Request for Funding
Mentor: Liping Tang, Ph.D.
Department: Joint Biomedical Engineering program & Surgery
Room number: G8.244
Mail Code:
Phone number: 817-272-6075
E-mail: ltang@uta.edu
Project title: Novel peritoneal stem cells
Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A
Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):UTA 03-023
Project Type: Basic research
Brief Description of Project: Adult stem cells have become an increasingly popular topic in the scientific community because they provide potential new solutions for a wide variety of incurable diseases. Despite of the overwhelming popularity, the limited number of retrievable adult stem cells significantly hinders the use of adult stem cells in clinical treatments. To solve the problem, we have discovered a new source of adult stem cells from peritonea. It is estimated that our method can yield >100,000,000 stem cells from one patient via relative safe peritoneal dialysis procedure (200X fold more than the traditional bone marrow method). Our preliminary studies have found that these cells have shown morphological signs and surface markers/charactersitics of osteocyte, smooth muscle, fibroblast, neurons, and dendritic cells. Our very preliminary studies also reveal that these cells can be transplanted and then differentiated into different cell types in animal models. Many lines of evidence support our hypothesis that the peritoneal cavity is a novel tissue source to collect multipotent stem cells. To further test this hypothesis, we intend to assess the multipotent function of these novel peritoneal stem cells in vivo. Briefly, peritoneal stem cells recovered from green fluorescent protein transgenic mice will be transplanted systemically or locally with or without pre-differentiation into different tissues or organs, including bone, muscle, nerve bundles, and heart, of their wild type littermates and severe combined immuno-deficiency (SCID) mice. The differentiation and functions of these cells will be assessed to reflect the multipotent plasticity of the stem cells.
Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:
I have many years experience working with and training graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows, including many physician scientists (listed below).
Wei-Wu Jiang, M.D., 1997-2000 (Currently Research Associate at Baylor College
of Medicine, Houston, Texas)
Yixin Yao, M.D., 1997-1998 (Currently Research Associate at Baylor College of
Medicine, Houston, Texas)
Sucheta Telang, M.D., Clinical Fellow, 1998-2000 (Currently Assistant Professor
at Louisville University, Louisville, Kentucky)
Cathy R. Fakler, M.D., Clinical Fellow, 1998-2000 (Currently Attending Physician,
Arizona)
Xiu-Hwa Gao, M.D., 2000 (Currently Research Associate at Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, Texas)
Tian Lin Xiao, M.D. Ph.D., 2000-2001 (Currently Associate Professor at Sheng
Yao Medical School, China)
Shutong Cao, M.D., 2000-2001(Currently Research Associate at Alcon Research
Inc, Fort Worth, Texas)
Weng Hong, M.D., 2002-April 2004 (Currently Attending Physician at ShenZhen
Eye Hospital, ShenZhen, China)
Sheng Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., 2002-present
Ling Zou, M.D., 2004-present
I should mention that Mr. Hansen, the applicant for this summer research fellowship, has played a very important role in the development of this project. In fact, he is the co-inventor of a patent application derived from this peritoneal stem cell work.
Tang L, Hansen R. Stem cells for clinical and commercial uses, sponsored by University of Texas at Arlington, submitted June, 2003.
Return to UT Southwestern Homepage
Return to Student Research Projects Index