/ News
Endothelial Cells Can Repair and Regenerate Organs, Researchers Find
According to two studies published in the journal Stem Cells and the journal Developmental Cell (full paper), damaged or diseased human organs may someday be healed with an injection of engineered endothelial cells, the cells that make up the structure of blood vessels.
Lead investigator Prof Shahin Rafii from Weill Cornell Medical College and Ansary Stem Cell Institute, and his colleagues show that endothelial cells are powerful biological machines that drive regeneration in organ tissues by releasing beneficial, organ-specific molecules.
They discovered this by decoding the entirety of active genes in endothelial cells, revealing hundreds of known genes that had never been associated with these cells.
They also found that organs dictate the structure and function of their own blood vessels, including the repair molecules they secrete.
“Together, the studies show that endothelial cells and the organs they are transplanted into work together to repair damage and restore function. When an organ is injured, its blood vessels may not be able to repair the damage on their own because they may themselves be harmed or inflamed.”
“Our work suggests that that an infusion of engineered endothelial cells could engraft into injured tissue and acquire the capacity to repair the organ,” Prof Rafii said.
“These studies – along with the first molecular atlas of organ-specific blood vessel cells reported in the Developmental Cell paper – will open up a whole new chapter in translational vascular medicine and will have major therapeutic application.”
“Scientists had thought blood vessels in each organ are the same, that they exist to deliver oxygen and nutrients. But they are very different, and each organ is endowed with blood vessels with unique shape and function and delegated with the difficult task of complying with the metabolic demands of that organ.”
In the Developmental Cell study, the scientists examined nine different tissues at homeostasis as well as liver and bone marrow recovering from a traumatic injury. They developed technology that helped them obtain a pure population of endothelial cells in a very rapid time frame. From these cells, they were able to take a snapshot of all the genes that are being expressed in the various populations of endothelial cells known as vascular beds.
They found that endothelial cells possess tissue-specific genes that code for unique growth factors, adhesion molecules, and factors regulating metabolism.
“We knew that these gene products were critical to the health of a particular tissue, but before our study it was not appreciated that these factors originate in the endothelial cells,” said Dr Daniel Nolan of Weill Cornell Medical College, first author of the Developmental Cell study and co-author of the study published in the Stem Cells.
The findings raise the question as to how endothelial cells have the capacity to adapt to the biological demands of each organ. Is it possible to design immature endothelial cells that could allow scientists to identify the means by which the microenvironmental cues educate them to become more specialized endothelial cells?
To address this issue, the team postulated that endothelial cells derived from embryonic stem cells could behave as resilient endothelial cells, being able to be taught how to act like an organ-specific blood vessel. Indeed, in the Stem Cellsstudy, the scientists generated endothelial cells from mouse embryonic stem cells that were functional, transplantable and responsive to microenvironmental signals.
These embryonic-derived endothelial cells are versatile, so they can be transplanted into different tissues, become educated by the tissue, and acquire the characteristics of the native endothelial cells. Researchers can propagate these cells in large numbers in the laboratory.
“We now know what it takes to keep these cells healthy, stable and viable for transplantation,” said Dr Sina Rabbany of Weill Cornell Medical College, who is a senior author of the Stem Cells study.
“Additional preclinical investigation is required before study of endothelial cell transplantation in humans is possible, but the therapeutic potential of endothelial cell transplantation is endless. They could also be used as Trojan horses to block tumor growth, they could be altered to carry toxic chemicals. They could become biological cruise missiles, directed to do many things inside diseased organs. Our work has just begun,” Dr Rafii concluded.
Source: http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/science-endothelial-cells-repair-regenerate-organs-01451.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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