When fluorescent membrane dye-labeled HSPCs were adoptively transferred into a host, they settled in the bone marrow before the MI, and 52% migrated from the bone marrow post MI. The process appeared to be stem cell factor (SCF)–dependent because neutralization of SCF inhibited proliferation of host HSPCs as well as splenic retention of adoptively transferred HSPCs.
Although most scientists agree that atherosclerosis can be described as chronic inflammatory in nature, there is not yet an antiinflammatory therapy that is specific for atherosclerosis. “In my eyes, this opens up a new line of research and new therapeutic opportunities. In any inflammatory disease, including rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis, we have to take the production of immune cells into account,” says Dr. Nahrendorf.
Dr. Pullen is a medical writer based in the Chicago area.
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