Researchers at EMBL-EBI have resolved a long-standing challenge in stem cell biology by successfully 'resetting' human pluripotent stem cells to a fully pristine state, at point of their greatest developmental potential. The study, published in Cell, involved scientists from the UK, Germany and Japan and was led jointly by EMBL-EBI and the University of Cambridge.

Embryonic stem (ES) cells, which originate in early development, are capable of differentiating into any type of cell. Until now, scientists have only been able to revert 'adult' human cells (for example, liver, lung or skin) into pluripotent stem cells with slightly different properties that predispose them to becoming cells of certain types. Authentic ES cells have only been derived from mice and rats.

"Reverting mouse cells to a completely 'blank slate' has become routine, but generating equivalent nave human cell lines has proven far more challenging," says Dr Paul Bertone, Research Group Leader at EMBL-EBI and a senior author on the study. "Human pluripotent cells resemble a cell type that appears slightly later in mammalian development, after the embryo has implanted in the uterus."

At this point, subtle changes in gene expression begin to influence the cells, which are then considered 'primed' towards a particular lineage. Although pluripotent human cells can be cultured from in vitro fertilised (IVF) embryos, until now there have been no human cells comparable to those obtained from the mouse.

Wiping cell memory

"For years, it was thought that we could be missing the developmental window when nave human cells could be captured, or that the right growth conditions hadn't been found," Paul explains. "But with the advent of iPS cell technologies, it should have been possible to drive specialised human cells back to an earlier state, regardless of their origin -- if that state existed in primates."

Taking a new approach, the scientists used reprogramming methods to express two different genes, NANOG and KLF2, which reset the cells. They then maintained the cells indefinitely by inhibiting specific biological pathways. The resulting cells are capable of differentiating into any adult cell type, and are genetically normal.

The experimental work was conducted hand-in-hand with computational analysis.

"We needed to understand where these cells lie in the spectrum of the human and mouse pluripotent cells that have already been produced," explains Paul. "We worked with the EMBL Genomics Core Facility to produce comprehensive transcriptional data for all the conditions we explored. We could then compare reset human cells to genuine mouse ES cells, and indeed we found they shared many similarities."

Together with Professor Wolf Reik at the Babraham Institute, the researchers also showed that DNA methylation (biochemical marks that influence gene expression) was erased over much of the genome, indicating that reset cells are not restricted in the cell types they can produce. In this more permissive state, the cells no longer retain the memory of their previous lineages and revert to a blank slate with unrestricted potential to become any adult cell.

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Scientists revert human stem cells to pristine state

Prof. Alexander Smikodub

MD Ph.D

Alexander Smikodub jr.

MD Ph.D

Our clinic offers the advanced and patented methods of fetal stem cell treatment for various conditions and diseases. This method of treatment can be found in wikipedia: Stem cell therapy. Fetal stem cells are non-specialized cells that differentiate (turn) into any other cell type of the body that form organs and tissues. Fetal stem cells that we use for treatment have huge potential for growth, differentiation and are not rejected by the patients body, which allows to achieve unique long-term clinical effects.

We have more than 15 years of experience in stem cell therapy and are the leaders of the industry. Most of the methodic used in the clinic are unique and patent protected in many countries including USA. Since 1994 prof. Alexander Smikodub Sr. was the main researcher, doctor and administrator of the clinic. Now his son, Alexander Smikodub Jr. M.D. continues his fathers venture. During these years more than 6500 patients from all over the world received fetal stem cell treatment, resulting in significant improvement of their conditions, and in case of timely contact with us in complete cure of the diseases still considered lethal by most medical institutions.

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Stem cells are the new word in the medical science, possibly the new revolution. Their importance can be compared with antibiotics discovery or the first successful heart transplantation. They are the inner restorative and regenerative reserve of your body, found in blood, fat layer and bone marrow. After injection of a big stem cells doze, impaired tissues are recovered, regeneration speed is increased and overall condition is greatly improved. We use only material from healthy patients, which passes multiple security checks. They are a perfect material for treating a wide variety of neural and physical diseases.

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Stem cell therapy | Stem cell treatment and medicine ...

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Sep-2014

Contact: Sally Stewart sally.stewart@cshs.org 310-248-6566 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

LOS ANGELES Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat heart attack damage. The combined nanoparticle enabled precise localization of the body's own stem cells to the injured heart muscle.

The study, which focused on laboratory rats, was published today in the online peer reviewed journal Nature Communications. The study addresses a central challenge in stem cell therapeutics: how to achieve targeted interactions between stem cells and injured cells.

