Source: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Date: August 4, 2009
Summary:
Canadian researchers have developed a way to direct unspecified human stem cells into becoming progenitor (or early) T cells, which then go to the thymus and give rise to mature T cells, an essential ingredient in immune system reconstitution. This critical advance in regenerative medicine, published in the July 30 edition of Blood, makes possible new approaches to treating people with severe immune deficiencies, such as children born with little or no immune system, or people who have had chemotherapy. Scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute created the human progenitor T cells from stem cells in the lab using a method that they patented. They then implanted them into immune-deficient mice, wherein the unspecified cells travelled to the thymus and produced mature T cells.
