ALS

Abstract

In neurological disorders, stem cell therapy has more difficulties than in diseases of other systems, since in order for stem cells to replace the dying neurons, it is necessary that neurons differentiated from stem cells restore the exact neural connection with previous ones. Cell fusion is a natural event that is observed in fertilization (fusion between sperm and egg), placenta (syncytiotrophoblast), myofiber (fusion in myoblasts), etc. The cell fusion in the stem cell field has also been remarked as a possible mechanism of stem cell therapy but has not occupied an important position in this field. If dying cells could revive by cell fusion with stem cells, the therapeutic effect will be more pronounced in neurological disorders where the restoration of neural connection is not necessary once the cells would revive. In this study, we showed basic evidences that cell fusion can actually save the dying cells, is long-term safe, and gene can be delivered to the donor cells. And then we expressed fusogenic proteins on the human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hATMSC) and found that the fusogenic stem cells (fhATMSC) maintain fusion ability and therapeutic potential. It shows that the fhATMSC might have therapeutic effect on the neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease).