Researcher Dhruv Sarin’s own stem cells are now orbiting the Earth. The mission? To test if they would grow better in zero gravity.
Scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are trying to find new ways to produce huge batches of a type of stem cell that can generate almost every other type of cell in the body — and potentially be used to treat many diseases. The cells arrived at the International Space Station over the weekend on a supply ship.
“I don’t think I could pay whatever it costs now” to take a private trip to space, Sareen said. “At least a part of me in the cages can rise up!”
The experiment is the latest research project to launch stem cells into space. Some, like this one, aim to overcome Earth’s difficulty in mass-producing cells. Others study how space travel affects cells in the body. And some help better understand diseases like cancer.
“By pushing the boundaries like this, it’s knowledge, it’s science, and it’s learning,” said Clive Svendsen, executive director of Cedars-Sinai’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Six earlier projects from the U.S., China and Italy sent different types of stem cells — including his team’s study of the effects of microgravity on heart function at the cellular level, said Stanford University’s Dr. Joseph Wu, who directs the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute . Last year, Wu helped coordinate a series of space stem cell research programs.
The earthly applications of much of this research may be a bit far off.
At this time, the only stem cell-based products approved by the Food and Drug Administration contain hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood for patients with blood disorders such as some cases of lymphoma. There are no approved therapies using the kind of stem cells sent into space or others derived from them, said Jeffrey Millman, a biomedical engineering expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
But ongoing clinical trials involving stem cells are targeting conditions such as macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease and heart attack damage. And Millman is involved in research that could lead to a new approach to treating type 1 diabetes.
Scientists see great promise in stem cells.
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THE DILEMMA OF GRAVITY
That promise is tempered by a frustrating terrestrial problem: the planet’s gravity makes it difficult to grow the vast quantities of cells needed for future therapies, which may require more than a billion per patient.
“With the current technology right now, even if the FDA immediately approved one of these therapies, we don’t have the capacity to manufacture” what is needed, Millman said.
The problem? In large bioreactors, the cells must be stirred vigorously or they clump or fall to the bottom of the tank, Millman said. Stress can cause most cells to die.
“At zero G, there’s no force on the cells, so they can just grow differently,” Svendsen said.
The Cedars-Sinai team sent so-called induced pluripotent stem cells. Many scientists consider them the perfect starting materials for any personalized cell-based treatments. They carry the patient’s own DNA, and their versatility makes them similar to embryonic stem cells, only reprogrammed from the skin or blood cells of adults.
For their experiment, which is funded by NASA, a shoebox-sized container contains bags filled with spheres of cells and all the pumps and solutions needed to keep them alive for four weeks. The cargo will also include neural stem cells originating from Svendsen. The scientists used stem cells derived from their own white blood cells because it was easy for them to give consent.
They will conduct the experiment remotely with a box of cells on Earth for comparison. They will return the space experiment in about five weeks when it returns to the same SpaceX capsule.
The work is intended to pave the way for more NASA-funded research. If they can figure out how to get billions of cells into orbit, Svendsen said, “the impact could be huge.”
HIGH FUTURE
During the same cargo launch, UC San Diego researchers sent blood stem cells to the space station, a repeat of an experiment they did last year. They want to know if low Earth orbit causes cells to age faster, leading to problems that initiate precancerous changes. One of the goals is to protect the health of astronauts.
Afshin Beheshti, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said scientists are just beginning to understand some of the risks of space travel.
“There are more unknowns than knowns in space,” he said. “Each new kind of experiment will shed light on how the body responds to the space environment.”
Ultimately, Beheshti said, the research should lead to more than practical, down-to-earth solutions like new drugs. It will also help with distant human aspirations, such as life on other planets.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Division is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Division of Science Education. AP is solely responsible for all content.
Laura Ungar, Associated Press
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