Kontakt 2007, 9(2):373-377 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2007.057

Knowledge concerning regeneration. I. New view of old problemBiomedicine

Ján Jakubovský¹, Jozef Novotný^2,*, Peter Michalka³, Štefan Durdík⁴

¹ Univerzita Komenského Bratislava, Lekárska fakulta, Ústav patologickej anatómie

² Jihočeská Univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra ošetřovatelství

³ Univerzita Komenského Bratislava, Lekárska fakulta, chirurgická klinika

⁴ Onkologický ústav sv. Alžbety, Onkochirurgická klinika LF UK Bratislava, Inštitút fyzioterapie, balneológie a liečebnej rehabilitácie UCM Trnava

An outline is presented of recent opinions concerning possibilities of the regeneration of cells, organs and tissues by morphological methods. Historical dogmas, which are, however, still valid in medical practice, as well as new approaches to this problem, are recapitulated. The model for studying stem cells are the cells obtained from cell lines participating in the haemopoiesis. The knowledge in this field is advanced to such and extent that their use in the treatment became a standard of medical haematology. This was achieved mainly due to the fact that the blood stem cells can be relatively easily found without the use of embryos. Their differentiating marker is protein CD 34. It is present on their surface. Stem cells can be isolated from the blood of adults. It makes about 0.01% of mononuclear cells there. They can be isolated from the umbilical blood and from the placenta. They are more frequent and more fertile there. Thereafter, when they leave the body and are multiplied, they are injected into the body again as it is known that they are settled directly in the bone marrow, e.g. after a damage to the bone marrow by chemotherapy.
This sympathy between stem blood cells and bone marrow is striking. It informs us about biology of stem cells in general. Under in vitro conditions, stem cells are completely missing the environment of the bone marrow. Thus, they cannot survive for long periods. They require the presence of endothelial cells, lipidic cells, fibroblasts, macrophages or osteoblasts and also components of the extracellular matrix. This results in considerations that within the bone marrow, each haemopoietic cell lives in a certain microscopic family of the stroma cells, which take care of it and provide it with appropriate instructions, sometime reminding of the work of bees taking care of their queen. The nests of stem cells are certainly also present in other tissues.

Keywords: Regeneration; stem cells; protein CD 34; stem cells and bone marrow; adaptation; stem types; haemopoiesis

Received: October 18, 2007; Accepted: November 19, 2007; Published: December 21, 2007  Show citation