Should stem cell therapy be used in DLBCL?

By: Lymphoma Hub

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Should stem cell therapy be used in DLBCL? - Video

Miami (PRWEB) March 21, 2014

Stem Cell Training, Inc., a division of the Global Stem Cells Group, and Bioheart, Inc. have announced the successful completion of their first joint stem cell training course held in the U.S.

Titled Adipose Derived Harvesting, Isolation and Re-integration Training Course, for the advancement of stem cell procedures, the two companies hosted 14 students in Miami for the training, conducted by Bioheart CSO Kristin Comella.

The two-day, hands-on intensive training course was developed for physicians and high-level practitioners to learn techniques in harvesting and reintegrating stem cells derived from adipose (fat) tissue and bone marrow. The objective of the training is to bridge the gap between bench science in the laboratory and the doctors office by teaching effective in office regenerative medicine techniques.

Comella, Chief Scientific Officer for Bioheart, has more than 15 years experience in cell culturing and developing stem cell therapies for degenerative diseases, and experience in corporate entities, with expertise in regenerative medicine, training and education, research, product development and senior management.

The two companies will conduct 12 stem cell training courses in the U.S. during 2014. For more information, visit the Stem Cell Training, Inc. website, email info(at)stemcelltraining(dot)net, or call 305-224-1858.

About Stem Cell Training, Inc.:

Stem Cell Training, Inc. is a multi-dimensional company offering coursework and training in 35 cities worldwide. Coursework offered focuses on minimally invasive techniques for harvesting stem cells from adipose tissue, bone marrow and platelet-rich plasma. By equipping physicians with these techniques, the goal is to enable them to return to their practices, better able to apply these techniques in patient treatments.

The companys training courses are designed to make the best use of stem cell technology available to treat various diseases in a manner that is accessible to everyone. Stem Cell Training, Inc.s mission is to introduce the promising world of cellular medicine to everyone who can benefit from its application, and to provide high quality, effective and efficient training that complies with the highest medical standards to physicians worldwide.

About the Global Stem Cells Group:

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Stem Cell Training, Inc. and Bioheart, Inc. Complete First U.S.-based Stem Cell Training Course

Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have developed a method to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from a single drop of finger-pricked blood. The method also enables donors to collect their own blood samples, which they can then send to a laboratory for further processing. The easy access to blood samples using the new technique could potentially boost the recruitment of greater numbers and diversities of donors, and could lead to the establishment of large-scale hiPSC banks.

By genetic reprogramming, matured human cells, usually blood cells, can be transformed into hiPSCs. As hiPSCs exhibit properties remarkably similar to human embryonic stem cells, they are invaluable resources for basic research, drug discovery and cell therapy. In countries like Japan, USA and UK, a number of hiPSC bank initiatives have sprung up to make hiPSCs available for stem cell research and medical studies.

Current sample collection for reprogramming into hiPSCs include invasive measures such as collecting cells from the bone marrow or skin, which may put off many potential donors. Although hiPSCs may also be generated from blood cells, large quantities of blood are usually required. In the paper published online on the Stem Cell Translational Medicine journal, scientists at IMCB showed for the first time that single-drop volumes of blood are sufficient for reprogramming into hiPSCs. The finger-prick technique is the world's first to use only a drop of finger-pricked blood to yield hiPSCs with high efficiency. A patent has been filed for the innovation.

The accessibility of the new technique is further enhanced with a DIY sample collection approach. Donors may collect their own finger-pricked blood, which they can then store and send it to a laboratory for reprogramming. The blood sample remains stable for 48 hours and can be expanded for 12 days in culture, which therefore extends the finger-prick technique to a wide range of geographical regions for recruitment of donors with varied ethnicities, genotypes and diseases.

By integrating it with the hiPSC bank initiatives, the finger-prick technique paves the way for establishing diverse and fully characterised hiPSC banking for stem cell research. The potential access to a wide range of hiPSCs could also replace the use of embryonic stem cells, which are less accessible. It could also facilitate the set-up of a small hiPSC bank in Singapore to study targeted local diseases.

Dr Loh Yuin Han Jonathan, Principal Investigator at IMCB and lead scientist for the finger-prick hiPSC technique, said, "It all began when we wondered if we could reduce the volume of blood used for reprogramming. We then tested if donors could collect their own blood sample in a normal room environment and store it. Our finger-prick technique, in fact, utilised less than a drop of finger-pricked blood. The remaining blood could even be used for DNA sequencing and other blood tests."

Dr Stuart Alexander Cook, Senior Consultant at the National Heart Centre Singapore and co-author of the paper, said "We were able to differentiate the hiPSCs reprogrammed from Jonathan's finger-prick technique, into functional heart cells. This is a well-designed, applicable technique that can unlock unrealized potential of biobanks around the world for hiPSC studies at a scale that was previously not possible."

Prof Hong Wanjin, Executive Director at IMCB, said "Research on hiPSCs is now highly sought-after, given its potential to be used as a model for studying human diseases and for regenerative medicine. Translational research and technology innovations are constantly encouraged at IMCB and this new technique is very timely. We hope to eventually help the scientific community gain greater accessibility to hiPSCs for stem cell research through this innovation."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by A*STAR. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Stem cells created from a drop of blood: DIY finger-prick technique opens door for extensive stem cell banking

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI), sustained by close to 2 million Americans annually, including military personnel, are debilitating and devastating for patients and their families. Regardless of severity, those with TBI can suffer a range of motor, behavioral, intellectual and cognitive disabilities over the short or long term. Sadly, clinical treatments for TBI are few and largely ineffective.

In an effort to find an effective therapy, neuroscientists at the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, have conducted several preclinical studies aimed at finding combination therapies to improve TBI outcomes.

In their study of several different therapies -- alone and in combination -- applied to laboratory rats modeled with TBI, USF researchers found that a combination of human umbilical cord blood cells (hUBCs) and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), a growth factor, was more therapeutic than either administered alone, or each with saline, or saline alone.

The study appeared in a recent issue of PLoS ONE.

