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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / November 2007Something Is Inhibiting The Disc Repair Process
Stem Cells Found In Degenerating Spinal Discs Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics News Article Date: 02 Nov 2007 - 5:00 PDT Orthopedic researchers at Jefferson Medical College have for the first time found stem cells in the intervertebral discs of the human spine, suggesting that such cells might someday be used to help repair degenerating discs and remedy lower back and neck pain. Reporting November 1, 2007 in the journal Spine, a team led by Makarand Risbud, Ph.D., and Irving Shapiro, Ph.D., at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, have found stem cells in both degenerated adult human discs and in discs of animals. Many people suffer from lower back pain, and treatment ranges from painkillers such as acetominophen to medical procedures, such as fusing vertebrae. The combined annual costs for treatment of back pain and disc disease is approximately $100 billion a year and a major cause of lost work in the United States. According to Dr. Shapiro, as the discs in the spine degenerate, cells are lost and the ability to produce water-binding molecules called proteoglycans is decreased. The water absorbs forces on the spine, essentially serving as shock absorbers. Losing proteoglycans can result in damage to the disc, and sometimes, pain. "It would be wonderful if we could get the cells in the intervertebral disc to regenerate or increase the amount of proteoglycans that they synthesize," he says. "That way we could regenerate the shock- absorbing capabilities of the spine." Dr. Risbud, an assistant professor of Orthopedic Surgery, and Dr. Shapiro, who is professor of Orthopedic Surgery, both at Jefferson Medical College, and their co-workers asked if it was possible to regenerate proteoglycans using adult stem cells. Federal regulations prevent them from using embryonic stem cells. Dr. Risbud built the study around the observation that while the tissue that he could isolate from the disc was no longer binding water, the tissue still might contain dormant stem cells. He thought that while these cells were no longer functioning to repair the damaged disc, under appropriate conditions, they could be activated. To explore that possibility, he isolated cells from discarded disc tissue that still had the capacity to proliferate. Dr. Risbud notes that under certain conditions, the cells could be encouraged to form bone. In other conditions, the cells would form cartilage or even fat. The tests proved that these cells were indeed dormant disc stem cells. "If we are able to stimulate the 'silent' cells in the patient, then it may be possible to repair the ravages of degenerative disc disease without undergoing invasive surgical procedures that may limit the motion of the spine," he says. According to Dr. Risbud, in earlier work, the researchers found that local conditions in the disc can promote adult stem cells of the bone marrow to acquire characteristics of disc cells. Within the disc, the local conditions are unique in that the oxygen levels are low. These conditions cause the expression of many specialized molecules, including the water-binding proteoglycans. Some of the researchers' current experiments focus on the use of adult stem cells to repair the degenerate intervertebral disc. Shapiro notes that other researchers have taken bone marrow stem cells and have made new bone, cartilage and fat tissue. "Our next step is to activate these disc stem cells and get them to repopulate the disc and make proteoglycans and restore the water-binding, The scientists theorize that because the stem cells exist in the degenerate disk, there may be molecules that are blocking stem cell activity. "Something is inhibiting the disc repair process," says Dr. Shapiro. Drs. Shapiro and Risbud agree that "new studies are needed to discover the nature of such inhibitory molecules" and to find ways to block their activities, promoting natural healing. ---------------------------- Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk On Nov 2, 9:41 pm, "ironjust...@aol.com" <ironjust...@aol.com> wrote: > Stem Cells Found In Degenerating Spinal Discs > Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics News [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > discover the nature of such inhibitory molecules" and to find ways to > block their activities, promoting natural healing. These molecules may be in fact the omega-6 fatty acids like AA which some researchers consider essential. Notice that the healthy and young cartilage has the Mead acid in it which can be manufactured by the body even from carbohydrates: FASEB J. 1991 Mar 1;5(3):344-53. Unique fatty acid composition of normal cartilage: discovery of high levels of n-9 eicosatrienoic acid and low levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Adkisson HD 4th, Risener FS Jr, Zarrinkar PP, Walla MD, Christie WW, Wuthier RE. Department of Chemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208. We report here the finding that normal, young cartilages, in distinction from all other tissues examined, have unusually high levels of n-9 eicosatrienoic (20:3 cis-delta 5,8,11) acid and low levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6 PUFA). This pattern is identical to that found in tissues of animals subjected to prolonged depletion of nutritionally essential n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (EFA). This apparent deficiency is consistently observed in cartilage of all species so far studied (young chicken, fetal calf, newborn pig, rabbit, and human), even though levels of n-6 PUFA in blood and all other tissues is normal. The n-9 20:3 acid is particularly abundant in phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, and the free fatty acid fractions from the young cartilage. Several factors appear to contribute to the reduction in n-6 PUFA and the appearance of high levels of the n-9 20:3 acid in cartilage: 1) limited access to nutritional sources of EFA due to the impermeability and avascularity of cartilage, 2) rapid metabolism of n-6 PUFA to prostanoids by chondrocytes, and 3) a unique fatty acid metabolism by cartilage. Evidence is presented that each of these factors contributes. Previously, EFA deficiency has been shown to greatly suppress the inflammatory response of leukocytes and rejection of tissues transplanted into allogeneic recipients. Because eicosanoids, which are derived from EFA, have been implicated in the inflammatory responses associated with arthritic disease, reduction of n-6 PUFA and accumulation of the n-9 20:3 acid in cartilage may be important for maintaining normal cartilage structure. Mead acid synthesis (requires VitB6): http://www.lipomics.com/fatty_acids/5-8-11-eicosatrienoic-acid Taka This sounds like a good study I cited on my site, which found butter to help in the bone growth process but corn oil to be inhibitive. Many "diseases" that exist now to a much greater degree than in the past seem to be due to the excessive free radical activity (mostly in vivo lipid peroxidation), which is due especially to the use of highly refined and unsaturated oils. On Nov 3, 7:27 am, monty1...