ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgeX”; NYSE American: AGE), a biotechnology company 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.
The research will be conducted in the laboratory of world-leading BAT researcher Kristin Stanford, Ph.D., 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 (J Clin Invest 2013;123:215-23). This year, Dr. Stanford became the first person to show a direct role for BAT to enhance cardiac function (Circulation 2021;143:145-159).
“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 (Stem Cell Res Ther 2019;10:7). AgeX-BAT1 consists of BAT progenitor cells that are capable of becoming 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 U.S. suffer from diabetes and 42% from obesity.”
About AgeX Therapeutics
AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: AGE) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for human aging. Its PureStem® and UniverCyte™ manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies are designed to work together to generate highly-defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a variety of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeX’s revolutionary longevity platform induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues. AgeX is developing its core product pipeline for use in the clinic to extend human healthspan and is seeking opportunities to establish licensing and collaboration agreements around its broad IP estate and proprietary technology platforms.
For more information, please visit www.agexinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not historical fact including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of AgeX’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commissions (copies of which may be obtained at www.sec.gov). Further, in the case of AgeX’s new AgeX-BAT1 arrangement with The Ohio State University, there can be no assurance that: (i) the outcome of the research will demonstrate that transplantation of AgeX-BAT1 cells may improve diet-induced obesity, metabolic health including glucose metabolism, and cardiac function, (ii) AgeX-BAT1 cells derived for therapeutic use will be shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials, and (iii) that if any AgeX-BAT1 cells are derived for therapeutic use, those cells will be successfully commercialized even if clinical trials are successful. Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. AgeX specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.
