Stem cell research has been considered a potentially thriving resource for a wide range of therapies for such diseases as Parkinson's Disease and heart disease. This is due to stem cells' ability to generate close to any type of cell in the body and their exceptional adaptability that make them effective tools to discover new treatments to fight deadly diseases.
While stem cell research has grown by leaps and bounds, there have been barriers to reaching this objective, particularly in producing an enormous amount of stem cells to realize these therapies. To overcome these, scientists conducted experiments on stem cells aboard the International Space Station. Why the ISS? This is because microgravity conditions in the ISS offer an ideal environment to explore new scientific methods and approaches, allowing researchers to hurdle logistic barriers to mass production of stem cells, potentially in the billions.
Hurdle to Stem Cell Therapies: Mass Stem Cell Production
This is because patients may need billions of cells as the specific treatment may require. While on Earth, gravity makes it challenging to produce these cells in massive quantities, which these treatments need. As such, stem cell research and mass production is deemed more effective in space, with the ISS as an ideal place to make that happen.
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has taken a giant leap to realize producing a type of stem cell in massive batches, a press announcement said. This stem cell can generate any type of cell in the bodytha can be used to make treatments for a number of diseases. One of its researchers, Dhruv Sareen, donated his own stem cells for the stem cell experiment in the ISS. Sareen's cells arrived aboard a SpaceX resupply mission - the SpX-25 dragon cargo mission - to the ISS over the weekend.
The experiment is the latest research project that involves shooting stem cells into space. Some, like this one, aim to overcome the terrestrial difficulty of mass producing the cells. Others explore how space travel impacts the cells in the body. And some help better understand diseases such as cancer.
In the previous stem cell research projects, the U.S., China and Italy brought to space various types of stem cells, including research on the effects of microgravity on cell-level heart function by Dr. Joseph Wu of Stanford University, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Wu led a series of programs onn of Washing space-based stem cell research last year.
Earth-based applications have so far been limited.
Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved stem cell products that carry blood-forming stem cells originating from umbilical cord blood to treat lymphoma. Stem cell treatments derived from stem cells sent to space have yet to be approved, according to Jeffrey McMillan of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
FDA-approved Stem Cell Products
The only stem cell-based products approved by the Food and Drug Administration contain blood-forming stem cells from umbilical cord blood for patients with blood disorders such as certain cases of lymphoma. There are no approved therapies using the kind of stem cells being sent to space or others derived from them, according to biomedical engineering expert Jeffrey Millman of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in an Interesting Engineering report.
McMillan noted that with present technology, even with FDA approval, capacity to manufacture these treatments is unattainable.
This is because large bioreactors are needed to produce stem cells on Earth. And these cells need to be stirred vigorously, so they don't stick together or precipitate to the bottom of the tank. The stirring process could also damage the cells. In microgravity, no such force is exerted on the cells, thus they are able to grow using a different approach.
The Cedars-Sinai research team sent a shoebox-sized container holding pluripotent stem cells for their NASA-funded experiment on the ISS. The container holds pumps and chemical solutions needed to keep the stem cells alive for four weeks, the Interesting Engineering report further said. The same experiment will be carried out on Earth for comparison. In about five weeks, the box sent to space will be brought back to Earth through the same SpaceX capsule it was sent to space on. The mission will help scientists directly evaluate results in space and on Earth in a short timeframe. This will offer valuable new insight that could help launch a burgeoning field of medical research.
