An international study led by researchers at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and Duke-NUS (Singapore) has reported the discovery of novel stem cells that can produce placenta cells. This world-first discovery may open a new avenue of therapy for placenta complications during pregnancy.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be derived from human skin cells and are used to develop a seemingly unlimited source of any type of cell for therapeutic purposes. However, not much is known about how iPSCs are made.

In their research, published in the journal Nature, the team initially set out to examine the molecular changes taking place in skin cells as they become iPSCs. During this study, they unexpectedly discovered a new way to create induced trophoblast stem cells that can be used to make placenta cells.

Whilst iPSCs can be used to develop tissue from human organs, they have not yet been able to produce placenta cells – making this discovery incredibly significant for the development of placenta-directed therapies.

“This is really important because iPSCs cannot give rise to placenta, thus all the advances in disease modelling and cell therapy that iPSCs have brought about did not translate to the placenta,” commented Jose Polo (Monash University), who led the study.

The team now hope to continue their research into new treatments for placenta complications, as well as the measurement of drug toxicity in placenta cells, which has implications during pregnancy.

“This discovery will provide the capacity to model human placenta in vitro and enable a pathway to future cell therapies,” concluded John Ouyang (Duke-NUS), first author of the study.

Link: https://www.regmednet.com/first-stem-cells-discovered-to-produce-placenta-cells/