Scientists at Duke University Medical Center in the United States have recently confirmed through experiments that pleiotropic growth factors can promote the expansion and regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells. This achievement has broad application prospects in the field of regenerative medicine.

The researchers said in the paper that umbilical cord blood is a common source of hematopoietic stem cells for patients who need stem cell transplantation, but the number of stem cells in umbilical cord blood is usually limited, so it is particularly important to develop a method that can quickly promote the growth of umbilical cord blood stem cells.

The researchers injected pleiotropic growth factor into experimental mice whose bone marrow growth was inhibited by radiation, and the growth rate of bone marrow stem cells of the latter was 10 times higher than that of experimental mice without pleiotropic growth factor. In laboratory culture dishes, pleiotropic growth factors have also been proved to promote the growth of human umbilical cord blood stem cells. The researchers also confirmed that pleiotropic growth factors do not cause cancer in experimental mice.

The researchers said that this achievement is expected to benefit a wider range of people in the future. More importantly, for patients receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the treatment of pleiotropic growth factor may have the potential to accelerate the recovery of blood and immune system. However, they also said that more animal experiments are needed before this achievement can be used in clinical treatment.

Researchers are now conducting further experiments to verify whether pleiotropic growth factors are also essential for the growth and development of ordinary stem cells.