By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
A Revolutionary new way to transplant bone-repairing stem cells into humans could help millions suffering from crippling arthritis, scientists believe.
Researchers hope the new technique could allow them to speed the recovery of damaged bones and cartilage.
If successful it could be used to help trauma victims as well as the more than two million Britons who suffer from osteoarthritis.
Caused by deterioration of cartilage, severe osteoarthritis can be treated only with surgery to replace hips and knees with artificial joints.
Reprogrammed stem cells work well in laboratories but struggle in the "adverse" conditions of the human body.
Scientists at Edinburgh University plan to use a "bioactive scaffold" to protect the cells when they are placed in a patient.
This new environment, which consists of a rigid mesh structure, coated or impregnated with drugs to aid the cells, allows them to grow at a faster rate, speeding recovery.
The technique will be particularly useful in the treatment of damaged cartilage, which never repairs fully itself, researchers say.
A significant proportion of those who damage their cartilage while young go on to develop arthritis.
Researchers hope to place bone and cartilage building stem cells, complete with their scaffolds, in up to 30 patients within the next two years and to move on to larger trials if these prove successful.
Dr Brendon Noble, of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Regenerative Medicine, said: "We hope that this will kick start the body's natural healing processes, enabling cells to grow and carry out repair to the damaged area."
Dr Noble's team will work with surgeons to ensure the treatments they develop are suitable for practical use and will look to use reprogrammed cells derived from blood as well as bone marrow.
The £31.4 million project has been funded by the UK Stem Cell foundation, the Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise.
Dr Anna Krassowska, research manager for the UK Stem Cell Foundation, said: "In the UK hip fractures kill 14,000 elderly people every year - more than many cancers.
"This research has the potential not only to impact on a significant number of people's lives but to open up one of the largest stem cell markets in the industry."
More than 30,000 knee replacements and 50,000 hip replacement operations are carried out each year in England and Wales.
Original Fond on:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/18/nbones118.xmlbatore (PTI): With a section of spinal surgeons expressing concern over the claim on the success of stemcell therapy in curing spinal cord injuries, leading surgeons on Sunday said it was a new boon for patients in major ailements.
The orthopaedicians and neurosurgeons, who attended a one day seminar 'stem cell and clinical applications,' told reporters here that breakthrough research in using stem cell for spinal cord imaging and ischaemic heart diseases, have made desperate patients happy.
There are clinics having such stem cell therapies in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Russia, Singapore, Bangkok, Germany, which used feotus stem cells, umbilical cord cell, adult stem cells, Dr Samuel JK Abraham, Director, Japan-based Nichi-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), Chennai, said.
There were proven scientific pubications and literature on regenerative capability of mamolian brain was documented in 1969, he claimed, refuting the allegations of a section of surgeons, who contested a recent stemcell therapy for spinal cord injury on a woman, who met with an accident, Dr M Natarajan, Chief Neuro Surgeon of K G Hospital, who performed the surgery claimed.
Approach of treatment by an orthopaedic surgeon and neuro surgeon was different, Natarajan said.
Association of Spine Surgeons of India (ASSI) had recently expressed concern over media reports about the cure for spinal cord injuries through stem cell therapy and had demanded scientific proof.
Stating that the woman who had undergone the therapy has shown major improvement, Natarajan said the regenerative capability of the central nervous sytem of human beings has been well documented.
Treatment to patients suffering from Ischaemic stroke has been documented successfully by Dr Honmon of Sapporo University, Japan, he said.
Dr G Bakthavathsalam, Chairman of K G Hospital said the technology of stem cell transplatation was based on the proven probabilities given by Japan technical collaborator through NCRM.
Till date, multicentric study of stem cell application by the hospital in spinal cord injury, liver cerosis and peripheral vascular diseases has proven the safety in all and efficacy in select group of patients, who otherwise have not other option of treatment at the moment, he said.
The contention of ASSI was not in good taste and casting aspiration on fellow doctors and surgeons was against medical ethics, Dr J K B C Parthiban, neurosurgeon, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital, who himself is a member of ASSI, said.
The studies were done as per the ICMR guidelines with the patients' informed consent. "the association is blocking the public from coming for a future successful option,' he said.
"Those who criticise should go through the documents and journals, which publish success stories,+ Parthiban said.
Original:http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200802032121.htm
Geron CEO plans embryonic stem cell tests in humans this spring if the biotech meets the FDA's 'high bar.'
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The first experiments using human embryonic stem cells in human subjects could begin within a few months, the chief executive of biotech Geron said Monday.
At the annual BIO CEO conference in New York, Dr. Thomas Okarma said Geron plans to start embryonic stem-cell studies in humans with spinal cord injuries toward the end of the second quarter. Okarma said the tests would involve up to 40 human patients, while all prior tests involved rats.
This assumes that the Food and Drug Administration gives Geron a green light to proceed with the human test. Okarma said the FDA will set a "high bar" in regulating this new type of science.
Ren Benjamin, analyst for Rodman & Renshaw, believes the regulatory process could be time-consuming, because it's unprecedented.
"This is the first time that a human embryonic stem cell application is being submitted to the FDA, so there's a good chance that some questions will arise," he said.
Geron (GERN), based in Menlo Park, Calif., is also in early-stage studies with stem cell-based drugs for diabetes and heart failure. All of these experimental treatments are years away from potentially entering the market.
