Stem cells police themselves to reduce scarring
The researchers are hopeful that their findings could one day be used to help keep muscles supple during normal aging and to treat people with diseases like muscular dystrophy. "Fibrosis occurs in many degenerative diseases and also in normal aging," said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences. "It negatively impacts muscle regeneration by altering the stem cell niche and inhibiting the stem cell function. In addition, as more scarring occurs, muscles become stiff and can't contract and relax smoothly." Rando, who is the director of Stanford's Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, is the senior author of the study, which will be published online Nov. 28 in Nature . Former graduate student Alisa Mueller, MD, PhD, is the lead author. Self-policing stem cells The researchers discovered that stem cells embedded in muscle fibers do some fancy gene-expression footwork in order to respond appropriately to injury, dis...