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Scientist at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research Leads Study Demonstrating Drug-Induced Tissue Regeneration

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

(WYNNEWOOD, PA) – A study led by Ellen Heber-Katz, PhD, of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR), part of Main Line Health (MLH), shows that a primordial form of energy production that still exists in mammals can be harnessed to achieve spontaneous tissue regeneration in mice, without the need for added stem cells. The study findings were reported in the June 3, 2015, issue of Science Translational Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Key collaborators in the study, which was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, included Yong Zhang, PhD (LIMR), Iossif Strehin, PhD (Allergan), and Phillip Messersmith, PhD (University of California, Berkeley).

Heber-Katz notes that unlike other approaches to tissue regeneration, their group found that it was possible to achieve healthy tissue regrowth in a mouse model in situ, without the use of stem cells.

“Our experiment shows the possibility of taking mature cells and, with addition of HIF-1a, causing dedifferentiation to a highly immature state where the cells can proliferate, followed by redifferentiation upon withdrawal of HIF-1a,” says Heber-Katz. “Many researchers in the field see tissue regeneration as a very complex set of events, but some of us look at it more as a process that needs to be turned on and allowed to go to completion. This is what is so exciting about what we saw with drug-induced stabilization of HIF-1a.”

Heber-Katz and her collaborators plan to move ahead to modify the drug delivery system to achieve an ideal formulation, which they will use to investigate regrowth potential in many types of tissues.

“This remarkable work has vast importance in medicine and surgery and spotlights the diverse and important scientific investigations underway at LIMR,” says George Prendergast, PhD, President and CEO of LIMR. “We are committed to the quest to discover therapies that make healthy tissue regeneration a possibility in humans.”

REFERENCE
Zhang Y, Strehin I, Bedelbaeva K, Gourevitch D, Clark L, Leferovich J, Messersmith PB, Heber-Katz E. Drug-induced regeneration in adult mice. Sci Transl Med. 2015;290.

SOURCE

http://www.mainlinehealth.org/wtn/Page.asp?PageID=WTN001668&elq=0d54473cb38a47049bc33b8393fe50b2&elqCampaignId=6&elqaid=12979&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d028a3280aa5439f9fefc5285b34a947