"Chronic TBI is typically associated with major secondary molecular injuries, including chronic neuroinflammation, which not only contribute to the death of neuronal cells in the central nervous system, but also impede any natural repair mechanism," said study lead author Cesar V. Borlongan, PhD, professor of neurosurgery and director of USF's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. "In our study, we used hUBCs and G-CSF alone and in combination. In previous studies, hUBCs have been shown to suppress inflammation, and G-CSF is currently being investigated as a potential therapeutic agent for patients with stroke or Alzheimer's disease."

Their stand-alone effects have a therapeutic potential for TBI, based on results from previous studies. For example, G-CSF has shown an ability to mobilize stem cells from bone marrow and then infiltrate injured tissues, promoting self-repair of neural cells, while hUBCs have been shown to suppress inflammation and promote cell growth.

The involvement of the immune system in the central nervous system to either stimulate repair or enhance molecular damage has been recognized as key to the progression of many neurological disorders, including TBI, as well as in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and some autoimmune diseases, the researchers report. Increased expression of MHCII positive cells -- cell members that secrete a family of molecules mediating interactions between the immune system's white blood cells -- has been directly linked to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in TBI.

"Our results showed that the combined therapy of hUBCs and G-CSF significantly reduced the TBI-induced loss of neuronal cells in the hippocampus," said Borlongan. "Therapy with hUBCs and G-CSF alone or in combination produced beneficial results in animals with experimental TBI. G-CSF alone produced only short-lived benefits, while hUBCs alone afforded more robust and stable improvements. However, their combination offered the best motor improvement in the laboratory animals."

"This outcome may indicate that the stem cells had more widespread biological action than the drug therapy," said Paul R. Sanberg, distinguished professor at USF and principal investigator of the Department of Defense funded project. "Regardless, their combination had an apparent synergistic effect and resulted in the most effective amelioration of TBI-induced behavioral deficits."

The researchers concluded that additional studies of this combination therapy are warranted in order to better understand their modes of action. While this research focused on motor improvements, they suggested that future combination therapy research should also include analysis of cognitive improvement in the laboratory animals modeled with TBI.

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Stem cell combination therapy improves traumatic brain injury outcomes

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Mar-2014

Contact: Tan Yun Yun tan_yun_yun@a-star.edu.sg 656-826-6273 Biomedical Sciences Institutes (BMSI)

1. Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have developed a method to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from a single drop of finger-pricked blood. The method also enables donors to collect their own blood samples, which they can then send to a laboratory for further processing. The easy access to blood samples using the new technique could potentially boost the recruitment of greater numbers and diversities of donors, and could lead to the establishment of large-scale hiPSC banks.

2. By genetic reprogramming, matured human cells, usually blood cells, can be transformed into hiPSCs. As hiPSCs exhibit properties remarkably similar to human embryonic stem cells, they are invaluable resources for basic research, drug discovery and cell therapy. In countries like Japan, USA and UK , a number of hiPSC bank initiatives have sprung up to make hiPSCs available for stem cell research and medical studies.

3. Current sample collection for reprogramming into hiPSCs include invasive measures such as collecting cells from the bone marrow or skin, which may put off many potential donors. Although hiPSCs may also be generated from blood cells, large quantities of blood are usually required. In the paper published online on the Stem Cell Translational Medicine journal, scientists at IMCB showed for the first time that single-drop volumes of blood are sufficient for reprogramming into hiPSCs. The finger-prick technique is the world's first to use only a drop of finger-pricked blood to yield hiPSCs with high efficiency. A patent has been filed for the innovation.

4. The accessibility of the new technique is further enhanced with a DIY sample collection approach. Donors may collect their own finger-pricked blood, which they can then store and send it to a laboratory for reprogramming. The blood sample remains stable for 48 hours and can be expanded for 12 days in culture, which therefore extends the finger-prick technique to a wide range of geographical regions for recruitment of donors with varied ethnicities, genotypes and diseases.

5. By integrating it with the hiPSC bank initiatives, the finger-prick technique paves the way for establishing diverse and fully characterised hiPSC banking for stem cell research. The potential access to a wide range of hiPSCs could also replace the use of embryonic stem cells, which are less accessible. It could also facilitate the set-up of a small hiPSC bank in Singapore to study targeted local diseases.

6. Dr Loh Yuin Han Jonathan, Principal Investigator at IMCB and lead scientist for the finger-prick hiPSC technique, said, "It all began when we wondered if we could reduce the volume of blood used for reprogramming. We then tested if donors could collect their own blood sample in a normal room environment and store it. Our finger-prick technique, in fact, utilised less than a drop of finger-pricked blood. The remaining blood could even be used for DNA sequencing and other blood tests."

7. Dr Stuart Alexander Cook, Senior Consultant at the National Heart Centre Singapore and co-author of the paper, said "We were able to differentiate the hiPSCs reprogrammed from Jonathan's finger-prick technique, into functional heart cells. This is a well-designed, applicable technique that can unlock unrealized potential of biobanks around the world for hiPSC studies at a scale that was previously not possible."

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A*STAR scientists create stem cells from a drop of blood

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Mar-2014

Contact: Anita Srikameswaran 412-578-9193 University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

PITTSBURGH, March 18, 2014 Stem cells derived from human muscle tissue were able to repair nerve damage and restore function in an animal model of sciatic nerve injury, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that cell therapy of certain nerve diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, might one day be feasible.

To date, treatments for damage to peripheral nerves, which are the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, have not been very successful, often leaving patients with impaired muscle control and sensation, pain and decreased function, said senior author Johnny Huard, Ph.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery, and Henry J. Mankin Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery Research, Pitt School of Medicine, and deputy director for cellular therapy, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

"This study indicates that placing adult, human muscle-derived stem cells at the site of peripheral nerve injury can help heal the lesion," Dr. Huard said. "The stem cells were able to make non-neuronal support cells to promote regeneration of the damaged nerve fiber."

The researchers, led by Dr. Huard and Mitra Lavasani, Ph.D., first author and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery, Pitt School of Medicine, cultured human muscle-derived stem/progenitor cells in a growth medium suitable for nerve cells. They found that, with prompting from specific nerve-growth factors, the stem cells could differentiate into neurons and glial support cells, including Schwann cells that form the myelin sheath around the axons of neurons to improve conduction of nerve impulses.

