According to Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC), Iranian researchers produced laboratorial samples of scaffolds made of nanofibers which have been designed to produce effective cells from stem cells to cure diseases, including diabetes and liver diseases.
Treatment of malfunctioning organs such as insulin producing cells in the treatment of diabetes is one of the unsolved mysteries in the field of medicine. In many cases, organ transplant is suggested as the optional therapy in the treatment of liver, lung or pancreas. However, there are problems in this therapeutic method such as the few number of compatible transplant organs, surgery side effects, transplant rejection and expensive cost; therefore, therapeutic cells can be considered as a replacement to overcome these problems.
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are potentially able to be distinguished from all human tissue cells. Therefore, it is known as an unlimited source for cell therapy in clinical applications. The formation of definitive endoderm cell is the first and the most important step in the growth of organs such as pancreas and liver in vertebrates. Therefore, the production of this cell guarantees production of all types of effective cells in the treatment of diseases related to organs such as diabetes and liver. Therefore, the aim of the research was to produce initial endoderm cells with high efficiency from hiPSCs on nanofibrous scaffolds.
The research findings may help distinguish of stem cells from hepatocytes and insulin producing cells to cure liver diseases and diabetes. Based on the results, the iPSCs produced in this research can be distinguished from definitive endoderm cells with high efficiency.
Results of the research have been published in Journal of Biomedical Research, vol. 102, issue 11, 2014, pp. 4027-4036.
MS/PR