ABSTRACT
One of the most important and complex diseases of modern society is metabolic syndrome. This syndrome has not been completely understood, and therefore an effective treatment is not available yet. We propose a possible stem cell mechanism involved in the development of metabolic syndrome. This way of thinking lets us consider also other significant pathologies that could have similar etiopathogenic pathways, like lipodystrophic syndromes, progeria, and aging. All these clinical situations could be the consequence of a progressive and persistent stem cell exhaustion syndrome (SCES). The main outcome of this SCES would be an irreversible loss of the effective regenerative mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) pools. In this way, the normal repairing capacities of the organism could become inefficient. Our point of view could open the possibility for a new strategy of treatment in metabolic syndrome, lipodystrophic syndromes, progeria, and even aging: stem cell therapies.
ABSTRACT
In Buenos Aires province, there has been surprisingly less tissue procurement activity following cardiac arrest than after brain-death cases. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of a regulation that made referral of all irreversible cardiac arrests mandatory to our organ procurement organisation. Data were collected from 7 hospitals in La Plata city during 7 months (from June 2000 to December 2000). The results showed that the regulation was effective because there was a striking increment of tissue procured following cardiac arrest during the analysed period, despite the low efficacy of the regulation (the referrals were 48% of the dead patients).
