Chaffee native's discovery could help save transplant patients' lives

In 1973, Chaffee, Missouri, native Charlie Mantel earned a first-place ribbon at the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair for his research into the biochemical functions of the rosy gene in fruit flies.

Now, more than 40 years later, a study conducted by Mantel and others at Indiana University has led to a discovery that could help save the lives of transplant patients.

The study, Mantel said, proves adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow or other transplant tissues, are irreversibly damaged by the high levels of oxygen in room air.

While the normal oxygen level in our body ranges from 1 to 7 percent, Mantel said, the air we breathe contains about 21 percent oxygen.

Severe stress and loss of the stem cells is caused when bone marrow or any transplant tissue is exposed abruptly to the higher level of oxygen.

"During a transplant, the survival of the patient is really a numbers game," Mantel said during a phone interview last week. "The more stem cells you get, the better the chances of a transplant being successful and patient survival."

Mantel's study found there are five to 100 times more stem cells available in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood when the sample is taken and kept at very low oxygen conditions.

One minute in room air causes enough stress on adult stem cells, they either change irreversibly into non-stem cells or die, he said.

Mantel named the process EPHOSS, which stands for extra physiologic oxygen shock and stress.

The stem cells are important because like the early stem of a plant is able to grow into any part of that plant, stem cells can grow into almost any type of cell in the body.

During Mantel's study, he used a sealed chamber with controlled oxygen levels of less than 3 percent.

While studying various drugs to find one that might help protect stem cells against oxygen damage, even without the special chamber, Mantel found a drug already in use to prevent rejection in transplant patients offers some protection to the stem cells if they are harvested into a solution of the drug.

"We actually harvested human umbilical cord stem cells in the presence of this drug in the air and found that we could double or triple the number of stem cells that we got back that we could harvest," Mantel said. "That alone could make the difference between life and death for a transplant patient."

After high school, Mantel attended Southeast Missouri State University, where he majored in chemistry.

He then joined the Air Force before attending Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where he earned his master's degree.

Mantel worked at Indiana University for 27 years as a biochemist, and his studies have been published numerous times.

His work regarding EPHOSS was published June 18 in the scientific journal Cell.

Although he suffered a serious spinal-cord injury and no longer can work at a lab bench, Mantel, who now lives in Lima, Ohio, still contributes ideas and designs experiments.

He has high expectations for future studies relating to EPHOSS.

"The thing about EPHOSS is it applies all across biology, because every study ... has been done by harvesting, studying and examining tissues that have been removed from the body and studied in the air," he said. "Little did anyone know, they were dramatically changing the metabolism, the biology, of those cells, especially the stem cells whenever they did that.

"I really believe this is going to revolutionize the way biology is conducted."

klamb@semissourian.com

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