Although stem cells can be a potent weapon in the fight against certain diseases, simply infusing a patient with stem cells is no guarantee the stem cells will be able to travel to the injured area and work collaboratively with the cells already there.

"Infusing stem cells into arteries in order to regenerate injured heart muscle can be inefficient," said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who led the research team. "Because the heart is continuously pumping, the stem cells can be pushed out of the heart chamber before they even get a chance to begin to heal the injury."

In an attempt to target healing stem cells to the site of the injury, researchers coated iron nanoparticles with two kinds of antibodies, proteins that recognize and bind specifically to stem cells and to injured cells in the body. After the nanoparticles were infused into the bloodstream, they successfully tracked to the injured area and initiated healing.

"The result is a kind of molecular matchmaking," Marbn said. "Through magnetic resonance imaging, we were able to see the iron-tagged cells traveling to the site of injury where the healing could begin. Furthermore, targeting was enhanced even further by placing a magnet above the injured heart."

The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute has been at the forefront of developing investigational stem cell treatments for heart attack patients. In 2009, Marbn and his team completed the world's first procedure in which a patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized heart stem cells. The specialized cells were then injected back into the patient's heart in an effort to repair and regrow healthy muscle in a heart that had been injured by a heart attack. Results, published in The Lancet in 2012, showed that one year after receiving the stem cell treatment, heart attack patients demonstrated a significant reduction in the size of the scar left on the heart muscle.

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Combining antibodies, iron nanoparticles and magnets steers stem cells to injured organs

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Newswise Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, in partnership with ViaCyte, Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology firm specializing in regenerative medicine, have launched the first-ever human Phase I/II clinical trial of a stem cell-derived therapy for patients with Type 1 diabetes.

The trial will assess the safety and efficacy of a new investigational drug called VC-01, which was recently approved for testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The 2-year trial will involve four to six testing sites, the first being at UC San Diego, and will recruit approximately 40 study participants.

The goal, first and foremost, of this unprecedented human trial is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of various doses of VC-01 among patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, said principal investigator Robert R. Henry, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at UC San Diego and chief of the Section of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Diabetes at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. We will be implanting specially encapsulated stem cell-derived cells under the skin of patients where its believed they will mature into pancreatic beta cells able to produce a continuous supply of needed insulin. Previous tests in animals showed promising results. We now need to determine that this approach is safe in people.

Development and testing of VC-01 is funded, in part, by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the states stem cell agency, the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and JDRF, the leading research and advocacy organization funding type 1 diabetes research.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a life-threatening chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow glucose to enter cells to produce energy. It is typically diagnosed during childhood or adolescence, though it can also begin in adults. Though far less common than Type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin, Type 1 may affect up to 3 million Americans, according to the JDRF. Among Americans age 20 and younger, prevalence rose 23 percent between 2000 and 2009 and continues to rise. Currently, there is no cure. Standard treatment involves daily injections of insulin and rigorous management of diet and lifestyle.

Phase I/II clinical trials are designed to assess basic safety and efficacy of therapies never before tested in humans, uncovering unforeseen risks or complications. Unpredictable outcomes are possible. Such testing is essential to ensure that the new therapy is developed responsibly with appropriate management of risks that all medical treatments may present.

This is not yet a cure for diabetes, said Henry. The hope, nonetheless, is that this approach will ultimately transform the way individuals with Type 1 diabetes manage their disease by providing an alternative source of insulin-producing cells, potentially freeing them from daily insulin injections or external pumps.

This clinical trial at UC San Diego Health System was launched and supported by the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center. The Center was recently created to advance leading-edge stem cell medicine and science, protect and counsel patients, and accelerate innovative stem cell research into patient diagnostics and therapy.

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Clinical Trial to Test Safety of Stem Cell-Derived Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes

Kotlikoff lab

Optogenetic proteins enable visualization of a developing heart.

New technologies involving optogenetic proteins, which use light to control and observe cells with unprecedented precision, have begun to illuminate processes underlying cellular behavior and the effects of cell- and gene-based therapies. Cornell researchers are developing advanced forms of these proteins to create a toolkit to make them more widely available to scientists.

With a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Healths Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the team will develop the Cornell Heart, Lung and Blood Resource for Optogenetic Mice (CHROMus), which will incorporate optogenetic proteins in mice and human stem cells. Scientists use such tools to control and observe how different types of cells function and interact.