In mouse studies, the researchers injected human muscle-derived stem/progenitor cells into a quarter-inch defect they surgically created in the right sciatic nerve, which controls right leg movement. Six weeks later, the nerve had fully regenerated in stem-cell treated mice, while the untreated group had limited nerve regrowth and functionality. Twelve weeks later, treated mice were able to keep their treated and untreated legs balanced at the same level while being held vertically by their tails. When the treated mice ran through a special maze, analyses of their paw prints showed eventual restoration of gait. Treated and untreated mice experienced muscle atrophy, or loss, after nerve injury, but only the stem cell-treated animals had regained normal muscle mass by 72 weeks post-surgery.

"Even 12 weeks after the injury, the regenerated sciatic nerve looked and behaved like a normal nerve," Dr. Lavasani said. "This approach has great potential for not only acute nerve injury, but also conditions of chronic damage, such as diabetic neuropathy and multiple sclerosis."

Drs. Huard and Lavasani and the team are now trying to understand how the human muscle-derived stem/progenitor cells triggered injury repair, as well as developing delivery systems, such as gels, that could hold the cells in place at larger injury sites.

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Stem cells from muscle can repair nerve damage after injury, Pitt researchers show

Members of the House Committee on Health on Tuesday vowed to look into several pending measures on stem cell.

OFW Family Club Partylist Rep. Roy Seneres and Laguna Representative Sol Aragones also called on the public to give doctors led by Philippine Medical Association president Leo Olarte to explain their side after they have been accused of forging the signature of Professional Regulation Commission chairperson Teresita Manzala to obtain a Securities and Exchange Commission registration for their group called the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine.

Seneres called for a deeper probe into the controversy.

SEC has revoked the corporate registration of the PSSCM as various doctors organizations questioned the practice of stem cell medicine in the country.

Seneres and Aragones, both members of the health committee, said at least four bills seeking to regulate stem cell medicine practice in the country are still pending before the health panel.

The two lawmakers said study on the measures will have to be pursued immediately, adding that advocates and oppositions should help Congress decide on the issue.

Reacting to the PSSCM issue, Seneres said Olarte and other founders of the organization should be given the benefit of the doubt.

They are the healers of our society, said Seneres.

Aragones, on the other hand, said accusations against the PSSCM should be proven first before its members are condemned.

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House to study stem cell bills

