A new research involving mouse diet revealed that the removal of a particular amino acid from food could halt the production of new blood cells completely.
This study is expected to benefit individuals who have blood cancer or those who have undergone bone marrow transplant.
The head of the study, Hiromitsu Nakauchi of University of Tokyo and Stanford, stated that if the same results will be observed in humans, patients would just have to change their diet before a bone marrow transplant. Nakauchi emphasized that "this work could open up a new research field of stem cell metabolism and become the basis for a whole range of dietary therapies."
Current statistics reveal that one out of 20 bone marrow transplants patient die mostly due to complications.
The team concentrated on the impact of valine, an amino acid acquired from protein. The findings indicate that the branched chain amino acid plays an important role in blood stem cells formation and without it, the process would not take place. The study has not identified the reason behind this discovery.
Nakauchi's team deprived the laboratory animal of a source of valine for two to four weeks resulting in the termination of production of new blood stem cells. Bone marrow transplant was also successfully performed even in the absence of chemotherapy or radiation treatment prior the procedure.
However, some specimens died due to nutritional deficiency due to the role of protein in tissue repair and metabolism.
The researchers also performed the experiment on human blood stem cells and found out that proliferation stops without valine.
It is hypothesized that the absence of valine may result in the death of cancer cells in leukemic patients.
Linheng Li, a stem cell biologist, supported the findings of the study. He added that other therapies may be added to make valine deprivation effective in treating cancer.
The study was published in Science.