Romanian researchers from “Victor Babes” National Institute for Research and Development in the Field of Pathology and Biomedical Sciences have discovered a cell type, which, together with stem cells could promote regeneration of heart muscle affected by stroke. Victor Babes Institute’s specialists have discovered by chance, while doing research on cells in the intestine, the presence of very small cells that help regenerate organs.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal discovered a particular cell type in the gut, which he named “interstitial neurons” more that 100 years ago. In the early 1970s, electron microscope (EM) studies showed that indeed a special interstitial cell type corresponding to the cells discovered by Cajal is localized in the gut muscle coat, but it became obvious that they were not neurons. Consequently, they were renamed “Interstitial Cells of Cajal” (ICC) and considered to be pace-makers for gut motility. For the past 10 years many groups were interested in whether or not ICC are present outside the gastrointestinal tract, and indeed, peculiar interstitial cells were found in: upper and lower urinary tracts, blood vessels, pancreas, male and female reproductive tracts, mammary gland, placenta, and, recently, in the heart as well as in the gut. Such cells, now mostly known as Interstitial Cajal-Like Cells (ICLC), were given different and confusing names. Moreover, ICLC are only apparently similar to canonical ICC. In fact, EM and cell cultures revealed very particular features of ICLC, which unequivocally distinguishes them from ICC and all other interstitial cells: the presence of 2–5 cell body prolongations that are very thin (less than 0.2 mm, under resolving power of light microscopy), extremely long (tens to hundreds of mm), with a moniliform aspect (many dilations along), as well as caveolae. Given the unique dimensions of these prolongations (very long and very thin) and to avoid further confusion with other interstitial cell types (e.g. fibroblast, fibrocyte, fibroblast-like cells, mesenchymal cells), was coined the term TELOCYTES for them, and TELOPODES for their prolongations, by using the Greek affix “telos”.

According to Laurenţiu Popescu, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the telocyte cells were highlighted by Romanian scholars and their existence was confirmed by independent teams from Italy, Germany, Britain and China. In tandem with stem cells, telocytes can help restore some vital organs like heart and brain.

“If we succeed to isolate, multiply them with stem cells, we can use effectively to treat heart attack,” said Professor Laurenţiu Popescu, M.D., Ph.D.

According to doctors, the heart’s ability to regenerate, until the age of 25 years is about 1% per year, and for the elderly is 0.5% per year.

The telocytes are some cells with small body, but with extremely long extensions (like extensions of neurons), present in almost all body organs. The role of the telocytes is to remotely coordinate through their extremely long and thin extensions, other cell types, establishing contact and communication.

Website: http://www.telocytes.com