Immature cells' regenerative prowess injects new excitement into the field

Image: CDC

More than a century after scientists embarked on the quest to find an alternative to the blood coursing through our veins, the dream still will not die. Not after a major study dealt a seemingly fatal blow to the fielddetermining that the top synthetic blood candidates at the time were all more likely to kill you than to save your life. Not after billions of dollars in public and private investments dried up. And not after multiple companies ran aground. Starting in 2011, however, the moribund field received yet another revival, this time from a group of French researchers with a new approach to boosting blood supplies. Their principal insight: dont try to re-create millions of years of evolution. Instead, they proposed to piggyback off of what nature already made by coaxing stem cells into taking on the job. The appeal of creating blood alternatives is obvious. Certainly after a battlefield trauma or a car accident a ready transfusion of artificial blood that could theoretically work with any blood type and not require refrigeration would be a welcome medical tool. A synthetic product outlasting the typical 42-day shelf life of red blood cells and sidestepping even the miniscule risk of transmitting a blood-borne disease would also be high on the medical wish list. But such a product has not yet been created and proved safe in humans. Its not for lack of trying. Although blood cells serve multiple roles in the body and have complex interactions with other cellular materials, most synthetic blood products have aimed to just stick to the bare basicsshuttling oxygen from the lungs to different vital organs and then bringing carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be exhaled. When the red cell count gets low, bodily organs may not get the oxygen they need, making a person weak and eventually resulting in serious health problems. The most popular approach taken to replicate that function has been to create artificial hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers, tapping proteins in red blood cells called hemoglobin that act as oxygens transport service, and chemically modifying them to increase oxygen-carrying capacity. But the new idea is to get the body to grow its own substitutea product that would not be the same as whole blood but could fit the bill in a pinch. A Paris-based research group, headed up by Luc Douay, professor of hematology at University Pierre and Marie Curie Faculty of Medicine, has already had some success. They culled stemlike cells from blood circulating through a patients body and manipulated them into becoming red blood cells nearly identical to those that normally transport oxygen in the body. The team injected two milliliters of the stem-cell derived blood cells back into the patientan amount far smaller than would be needed in a typical transfusion. The creations had stored well at refrigerated temperatures and circulated in the body with survival time on par with that of original red cells. Jackpot. In short, the workalbeit on one person, tapping cells from his own bodyproved that it could be done. Its a promising approach, says Harvey Klein, chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. There is a school of pessimists who believe that because of costs it will never materialize on a practice level, but Ive heard that all my life about different areas of medicine including bone marrow transplants in the 60s. Still, he and others caution that the field is far from being able to forgo the need for blood donors for day-to-day care. In fact, the market for artificial blood products would likely be limited to people with rare blood types and those who, due to blood diseases, require new transfusions, perhaps every couple months. Its an encouraging step forward for a field littered with odd and sometimes cringe-worthy efforts to get at the lifesaving power of blood. Animal to human blood transfusions received a short-lived audition in 1667. But the first human-to-human blood transfusion was not performed until 1818before we learned about blood types and how and when the body rejects certain transfusions. Blood-product research also included attempts in the late 1800s to hook up ailing patients to infusions of fresh cows milk. Milk, like blood, had fats that emulsify in fluid, the reasoning went. Plus, milk would be safer than blood because it would not clot. When patients died, physicians figured it was due to other complications. Needless to say, milk injections, like those from animal blood, never really took off. In the U.S. there is no shortage of blood products available for most patients, thanks to blood donors. After a healthy person donates blood that fluid is typically whirred in a centrifuge and separated out into several parts. Most commonly, patients receive transfusions of red blood cells, the component of blood that shuttles oxygen to tissues throughout the body. (Patients may also receive infusions of white cells that help fight infection or platelets, the small, colorless cell fragments that help stanch bleeding by clotting.) Although most people only get transfusions once or twice in their lives (if at all), individuals with conditions like sickle-cell anemia require consistent blood transfusions of red cells. But with each infusion theres a small risk that the body could develop an infection, reject the foreign blood or form antibodies that will lead to the body rejecting and destroying certain bloods in the future. A key threat, however, is that each transfusion contributes to the risk of iron overload in the body. All red blood cells contain iron, but after the body takes what it needs it has no easy way to dispose of the excess. It gets stored, instead, in organs including the heart, liver and pancreas. That buildup of increased iron with each transfusion can damage the organs and eventually prove fatal. The French researchers hope that using freshly created blood cells made from stem cells could help alleviate those iron buildup concerns. We think it could be transfused at least three to five times less each year because of the efficiency of the transfusion, Douay says. The secret lies in the age of the red blood cells derived from stem cells. Although red cells from donors have a typical shelf life of 42 days, they are a mix of older and newer cells, which means a number of them may not last long in the body. With stem cellderived options all of the blood product would be new, which could theoretically give patients more bang for each infusion. The only thing that would appear different to a patient receiving the transfusions, ideally, is that he would be receiving them less often. If you have brand-new cells, you should be able to increase the intervals between transfusions so you can make it longer, says David Anstee, director of the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory in England. You might be able to improve the quality of life in those situations. Its not a perfect fix because it would likely add months, not years, between transfusions, but it could be a start. Also, researchers could carefully select which blood types to culture with each batch of stem cells, creating stockpiles of needed blood products for people with extremely rare blood types whose blood cell makeup makes it challenging to find good blood matches for transfusions because they would reject most other types of blood. But so far all this remains theoreticalsince that initial breakthrough no new blood product has inched close to regulatory approval in the U.S. or Europe. The greatest hurdles are arguably more monetary than technical, but the monetary obstacles are massive. To match the current prices of high-quality blood products the process would have to become at least fivefold more cost-effective, Douay notes in a recent study published in Biotechnology Journal. Although the current price tag for an average hospital to create one unit of red blood cells from donor blood comes in at about $225, more expensive, unique stockpiles of red cells, kept for individuals with rare blood needs, can cost anywhere from $700 to $1,200 per unit. By comparison, with Douays method the price for equivalent amounts of blood cells (assuming that much product could be made successfully) would likely be around $8,330. It could even cost up to $15,000 per unit if all does not go according to plan, Douay estimates. Moreover, the idea of using Douays earlier process, which involved growing the cells in culture, at a larger scale would be delusional, he says. To make just one unit of bloodroughly a pintit would require growing cells in about 400 flasks that were about 30 centimeters by 20 centimeters, he says. But even with endless space for those flasks it would still be impossible because the constant pH and temperature controls that would be needed would be impossible to maintain. What would be needed, he says, is an automated, stirred large-scale bioreactor (something his team hopes to one day produce themselves). Even something as seemingly simple as red blood cells that dont have a nucleus evolved a structure and a function that is much more complicated than we can perceive by looking under the microscope, says Jason Acker, associate director of development for Canadian Blood Services. Douay, for his part, is not surprised it has taken more than a century for science to get even to this point, where the future of subbing in stem cells for blood products still remains little more than a reverie. For years, he says, we tried to replace nature and do as well as nature does. The regenerative powers of stem cells may just yet inject new options into the field.

Excerpt from:
Could Stem Cells Breathe New Life into the Field of Blood Substitution?

16 hours ago by Bob Yirka Mesenchymal stem cell displaying typical ultrastructural characteristics. Credit: Robert M. Hunt/Wikipedia

(Phys.org) A team of researchers working at the University of Colorado has found that human stem cells appear to remember the physical nature of the structure they were grown on, after being moved to a different substrate. In their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, the researchers describe how they grew human stem cells on different substrates. In so doing, they discovered that the stem cells continued to express certain proteins related to a substrate even after its hardness was changed.

Scientists have known for some time that stem cells respond to their environment as they growthose grown on hard material, such as glass or metal for example, are more amenable to growing into bone cells. In this new effort, the researchers sought to discover if changes to a stem cell brought about by environment are retained if the stem cell is moved to a different environment.

To find out, the researchers used mesenchymal cells which are known to be able to grow into almost any human body part. They placed the stem cells on a stiff substrate then moved them to one less stiff over differing numbers of days. In so doing, they found that the longer the cells were left on the stiff substrate the more a protein connected to bone growth (RUNX2) was expressed. Conversely, cells that were first placed on a soft surface and subsequently moved to a hard surface demonstrated a tendency to develop either bone or adipogenic tendencies.

In another experiment, the researchers applied the stem cells to a substrate coated with a phototunable hydrogelit grows softer when exposed to lightusing it allowed for changing the stiffness of the substrate without having to move the cells. Using this approach the team found that if the cells were allowed to grow on the gel in its stiff state, for just one day, switching to a soft state caused the expression of RUNX2 to cease immediately. When they allowed the cells to grow for ten days on the stiff base, however, before switching to a soft one, expression of RUNX2 continued for another ten days before finally ceasing. This shows, the researchers contend, that stem cells have a memory component that is not yet understood.

The researchers note that their findings could be applied to other stem cell research areas such as cases where unintentional consequences may be arising in experiments due to the stiffness of the substrate in which they are being grown. It also raises the question of whether other environmental factors might be impacting cell growth and if so, if they have a memory component as well.

