WEDNESDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Inhibiting transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) expression in CD34+ cells may prove therapeutic for patients with type 2 diabetes by increasing the cells' vascular repair ability, according to research published in the August issue of Diabetes.
Ashay D. Bhatwadekar, Ph.D., of the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues inhibited TGF-β1 protein expression in diabetic CD34+ cells to see whether that might improve their reparative ability.
Compared with control cells treated with phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs), the researchers found ex vivo treatment of the cells with antisense PMOs (TGF-β1-PMOs) increased the expression of CXCR4, and enhanced survival as well as migration and release of nitric oxide. The investigators also used a retinal ischemia reperfusion injury model in mice and found that, compared with control PMO-treated cells, recruitment of diabetic CD34+ cells to injured acellular retinal capillaries was greater after treatment with TGF-β1-PMO.
"Transient inhibition of TGF-β1 may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for restoring the reparative capacity of dysfunctional diabetic CD34+ cells," the authors write.
A co-author received a grant from BetaStem Therapeutics Inc.
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