Can nutritional cocktail boost stem cells?
New supplement could be used for treatment of Alzheimer's disease
A new report by a team of scientific researchers working with stem cells reveals it may be possible to stimulate production of stem cells essential for repairing the body with a nutritional cocktail.
A peer-reviewed report set for publication in the Journal of Translational Medicine suggests that a commercially available supplement can increase blood circulation of hematopoietic stem cells, which can mature into blood cells: white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets, and endothelial progenitor cells, which reside in the adult bone marrow or circulate in the blood and repair damage to blood vessels. Get "Smart Medicine" and find out what you should know about medications!
Thomas Ichim, CEO of Medistem Inc., worked with a team of 13 researchers from industry and academia to investigate whether the supplement, containing a cocktail of green tea, astralagus, goji berry extracts, "good" bacteria lactobacillus fermentum, antioxidant ellagic acid, immune enhancer beta 1,3 glucan and vitamin D3, could increase the number of stem cells circulating in the blood.
The team recruited 18 healthy adults between the ages of 20 and 72 who took the supplement twice daily. Researchers took blood from the adults before beginning the course and tested for cell activity in the following days. They then confirmed whether taking the supplement changed the overall levels of hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells in the blood.
"Hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells increased after taking the nutritional supplement, suggesting that the supplement may be a useful stimulator for both types of stem cells," the report said. "In this study, the levels of these stem cells peaked at 2-7 days and started to drop at 14 days, suggesting that this supplement could be used for continuous treatment for conditions associated with decreases in these stem cells such as Alzheimer's disease."
The statement notes that other therapeutic treatments to increase hematopoietic stem cells are not practical as long-term solutions because of high costs and greater health risks caused by the exceptionally elevated levels of stem cells that the treatments maintain in the blood.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating profound mobilization effect with possible clinical significance by a food supplement-based approach," the report's authors said. "Indeed it may be possible that our supplement could be beneficial in conditions associated with reduced progenitor cells such as diabetes or in smokers which possess lower baseline values as compared to controls."
However, they added, "[G]iven commercial pressures associated with this largely unregulated field, we propose detailed scientific investigations must be made before disease-associated claims are made by the scientific community."
As WND has reported, Medistem previously reported a medical advance that would make the use of embryonic stem cells unnecessary. The group also revealed fat cells may be used to slow or repair physical nerve deterioration caused by the incurable multiple sclerosis. Three patients treated with fat procedures "showed dramatic improvement in their condition."
Medistem reported successful testing of an adult cell that can match tissues in the heart, lung, liver, pancreas, blood vessels, brain, muscle, bone and fat.
Contact: Chelsea Schilling
Source: WorldNetDaily
Publish Date: April 8, 2010
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