Explore further: Heart cells respond to stiff environments

More information: Mechanical memory and dosing influence stem cell fate, Nature Materials (2014) DOI: 10.1038/nmat3889

Abstract We investigated whether stem cells remember past physical signals and whether these can be exploited to dose cells mechanically. We found that the activation of the Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding domain (TAZ) as well as the pre-osteogenic transcription factor RUNX2 in human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured on soft poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels (Young's modulus E ~ 2 kPa) depended on previous culture time on stiff tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS; E ~ 3 GPa). In addition, mechanical dosing of hMSCs cultured on initially stiff (E ~ 10 kPa) and then soft (E ~ 2 kPa) phototunable PEG hydrogels resulted in either reversible orabove a threshold mechanical doseirreversible activation of YAP/TAZ and RUNX2. We also found that increased mechanical dosing on supraphysiologically stiff TCPS biases hMSCs towards osteogenic differentiation. We conclude that stem cells possess mechanical memorywith YAP/TAZ acting as an intracellular mechanical rheostatthat stores information from past physical environments and influences the cells' fate.

Journal reference: Nature Materials

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Researchers find stem cells remember prior substrates

MANILA, Philippines The president of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and his four predecessors have been slapped with ethics cases before the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for alleged fraud in the registration of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM) in the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a statement on Sunday, PRC Chair Teresita Manzala said she has directed the Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine (PRBOM) to file cases against doctors Leo Olarte, Bu Castro, Rey Melchor Santos, Oscar Tinio and Jose Sabili for forging her signature in the incorporation of the PSSCM.

The Commission directed the PRBOM to initiate the filing of a case of unprofessional, dishonorable and unethical conduct against the five incorporators, said Manzala, adding that a case was already pending before the PRC legal division.

Olarte, Castro, Santos, Tinio and Sabili were identified as the incorporators of the PSSCM, whose registration has been revoked by the SEC.

Investigation showed the doctors submitted an application to the SEC for the corporations registration in February 2013. As part of the procedure, PRBOM sent a communication to the five incorporators requiring them to submit pertinent documents but did not receive any response from the doctors. Without the documents, the PRBOM instead placed the application papers on hold. It never submitted the application papers and the required PRC endorsement to the SEC for final approval, said Manzala.

But several months later, the board received information that the PSSCM was able to register with the SEC, based on an endorsement signed by the PRC chair.

On examination of the supposed PRC endorsement, it was noted that the reference regulatory law used was the Philippine Veterinary Law of 2004, instead ofthe Medical Act of 1959, and there appeared a signature of the PRC chair, she said.

Manzala said three of the incorporators, whom she did not identify, denied participation in obtaining the SEC registration and pointed to Dr. Mike Aragon, the PMA spokesperson, as the one responsible for registering the organization at SEC.

In a notarized affidavit submitted to the PRBOM, Aragon admitted he was appointed to register the corporation at SEC but added that he paid P15,000 to a trading company to file the necessary documents needed for the incorporation of PSSCM. He denied involvement in the actual processing of the SEC papers after making the payment.

Manzala submitted a complaint to the SEC, charging her signature was forged in August 2013.

Continued here:
PMA head, 4 other doctors probed by PRC over alleged fraud, forgery

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

12-Mar-2014

Contact: Camille Gamboa camille.gamboa@sagepub.com 805-410-7441 SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (March 12, 2014) Researchers have found that sutures embedded with stem cells led to quicker and stronger healing of Achilles tendon tears than traditional sutures, according to a new study published in the March 2014 issue of Foot & Ankle International (published by SAGE).

Achilles tendon injuries are common for professional, collegiate and recreational athletes. These injuries are often treated surgically to reattach or repair the tendon if it has been torn. Patients have to keep their legs immobilized for a while after surgery before beginning their rehabilitation. Athletes may return to their activities sooner, but risk rerupturing the tendon if it has not healed completely.

Drs. Lew Schon, Samuel Adams, and Elizabeth Allen and Researchers Margaret Thorpe, Brent Parks, and Gary Aghazarian from MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, conducted the study. They compared traditional surgery, surgery with stem cells injected in the injury area, and surgery with special sutures embedded with stem cells in rats. The results showed that the group receiving the stem cell sutures healed better.

"The exciting news from this early work is that the stem cells stayed in the tendon, promoting healing right away, during a time when patients are not able to begin aggressive rehabilitation. When people can't fully use their leg, the risk is that atrophy sets in and adhesions can develop which can impact how strong and functional the muscle and tendon are after it is reattached," said Dr. Schon. "Not only did the stem cells encourage better healing at the cellular level, the tendon strength itself was also stronger four weeks following surgery than in the other groups in our study," he added.

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For further information on how to take care of your feet and ankles, or to find a local orthopaedic foot and ankle surgeon, visit the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society patient website at http://www.footcaremd.org.

"Stem Cell-Bearing Suture Improves Achilles Tendon Healing in a Rat Model" by Samuel B. Adams, Jr, MD; Margaret A. Thorpe, BS; Brent G. Parks, MSc; Gary Aghazarian, BS; Elizabeth Allen, MD; and Lew C. Schon, MD in the March 2014 Foot & Ankle International.

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Stem cells inside sutures could improve healing in Achilles tendon injuries

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

11-Mar-2014

Contact: Lauren Riley lauren.riley@aacr.org 215-446-7155 American Association for Cancer Research

SAN DIEGO Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D., will receive the 2014 Pezcoller Foundation-American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Award for Cancer Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2014, to be held in San Diego, Calif., April 5-9, in recognition of her seminal work contributing to the understanding of mammalian skin, skin stem cells, and skin-related diseases, particularly cancers, genetic diseases, and proinflammatory disorders.

Fuchs is the Rebecca C. Lancefield professor and head of the Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University in New York, N.Y., and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She will give her lecture, "Stem Cells in Silence, Action, and Cancer," Sunday, April 6, 4:30 p.m. PT, in Halls F-G in the San Diego Convention Center.

"Dr. Fuchs is an exceptional scientist, and we are delighted to recognize her pioneering research on the biology of skin stem cells and how they go awry in human diseases of the skin, including cancer," said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (hon.), chief executive officer of the AACR. "Her seminal studies have had a profound impact not only on the field of cancer research, but also on the research disciplines of genetics and dermatology."

Fuchs is highly regarded for her studies using reverse genetics to understand the biological basis of normal and abnormal skin development and function. Among her important research discoveries was the clarification of the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of skin stem cells to produce the epidermis and its appendages, including hair follicles and sweat and oil glands. She has also defined how the normal biology of skin stem cells can be deregulated in skin cancers and other hyperproliferative disorders of the skin.