Advanced Cell Technology Inc. and Novocell Inc. also use human embryonic stem cells, but Geron is the only one of the these companies that's traded on the Nasdaq. Advanced Cell plans to begin testing in humans this year, but Novocell is further behind.
Neuralstem (CUR) uses stem cells from aborted fetuses to research potential treatments for spinal cord injuries. Like Geron and Advanced Cell Technology, Neuralstem plans to begin testing in humans this year, assuming that the FDA gives it the go-ahead.
Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) and Osiris Therapeutics (OSIR) use stem cells taken from adult human tissue, which insulates from the controversy surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells, which are obtained through in vitro fertilization.
Human-based embryonic stem cells are prized by researchers for their ability to regenerate quickly and morph into different types of cells. Supporters believe their use could someday help people with spinal injuries walk again or cure patients with degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
But the pro-life contingent, including President Bush, opposes using human-derived stem cells, on the grounds that it creates embryos only to destroy them. Supporters of the science dispute that notion, saying that the blastocysts used as stem cell sources would be thrown out as medical waste if they weren't used in research.
In 2001, President Bush limited federal funding for human-derived stem cells to only those lines that existed at the time. In 2007, he vetoed a Congressional bill to lift those restrictions.
But in November, scientists unveiled a new type of experimental technology on Nov. 21 that sent Geron's stock into a volatile tailspin. Research teams from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the University of Kyoto in Japan separately announced that they'd "reprogrammed" adult cells to act like embryonic stem cells.
Geron's stock has fallen more than 40 percent since then, though Okarma shrugged off the potential threat of reprogramming because it's still in the infantile stages.
"The natural human embryonic stem cell is the gold standard and we have yet to see anything else come close," Okarma said at the BIO CEO conference Monday.
But Benjamin of Rodman & Renshaw doesn't believe reprogramming poses an immediate threat to Geron.
"I think [reprogramming] is very intriguing and has a lot of potential, but it's at a nascent stage that I consider more noise than anything else," said Benjamin.
Mark Gross, a physics professor at California State University who was attending the BIO CEO conference as a potential investor, agreed that reprogramming technology is in too early of a stage to threaten Geron.
"[Reprogramming] is promising, but these things take time and we don't know which path will lead to fruition and which will lead to a dead end," he saidArticle From CNNmoney.com
LANSING -- A group seeking to expand medical research using embryonic stem cells in Michigan announced Tuesday that it has submitted language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would end the state's prohibition on the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.
The Stem Cell Ballot Question Committee in Michigan wants to authorize the use of excess or unsuitable embryos from fertility clinics that "would otherwise be discarded unless they are used for research." In contrast to legislation aimed at opening up research on stem cells, the ballot proposal affirms Michigan's law prohibiting human cloning.
Backers of the proposal would like to collect enough petition signatures -- 380,126 -- to put the issue before voters in November.
Opponents, led by the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life organizations, are unlikely to soften their views, even without cloning issues.
Catholic Conference spokesman Dave Maluchnik said Tuesday that the measure is under review but that efforts to legalize research that destroys embryos is "terribly unfortunate," reversing 30 years of public policy in Michigan.
Advocates of embryonic stem-cell research say stem cells derived from embryos offer immense promise for treatment of chronic disease and injury. A state elections panel is to review the ballot proposal language Friday. The committee has a July 7 deadline to collect the signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6609 or dbell@freepress.com.Article From:http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/NEWS06/801300392/1008
BIOTECH COMPANY DEVELOPED BRAIN DISEASE TREATMENT
By Steve Johnson
Mercury News
One of six children with a brain disease who were given a stem-cell treatment developed by StemCells of Palo Alto in a groundbreaking study, has died apparently from her disease, the company said Friday.
The unidentified 9-year-old girl, who died earlier this week, had been given the nerve stem cells derived from fetal tissue in January last year to treat neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, also known as Batten disease, the company said in a prepared statement. The disease is a rare and always fatal condition that affects children.
The girl, who received the treatment at Oregon Health & Science University's Doernbecher Children's Hospital, became critically ill from an apparent viral infection, seizures and respiratory distress, and was hospitalized nearly two weeks ago, the statement said.
Based upon an initial review by Doernbecher doctors, a committee of experts monitoring the study and StemCells' medical specialists, the girl's death was believed due to the natural progression of her disease rather than from the stem cells she received, the company said.
Children with Batten disease - which is caused by genetic mutations - suffer seizures and progressive loss of motor skills, sight and mental capacity, before eventually becoming blind, bedridden and unable to communicate. The stem-cell treatment was the first ever tried with children suffering from the malady.
StemCells initially asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December
2004 for permission to conduct the unprecedented test on children. After asking the company for more information about how the surgery would be done and whether it risked causing cancer, the federal agency gave its permission Oct. 20, 2005.
Batten disease is caused by a defective gene that fails to create an enzyme the brain needs. By injecting the fetal stem cells into the brains of the six children, researchers involved in the study said they hoped the cells would help the brains produce the missing enzyme.
StemCells' statement added that the company is continuing to investigate the death and has been in contact with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the matter.
"These patients are in the very late stage of the disease and that is one of the criteria of enrollment" in the study, which is designed to determine if the treatment has any unsafe side effects, said StemCells Chief Executive Officer, Martin McGlynn.
