RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. reported that a team of cardiovascular researchers in China have shown that Tβ4 can protect endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs or stem cells) derived from the blood of healthy human volunteers. This is the first report of apoptosis inhibition by Tβ4 in human EPCs and demonstrates that Tβ4 acts not only by recruiting stem cells, but also by promoting their survival and allowing greater numbers of stem cells to reach injured tissue.
Previously, two American groups, led by Dr. Gabriel Sosne (Wayne State University) and Dr. Deepak Srivastava (Gladstone Cardiovascular Institute - University of California, San Francisco) published similar cell survival activities in several animal models in the eye and heart, respectively. This current study is the first to translate and extend these observations to human stems cells and to identify other key molecules and pathways involved in protecting cells from apoptosis (cell death) after injury. The work was performed by researchers in the Department of Cardiology, Biomedical Research Center, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Province, China and published in the Journal of Cell Physiology, December 30, 2010 [Epub ahead of print].
"Preventing the death of EPCs by culturing cells with Tβ4, as shown in this study, is important in explaining how Tβ4 prevents damage and induces tissue regeneration after injury to the heart," stated Allan L. Goldstein, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC and RegeneRx's chief scientific advisor. "Since these data were generated using human cells, rather than animal cells, we believe it further supports the potential of using Tβ4 to recruit, protect and increase the viability of stem cells necessary for tissue regeneration after injury in humans."
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