Doubt Cast on Adult Stem-Cell Plasticity Studies.

Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

CHEVY CHASE, Md., Oct. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a study that calls into question the plasticity of adult stem cells, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, have demonstrated that adult bone marrow cells can fuse with brain, heart and liver cells in the body.

The phenomenon of fusion would give the appearance that bone marrow stem cells are altering themselves to become mature cells in other tissues, when in fact they are not, according to one of the study's senior authors, HHMI investigator Sean J. Morrison at the University of Michigan.

The researchers published their findings October 12, 2003, in the online version of the journal Nature. The studies were carried out by collaborating scientists, Manuel Alvarez-Dolado and Ricardo Pardal, in the laboratories of Arturo Alvarez-Buylla of the University of California, San Francisco and Morrison at the University of Michigan. Other co-authors are from the University of Valencia in Spain, the University of Dusseldorf in Germany and MIT.

The ability of bone marrow cells to contribute at very low levels to other tissues was previously interpreted as indicating that these cells had the plasticity to make…