"Coming into the study they have no prospect of survival," he added. The fact that one of them has died is a reminder of "how important it is to find a therapy or even a cure for this devastating disease."
All of the children who received the treatment were under the age of 13, said McGlynn, who noted that the surviving youngsters will be monitored by medical officials until the early part of 2009, when the study is expected to be completed.
From:http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_8018506?nclick_check=1
Stem cells have yet to make it into mainstream civilian medicine, but that hasn't stopped the US military betting on them to save its personnel if there's a nuclear explosion or radiological attack.
On 3 January, the Department of Defense awarded a contract to two biotech firms to develop a treatment for radiation sickness based on stem cells extracted from the bone marrow of healthy adult donors. If the treatment, known as Prochymal, wins approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon will purchase up to 20,000 doses at a total cost - including funding for development - of $224.7 million.
High doses of radiation kill by damaging the DNA of fast-dividing cells in the gut and bone marrow. If victims survive the diarrhoea, intestinal bleeding and loss of water caused by damage to their gut linings, they may succumb to fatal infections in the following weeks as ...
continune at:http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726383.200-us-funds-stemcell-therapy-for-radiation-sickness.html
Cancer stem cells might hold clue to melanoma growth
Globe Staff / January 17, 2008
In a key step from theory to possible treatment for melanoma patients, scientists in Boston report today that they were able to beat back a deadly human skin cancer in mice by targeting and destroying stem cells in the tumors.
The findings on malignant melanoma add weight to the growing belief among scientists that many types of cancer recur after treatment because small, resilient groups of stem cells survive and start multiplying again.
The research, published in tomorrow's journal Nature, shows that attacking melanoma stem cells is enough to halt a tumor's growth, said Dr. Markus Frank of Children's Hospital Boston, senior author on the paper. It thus offers new hope that this strategy will also work in humans - perhaps, researchers say, within just a few years.
"If this works with melanoma, this may also work with other tumors that are notoriously difficult to treat" once they have spread, said Dr. George Murphy, an author of the paper and chief of skin pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
For more than a decade, scientists have been researching the theory that stem cells might be the worst villains in cancer, and the work has gathered momentum as stem cell populations have been discovered in cancers ranging from brain tumors to leukemia. Under a microscope, stem cells look like other cancer cells, but they can drive the growth of cancerous tumors in much the same way that normal stem cells can regenerate the body's healthy tissues
The paper is exciting and well done, said Dr. Peter Dirks, researcher of stem cells and brain tumors at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the work.
He cautioned, however, that this latest study, as well as others on cancer stem cells, are only preliminary, and it remains to be seen how broadly applicable the results are. Also, much of the work still awaits replication by other labs, he said.
"It's relatively early stages," he said, though he says he understands why the whole idea of cancer stem cells has recently "hit prime time: Because if you could treat those cells, maybe we'd have more effective, more long-lasting, more definitive cures for cancer. This [new] study is definitely a step in that direction."
One other concern that must be addressed with future research: whether killing the cancer stem cells brings with it "unexpected toxicity," hurting normal cells that use the same protein, said John E. Dick, also at the University of Toronto.
The study, whose first author was Tobias Schatton, focused on a protein lying on the surface of melanoma stem cells called ABCB5. Frank and his team, including his wife, Natasha Frank, had already shown that ABCB5 was a telltale marker for cells that could resist chemotherapy.
They set out to see whether melanoma cells that test positive for ABCB5 not only resist attack from treatments such as chemotherapy, but also serve as the seeds that then develop into more cancer.
What would happen, they wondered, if those nefarious cells were knocked out? Using monoclonal antibodies - molecular weapons that can hit highly specific targets - they went after the ABCB5-positive cells in human melanoma tumors grafted onto mice.
Tumor growth was "significantly inhibited," they report. Only three out of 11 mice developed new tumors, compared with 28 out of 28 mice whose cancer stem cells were left alone.
ABCB5 is actually a molecule that helps stem cells get rid of toxins - such as chemotherapy drugs - and thus helps tumors survive, Murphy said. "It's the very molecule that helps protect them that we have used to identify them."
Even if further experiments continue to look promising, it will likely be at least two or three years before the stem-cell strategy could start being tested in humans with melanoma, Frank said. But his lab will immediately try to develop the best possible antibodies for attacking melanoma stem cells, and will also use their findings to try to understand more about the biology of cancer stem cells, he said.
Malignant melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, but it is easily treatable if caught early. Once it spreads, the disease is usually fatal. It kills an estimated 8,000 Americans per year out of a total 60,000 diagnosed.
Article From:http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/17/cancer_stem_cells_might_hold_clue_to_melanoma_growth/
By John Connolly
ORLANDO, Florida, January 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scientists have created a beating heart using laboratory techniques that involve adult stem cells and that could revolutionize organ donation.
Scientists at the University of Minnesota reported their findings at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. The highly experimental procedure involved removing all the cells from a rat's dead heart, and using its protein blueprint as a guide for live adult stem cells seeded on the old heart.
"We took nature's building blocks to build a new organ," said Harald Ott, who worked on the project. "When we saw the first contractions we were speechless."
The ethical questions concerning heart donation could be completely sidestepped by such a process. Furthermore a new heart, grown in this way, would not be rejected by the patient's immune system, which is a common problem with organ transplants.
