Menstrual Blood as a Source of Stem Cells

One of the main obstacles of widespread use of stem cells for therapeutic purposes is the difficulty of harvesting stem cells from a single person although stem cells are present in most tissues. The harvest of stem cells bases on invasive methods, commonly from bone marrow by using a needle and syringe. However, discovery of stem cells presence in menstrual blood may provide additional and less invasive way to obtain larger amount of stem cells from a single person although further studies are required about both application of stem cells as treatment of diseases and replacement of lost or damaged tissues as well as about their harvesting.

Menstrual blood as a source of stem cells, commonly referred as endometrial regenerative cells (ERC) has been discovered by two research groups in 2007 although scientists found stem cells in the cells lining the uterus wall – endometrium already in 2004. The menstrual blood is made up of shed endometrial lining and blood cells but the stem cells in the menstrual blood (ERC) seem different from stem cells in the endometrium. Surprisingly, the ERCs were shown to be able to differentiate into more types of cells than the stem cells from endometrium. In addition, the ERCs were also shown to have in common certain characteristics with the embryonic stem cells. Some researches suggest that the ERCs may develop into any kind of cell type, while the others remain skeptical. One of the main problem of harvesting stem cells from menstrual blood is the fact that the quality and quantity of stem cells obtained from menstrual blood may greatly vary from woman to woman and depend on many factors such as age. In addition, some scientist also suggest that there is a possibility of different types of stem cells being present in the menstrual blood which may cause difficulties in determining which type of stem cell is being tested.

There are many questions that remained unanswered about the stem cells residing in the menstrual blood including their origin but they future potential is not negligible.

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One Person has left comments on this post

Mar 25, 2010 - 07:03:47
Merrill said:

Does this mean the the Embrionic like stem cells found in the menstrual blood are compatible with the donor? If so, these may make more sense to use than IPS cells.

Also, are there any similar cells found in the male sperm.

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