Scientists identify the possible human lung cell

NEW YORK - scientists believe they discovered stem cells in the lung that can make a wide variety of tissues of the organ, a finding that could open new doors for the treatment of emphysema and other diseases.

When these human cells were injected into mice, they showed their versatility by rebuilding airways, air bags and the blood vessels within two weeks. An expert called as "amazing".

While stem cells have been found in the bone marrow and other parts of the body, it was not clear whether such a versatile cell existed in the lungs.

Experts not involved in the study stressed that the work must be confirmed by other research and that it is too early to make promises on therapies. But they said that this could be a significant advance in a difficult area of research.

"These are remarkable results and they have extraordinary implications, said Dr. Alan Fine, Boston University, who called the amazing results mouse." But it must be replicated. ?

Stem cells can produce a wide variety of specialized cell types. Scientists are trying to exploit as repair kits to repair the damage caused by diseases such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. Most people have heard speak of embryonic stem cells, which caused controversy because embryos must be destroyed to recover.

However, the new cell of lung would be an "adult" stem cell, as others have found in the body. Adult stem cells maintain and repair the tissues where they are found. Bone marrow cells, for example, give rise to different types of blood cells, and have been used for years of transplants to treat leukemia and other blood diseases.

The work of lung is reported in issue of the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday by the Drs Piero Anversa and Joseph Loscalzo and his colleagues Brigham and women's Hospital in Boston. In a telephone interview, Anversa said that it is not clear of what lung stem cells normally done but he thinks that he is involved in the replacement of other lung cells lost life.

Loscalzo said that it is too early to say what lung diseases could be treated one day cells. He said at the outset, researchers are studying high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs, called pulmonary hypertension and emphysema. Emphysema is a progressive disease that destroys the key parts of the lung, leaving of large cavities that interfere with the function of the lung.

Anversa said that cells can also be useful to accumulate the lungs after surgery for lung cancer. It is not clear if they could be used in the treatment of asthma, said he.

Although theoretically the strain lung cell could be used to cultivate a lung in a laboratory for transplantation, Loscalzo said it would be very difficult because the lung is so complex. Instead, he said, scientists will be first examine isolate cells from a patient, their multiplication in the laboratory and then by injecting their return into the lungs of the patient.

The mouse experiments showed "cells are more intelligent that we are", able to build structures of normal lung in an injured lung, he said.

The researchers found cell samples from surgical made a donation of adult tissues. The same cells appeared in tissue was donated by nine fetuses that died, give evidence that cells are present before birth and may participate in the development of the lung. To study the behavior of cells, researchers injured lungs of mice and then injected six doses of about 20 000 cells each.

In the 10 to 14 days, injected cells had formed airways, blood vessels and air bags. "We had a very large amount of regeneration" involving millions of new cells, Anversa said.

New tissues showed a "seamless" connection to the rest of the lung, and researchers believe that it would work, which has not been tested, said Loscalzo. The results appear in all 29 tested mice.

Dr. Brigitte Gomperts offshore Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, said scientific have been hotly debating whether a unique type of stem cells might give rise to more than 40 cell types in the cells of lung _ who are such different jobs to protect the body of inhaled germs and oxygen for carbon dioxide exchange of. It is technically difficult to investigate, said Gomperts, who was not involved in the work again.

If the new results can be confirmed, "this is a significant step forward" that will help understand normal and abnormal lung repair relief found in the disease, she said.

Armadillos, related human leprosy

There are many anecdotal reports of leprosy in humans who have manipulated, killed or eaten and armadillos.Mammals leathery shell found in 10 statesArmadillos in the South of the United States are the only animals besides humans to carry signs of leprosyEarly of leprosy can be easy for patients and doctors to neglect

Several years of(canstar) - an elderly woman of 81 years, with an elevated spot of dry skin on his arms visited dermatologist Mississippi John Abide, M.D.

Although the injury seemed only slightly abnormal, a series of laboratory tests revealed that it was a symptom of leprosy.

"I thought," leprosy, are you kidding me? "". ", explains Abide, which practice in Greenville. Her surprise was understandable.

Each year nearly 150 people in the United States are infected with leprosy, a bacterial infection that can lead to damage and disfigurement of nerve. In most cases, people are infected after being exposed to the saliva of an infected person, usually on a trip to some parts of the world, such as Africa and Asia where the disease is most widespread.

But the patient of the Abide match this description.

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A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine can provide an explanation for his case: armadillos. Leathery shelled mammals, found in ten States in the American Southeast, are the only animals besides humans known to carry leprosy.

There are many anecdotal reports of leprosy in humans who have manipulated, killed or eaten armadillos, or who may have been indirectly exposed by gardening in the soil where the animals Burrow, as was the case for the ask patient.

But so far, experts have not been able to confirm that armadillos could pass the disease to humans. The study provides the strongest evidence to date. Researchers have analyzed the genomes of cause of leprosy bacteria from seven patients and an Armadillo.

After the identification of specific strains of bacteria, they compared with a broader of infected persons and tattoos across group in the world.

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50 Patients and 33 wild armadillos researchers analyzed and United States, the 25 patients and 28 armadillos share a genetically identical strain of leprosy bacteria. And at least 8 of 25 patients with strain reported contact with armadillos.

"It is difficult to prove specific causation," says Richard Truman, Ph.d., one of the authors of the study and the Chief of the microbiology research program of the disease of Hansen National, Washington, D.C. (leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease).

However, the chance that humans with the armadillo strain specific have been infected by other means, adds, is about 1 in 10 000. Armadillo in the United States population was estimated at 30 to 50 million, and studies suggest that, in some places up to 15% have leprosy.

Infected animals are now concentrated in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama, but the population of Armadillo seems to be spread North and East and could cause leprosy with it.

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Truman stated that people in these areas can possibly see a minor increase in risk, but so far leprosy has not been detected in animals on the coast is.

"Leprosy is a rare disease and will remain a rare disease", he said. Doctors should be for signs of the disease, said again, James Krahenbuhl, Ph.d., Director of Hansen National disease program. "Most of the physicians are unaware that leprosy exists even in the United States, and they lack the diagnosis."

Leprosy usually becomes a chronic disease, Krahenbuhl said, but it can be corrected if it is treated with drugs multiple in the early stages, where the disease has only caused skin lesions. On the left are not treated, it can lead to nerve damage in some patients.

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Respect the suspected new cases of leprosy in the United States are widely, because the first signs may be easy for patients and doctors to neglect until decades later, when more serious symptoms.

"It kind of makes me Stevie wonder, more subtle, as is the case, if I am missing something," he said. It is used up to 30% of the residents in the rural area have been in contact with armadillos, Abide estimates.

He urges his patients not to touch, manipulate or eat animals and to guide memories made from carcasses of Armadillo, which are very popular in Texas. The new study should help to raise awareness, he said.

When he tells his patients armadillos cause leprosy, he explained, "they type of look like I'm crazy.".