The procedure, however, is still in an experimental state, and it will probably be years before it can be tried on humans. Professor Doris Taylor, director of the University of Minnesota's center for cardiovascular repair, is very hopeful that this new breakthrough is a significant step towards the ability to create custom-built hearts as well as other organs.
"The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells," Taylor said. "It opens a door to the notion that you can make any organ - kidney, liver or pancreas. You name it and we hope we can make it. This is a proof of concept. Going forward, our goal is to use a patient's stem cells to build a new heart."
Adult stem cells have led to many breakthroughs in medical science in recent years, in stark contrast to the lack of progress with ethically unacceptable embryonic stem cell research. Adult stem cells may be used to treat everything from heart attacks to damaged teeth. Many experimental projects have shown and are increasingly showing great promise for use of adult stem cells on human subjects.
Article From:http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/08011405.html
Singapore - Inspired by an orange juicer, two Singapore academics have invented a device that they claim can extract more stem cells from a placenta than current methods from the umbilical cord, a news report said Tuesday. Professor Ng Soon Chye and Associate Professor Tan Kok Kiong at the National University of Singapore told the Straits Times that three companies from the city-state, Japan and Britain are interested in the invention.
During a coffee break, the duo considered an orange juicer.
"We then had an idea: squeeze as much as possible, like the juicer," Ng was quoted as saying.
Their brainstorming resulted in the placenta "juicer," which presses down and squeezes on the placenta to extract as much cord blood as possible.
Stem cells can be extracted from the umbilical cord after birth and used to treat patients with blood diseases or used in bone-marrow transplants.
Some parents have their newborns' cord blood stored. The umbilical cord would otherwise be discarded.
Current extraction methods use a syringe to suck up as much blood as possible from the umbilical cord.
Ng and Tan said their device can exact as much as 10 times the amount of cord blood, or 10 times the amount of stem cells.
Original Article:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/173562,placenta-juicer-developed-to-extract-more-stem-cells.html
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human egg cells can be tweaked to give rise to valued stem cells that match the tissue types of many different groups of people, U.S. and Russian researchers reported on Wednesday.
They said the stem cells they have created from unfertilized human eggs look and act like embryonic stem cells.
And they have been carefully tissue-matched in the same way as bone marrow donations to prevent the risk of rejection if they are transplanted into people.
The team at California-based International Stem Cell Corp. hopes to create a bank of tissue-matched stem cells that could be used as transplants that a patient's immune system would accept.
"The process is efficient, it is relatively safe and it is ethically sound," Jeffrey Janus, president and director of research at the company, said in a telephone interview.
The cells are created by a process known as parthenogenesis, a word that comes from Latin and Greek roots meaning virgin beginning.
It involves chemically tricking an egg into developing without being fertilized by sperm.
Several teams have now created parthenogenetic human stem cells from eggs. Other teams have created similar cells using human skin cells or human embryos.
Continune at Reuters
Stem Cell Therapy Could Regrow Heart Cells
A new study conducted by University of Florida doctors attempts to treat patients with coronary artery disease by injected stem cells into the heart. The researchers believe that stem cell injections will restore more blood flow to the organ and encourage blood vessel growth, healing the heart.
This experimental treatment is being conducted on volunteers with severe coronary artery disease who have daily chest pains. Volunteers for the study have tried other methods such as medication or surgery procedures to restore blood flow but have not responded. The results of this study could affect almost half a million Americans with severe coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery disease occurs when the heart muscle becomes affected by plaque deposits or clots that prevent blood from reaching the heart. The blockages can initiate small heart attacks that can go undetected but cause damage to the heart that cannot be reversed. Over time, this can cause progressive heart failure or death.
In the study, researchers will use a person's own stem cells to try to improve the flow of blood to the heart. They hope that the treatment will prevent some of the symptoms of severe coronary artery disease, as well as increase the quality of life for the patient. The study will also measure exercise tolerance and heart function before and after treatment.
"The general idea is that by providing these cells of blood vessel origin, we hope to either generate new blood vessels from the growth of these implanted cells or stimulate the heart to regenerate new blood vessels from the cells that reside in it," said study investigator Carl J. Pepine, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at UF's College of Medicine in a press release.
Despite their high hopes for the results of the study, researchers are unsure how this transformation will occur. "It's not completely clear whether it's the actual cell itself that would do this or whether it's just the milieu and the chemical signals that occur from the cells that would result in this," concluded Pepine in a press release.
Another trial is divided into three patient groups, one focusing on patients with heart attacks within the week preceding the treatment, one on people with heart attacks two or three weeks before treatment, and those patients with severe coronary disease that has not responded to any treatment. In those studies, stem cells removed from the bone marrow will be removed and injected into the heart.
"There's a lot of enthusiasm in the cardiovascular community about the potential of cell-based therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases,"
aid Douglas E. Vaughan, M.D., chief of the division of cardiovascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in a press release, "and there is increasing experience around the world in using bone marrow-derived stem cells in patients with cardiovascular disease. There is growing confidence this is going to be a safe form of therapy, but there are continuing questions about how effective it will be and what its impact will be in individual patients."
Original Article :http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/404970/stem_cell_therapy_could_regrow_heart.html?page=2
Bill could increase umbilical blood use
Advocate say state supply source needed
umbilical cord blood stem cell storage
A bill that would lay the foundation for the state's first public umbilical cord blood bank soared through the state legislature this week.
