Fight Aging!

First generation stem cell therapies trialed and tested around the world over the past few years - really advances in transplant technology that build on new tools and knowledge - are the results of smart educated guesses and trying things out to see if they work. Progress is being made in understanding how stem cell transplants cause regeneration: if it is in fact the case that transplants work because the transplanted stem cells are issuing biochemical commands to the local environment - a task that existing stem cells fail to carry out due to age-related damage or other problems - then refined versions of these regenerative therapies may proceed without the use of stem cells at all, issuing the necessary signals directly. For the moment we use cells as proxies to accomplish what we cannot; a sign that we don't yet have the knowledge and tools to completely control the inner workings of cells and manage complexity in healing.

Prompting this line of thought is a Nature report on the effectiveness of fetal stem cells in burn regeneration:

Patrick Hohlfeld of the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his team decided to explore the potential of fetal skin cells in grafts. Fetuses have long been known to have remarkable regenerative abilities. Hohlfeld says he expected the skin cells to act as a graft. But the cells seemed to confer restorative powers to the burnt skin, allowing the damaged tissue to heal itself.

The team doesn't know exactly how the skin cells had this effect. But Hohlfeld thinks the technique could work for adult burns, as well as other wounds.

...

Other forms of treating similar burns frequently take up to six times as long. The remarkable flexibility of the skin mended with the fetal cells meant that the patients recovered full movement of their hands and fingers, the authors add.

The result not only gave the patients nearly perfect skin, but also spared them the trauma of having a graft taken from elsewhere on their body, Hohlfeld adds.

As for the present lines of research using adult stem cells, we should expect scientists to make rapid progress towards understanding why this therapy is so effective. Are the fetal stem cells simply manipulating the local environment in a way that transplanted adult stem cells cannot, or are different mechanisms in play? Regardless of the answer, seeking out the mechanisms of regeneration will lead to better answers to all forms of injury and degeneration.