UF researchers awarded $1.2 million NIH grant to convert bone marrow stem cells into brain cells

University of Florida researchers are seeking to determine whether adult bone marrow stem cells can be coaxed into brain cells and if so, what molecular factors are necessary to nudge a stem cell down that path.

The ability to transform bone marrow stem cells into brain cells would theoretically give physicians an endless supply that could be used in future treatments of various brain disorders.

"We're looking at the ways in cell culture that we can affect the choice of a stem cell to go down particular cell fate lineages, and we're devising conditions and factors that promote turning one type of stem cell into another type of tissue," said Dennis A. Steindler, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience and neurosurgery at UF's College of Medicine who also is affiliated with UF's McKnight Brain Institute and the UF Shands Cancer Center.

A $1.2 million, four-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will support the new research led by Steindler and his colleagues Edward Scott, Ph.D., director of UF's Program in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and Eric Laywell, Ph.D, a research assistant professor of neuroscience. Initially, the study will be limited to cell cultures and mice, but as the scientists learn more they plan to expand the research to people.

In recent years, the stem cell's true potential has been rigorously scrutinized. Many say stem cell research will likely lead to a better understanding of cancer, the aging process and the role of genetics in various diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Headlines trumpet the latest scientific discoveries: Adult stem cells can create blood vessels, make liver cells and morph into pancreatic islet cells.

"The stem cell is a very indecisive cell-it doesn't know what it will turn into, it's undifferentiated," Steindler said. "The idea is you can place it in various conditions and tell it to become a brain cell or a blood cell. There does appear to be some potential for one stem cell type from one tissue, let's say bone marrow cells, to change into brain cells if you present them with the molecular cues that normally induce primitive cells to mature into specific kinds of cells in various body organs and tissues. If we can get stem cells out of bone marrow to differentiate into brain cells like we want, that could be quite important or relevant for your own ability to self-repair neurological disease."

Despite all the excitement, the ability of adult stem cells to change into other types of cells is controversial, Steindler said.

"Some people have claimed to do it and others are now questioning those claims, in part because of how these studies were designed and what tests scientists used," he said. "Some people claimed it's possible, and we�re going to give it the real test."

The UF team has developed tests to definitively answer the question of whether bone marrow stem cells can become brain cells' not just look as if they did. Bjorn Scheffler, Ph.D., a newly recruited UF neuroscientist, will perform the physiological characterization of cells.

"When a cell has a genetic program to live within a certain tissue, that program is malleable, but you have to make sure that all of the genes have converted to the other cell type or tissue type, and that's what I think is questionable now about previous studies," Steindler said. "It may look like a duck and quack like a duck, but it has to really be the duck. We want to make sure a cell can forget where it came from and concentrate on where it's now living."

"Even though cells may express some markers of a neuron, we need to actually show they can send electrical messages like a neuron," Steindler said. "We now have a way of proving whether a stem cell really behaves like a brain cell."