AB 34, authored by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, was approved unanimously by the Assembly on Wednesday. In the Senate, it was supported 79 to 1.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 12 to sign the bill into law. He has not taken a position on it, and his office declined to comment on the bill Friday or say when he might considered it.
"Certainly the need is there," Portantino said of establishing a cord blood bank.
Right now, he said, "we're not harvesting cord blood, we're not saving the lives we should be saving."
Research has suggested that as many as 70 diseases could be treated with the stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood.
Although private cord blood banks exist in the state, they are costly and cannot meet all of the growing demand, Portantino said.
"Not all patients do find a unit (of blood) in a timely manner," said Joseph Rosenthal, director of pediatric hematopoietic cell transplantation at City of Hope in Duarte.
One of his patients, a child of mixed African-American
Advocate say state supply source needed
By Elise Kleeman, Staff Writer
Original Article From : http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_6902971
image:www..georgiapainphysicians.com
Megan Ogilvie
Health Reporter
A Toronto-led team of researchers has found a way to use stem cells derived from skin to treat spinal cord injuries in rats.
The finding lends promise to the idea that stem cells could one day be used to heal spinal cord injuries in humans, helping thousands of Canadians to walk again.
Injured rats injected with skin-derived stem cells regained mobility and had better walking co-ordination, according to the study published yesterday in the Journal of Neuroscience. The skin-derived stem cells, injected directly into the injured rats' spinal cords, were able to survive in their new location and set off a flurry of activity, helping to heal the cavity in the cord.
Freda Miller, a senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and lead author of the study, said skin-derived stem cells have some advantages over other stem cell types. Scientists who use skin to generate stem cells do not need to use embryos, for example, and skin-derived stem cells can potentially be harvested from patients themselves, she said.
"You can imagine a scenario for people with spinal cord injuries, that maybe, just maybe, we could take a piece of their skin, grow the cells up and transplant them (the patient) with their own cells," she said. "You wouldn't have to give them immunosuppressive drugs. That's a tremendous clinical advantage if it comes true."
Miller and her colleagues from The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of British Columbia have been exploring the possibilities of using skin to derive stem cells since 2001.
Over the course of their research, the team found that skin-derived stem cells share characteristics with embryonic neural stem cells, which generate the nervous system. They also showed skin-derived stem cells can produce Schwann cells, a cell type that creates a good growth environment to repair injured central nervous system axons – the long nerve cell fibres that conduct electrical impulses between nerves – and that these Schwann cells put down myelin along the injured spinal cord. Like the insulation around an electrical cord, myelin wraps around nerves, creating a sheath that helps quickly conduct nerve impulses.
Miller said the next step was to see whether transplanting the Schwann cells directly into spinal cords would help treat injured rats.
To test their hypothesis, Miller and her team generated stem cells from the skin of rats and mice and forced them to differentiate into Schwann cells, which were then transplanted into the rats. After 12 weeks, the rats were able to walk better, with more co-ordination.
Miller said the cells thrived within the injured spinal cord. Before treatment, the injured rats had a cavity in their spinal cord, a result of their injury. But after treatment, Miller said the Schwann cells had created a bridge that spanned the cavity, and helped nerves grow through the bridge.
The next step is to see whether stem cells derived from human skin can produce similar results.
"We are highly encouraged," said Miller.
An Original artical from :
New Leukemia Treatment In US begins with stem cell for first clinical trial.
0 ความคิดเห็น ที่ 00:41
Ultimately, the researchers hope the experimental cellular therapy will improve overall survival rates for blood cancer patients as well as offer a potential new paradigm for treating autoimmune diseases.
Image: www.grtl.org
"Toward our quest of making transplants even safer for adults and children with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and other blood and marrow disorders, we are exploring the possibility of using T-regs to enhance the rate of blood and marrow recovery and reduce the risks of graft-versus-host disease, a complication that affects more than 60 percent of patients," said Claudio Brunstein, M.D., principal investigator of the study.
T-regs are a type of lymphocyte, or white blood cell that normally regulates the body's immune responses. In the case of transplant, donor T-regs may suppress the recipient's immune system so that the healthy donor's blood-forming stem cells and immune cells can grow, helping ward off life-threatening graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). GVHD occurs when the immune cells within the donated cells attack the body of the transplant recipient. GVHD causes one-third of deaths after transplant.
Researchers have proven in animal models that infusing T-regs after transplant increases the chance of blood and marrow recovery and decreases the risk of GVHD.
"Once we identified that T-regs were highly effective in mouse models, we then spent three years finding ways to make this therapy valuable for transplant patients and potentially useful for patients with autoimmune diseases," said Bruce Blazar, M.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University.
The T-regs in this study are isolated from umbilical cord blood (blood collected from the placenta or afterbirth after the birth of a child) because they occur in higher frequency than what is typically found in most adults and are easier to expand in culture prior to treatment. This is the first human clinical trial in the world that uses T-regs derived from umbilical cord blood.
This trial is designed to find the highest possible safe dose of T-regs in immune suppressed patients undergoing a double umbilical cord blood transplant for leukemia, other blood cancer, or bone marrow failure. From data in animal models, University researchers believe there will be no acute side effects with the T-regs.
If the data in humans mimics animal models, T-regs will be a powerful therapy to prevent GVHD and enhance engraftment in transplant patients. Once safety and efficacy data are known, researchers hope to test T-regs for treatment of various autoimmune diseases, such as type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis. University researchers hypothesize that if T-regs are transplanted early in the life of the disease, the cells may help prevent disease progression.
