2012-08-20 17:39:50
A new type of stem cell can cause cardiovascular damage
Sometimes, scientific research generates discoveries that put an end to ideas held true for decades. This is the case of the discovery that we are going to report here, which, in addition to correcting old errors, opens the door to new ways of treating and preventing cardiovascular diseases, one of the main causes of death in developed countries.
For many years, the medical and scientific community has assumed that the cells causing much of the damage seen in veins and arteries were muscle cells. This idea may seem strange if we are unaware of the fact that our veins and arteries are completely surrounded by smooth muscle cells. These cells contract or relax involuntarily, and are the same type as those found in the bladder, and allow it to contract to expel urine, or those found in the iris of the eyes, and allow the contraction and dilation of the pupil. The smooth muscle cells of the arteries and veins give them the elasticity necessary to allow fluid blood circulation, although the blood is only intermittently propelled by the heartbeat, in addition to participating in the control of blood pressure.
PROBLEMS WITH MUSCLE
Despite their fundamental function in maintaining adequate blood circulation, some studies indicated that smooth muscle cells were also the cause of circulatory pathologies. These studies detected adipose and bone cells in some lesions of veins and arteries, which led to think that, in response to some type of lesion, such as those produced by tobacco smoke, or those generated by the formation of fat deposits in the surface of the blood vessels caused by a poor diet, muscle cells were activated to repair said damage.
Some of these cells stopped being muscle cells and became dividing cells, which changed their way of life and were now dedicated to repairing the damage caused. If the repair was successful, there wasn’t much trace of it left; But if it was not, the muscle cells end up becoming an inappropriate cell type, particularly bone cells, which can cause calcifications, or fat cells, which can facilitate additional fat deposits, which decrease the diameter of veins and arteries. and hinder blood circulation.
However, detailed study of the circulatory lesions led to the strange discovery that they could also contain… neuronal cells! This was very strange. What could be happening?
Well, not long ago it had been discovered that a type of stem cell, the so-called neural crest stem cells, could become the three types of cells found in lesions of the circulatory pathways, including neuronal cells, and they could also become muscle cells. As we know, stem cells are precursor cells to others, and they have the ability to transform into various adult cells in a process called cellular differentiation.
BAD MOTHERS
In this vein, researchers from the University of California, USA, set out to find out whether bone, adipose and neuronal cells from blood vessel lesions could derive from stem cells similar to those of the neuronal crest. By analyzing the presence of molecules typical of these stem cells in the cells of veins and arteries, the researchers discovered a new, previously unsuspected class of stem cells that, in fact, is found in the veins and arteries of mice and humans. These discoveries have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
What is the origin and function of this new type of adult stem cell? It is something that remains to be elucidated. At the moment, it is unknown whether vascular stem cells, as this new cell type has been called, are normally found in blood vessels, or only come to them from other parts of the body when it is necessary to repair an injury. Be that as it may, it now seems clear that when this repair process is not completely successful, the stem cells, instead of becoming muscle cells, which is probably necessary to correctly repair a vascular microinjury, become another type of cell that Far from repairing, they create perhaps a bigger problem. Little by little, if the number of incorrectly repaired vascular injuries increases, our cardiovascular system degenerates to a critical point at which it can fail and cause death.
Detailed knowledge of these repair processes, which we hope future research will soon reveal, will perhaps make it possible to pharmacologically modulate the activity of these stem cells. In this way, it will perhaps be possible to avoid the mistakes that these cells make in the process of repair and remodeling of blood vessels, which happens constantly in our body. This could delay the degeneration of the cardiovascular system, or achieve correct repair if it is damaged. Without a doubt, this is a research topic to which it is advisable to put heart.
WORKS BY JORGE LABORDA.
One Moon, one civilization. Why the Moon tells us that we are alone in the Universe
One Moon one civilization why the Moon tells us we are alone in the universe
The intelligence funnel and other essays
The thousand and one bases of DNA and other scientific stories
#Cienciaes.com #Mothers #death