Blue Herald » Stem cell injections fight MD in dogs

Nov

by Mirth

Stem cell injections worked remarkably well at easing symptoms of muscular dystrophy in a group of golden retrievers, a result that experts call a significant step toward treating people.

“It’s a great breakthrough for all of us working on stem cells for muscular dystrophy,” said researcher Johnny Huard of the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn’t involved in the work.

Sharon Hesterlee, vice president of translational research at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, called the result one of the most exciting she’s seen in her eight years with the organization. Her organization helped pay for the work.

She stressed that it’s not yet clear whether such a treatment would work in people, but said she had “cautious optimism” about it.

Sounds great, huh? A quick read of the article could lead one to believe that the research is for the benefit of dogs as well as for humans.
Here’s a question for you:
To do the research, where do they get these dogs with muscular dystrophy?
Here’s the answer:
They create them.

Genetic modification of animals to study disease. Transgenic animals have specific genes inserted, modified or removed, with the aim of modelling a specific condition. The aim of these models may be to exactly mimic a known single gene disorder, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy or albinism, then use the model to investigate novel ways it may be treated. Other models are generated to approximate complex, multifactorial disease with a genetic component, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease, then investigate how and why the disease develops.

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We focus on very young (1-2 months old), clinically asymptomatic dogs, as it can be expected that early infiltration of donor-derived muscle cells, before the onset of irreversible fibrosis and necrosis, may prevent or ameliorate clinical symptoms. E.g., we will investigate whether stem cell transplantation results in infiltration of donor derived cells in cardiac and skeletal muscle and whether skeletal and cardiac functions improve after transplantation. The kinetics of the infiltration of donor-derived cells will be studied by sequential analysis in transplanted dogs. If our studies show that stem cell transplantation can diminish the disease pattern in DMD dogs, a clinical study to the effect of stem cell transplantation in patients with DMD may be initiated. In addition, the model for stem cell transplantation in very young dogs may be extended to study the role of genetically modified, autologous stem cells, in which a functional copy of the dystrophin gene is being expressed. In the pilot year of the project, an experimental set-up for stem cell transplantation in very young, healthy non-DMD dogs (less than 2 months of age) will be developed.

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“Transgenic animals”
“Model”
“Experimental setup”

These words sound as benign as “collateral damage.”

PETA Presents: Testing…One, Two, Three