"This is an exciting time. In the near future, I anticipate being able to combine immune cell populations, like T-regs, that stop immune reactions responsible for autoimmune diseases like diabetes, and immune responses to stem cell infusion given to repair already damaged tissues. This brings great hope not only for adults and children with cancer but many other diseases as well. At the close of this clinical trial, we hope to go right to our first clinical trial with T-regulatory cells in the treatment of newly diagnosed diabetes," said John E. Wagner, M.D., director of the pediatric hematology-oncology and blood and marrow transplantation program at the University of Minnesota.
This study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Marrow Donor Program, and the Children's Cancer Research Fund.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Minnesota.
And the original Article from http://www.sciencedaily.com/
Stem cells have the unique characteristic of "plasticity" -- they have the ability to give rise to all of the different tissues of the human body. In general, stem cells have two distinguishing characteristics: They are unspecialized, in that they can clone themselves without limit; and they can differentiate into many cell types with specific functions.
Recently, scientists have discovered that human adipose (fat) tissue has a higher concentration of adult stem cells than any other tissue in the body. In fact, a given volume of adipose tissue contains 1,000 times more stem cells than the same volume of bone marrow -- 500 mL of fat can yield approximately 200 million stem cells. Stem cells have many unique applications in science and medicine, but this is the first time, protein extract derived from stem cells are used in the field of cosmetic dermatology.
In July 2007, facial and scalp rejuvenate therapies using AAPE was introduced at The Sloane Clinic in Singapore. AAPE (advanced adipose-derived stem cell protein extract) is a mixture of refined growth factor proteins that is extracted from human adipose-derived stem cells. AAPE uses proteins or chemical messengers that are extracted from stem cells found in human fat tissue. These messengers, when deposited or absorbed into the skin or scalp if that were the case, would then send a signal to cells in the skin teaching them to regenerate.
a very simplistic way, we are basically using this product to tell your skin to be young again," says Dr. Low Chai Ling, Aesthetic Physician of The Sloane Clinic, Singapore, one of the first doctors in Singapore to offer this treatment to her patients with overwhelming response.
"These AAPE cells are extracted from human adipocytes (fat cells) during the process of lipoaspiration (fat suction) and they contain the maximal number of stem cells in the human body. By cultivating these regenerative cells in test-tubes, we can establish cell lines which will serve as a reservoir of stem cells for anti-ageing and aesthetic therapies far superior than traditional methods of synthetic chemicals," she added.
Stem Cell as a Therapy
Stem-cell therapy can be viewed as a way to restore embryonic potential to a patient's aged or damaged cells. The goal of stem-cell therapy in aesthetic surgery would be to regenerate aging tissue. (of the face or scalp)
AAPE is the protein messengers extracted from these stem cells, and hence AAPE have the innate ability to rearrange, change, or repair local tissues significantly and rapidly. One of the most promising uses for AAPE may be the regeneration of facial fat that has been lost through the natural aging process -- facial fat atrophy. AAPE to could not only replace lost facial volume, but may also be able to rejuvenate the face by regenerating the skin from the inside out.
AAPE on the scalp can also help with the regeneration of ageing hair follicles and help stimulate hair growth and reverse the effects of balding without the need for hair transplant surgery.
A session will take about 30 minutes with multiple tiny punctures and most will begin to see the effects from your 3rd session onwards. Most patients will do a series of 6 sessions initially to prime their skin for long lasting anti-ageing effects.
"As you know, no treatment is able to freeze time as our bodies and skin is subjected to many environmental assaults daily, but this treatment certainly comes close," says Dr. Low Chai Ling.
Safety and Efficacy
AAPE which is the growth factors derived from stem cells harvested from human fat cells have been certified safe by CTFA (Cosmetic. Toiletry and Fragrance Association) as an approved cosmetic ingredient (Sep/13/2006). It has also been registered with INCI as human adipocyte conditioned media extract. This product is patented. (Patent registration number: PCT/KR2006/004111).
Stem Cell Facial and Scalp Therapy -- Miracle Facial?
Overall, stem cells raise the prospect of regenerating the aging face from the inside out, and thereby have the potential to change the entire practice of facial rejuvenation in the future. Stem Cell Facial Therapy for anti-ageing and intense facial rejuvenation purposes (reduction in wrinkles, pigmentation, evening of skin colour, closure of pores and softening and tightening ) costs around USD$600* per session. Stem Cell Scalp Therapy to regrow hair and reverse balding costs around USD$550*. Hair regrowth is usually seen in 6 sessions, 2 weeks apart.
For most, this is a leap in aesthetic advancement that is going to revolutionalize the cosmetic industry. And this will bring people a step closer to their anti-ageing ideal with the least amount of effort in the long run.
After all, pretty is what you are born with. But beautiful, that's an equal opportunity.
*Prices accurate at time of print but may be subjected to change.
Dr. Low Chai Ling is an aesthetic physician and the medical director of The Sloane Clinic, Singapore.
For more information on this and other treatment, please visit www.sloaneclinic.com
For general enquiries, please email enquiries @sloaneclinic.com
For press and media enquiries, please email marcom @sloaneclinic.com
This original article from: www.prweb.com
LONDON (AP) — British authorities ruled Wednesday that research using animal eggs to create human stem cells could go forward in principle.
