The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Polymer gel opens up stem cell therapy possibilities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 25, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Polymer gel opens up stem cell therapy possibilities

M. Dinesh Varma

Ability to foster stem cells faster and prolong life could bring down treatment costs Ability to foster stem cells faster and prolong life can bring down treatment costs

CHENNAI: Nichi-In Biosciences, a Chennai-based Indo-Japan joint venture company, and the Kidney Diseases and Institute of Organ Transplantation at St. Thomas Hospital plan to collaborate on tapping possibilities thrown up by a new polymer gel for advanced stem cell therapy and research.

What is of interest to KIOT is a hydrocolloid polymer gel, a product of the Japanese biotechnology firm Mebiol Inc being fine-tuned through research projects by Nichi-In, that could facilitate stem cell proliferation for treatment of various cancers and hepatic infections.

The modalities of the collaboration are being worked out, said Dr. Samuel J. K. Abraham, Nichi-In Director.

The non-biological polymer gel which holds in liquid state at room temperature masses up on being injected into the human body. In regular conventional cell culture, the cells are retrieved after growth using enzymes such as Collagenase which is not only cumbersome but also involves some amount of enzyme related damage. But with this polymer, as it liquefies when cooled from gel state (at 20 Celsius) recovery of cells grown in this is very easy and damage free, Dr. Abraham said.

"The handicap we had been facing in culturing cells was that the stimulated growth was confined to a two-dimensional form whereas using the new polymer allows free floating three-dimensional cellular growth rapidly," said Dr. P. Ravichandran, Head, KIOT.

Stem cell research has also been impeded by the lack of an ideal binding agent that could hold cell structures in natural patterns. The polymer gel is expected to provide the solution in this regard by engineering growth along natural patterns.

The new technology could also be of critical value in the preservation of stem cell lines. It could now also be possible to harvest stem cells from as little as 5 ml of umbilical cord blood and allow it to proliferate in place of the 80 ml that is at present drawn from newborns. At present, on average harvested stem cells are stored using preservatives for a period of 16 years. It would cost Rs. 6,000 a year towards storage costs and around Rs. 2 lakhs at the time of retrieval.

Another stumbling block in contemporary stem cell research has been the difficulty in

prolonging the lifespan of certain cells in vitro, which secrete substances like erythropoietin which are very vital in clinical application as well as some other high value reagents and growth factors used in both research and clinical scenario. Faster stem cell proliferation and longer life could in the long run bring down treatment costs as well and extend the benefits to poor patients, Dr. Ravichandran said.

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