Stem Cell Program | Adult Stem Cells – Boston Children’s Hospital

Scientists are discovering that many tissues and organs contain a small number ofadult stem cellsthat help maintain them. Adult stem cells have been found in the brain, bone marrow, lung, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, gut, liver, and other (although not all) organs and tissues. They are thought to live in a specific area of each tissue, where they may remain dormant (sometimes for years), dividing and creating new cells only when they are activated by tissue injury, disease or anything else that makes the body need more cells.

Adult stem cellscan be isolated from the body in different ways, depending on the tissue. Blood stem cells, for example, can be taken from a donorsbone marrow, from blood in the umbilical cord when a baby is born, or from a persons circulating blood.Mesenchymal stem cells, which can make bone, cartilage, fat, fibrous connective tissue, and cells that support the formation of blood can also be isolated frombone marrow.Neural stem cells(which form the brains three major cell types) have been isolated from specific parts of the brain and spinal cord. Isolatingadult stem cells, however, is just the first step. The cells then need to be grown to large enough numbers to be useful for treatment purposes. The laboratory of Leonard Zon, MD, director of the Stem Cell Program, has developed a technique for boosting numbers of blood stem cells thats now in Phase I clinical testing.

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Stem Cell Program | Adult Stem Cells - Boston Children's Hospital