The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority decided to allow the research, which involves placing human DNA into cow or rabbit eggs that have had their genetic material removed. According to the ruling, projects would be decided on a case-by-case basis, said Paula Woodward, a spokeswoman for the regulator.
Experts have said such research, which is currently under way in the United States and China, is critical to unlocking treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other genetic diseases. Scientists want to use animal eggs because the supply of human eggs is limited.
However, the research has raised ethical worries. The involvement of animals has caused concern among the public, while right-to-life advocates fear it could lead ultimately to genetically modified babies - despite the fact that the studies being considered would only allow development of eggs for a few days.
The research involves taking a cow or rabbit egg which no longer has its own DNA and injecting human genetic material. The egg is induced to divide, becoming a very early embryo from which stem cells could be extracted.
Some experts questioned whether residual animal traces might contaminate human DNA, thus invalidating the stem cell experiments.
Advocates of the research insist it would be a human embryo made in the shell of an animal egg, though a minute amount of animal genes remain. The resulting egg contains 13 animal genes compared with some 20,000-25,000 human genes.
Dr. David King, director of the independent watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, said allowing such research to go forward would be the first step toward producing genetically modified babiesThe original article can be found at The Canadian Press
Recently, we told you about eight-month-old Jackson Blackford who was born blind because of a rare condition.
He is on his way to China to receive treatment that uses umbilical cord stem cell injections from healthy babies.
Although this isn't a new procedure, many people aren't aware that pregnant mothers even have this option because there aren't many public cord blood registries available.
We have the story of an area girl whose life was saved because of a simple donation that in many cases gets thrown away.
Take one look at nine-year-old Presley Nash in her Tae Kwon Do class, and it's hard to believe she was born with a genetic disorder that usually results in premature death.
It has been five years since she's received a life saving cord blood transplant and all she has now are happy memories.
"I get to see all my teachers and friends and run and play," Nash said.
But her grandmother Martha Houchin will never forget.
"Presley was close to death many times and I bargained and said I will educate the world about cord blood," Houchin assured.
She's an O.B. educator for The Medical Center and said it's so easy and painless to donate your baby's umbilical cord blood.
A public registry will pick it up free of charge or you can save your own through a private registry.
"The cord blood has stem cells and these stem cells can basically reproduce within the body," Houchin said.
Stem cells Presley received created an enzyme her body didn't produce on its own.
So by creating a whole new system, she is now completely free of this disease and doesn't need any medication.
Houchin said cord blood transplants are also being used for other illnesses such as leukemia, Alzheimer's and spinal cord injuries.
"With bone marrow, eight out of eight markers have to match, with cord blood only five have to match," she continued.
For Presley, it's another Tae Kwon Do class.
But for Martha, it's another day to spread the word and save a life.
Houchin said it takes a very small amount of blood from the umbilical cord to generate a whole new system in your body.
Reporter: Fida Georges
The original article can be found at http://www.wbko.com/
Stem Cells help California native
Twelve months ago David Traub fromWoodland Hills, California, was told by his cardiologist that it was doubtful he would survive the trip to Thailand for adult stem cell therapy for his heart failure.
As David sat in the waiting room recently after a scheduled check-up, he was told that the doctor wanted to speak with him. Naturally David was a little alarmed and wondered what could have gone wrong. After all he had a long history of hospitalizations and treatment for his cardiomyopathy and coronary artery disease. He was used to hearing depressing news concerning his deteriorating health, but he continued to be hopeful that he could be helped.
The cardiologist came, “Running in with eyes wide,” in David’s words, and said, “David, all of your test results are normal. Not normal ‘for you’, but normal. Your heart has revascularized itself. It has to be the stem cell treatment because the left side of your heart now has a normal blood flow.”
Formerly this cardiologist was at the best doubtful and the David described him as “mostly negative, a real doubting Thomas” about any possible benefits from adult stem cell therapy. “Not any more,” said David.
David’s therapy consisted of having about half a pint of his own blood removed in Bangkok’s prestigious Bangkok Heart Hospital. This blood was flown to Theravitae’s laboratory where the therapeutic stem cells were isolated and multiplied many times before being injected directly into the heart muscle via a small incision in the chest wall.
Not only did David survive the trip half way around the world but he returned home to find, “The peaks were higher and the valley’s not as deep”. He still has problems due to an enlarged heart from cardiomyopathy but he is happy to wait a while longer knowing that his heart now has a richer blood supply compared with before stem cell treatment, so it is working normally rather than struggling. His partner, family and cardiologist share the excitement of proof that adult stem cell therapy has the ability to improve the blood supply to the heart muscle itself.
Millions of coronary heart disease patients will be able to benefit when cardiologists, like this patient’s, change their tune and give them the realistic and proven effective option of adult stem cell therapy instead of a death sentence.
About TheraVitae:
TheraVitae is a private, multinational company focused on using stem cells from the patient’s own blood in order to treat a variety of disorders, especially cardiovascular diseases. The company has developed a proprietary stem cell technology, ‘VesCell’, that is currently being used by hospitals in Thailand and Singapore to treat patients with heart disease and peripheral artery disease.
VesCell — A Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)
The body has natural ways of healing itself and the cardiovascular system is no exception. Angiogenic Cell Precursors (ACPs) originate in bone marrow and then circulate in the blood vessels. To manufacture VesCell, TheraVitae expands a small number of ACPs harvested from about 250cc of blood into a therapeutic quantity. VesCell is injected either through a coronary artery via catheter, or during surgery, directly into the heart muscle.
