Via ScienceDaily, an example of the sometimes indirect way in which stem cell transplants can cause benefits: “Acute lung injury is brought on by a number of conditions, such as pneumonia and sepsis, also known as blood poisoning. In some cases, acute lung injury develops into a more serious condition, known as acute respiratory distress syndrome, and results in insufficient oxygenation of blood and eventual organ failure. … inflammation due to injury or infection can make the border of epithelial cells become more porous than it should be. The increased permeability allows an often-deadly mix of substances, such as fluid and cells, to seep into and accumulate in the alveoli. … The team decided to re-create the unhealthy lung conditions in the lab – by culturing human alveolar cells and then chemically causing inflammation – and to observe how the presence of bone marrow stem cells would change things. … We then introduced mesenchymal stem cells without direct cell contact, and they churned out a lot of protein, called angiopoietin-1, which prevented the increase in lung epithelial permeability after the inflammatory injury … [researchers] hope clinical trials will prove the therapy is a viable one for preventing respiratory failure in critically ill patients.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100811162352.htm

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