Scientists at the University of Manchester are working out how natural sugars in the body could be used to guide stem cell treatments for heart disease and nerve injuries.
Every cell that makes up the body's tissues, such as liver, skin, brain and blood, is coated in a layer of sugars. This layer defines the cell's type and its relationship with neighbouring cells, and controls which chemical messengers can pass.
How do different cells make these different patterns of sugars, and how do the sugars affect how cells behave? "At the moment, how cells make these sugars isn't well understood," says Dr Merry, who leads the research. "But we think isolated parts of these sugars could be used to make cells behave in a particular way, to force a cell to make one type of cell rather than another, and so affect how it grows and interacts with other cells."
The research also raises the possibility of using sugars to grow embryonic stem cells in the lab, or steer them to become particular types of cell, for use in treating problems with nerve cells, heart muscle and blood cells. The work is expected to take about three years with high-quality lab tools and the help of several companies and labs.
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