Stem Cell Innovations To Present Data At The Stem Cells World Congress That PluriCells Can Produce Cells Important In Cardiovascular Disease
Houston - Stem Cell Innovations, Inc., or "SCI" announced today that James H. Kelly, Ph.D, Chief Executive Officer of Stem Cell Innovations (SCI), Inc. will present data at the Stem Cells World Congress in San Diego describing further characterization and extension of SCI's PluriCell stem cell system. The Congress draws together experts from academia and industry to discuss progress in the stem cell arena. In particular, Dr. Kelly will describe the ability of PluriCells to become endothelial cells, the cells that line the arteries and which are central players in cardiovascular disease. Normal adults have few circulating endothelial precursors in their blood but increased levels have been shown in conditions associated with myocardial infarction and stroke. PluriCells can provide both a drug discovery platform and also a potential cell therapy for use in these conditions.
"We are excited by the data demonstrating the important role PluriCells may play in cardiovascular disease," Kelly said. "The recent issuance of our patent on human pluripotent cells derived from primordial germ cells gives us a dominant intellectual property position in one of the two known types of fully pluripotent stem cells. The development of the endothelial cells, in combination with the other cell types we have already demonstrated, increases our ability to exploit this powerful system for both drug discovery and cell therapy."
SCI is developing PluriCells, a new human stem cell technology derived from primordial germ cells of fetal tissue. PluriCells™ are distinct from embryonic stem (ES) cells. Primordial germ cells are one of only two types of cells known to be able to produce all of the more than 200 cell types found in the human body. The primordial germ cells are the cells that eventually produce the sperm and the egg, passing the genome along to the next generation. Stem cell cultures generated from these cells are believed to have tremendous promise in advancing drug discovery and cell-based therapies for some of our most intractable health problems, such as neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease.
SOURCE: Stem Cell Innovations, Inc.