The Technology That Could Mint New Millionaires

Once stem cell-based organ replacement becomes a reality, it is going to make an enormous dent in some of our largest health care problems. It will mint numerous new millionaires in the process.

The top cause of death in the United States is heart disease. More than 600,000 people die of heart disease each year in the U.S. alone. More than 1 million people suffer a heart attack. Worldwide, the number swells to 22 million. For the survivors, living with a damaged heart becomes their day-to-day reality. For those needing heart transplants, the waiting lists are long. Even when a recipient does receive a transplant, it is from a foreign donor, and a lifelong course of immunosuppressant therapy is needed so that they do not reject the organ. The health care costs associated with heart disease are vast.

Although heart cells are grown in culture and can even be made to beat, the heart is much more than a mere collection of cells. It has a complex structure that needs to be recreated in order for a whole transplantable organ to be possible. Within the heart itself, there are different types of cells. Any kind of attempt at regrowing a heart will need to place the right kinds of cells in their correct locations within the organ.

This seems like an insurmountable problem, but a breakthrough based on research carried out by Doris Taylor and Harald Ott while working at the University of Minnesota is making it possible. They have found a way to create a complete structure to which stem cells can attach and grow into a working heart.

Drs. Taylor and Ott invented a completely new method of stripping cells away from the protein skeleton called profusion decellularization. They connected the blood vessels to pumps that circulate detergent solution throughout the entire organ’s vasculature. This keystone technology allows the vascular plumbing of the organ to act as a conduit to clean out the organ from the inside. It provides a far superior environment for stem cell seeding in which the new cells are able to receive the nutrients and oxygen they need to proliferate and differentiate.

Even after inventing this breakthrough new technique, however, it was an open question whether the biochemical markers on the physical structure could be conserved. Detergents used for the task still removed molecules that are important if a skeletonized “ghost heart” is going to be useful as a framework to grow a new one.

In a similar fashion, while trying to find the right detergent to decellularize a whole heart, the researchers tried every conceivable detergent. Scientists ran these through rat hearts one at a time. The interesting thing is that what worked best was not some rare compound, but a very common one called SDS, or sodium dodecyl sulfate. Otherwise known as sodium lauryl sulfate, you would be hard-pressed to find a shampoo at the grocery store that does not contain it as a primary ingredient.

When the test hearts were decellularized with SDS by the new profusion method, the difference was stunning. There was a now pristine protein framework on which to attempt to regrow a new heart, complete with the blood vessel structures needed to feed the seed stem cells.

The scientists decided to push their experiment further and see if they could return the decellularized organ to function after seeding it with stem cells. Late one night, Dr. Harald Ott sat in the lab looking at the bioreactor. Amazingly, the heart was beating. He jumped on the phone and called his collaborators, and a new era in stem cell therapeutics was off and running.

There is a very-early-stage company seeking additional private funding to continue developing the technology to realize its ultimate goal of whole organ regeneration.

This technology, however, has applications that go far beyond hearts alone. The basic profusion recellularization technology can be used on other organs, such as lungs, kidneys and livers.

The exciting implications of this groundbreaking technology are unimaginable… and early investors could see exponential returns. I am watching this technology very closely and I think you should too. Once on the market, the returns could be truly life changing.

Ad lucrum per scientia (toward wealth through science),
Ray Blanco
Penny Sleuth

April 25, 2011

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