Men Potentially Carry Own Supply of Stem Cells

Woody Allen famously quipped that his brain was his second favorite organ. Researchers have found that men may have a ready supply of stem cells in their first favorite organ, specifically, in their testes. Researchers have identified a type of stem cell in mouse testes that can be transformed into nearly any type of tissue or cells which could be used as transplants to repair damaged organs like the brain. As the Washington Post reports:

U.S. researchers say they've successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells from the testes of male mice into a wide variety of cell types, including functional blood vessels, contractile cardiac tissue, and brain cells.

If the same can be done with adult testes stem cells from humans, they may offer a source of new therapies to treat men with health problems such as heart disease, vascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and even cancer, the researchers said…

For male patients, this "could someday mean a readily available source of stem cells that gets around ethical issues linked to embryonic stem cells. It also avoids issues linked to tissue transplant rejection, since these autologous cells come from the patient's own body," said [Shahin Rafii, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.]

The researchers will shortly try to find such cells in human testes. This morning an NPR reporter asked one of the researchers if anyone in the lab had volunteered to donate tissue for the research. He replied that they had discussed it and so far no one has put it on the line for science yet.

Whole Post article here.