We will target these tools so that they can be combined to study diseases of the heart, lungs, vasculature and blood, said Dr. Michael Kotlikoff, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine at Cornells College of Veterinary Medicine and the projects lead investigator. Researchers will be able to use them to address a broad set of health issues, including heart attack, stroke, asthma and immune diseases.

Marrying optics and genetics, optogenetics enables scientists to use light to trigger and monitor the behavior of cells engineered to contain one or both of two types of designer proteins: effectors, which respond to light by activating the cell they are on, or sensors, which fluoresce when a cell has been activated.

Effectors and sensors can be engineered into specific kinds of cells and color-coded, letting scientists noninvasively trigger one type to see how another type responds. One can see different cell types light up in living animals, giving direct insight into specific cells roles in complex biological systems.

The lines of CHROMus mice developed in this project are designed to be easily crossbred, creating a combinatorial platform that will allow scientists to customize sets of effectors and sensors including new sensors from the Kotlikoff lab into the specific cell types they want to study.

For example, our lab is particularly interested in using these tools to study the control of blood flow to tissues what happens before, during and after major events like stroke and cardiac infarction, and how abnormal rhythms develop after heart injury, said Kotlikoff. Arrhythmias following a heart attack are the single most common cause of acute death in the western world, and how they can be prevented requires a better understanding of how, why and where they arise. Optogenetic tools let us look directly at relevant cells throughout the heart to determine their role in these dangerous and often fatal events.

The tools will be designed to allow scientists to ask and answer similar questions related to vascular and lung diseases, such as the role of the immune system in asthma and stroke, and how therapeutic stem cells integrate within the tissue that they are designed to repair.

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Optogenetics shed light on cardiac, lung, immune disease

CHILHOWIE, Va. You wouldnt think from seeing her smile and watching her run and play that there is anything wrong with 5-year-old Nevaeh Bruner of Chilhowie.

But shes lucky to be alive and faces a lengthy procedure that could be her only chance for survival.

Pam Troxel Buchanan, the little girls great aunt, and Donna Hamm, her great-great aunt, are taking care of Nevaeh and tear up just thinking about what this little girl has been through and what she faces in her fight to live.

She is a very strong little girl. I couldnt do it, said Buchanan.

Nevaeh has been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare disease that causes a complete failure of production of all types of blood cells. As a result, the bone marrow contains large numbers of fat cells instead of the blood-producing cells that would normally be present. It is a potentially fatal blood disease in which there are not enough stem cells in the bone marrow or the stem cells have stopped working effectively.

Buchanan said that last November Nevaehs teacher at Chilhowie Elementary School noticed bruising on her body. She had shown no other symptoms of illness, Buchanan said, so her parents were advised to take her to Niswonger Childrens Hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee, where there is a St. Jude affiliate clinic.

Buchanan said they spent a month running tests and the doctors told Nevaehs parents that her blood count was so low that she would not have lived much longer had she not received treatment. The little girl, who was 4-years-old at the time, has undergone numerous procedures, including surgery, transfusions, chemotherapy and radiation. She is taking oral chemotherapy and having blood transfusions as needed, but she is being weaned off the chemo to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

The chemo is also causing her kidneys to malfunction, bringing her close to kidney failure, Buchanan said.

She will always be in stage two kidney disease, Buchanan said. She will have sensitive kidneys and have to live with that.

The only option at this point is a bone marrow transplant, Buchanan said. Two donor matches have been found and the procedure will take place at St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, at the end of this year or next spring, Buchanan said.

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One Lucky Little Girl

So, when teenagers receive their National Insurance number through the post, why not also include an invitation to join the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register, and give them a chance to save a life at 16?

Email your MP to ask them to support Anthony Nolan's plan

Stem cell donations can play a crucial role in the treatment of blood cancers such as leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In the UK each year 2,000 people with blood cancer need a donation of healthy cells, and every single one of them depends on the kindness of a stranger. This is where the Anthony Nolan register comes in.

When a patient needs a lifesaving transplant, their medical team works with us to find a match.

Today there are over half a million people on our donor register. That number grew by 55,000 names last year.

But only six per cent of those donors are aged between 16 and 20, and we need many more in this age group to come forward. We know that young people are more likely to be chosen by doctors as donors for people with blood cancer.

This is why Anthony Nolan recruits young people from the age of 16 and why sending registration information with National Insurance numbers could be such an important move.

Similar measures have been taken before. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency includes information on organ donation when it delivers new driving licences. This is an innovative way to get individuals to think about a small but significant commitment they can make to help others.

