Monash University researchers have discovered a blood cell that, when introduced to a bone, muscle, or skin injury, has the potential to promote rapid healing.
Monash said these cells could be genetically dissimilar to the recipient, opening up the way for donated blood to be used as a universal cell-based regenerative medicine therapy.
The study, led by Associate Professor Mikaël Martino from Monash’s Australian Regenerative Medical Research Institute and published in Nature Communications, showed that these cells, called Regulatory T cells, rapidly become a cell type-specific for the injury it needs to heal and switch on their genes associated with immunomodulation and tissue healing.
According to Associate Professor Martino, this is one of the first times a cell-based approach to injury healing has been used to administer immune cells with pro-regenerative abilities.
“These Regulatory T Cells have been shown to accumulate within injured tissues – facilitating repair or regeneration in multiple tissues and organs, such as muscle, skin, heart, central nervous system, and lung,” he said.
“Moreover, in animal models these cells have been shown to improve cardiac repair post-heart attack and bone remodelling in osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease.”
Associate Professor Martino said, “These Regulatory T cells can be cultured and kept on the shelf prior to administration which means they could be banked or even become ‘off the shelf’ products which can be injected into injury sites.”
“We expect that augmenting Regulatory T cell numbers locally as early as possible after tissue damage would likely provide the maximum benefit as a therapeutic strategy for tissue healing, and that healing can be further enhanced by the addition of factors they secrete into the injured tissue.”
