In february 2007, the AFM (Association Française contre les Myopathies) have decided to support BIOalternatives and N.I.C.N.(CNRS-UMR 6184) for their research project "Turning human nasal olfactory stem cells into bone or muscle".

Summary of the project:

We have developed an efficient method for cultivating and purifying human olfactory stem cells from patients/subjects (a relatively non-invasive autologous harvest). Previously, we demonstrated the multipotent characteristics of these olfactory stem cells transplanted into the chick embryo or into bone-marrow irradiated hosts. More recently, in collaboration with a Research Team specialised in the study of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (INSERM-ESPRI 3855, Tours), we observed in vitro that human olfactory stem cells

• are highly proliferative and share some common features with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells;
• give rise to high numbers of osteocytes when cultivated in the appropriate conditions;
• can turn into myotubes which beat when they are co-cultured with rat embryonic spinal cord;
• express neuronal markers when there is no physical contact with the rat embryonic spinal cord explants.
  

Our research project includes three objectives. We aim to:

• establish the stemness profile of our human olfactory stem cells;
• confirm the capacity of human olfactory stem cell to differentiate in vitro and in vivo into osteocytes;
• corroborate the in vitro differentiation of human olfactory stem cells into beating muscular cells.
  

If successful, our work could pave the way for a therapeutic use of olfactory stem cells in bone or muscle diseases.