Young people such as Victoria Rathmill and Celyn Evans are ground-breakers, and should be applauded as pioneers. What they have done takes courage. But the point of being a pioneer is to forge a path that others will follow. Our proposal, a simple awareness-raising measure, will help a great many people. It won't even cost the taxpayer a penny, as all expenses will be paid by Anthony Nolan.

We already have over 530,000 incredible people on our register, which is an amazing achievement. Sadly, its not enough. If we are to find a match for every person who needs one, we urgently need more people in their teens and twenties to sign up in the fight against blood cancer. By taking on our proposal, the Government can make it easier for young people to do just that.

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Help Anthony Nolan save a life at 16

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Sep-2014

Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (Sept. 3, 2014) A team of researchers from Korea and Canada have found that transplantation of B10 cells (a stable immortalized human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell line; B10 hMSC) directly into the bladder wall of mice modeled with spinal cord injury (SCI) helped inhibit the development of bladder fibrosis and improved bladder function by promoting the growth of smooth muscle cells in the bladder.

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1227_Lee.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can cause severe lower urinary tract dysfunction and conditions such as overactive bladder, urinary retention and increased bladder thickness and fibrosis. HMSCs, multipotent cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including bone cells, cartilage cells, and fat cells, have been transplanted into injured spinal cords to help patients regain motor function.

In this study, mice receiving the B10 hMSCs injected directly into the bladder wall experienced improved bladder function while an untreated control group did not.

"Human MSCs can secrete growth factors," said study co-author Seung U. Kim of the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. "In a previous study, we showed that B 10 cells secrete various growth factors including hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and that HGF inhibits collagen deposits in bladder outlet obstructions in rats more than hMSCs alone. In this study, the SCI control group that did not receive B10 cells showed degenerated spinal neurons and did not recover. The B10-injected group appeared to have regenerated bladder smooth muscle cells."

Four weeks after the onset of SCI, the treatment group received the B10 cells transplanted directly into the bladder wall. To track the transplanted B10 cells via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers labeled them with fluorescent magnetic particles.

"HGF plays an essential role in tissue regeneration and angiogenesis and acts as a potent antifibrotic agent," explained Kim.

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Transplanted stem cells help prevent bladder fibrosis after spinal cord injury

Stem Cell Therapy Testimonial
Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Testimonial. Dr. Lox can be reached at http://www.drloxstemcells.com or Call (844) 440-8503 for information on Stem Cell Therapy.

By: Dr. Lox

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Stem Cell Therapy Testimonial - Video

Ed Tessaro, 68, just joined the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the social media fundraising phenomenon that has brought in over $100 million in donations to fight ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Ed Tessaro has been fighting the disease for more than five years.

But Tessaro's challenge is different than most. Tessaro has been fighting the disease for more than five years.

"My arms and legs are weaker, when I walk I'm pretty much at risk," Tessaro told CBS News. "That's really the only bad news. I'm breathing at 100 percent of normal, which is great news."

In ALS, motor neurons, the nerve cells that control voluntary muscles, detach from the muscle and die. Patients lose control of movement and eventually their ability to breathe on their own. The cause of ALS is unknown.

Tessaro is one of 30 patients in a clinical trial who had stem cells injected into their spinal column in an attempt to slow the progression of the disease.

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What's the Ice Bucket Challenge all about? A "60 Minutes" story about the fortitude of many ALS patients shows why they need more research fundin...

Normally, neurons are surrounded by cells that protect and nourish them. New research suggests that in ALS patients, these supporting cells become killers, poisoning the motor neurons. Animal studies have found stem cells can help heal the toxic supporting cells.

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Research making ALS less of a mystery

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

29-Aug-2014

Contact: Kris Kitto kris@morethanpr.com 303-320-7790 The Bawmann Group

AURORA, Colo. (Sept. 2, 2014) A team of scientists from the University of Colorado School of Medicine has reported the breakthrough discovery of a process to expand production of stem cells used to treat cancer patients. These findings could have implications that extend beyond cancer, including treatments for inborn immunodeficiency and metabolic conditions and autoimmune diseases.

In an article published Aug. 29 in PLOS ONE, researchers from the Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology and Taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. said they have uncovered the keys to the molecular code that appear to regulate the ability of blood stem cells to reproduce and retain their stem-like characteristics.

The team developed protein products that can be directly administered to blood stem cells to encourage them to multiply without permanent genetic modifications.

