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Stem cells from human fat differentiate into muscle cells and produce dystrophin (green) when injected into mice.

Stem cells from fat tissue have the potential to become muscle, bone, or fat, according to a study by Rodriguez and colleagues on page 1397. These stem cells rescued the production of the muscle protein dystrophin in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a fatal muscle wasting disease of children. The authors think that these cells may eventually be promising for treatment of children with this deadly, and thus far untreatable, disease.

DMD is caused by a lack of the cytoskeletal protein dystrophin, which provides muscle cells with structural stability. Several treatment strategies for DMD are under investigation, including gene therapy to replace the defective dystrophin gene, and stem cell transplantation to generate new dystrophin-producing muscle cells.

Previous work by this group and others revealed the presence of stem cells in human fat tissue, but their longevity in vitro and capacity to differentiate in vivo had not been explored. Rodriguez et al. now show that fat tissue from young donors yielded self-renewing stem cells that could differentiate into muscle, bone, or fat cells in culture, even after 100 or more cell divisions. Similar stem cells have been found previously in bone marrow, but fat, the authors point out, provides a more plentiful and easily accessible source of these cells.

Injection of the stem cells into the muscles of dystrophin-deficient mice restored dystrophin production and decreased muscle cell necrosis, without eliciting an immune response against the human dystrophin protein—a protein that is normally highly immunogenic in mice. Why the immune system does not respond to this foreign protein is not known.Another unknown is how these stem cells become dystrophin-producing muscle cells. One possibility—illustrated in recent reports of stem cell therapy in mice—is that the stem cells fuse with local tissue cells rather than differentiating de novo into new cells.

hvanepps{at}rockefeller.edu

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This Article Full Text (PDF, 580K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JEM Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Epps, H. L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Van Epps, H. L. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?