@lycos.com wrote: > This sounds like a good study I cited on my site, which found butter > to help in the bone growth process but corn oil to be inhibitive. > Many "diseases" that exist now to a much greater degree than in the > past seem to be due to the excessive free radical activity (mostly in > vivo lipid peroxidation), which is due especially to the use of highly > refined and unsaturated oils. It's also interesting that the best herb used for treating arthritis is a specific 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) inhibitor. This enzyme makes leukotrienes from the arachidonic acid (AA). These leukotrienes like LTB4 are very powerful tissue destructors via proteolysis. Also note that the cysteinyl leukotrienes are responsible for allergies and asthma. If Mead acid is used instead of AA as a substrate for 5-LOX, a less reactive leukotriene LTA3 is made which may have just the right amount of activity for a brief proteolytic pulse to clean the debris in a wound before the rebuilding process driven by prostaglandins starts. With the AA metabolites, the tissue may be permanently stuck in the original destructive phase of inflammation ... For people with AA in the cartilage it may be difficult to replace it with the Mead acid by simple diet since the cartilage has no blood supply and very low tissue turnover. However, this may help when manufacturing the cartilage for tissue engineering in vitro since it's easy to make the cells in a culture "EFAD" and tissues with no AA in them are immunologically very suitable for transplants (no rejection due to AA- driven inflammation). Taka About the 5-LOX inhibitor Boswellia serrata: http://tinyurl.com/2wcfeu >> On Nov 2, 7:00 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote: For people with AA in the cartilage it may be difficult to replace it with the Mead acid by simple diet since the cartilage has no blood supply and very low tissue turnover. << WILL mead acid displace arachidonic acid (AA) .. ? / "it may be difficult to replace it with the Mead acid" .. ? One might think of going with those fatty acids KNOWN to displace .. arachidonic acid (AA). Vegetarian diet is all but DEVOID of .. arachidonic acid (AA). Vegetarian diet .. supplies the fatty-acid SHOWN to displace arachidonic acid (AA) . "dihomo-gamma- linolenic acid (DGLA) can displace arachidonic acid" Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 1998 Mar;58(3):185-91. Links Dietary alpha-linolenic acid increases TNF-alpha, and decreases IL-6, IL-10 in response to LPS: effects of sesamin on the delta-5 desaturation of omega6 and omega3 fatty acids in mice. Chavali SR, Zhong WW, Forse RA. Department of Surgery, Harvard Institute of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Sesamin (a non-fat portion of sesame seed oil) inhibits delta-5 desaturase activity resulting in an accumulation of dihomo-gamma- linolenic acid (DGLA) which can displace arachidonic acid (AA) and decrease the formation of pro-inflammatory mediators. We investigated the effects of consumption of diets containing 0.25wt% sesamin and 15 wt% safflower oil (SO) (providing 12% of the added fat as linoleic acid) or a 15 wt% 2:1 mixture of linseed oil and SO (LOSO) (providing 6% alpha-linolenic acid and 6% linoleic acid) for 3 weeks on the liver membrane fatty acid composition and on the production of prostaglandin (PG) E2, TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL10 in mice. Consumption of sesamin- supplemented SO and LOSO diets resulted in a significant increase in the levels of 20:3omega6 (DGLA), suggesting that sesamin inhibited delta-5 desaturation of omega6 fatty acids. In animals fed LOSO diets, the levels of alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were elevated with a concomitant decrease of arachidonic acid (AA) in the liver membrane phospholipids. Further, in animals fed LOSO diets with or without sesamin, an increase in the circulating levels of TNF-alpha was associated with a concomitant decrease in PGE2. Despite a lack of differences in the levels of AA, the PGE2 levels were significantly lower in mice fed sesamin- supplemented SO compared to those fed SO alone. Thus, these data suggest that irrespective of the availability of a specific fatty acid as a substrate, through regulating the PGE2 synthesis, the production of TNF-alpha could be modulated. PMID: 9610840 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] --------------------------------- Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk > On Nov 3, 7:27 am, monty1...@lycos.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > About the 5-LOX inhibitor Boswellia serrata:http://tinyurl.com/2wcfeu >> On Nov 2, 7:00 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote: It's also interesting that the best herb used for treating arthritis is a specific 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) inhibitor. << Seems the .. 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor Zileuton .. "reportedly inhibits 5-LO via iron chelation" .. Those short-chain fatty acids contain .. phytic acid .. another premiere iron binder / chelator. Lipoxygenase Inhibitors as Potential Cancer Chemopreventives ... - 2:43pmZileuton reportedly inhibits 5-LO via iron chelation but is devoid of 12- and 15-LO inhibitory activity (146) . After extensive clinical evaluation, ... cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/8/5/467? maxtoshow=&HITS=&hits=&RESULTFORMAT=&fullt... - Similar pages - Note this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zileuton Zileuton (INN) is an asthma drug. It blocks leukotriene synthesis by inhibiting 5-lipoxygenase, an enzyme of the eicosanoid synthesis pathway. Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk > On Nov 3, 7:27 am, monty1...@lycos.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > About the 5-LOX inhibitor Boswellia serrata:http://tinyurl.com/2wcfeu |
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