"I'm honored, delighted, and humbled to receive this award from the AACR," said Fuchs. "My students, postdocs, and staff, present and past, are the ones who truly merit recognition. My group has long had an interest in skin stem cells, how they make and repair tissues, and how this goes awry in cancers. As a basic scientist who studies the fundamental mechanisms underlying stem cell biology and cancer, it is particular pleasing to be recognized not only by basic cancer biologists, but also by physician scientists and clinicians. It is the diversity and breadth of the AACR that make this Society and this honor so special."

The Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award, now in its 17th year, recognizes an individual scientist of international renown who has made a major scientific discovery in basic or translational cancer research.

As recipient of this award, Fuchs will also present the Ninth Annual Stanley J. Korsmeyer Lecture at the Venetian Institute for Molecular Medicine in Padua, Italy, prior to the Pezcoller Foundation's official award ceremony in Trento, Italy, May 2014.

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Pezcoller Foundation and AACR honor outstanding achievements of Dr. Elaine Fuchs

Seven months after a bill to create a regional stem cell therapy hub at the University of Kansas Medical Center took effect, two doctors from the center say it is enrolling patients in clinical trials and beginning their work.

David Prentice and Buddhadeb Dawn expressed excitement over what the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center has been able to accomplish in a short time and what possibilities it holds for the future.

"Kansas can be the leader in providing adult stem cell treatments and information to physicians and patients around the world," Dawn said.

Prentice said the center, which limits itself to research on adult stem cells, will foster "ethical, non-controversial" treatments for patients with multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, heart damage, stroke and juvenile diabetes.

At the same time he said it will serve to educate schoolchildren on the promise of adult stem cells and act as a "hub" for regional research.

Potentially physicians from across the region could be sending samples," Prentice said.

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Stem cell center starting trials

4 hours ago This photo shows Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of the Children's Research Institute and senior author of the study, right, and Dr. Robert A.J. Signer, a postdoctoral research fellow and the study's first author. Credit: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

For the first time, researchers have shown that an essential biological process known as protein synthesis can be studied in adult stem cells something scientists have long struggled to accomplish. The groundbreaking findings from the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) also demonstrate that the precise amount of protein produced by blood-forming stem cells is crucial to their function.

The discovery, published online today in Nature, measures protein production, a process known as translation, and shows that protein synthesis is not only fundamental to how stem cells are regulated, but also is critical to their regenerative potential.

"We unveiled new areas of cellular biology that no one has seen before," said Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of the Children's Research Institute, Professor of Pediatrics, and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "No one has ever studied protein synthesis in somatic stem cells. This finding not only tells us something new about stem cell regulation, but opens up the ability to study differences in protein synthesis between many kinds of cells in the body. We believe there is an undiscovered world of biology that allows different kinds of cells to synthesize protein at different rates and in different ways, and that those differences are important for cellular survival."

Dr. Adrian Salic's laboratory at Harvard Medical School chemically modified the antibiotic puromycin in a way that made it possible to visualize and quantify the amount of protein synthesized by individual cells within the body. Dr. Robert A.J. Signer, a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Morrison's laboratory and first author of the study, realized that this reagent could be adapted to measure new protein synthesis by stem cells and other cells in the blood-forming system.

What they came across was astonishing, Dr. Morrison said. The findings suggested that different types of blood cells produce vastly different amounts of protein per hour, and stem cells in particular synthesize much less protein than any other blood-forming cells.

"This result suggests that blood-forming stem cells require a lower rate of protein synthesis as compared to other blood-forming cells," said Dr. Morrison, the paper's senior author.

Researchers applied the findings to a mouse model with a genetic mutation in a component of the ribosome the machinery that makes proteins and the rate of protein production was reduced in stem cells by 30 percent. The scientists also increased the rate of protein synthesis by deleting the tumor suppressor gene Pten in blood-forming stem cells. In both instances, stem cell function was noticeably impaired.

Together, these observations demonstrate that blood-forming stem cells require a highly regulated rate of protein synthesis, such that increases or decreases in that rate impair stem cell function.

"Amazingly, when the ribosomal mutant mice and the Pten mutant mice were bred together, stem cell function returned to normal, and we greatly delayed, and in some instances entirely blocked, the development of leukemia," Dr. Morrison said. "All of this happened because protein production in stem cells was returned to normal. It was as if two wrongs made a right."

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Stem cell study opens door to undiscovered world of biology

Stem cell transplant was viable and effective in halting or reversing degenerative disc disease of the spine, a meta-analysis of animal studies showed, in a development expected to open up research in humans. Recent developments in stem cell research have made it possible to assess its effect on intervertebral disc (IVD) height, Mayo Clinic researchers reported in a scientific poster today at the 30th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

"This landmark study draws the conclusion in pre-clinical animal studies that stem cell therapy for disc degenerative disease might be a potentially effective treatment for the very common condition that affects people's quality of life and productivity," said the senior author, Wenchun Qu, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Dr. Qu said not only did disc height increase, but stem cell transplant also increased disc water content and improved appropriate gene expression. "These exciting developments place us in a position to prepare for translation of stem cell therapy for degenerative disc disease into clinical trials," he said.

The increase in disc height was due to restoration in the transplant group of the nucleus pulposus structure, which refers to the jelly-like substance in the disc, and an increased amount of water content, which is critical for the appropriate function of the disc as a cushion for the spinal column, the researchers concluded.

The researchers performed a literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases and also manually searched reference lists for original, randomized, controlled trials on animals that examined the association between IVD stem cell transplant and the change of disc height. Six studies met inclusion criteria. Differences between the studies necessitated the use of random-effects models to pool estimates of effect.

What they found was an over 23.6% increase in the disc height index in the transplant group compared with the placebo group (95% confidence interval [CI], 19.7-23.5; p<0.001). None of the 6 studies showed a decrease of the disc height index in the transplant group. Increases in the disc height index were statistically significant in all individual studies.

