Hydrogen Gas Keeps Stem Cells Young and Healthy During Lab Growth
- Authors
- Haruhisa Kawasaki, Jianjun Guan, Kenichi Tamama
- Journal
- Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
- Year
- 2010
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.bbrc.2010.06.009
- Study Type
- Cell Culture
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- United States
- Health Condition
- Cellular Senescence
- Body System
- Musculoskeletal
TL;DR
Adding hydrogen gas to bone marrow stem cell cultures helps keep the cells young and functional, potentially improving their use in healing damaged tissues.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas at 3% concentration extended how long bone marrow stem cells could divide in laboratory culture while preserving their ability to differentiate into other cell types and maintain therapeutic functions.
Summary
Researchers tested whether hydrogen gas could help bone marrow stem cells (cells that can develop into different cell types) stay healthy and functional when grown in the laboratory. They found that exposing these cells to 3% hydrogen gas allowed them to divide more times before aging, while keeping their ability to transform into other cell types and release helpful substances. Surprisingly, the benefit didn't appear to come from hydrogen's known ability to reduce harmful molecules called hydroxyl radicals.
Practical Takeaway
This is early laboratory research in cultured cells, not humans or animals. While it suggests hydrogen gas may help preserve stem cells during medical preparation, much more research is needed to understand whether this would translate to benefits in actual cell therapy treatments. The mechanism behind the effect remains unclear.
Abstract
Cell therapy with bone marrow multipotential stromal cells/mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represents a promising approach in the field of regenerative medicine. Low frequency of MSCs in adult bone marrow necessitates ex vivo expansion of MSCs after harvest; however, such a manipulation causes cellular senescence with loss of differentiation, proliferative, and therapeutic potentials of MSCs. Hydrogen molecules have been shown to exert organ protective effects through selective reduction of hydroxyl radicals. As oxidative stress is one of the key insults promoting cell senescence in vivo as well as in vitro, we hypothesized that hydrogen molecules prevent senescent process during MSC expansion. Addition of 3% hydrogen gas enhanced preservation of colony forming early progenitor cells within MSC preparation and prolonged the in vitro replicative lifespan of MSCs without losing differentiation potentials and paracrine capabilities. Interestingly, 3% hydrogen gas treatment did not decrease hydroxyl radical, protein carbonyl, and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, suggesting that scavenging hydroxyl radical might not be responsible for these effects of hydrogen gas in this study.