"Use of stem cells to treat cancer patients who face bone marrow transplants has been a common practice for four decades," said Yosef Refaeli, Ph.D., an associate dermatology professor and one of the study's lead scientists. "The biggest challenge, however, has been finding adequate supplies of stem cells that help patients fight infection after the procedure."

Gates Stem Cell Center Director Dennis Roop, Ph.D., recognized the magnitude of the team's work.

"Researchers have long attempted to increase the number of blood stem cells in a lab," Roop said. "Most of those approaches have been limited by the nature of the resulting cells or the inadequate number of cells produced."

The technology described in the PLOS ONE article has worked with blood stem cells obtained from cord blood, adult bone marrow or peripheral blood from adults.

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CU scientists' discovery could lead to new cancer treatment

The zebrafish, a small fresh water fish, owes its name to a striking pattern of blue stripes alternating with golden stripes. Three major pigment cell types, black cells, reflective silvery cells, and yellow cells emerge during growth in the skin of the tiny juvenile fish and arrange as a multilayered mosaic to compose the characteristic colour pattern. While it was known that all three cell types have to interact to form proper stripes, the embryonic origin of the pigment cells that develop the stripes of the adult fish has remained a mystery up to now. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tbingen have now discovered how these cells arise and behave to form the 'zebra' pattern. Their work may help to understand the development and evolution of the great diversity of striking patterns in the animal world.

Beauty in the living world amazes poets, philosophers and scientists alike. Nobel prize laureate Christiane Nsslein-Volhard, Director of the Department for Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, has long been fascinated by the biology behind the colour patterns displayed by animals. Her group uses zebrafish as a model organism to study the genetic basis of animal development.

New research by Nsslein-Volhard's laboratory published in Science shows that the yellow cells undergo dramatic changes in cell shape to tint the stripe pattern of zebrafish. "We were surprised to observe such cell behaviours, as these were totally unexpected from what we knew about colour pattern formation," says Prateek Mahalwar, first author of the study. The study builds on a previous work from the laboratory, which was published in June this year in Nature Cell Biology (NCB), tracing the cell behaviour of silvery and black cells. Both studies describe diligent experiments to uncover the cellular events during stripe pattern formation. Individual juvenile fish carrying fluorescently labelled pigment cell precursors were imaged every day for up to three weeks to chart out the cellular behaviours. This enabled the scientists to trace the multiplication, migration and spreading of individual cells and their progeny over the entire patterning process of stripe formation in the living and growing animal. "We had to develop a very gentle procedure to be able to observe individual fish repeatedly over long periods of time. So we used a state of the art microscope which allowed us to reduce the adverse effects of fluorescence illumination to a minimum," says Ajeet Singh, first author of the earlier NCB study.

Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that the three cell types reach the skin by completely different routes: A pluripotent cell population situated at the dorsal side of the embryo gives rise to larval yellow cells, which cover the skin of the embryo. These cells begin to multiply at the onset of metamorphosis when the fish is about two to three weeks old. However, the black and silvery cells come from a small set of stem cells associated with nerve nodes located close to the spinal cord in each segment. The black cells reach the skin migrating along the segmental nerves to appear in the stripe region, whereas the silvery cells pass through the longitudinal cleft that separates the musculature and then multiply and spread in the skin.

Brigitte Walderich, a co-author of the Science paper, who performed cell transplantations to trace the origin of yellow cells, explains: "My attempt was to create small clusters of fluorescently labelled cells in the embryo which could be followed during larval and juvenile stages to unravel growth and behaviour of the yellow cells. We were surprised to discover that they divide and multiply as differentiated cells to cover the skin of the fish before the silvery and black cells arrive to form the stripes."

A striking observation is that both the silvery and yellow cells are able to switch cell shape and colour, depending on their location. The yellow cells compact to closely cover the dense silvery cells forming the light stripe, colouring it golden, and acquire a loose stellate shape over the black cells of the stripes. The silvery cells thinly spread over the stripe region, giving it a blue tint. They switch shape again at a distance into the dense form to aggregate, forming a new light stripe. These cell behaviours create a series of alternating light and dark stripes. The precise superposition of the dense form of silvery and yellow cells in the light stripe, and the loose silvery and yellow cells superimposed over the black cells in the stripe cause the striking contrast between the golden and blue coloration of the pattern.