The authors commented that it is time to turn attention to the much-needed work of determining the safety, feasibility, efficacy of IVD stem cell transplant for humans.

"A hallmark of IVD degenerative disease is its poor self-repair capacity secondary to the loss of IVD cells. However, current available treatments fail to address the loss of cells and cellular functions. In fact, many invasive treatments further damage the disc, causing further degeneration in the diseased level or adjacent levels," said the lead study author Jason Dauffenbach, DO. "The goal of tissue engineering using stem cells is to restore the normal function and motion of the diseased human spine."

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The above story is based on materials provided by American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Stem cell transplant shows 'landmark' promise for treatment of degenerative disc disease

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Some professional athletes' enthusiasm for certain stem cell treatments outpaces the evidence

Peter Ryan

In 2005, at the age of 32, then Los Angeles Angel Bartolo Coln won the American League Cy Young Award for best pitcher, one of professional baseball's top honors. He stumbled through subsequent seasons, however, after a series of rips and strains in the tendons and ligaments of his throwing arm, shoulder and back. In 2009 he all but quit baseball. Desperate to reclaim his career, Coln flew home to the Dominican Republic in 2010 for an experimental procedure not vetted or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Doctors centrifuged samples of Coln's bone marrow and fat, skimmed off a slurry containing a particular kind of stem cellimmature, self-renewing cells that can turn into a variety of tissuesand injected it into his injured shoulder and elbow. Within months of the procedure the then 37-year-old Coln was once again pitching near the top of his game for the New York Yankeescommanding a 93-mile-per-hour fastball.

Whether the injected stem cells rejuvenated his arm is an open question. The fda and the International Society for Stem Cell Research warn that no rigorous studies have demonstrated that such treatments safely and effectively repair damaged connective tissue in people. The results of related animal studies, though promising, have raised more questions than answers. The term stem cell makes it sound cutting edge and exciting, says Paul Knoepfler, a cell biologist at the University of California, Davis, who also writes frequently on policy surrounding stem cells. But the role of these cells in sports medicine is essentially all hype.

No matter, apparently, to the aging, injured athletes who have followed Coln's lead. Lefty pitcher C. J. Nitkowski, who underwent the same procedure in 2011, told readers of his personal blog that he did not mind the lack of carefully controlled research. My attitude is I don't have the time to wait for the five- or 10-year study to come out, the then 38-year-old relief pitcher wrote, so I'm taking a chance now. Besides, Nitkowski figured, even if the treatment did not work, any health risks ought to be slight because the cells involved were his own.

That might not be such a safe bet. Numerous studies suggest that Coln, Nitkowski and others trying untested stem cell treatments may be risking more than they think. Even a syringe of one's own stem cells taken from one part of the body and squirted into another may multiply, form tumors, or may leave the site you put them in and migrate somewhere else the fda warns on its Web site. More clinical research is needed to define safety procedures, as well as how many cells of which types and what other tissue factors produce the desired results. In some animal studies, for example, the regenerated tissue is not as strong or flexible as the original. In other cases, an overgrowth of scar tissue makes the injected tendon or ligament adhere to the overlying skin. By preventing different tissues from gracefully sliding past one another, these adhesions sometimes pull an even bigger tear in an already serious wound.

In addition, Knoepfler worries that high-profile sports testimonials by Coln, Nitkowski and others will encourage joggers with blown-out knees and the parents of sore-armed Little Leaguers to demand the procedure before it has been thoroughly tested. When celebrities take to a new treatment, many other people follow suit, he says. Such premature enthusiasmor an unforeseen tragedy that results from proceeding too fast too sooncould also prevent serious researchers from getting funding to do the kinds of careful experiments that might eventually lead to safe and reliable treatments.

Seeds of Repair

The need for better ways to reknit damaged tendons and ligaments is painfully apparent to the roughly two million Americans in a given year who seek medical help for tears in their shoulder's rotator cuff, for example, or the 100,000 patients in the same year who undergo surgery in the U.S. to repair a ripped or ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of the knee. Tendons and ligaments are tough, fibrous bands, made mostly of collagen, that anchor networks of muscles to a bone or link bones and cartilage across crucial joints. They lend strength, flexibility and stability to your daily twists and turns, whether you are rocketing a baseball across home plate or hefting a suitcase into an overhead bin. Once frayed or snapped, they can take many months or longer to mendeven with surgery.

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A Dangerous Game: Some Athletes Risk Untested Stem Cell Treatments

Celltex Therapeutics of Houston ceased treatment patients in the U.S. last year after a warning from regulators, and will now send patients for treatments to Mexico

Flickr/GE Healthcare

US citizens who had pinned their hopes on a company being able to offer stem-cell treatments close to home will now need to travel a little farther. Celltex Therapeutics of Houston, Texas, stopped treating patients in the United States last year following a warning from regulators. A 25 January e-mail to Celltex customers indicates that the firm will now follow in the footsteps of many other companies offering unproven stem-cell therapies and send its patients abroad for treatment but only to Mexico.

The stem-cell treatments offered by Celltex involved extracting adult stem cells from a patient, culturing them and then reinjecting them in a bid to replenish damaged tissue. It had been offering the treatment for more than a year with one of its high-profile customers being Texas governor, Rick Perry when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote to the company on 24 September 2012 advising it that the stem cells it harvested and grew were more than minimally manipulated during Celltex's procedures. As such, the FDA regarded the cells as drugs, which would require the agency's approval to be used in treatments. The FDA also warned that Celltex had failed to address problems in its cell processing that inspectors from the agency had identified in an April 2012 inspection of its cell bank in Sugar Land, Texas. Shortly after it received the letter, Celltex stopped injecting stem cells into patients.

For customers who still had cells banked at Celltex and were wondering how to get them out, things became more chaotic when Celltex and RNL Bio, a company based in Seoul, South Korea, which operated the processing center and bank in Sugar Land, sued each other over financial disagreements. Celltex had to issue a restraining order just to gain access to the cells.

The January e-mail from Celltex reassures customers that their cells are safely stored in a facility in Houston and adds: We anticipate that we will be able to offer our stem cell therapy services to physicians in Mexico starting very soon! The e-mail also says that the company is building a new laboratory in Houston, to be opened in March.

