AgeX Therapeutics set to collaborate with The Ohio State University to generate proof-of-concept animal data for AgeX’s brown adipose tissue (BAT) cell therapy candidate for diabetes and obesity.
AgeX Therapeutics, a biotech developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announced today a research collaboration with The Ohio State University using AgeX’s brown adipocyte tissue (BAT) cell therapy candidate AgeX-BAT1 in mice to determine whether transplantation of AgeX-BAT1 cells may improve diet-induced obesity, metabolic health including glucose metabolism and cardiac function.
Longevity.Technology: Diabetes and obesity are significant threats to both lifespan and healthspan, and their prevalence has been increasing year on year. AgeX specifically targets metabesity – the constellation of interconnected diseases with metabolic roots – with AGEX-BAT1, lining up type 2 diabetes and age-related metabolic disorders in its sights.
The research will be conducted in the laboratory of world-leading BAT researcher Kristin Stanford, PhD, Associate Professor in Physiology & Cell Biology and Associate Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
As an early pioneer in BAT transplantation, Dr Stanford transplanted BAT from donor mice into recipient mice. By 8–12 weeks post transplantation, recipient mice had improved glucose tolerance, increased insulin sensitivity, lower body weight, reduced fat mass, and a full reversal of high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance [1]. This year, Dr Stanford became the first person to show a direct role for BAT to enhance cardiac function [2].
“We will be investigating the potential of human pluripotent stem cell-derived brown adipose tissue (BAT) to improve metabolic health and cardiac function.” said Dr Stanford. “The preclinical research studies may provide the basis for future therapeutic interventions in diabetes and obesity as well as provide new insights into the role of BAT.”
AgeX’s BAT cells may have advantages over other sources of BAT given published data show that AgeX’s pioneering PureStem® cell derivation and manufacturing technology platform is able to generate highly pure and scalable BAT cells, potentially providing an unlimited source of cells [3]. AgeX-BAT1 consists of BAT progenitor cells that are capable of becoming BAT.
“The preclinical research studies may provide the basis for future therapeutic interventions in diabetes and obesity as well as provide new insights into the role of BAT.”
“We are delighted to collaborate with Dr Kristin Stanford, who has dedicated her career to understanding brown adipose tissue (BAT). The research could generate proof-of-concept data in an animal model for AgeX’s BAT cell therapy candidate AgeX-BAT1,” said Dr Nafees Malik, Chief Operating Officer of AgeX. “AgeX’s BAT cells may offer an innovative therapeutic strategy for diabetes and obesity, which present potential multi-billion-dollar market opportunities, given 13% of adults in the US suffer from diabetes and 42% from obesity.”
Find out more about AgeX’s potential merger with LyGenesis HERE.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23221344/
[2] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.049813
[3] https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13287-018-1087-7
