In this
article, The University of Nottingham has discovered a new substance that could simplify the production of cell therapy. The main problem with producing actual material from current research is the complexity of the living material. Stem cell production consists of two phases: proliferation (making an abundant amount of cells to be able to form large tissue) and differentiation (converting the basic stem cells into fully functional cells). These two phases need to take place in two separate environments. Until now, there has not been a single substance that performs both phases successfully. A team of researchers at Nottingham believes they have successfully created a new stem cell micro-environment which allows for both the self-renewal of cells and their evolution into cardiomyocyte (heart) cells. The material that does this is a hydrogel containing two polymers: an alginate-rich environment allowing proliferation of cells with an uncomplicated chemical switch to deliver the environment collagen-rich when the cell population is large enough. When cells develop a specific purpose, this change triggers the next stage of cell growth.
The benefits of stem cells are constantly being researched. Now that there is a breakthrough in this research, there's no telling what researchers will find. I believe there are many major benefits to stem cells and am very eager to see what research finds out next about them.
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