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Lori Prichard reportingUtah's most famous scientist announced new findings today that suggest curing diseases with adult stem cells may be far more complex than scientists thought. It's the first major research breakthrough for Mario Capecchi since he won the Nobel Prize last fall.
Capecchi's new research highlights a fact about your body you may not know. Your small intestine is such a nasty place, virtually all the cells die off every two to five days. "It's turning over at this enormous rate. Every two to five days we have an entire new intestine being produced in our bodies," Capecchi said.
That's old news to scientists. What's new, in research on mouse intestines, is that Capecchi and geneticist Eugenio Sangiorgi have found a way to study the process at the molecular level. It's helped them understand how adult stem cells create a variety of different intestinal cells.
It's analogous to what happens to embryonic stem cells. A single fertilized egg produces stem cells, which eventually develop into all the other kinds of cells a body needs. They're promising as a cure for diseases because they might help replace unhealthy cells.
But embryonic stem cells have raised fierce moral controversy because they're obtained from aborted embryos. Adult stem cells, from adults, are a promising alternative, but Capecchi's research indicates it may not be so simple.
In the small intestine it turns out there are three different kinds of adult stem cells, not just one as was previously thought. Similar complexities may exist in other organs, complicating the search for disease therapies.
"It doesn't undermine it, but I think what it says is that we have to be more sophisticated and take in consideration that these populations of stem cells may be more complex than we thought previously," Capecchi said.
Even though his new research sounds a note of caution, Capecchi predicts major therapies from stem cells in about 10 years.
His new work was published today in the journal "Nature Genetics."
E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com
