contends amniotic stem cells are valuable for their ability to differentiate into many other types of cells, including endothelial cells that form blood vessels.
“The main thing we’ve figured out is how to get a vascularized device: laboratory-grown tissue that is made entirely from amniotic fluid cells,” Jacot said. “We showed it’s possible to use only cells derived from amniotic fluid.”
In the lab, researchers from Rice, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine combined amniotic fluid stem cells with a hydrogel made from polyethylene glycol and fibrin. Fibrin is a biopolymer critical to blood clotting, cellular-matrix interactions, wound healing and angiogenesis, the process by which new vessels branch off from existing ones. Fibrin is widely used as a bioscaffold but suffers from low mechanical stiffness and rapid degradation. Combining fibrin and polyethylene glycol made the hydrogel much more robust, Jacot said.
The lab used vascular endothelial growth factor to prompt stem cells to turn into endothelial cells, while the presence of fibrin encouraged the infiltration of native vasculature from neighboring tissue.
Mice injected with fibrin-only hydrogels showed the development of thin fibril structures, while those infused with the amniotic cell/fibrin hydrogel showed far more robust vasculature, according to the researchers.
Similar experiments using hydrogel seeded with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal cells also showed vascular growth, but without the guarantee of a tissue match, Jacot said. Seeding with endothelial cells didn’t work as well as the researchers expected, he said.
The lab will continue to study the use of amniotic cells to build biocompatible patches for the hearts of infants born with birth defects and for other procedures, Jacot said.
Rice alumnus Omar Benavides, now a senior product development engineer at Procyrion, is lead author of the paper. Co-authors are Rice undergraduates Abigail Brooks and Sung Kyung Cho; Rice alumnus Jennifer Petsche Connell, now a researcher at Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute, and Rodrigo Ruano, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Fetal Center and a professor at Baylor College of Medicine.
Jacot is an associate professor of bioengineering at Rice, director of the Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Laboratory at the Congenital Heart Surgery Service at Texas Children’s and an adjunct assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.
The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation supported the research.
This is rather interesting… I admire scientists because the discoveries they make prove to be breakthroughs for the human race. I hope this works, it could save many lives.
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Since the patches are provisioned to be made from the implants material, how would this work exactly ? Because I doubt a heart defect would be able to be detected during the early stages when the stem cells of the foetus are considered amniotic? Or is the plan to make this system to work in the same way as finding a match in organ donor processes?
Truly marvelous when these discoveries can benefit humanity!
I only wonder if this would not take away from the body’s natural cell and vascular creation abilities, just as the hormone creation abilities lessen when external sources are introduced. Would we not be creating a crutch for the human race that would, in time, cause us to become dependent on the artificial creation of a healthy body? Also the positive points in this article are inexcusable. This is a breakthrough and an amazing feat in biology itself. I take my hat off to the minds at Baylor college of medicine.
The work they have done is astounding and I cannot fathom how many lives this could improve. I hope that everyone affected by this work really understands the hours of research and dedication that have been put into this and that the due gratitude is given. I love the fact that science is evolving to save and improve lives. It makes the tough times worth the reward. u15180965
I hope the people get their deserved credit and are rewarded for their hard work.
Science yet again proves that the human body is a wonderful thing. If amniotic stems cells can help mend birth defects of the heart surely they can be used to help with nerve or muscle defects too? Either way, hats off to the people dedicated to finding ways of helping others.