Celltex adds that it will carry out an FDA-approved clinical trial, to start shortly after a March meeting with the FDA, pending a positive review from the regulator. However, the company had said in a 25 October e-mail to patients that it would start such a trial within two months and that patient enrolment could begin in late November.

Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, says that the move to Mexico is "not surprising", given the companys difficulties in the United States.

As Celltex's stem culturing and banking technology was licensed from RNL Bio, it is also not clear whether it has the expertise needed to launch a clinical trial on its own, says Turner. "It would have to build a stem-cell company from the ground floor up. I wouldnt say it is anywhere near the starting line."

Celltex did not respond to questions about how it would ship stem cells to Mexico or how it would perform the clinical research needed to seek FDA approval.

Originally posted here:
Controversial Stem Cell Company Moves Treatment out of U.S.

NIBSC/Science Photo Library

HIV attacks a type of immune cell known as a T cell (shown here) using a protein encoded by the CCR5 gene.

A clinical trial has shown that a gene-editing technique can be safe and effective in humans. For the first time, researchers used enzymes called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) to target and destroy a gene in the immune cells of 12 people with HIV, increasing their resistance to the virus to the virus. The findings are published today in The New England Journal of Medicine1.

This is the first major advance in HIV gene therapy since it was demonstrated that the Berlin patient Timothy Brown was free of HIV, says John Rossi, a molecular biologist at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. In 2008, researchers reported that Brown gained the ability to control his HIV infection after they treated him with donor bone-marrow stem cells that carried a mutation in a gene called CCR5. Most HIV strains use a protein encoded by CCR5 as a gateway into the T cells of a hosts immune system. People who carry a mutated version of the gene, including Brown's donor, are resistant to HIV.

But similar treatment is not feasible for most people with HIV: it is invasive, and the body is likely to attack the donor cells. So a team led by Carl June and Pablo Tebas, immunologists at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, sought to create the beneficial CCR5 mutation in a persons own cells, using targeted gene editing.

The researchers drew blood from 12 people with HIV who had been taking antiretroviral drugs to keep the virus in check. After culturing blood cells from each participant, the team used a commercially available ZFN to target the CCR5 gene in those cells. The treatment succeeded in disrupting the gene in about 25% of each participants cultured cells; the researchers then transfused all of the cultured cells into the participants. After treatment, all had elevated levels of T cells in their blood, suggesting that the virus was less capable of destroying them.

Six of the 12 participants then stopped their antiretroviral drug therapy, while the team monitored their levels of virus and T cells. Their HIV levels rebounded more slowly than normal, and their T-cell levels remained high for weeks. In short, the presence of HIV seemed to drive the modified immune cells, which lacked a functional CCR5 gene, to proliferate in the body. Researchers suspect that the virus was unable to infect and destroy the altered cells.

They used HIV to help in its own demise, says Paula Cannon, who studies gene therapy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. They throw the cells back at it and say, Ha, now what?

In this first small trial, the gene-editing approach seemed to be safe: Tebas says that the worst side effect was that the chemical used in the process made the patients bodies smell bad for several days.

The trial isnt the end game, but its an important advance in the direction of this kind of research, says Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. Its more practical and applicable than doing a stem-cell transplant, he says, although it remains to be seen whether it is as effective.

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Gene-editing method tackles HIV in first clinical test

Watch the video above:Mississauga woman looking for bone marrow donor against allodds. Laura Zilke reports.

TORONTO A woman in dire need of a bone marrow transplant is trying to find a match within her underrepresented community.

Dorothy Vernon-Brown is African-Canadian and was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Chemotherapy has helped and shes currently in remission but still needs a transplant.

You dont know if youll ever find a match, she said. Next to Caucasians, African-Canadians have the greatest need for stem cells.

Shes most likely to find a match within her own ethnic community but in Canada, only one per cent of all people registered to donate bone marrow are black.

We have patients from all ethnic communities that are currently in need of a stem cell transplant and they are relying on members of their community, whether they are living here in Canada or anywhere in the world, Mary-Lynn Pride, a spokesperson for OneMatch said.

OneMatch does have access to donor registries in over 70 countries but in Vernon-Browns native Jamaica, there isnt a registry.

Theres no studies as to why the level of African-Canadian donors is so low in Canada but she believes its cultural.

Many of us come here [and] its not part of our culture, she said. We continue with what we know.

Its not difficult to register. A simple cheek swab is all thats needed to get your name on the donor list.

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Woman looking for bone marrow donor among underrepresented ethnic group

Jesse Freeman, 71, suffered a major heart attack at home Had surgery to repair a blocked artery and to insert a stent to keep it open He was then asked to take part in a new study into the use of stem cells These are 'master cells' which can turn into almost any other type of cell in the body, replacing damaged cells He had bone marrow removed from his hip and infused into his heart It is hoped this will regenerate to help heal his damaged heart

By Emma Innes

PUBLISHED: 08:36 EST, 3 March 2014 | UPDATED: 08:52 EST, 3 March 2014

A British man has become the second patient in a Europe to have pioneering stem cell treatment in a bid to prolong his life.

Jesse Freeman, 71, was invited to take part in the landmark trial after suffering a major heart attack at home.

Surgeons repaired a blocked artery and inserted a stent to keep it open after he was rushed to hospital.

Jesse Freeman (pictured with his wife, Christine) has become the second person in Europe to have pioneering stem cell treatment after a heart attack. It is hoped the procedure will cause his damaged heart muscle to regenerate and that it could eventually become common practice in the treatment of heart attack patients

But while recovering in hospital, he was asked to take part in the major new study to see if heart attack patients can benefit from being treated with their own stem cells.

These are 'master cells' which can turn into almost any other type of cell in the body, replacing damaged cells.

Doctors at the London Chest Hospital, in Bethnal Green, removed bone marrow from Mr Freeman, a grandfather, without general anaesthetic and the cells were then infused into his heart.

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Is this the heart attack treatment of the future? British grandfather has stem cells taken from his hip and injected ...