A key aspect of VesCell therapy is the advanced cell isolation and expansion technique that allows for the ACPs to be harvested from blood collected in a procedure similar to a common blood donation. VesCell uses a patient’s own adult stem cells to treat Heart Disease and PAD and is a viable therapeutic possibility for heart or PAD patients without any other treatment option.
Los Angeles, CA 9/5/2007 7:25 AM GMT (TransWorldNews - Top Story)
mailto:jerry@theravitae.com?subject=Cardiologist changes tune on adult stem cells
http://www.vescell.com/
The original article can be found at http://www.vescell.com/
Report proposes structure for national network of cord blood stem cell banks, USA
0 ความคิดเห็น ที่ 04:26
Blood from umbilical cords -- a byproduct of normal childbirth -- is a good source of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), the type of stem cells also found in bone marrow that give rise to various kinds of blood cells. Transplants of these stem cells have saved the lives of roughly 20,000 Americans with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, and several other illnesses in recent years, the report notes. But thousands of patients who might benefit from a transplant die every year waiting for a match. Although 22 public banks have been established in the United States to collect, store, and distribute donated cord blood containing these cells, these banks operate without any centralized coordination, noted the committee that wrote the report.
"The lack of centralized organization, universal quality standards, and uniform matching mechanisms makes it more difficult than it has to be for physicians to provide patients with suitable cells in a timely way," said Kristine Gebbie, associate professor of nursing and director of the Center for Health Policy and Doctoral Studies Columbia University, New York City, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "Moreover, there simply aren't enough units of cord blood available now to meet the needs of the roughly 11,700 Americans who could benefit from a transplant of these cells every year. The structure we are recommending for a national cord blood banking program would assure that patients receive high-quality therapeutic cells in the most timely, ethical, and cost-effective manner possible."
Three-quarters of the patients who require a transplant of HPCs do not have a relative whose cells would be a suitable match and must turn to public bone marrow donor registries or umbilical cord blood banks for donated cells. By increasing the size and quality of the cord blood inventory, nearly 90 percent of all patients who need a transplant should be able to find a suitable match from either cord blood banks or marrow donor registries, the report says.
The new National Cord Blood Policy Board should be established at the level of the office of the DHHS secretary to ensure that it is distanced from the day-to-day concerns of other parts of the department responsible for managing relationships with and funding for bone marrow donor programs and cord blood programs, the committee urged. The board should routinely review the results of cord blood stem cell transplants and guide DHHS and the cord blood banking program on procedures and standards for banking and allocation and on any changes to the inventory of cord blood units.
Decisions about which source of HPCs to tap must be made on a case-by-case basis and driven by the patient's needs, the report notes. To that end, the board should actively encourage collaboration between marrow donor registries and cord blood banks, as well as support cord blood banking's emergence as a transplant option.
Although the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and other organizations have developed several of the components necessary to manage daily coordination of banking and allocation on a large scale, no organization currently has all the necessary capabilities to serve as the Cord Blood Coordinating Center, the committee concluded. HRSA officials should use a competitive process to solicit proposals and identify an organization to take on this function. NMDP and other organizations would have an opportunity to present plans for ensuring that all the necessary elements are in place to link participating transplant centers and cord blood banks; establish standards for cord blood storage and matching; and make sure that data on the results of transplants are available for decision-making and quality assurance. Although the new center would coordinate these various activities, it need not assume all of these functions itself, the report says.
The majority of funding available for the national cord blood bank program should be targeted to expanding the inventories of participating banks. Based on the current estimate that 50,000 useable units of cord blood are now available through public banks and the NMDP, the committee projects a need for at least 100,000 more high-quality units. The larger the inventory, the greater the likelihood that a patient will be matched to a suitable unit and receive an optimal dose of cells, although the costs of collecting and storing cord blood also must be considered. The point at which the costs of banking cord blood exceed the benefits for the patient population is 200,000 units, according to an economic analysis conducted for the study.
Cord blood banks should strive to provide units with a high-enough concentration of stem cells to make up for imperfect matches between donor and recipient -- a frequent occurrence, the report notes. The more closely surface markers on donated cells match those on a patient's own cells, the less likely that the patient's body will reject the transplant. In many cases, a mismatch of one or two degrees is the best that can be found in public banks. Patients for whom an ideal match cannot be located should receive units that contain at least 2.5 x 107 cells per kilogram of body weight, the report says. When perfect matches can be found, cell concentration is less important.
For many racial and ethnic minority patients, it is difficult or impossible to find suitable matches because many cord blood collections are not ethnically and racially diverse. The committee's own survey determined that 62 percent of the current total inventory in the United States came from white donors, 15 percent from Hispanics, 7 percent from African-Americans, 5 percent from Asians, 5 percent from mixed race donors, and 1 percent from American Indians. However, individual cord blood banks have achieved greater diversity through geographically targeted collection efforts and other means, the report notes.
This study was sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The Institute of Medicine is a private, nonprofit institution that provides health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences. A committee roster follows.
A pre-publication version of CORD BLOOD: ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL BANK PROGRAM is available from the National Academies Press; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at HTTP://WWW.NAP.EDU. Reporters may obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).