The authors speculate that variations on these cell behaviours could be at play in generating the great diversity of colour patterns in fish. "These findings inform our way of thinking about colour pattern formation in other fish, but also in animals which are not accessible to direct observation during development such as peacocks, tigers and zebras," says Nsslein-Volhard -- wondering how her cats got their stripes.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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How the zebrafish gets its stripes: Uncovering how beautiful color patterns can develop in animals

Stem Cell Activation Phuket, Thailand: How have athletes been using stem cell therapy
http://www.thanyapurahealth.com/health-services/natural-stem-cell-activationregenerative-therapy/how-have-athletes-been-using-stem-cell-therapy/ Using stem cell therapy treats body issue e.g....

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Stem Cell Activation Phuket, Thailand: How have athletes been using stem cell therapy - Video

Boy Scout Troop 286 Icebucket Challenge for the Scoutmaster
Ice Bucket Challenge Completed! With a whole lot of help from my Scouts! Donation went to the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center at KU Med in Kansas City. They do some terrific work there and...

By: Scott Medlock

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Boy Scout Troop 286 Icebucket Challenge for the Scoutmaster - Video

By Ciara Curtin

Jeanne Loring and her Scripps Research Institute colleagues transplanted a set of cells into the spinal cords of mice that had lost use of their hind limbs to multiple sclerosis. As the experimentalists expected, within a week, the mice rejected the cells. But after another week, the mice began to walk.

We thought that they wouldnt do anything, says Loring, who directs theCenter for Regenerative Medicineat Scripps. But as her lab has since shown numerous times, and published in Stem Cell Reports, something that these particular so-called neural precursor cells dobeforethe immune system kicks them out seems to make the mouse better.

The cells Lorings team used are derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, which are mature cells, such as skin cells, that have been coaxed with a combination of chemicals to return to an earlier stage of development.

Induced pluripotent cells, also known as iPS cells, pose a number of opportunities for medicine. For instance, Loring is using iPS cells from Parkinsons disease and multiple sclerosis patients to reconstitute cell types that may be damaged in people with those conditions. She is also using them to test how certain drugs or treatments may affect damaged cells in people with conditions such as autism spectrum disorders.

Loring (front row, center) with the Loring Lab Group at the Center for Regenerative Medicine

Loring says no viable long-term treatments exist for the diseases her team has been working on, including Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, and multiple sclerosis, Thats where the need is, she says.

The neural precursor cells that Loring has been using in the mice with MS are young cells that havent quite gotten to the point of being nerves yet. Only certain types of these cells have such a dramatic Lazarus-like effect on the affected mice, but Lorings team can readily identify them based on DNA analysis.

Even so, theyre not yet ready to treat human MS patients with the approach, she says. First, the researchers want to identify what the cells producea protein, perhaps, or a set of proteinsthat allows the mice to walk.

For other diseases, however, researchers are closer to being ready to transplant working versions of reprogrammed cells into sick people.

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Could Reprogrammed Cells Fight 'Untreatable' Diseases?

Stem cell technology pioneer,DefiniGEN Ltdhas joined the Pfizer-inspired European Bank for induced pluripotent stem cells (EBiSC) consortium.

The consortium comprises 26 partners, and has been newly-formed with support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).

DefiniGen, a Cambridge University spin-out that has raised millions, represents one of the first commercial opportunities to arise from the universitys expertise in stem cells and is based on the research of Dr Ludovic Vallier, Dr Tamir Rashid and Professor Roger Pedersen of the universitys Anne McLaren Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine.

The EBiSC iPS cell bank will act as a central storage and distribution facility for human iPS cells, to be used by researchers across academia and industry in the study of disease and the development of new therapeutics. DefiniGENs role will be to validate EBiSC iPS cell lines by generating liver hepatocyte cells for toxicology, disease modelling, and regenerative medicine applications.

Dr Marcus Yeo, CEO of DefiniGEN, said: We are delighted to be a part of this ground-breaking consortium which will provide a crucial platform resource to enable the realisation of the full potential of iPS technology.

Conceptualised and coordinated by Pfizer Ltd in Cambridge, UK and managed by Roslin Cells Ltd in Edinburgh, the EBiSC bank aims to become the European go to resource for high quality research grade human iPS cells.

Today, iPS cells are being created in an increasing number of research programmes underway in Europe, but are not being systematically catalogued and distributed at the necessary scale to keep pace with their generation, nor to meet future demand.

The 35 million project will support the initial build of a robust, reliable supply chain from the generation of customised cell lines, the specification to internationally accepted quality criteria and their distribution to any global qualified user, ensuring accessibility to consistent, high quality tools for new medicines development.

Ruth McKernan, CSO of Pfizers Neusentis research unit in Cambridge, said: We are excited to be a part of this precompetitive collaboration to build a sustainable repository of high quality human iPS cell lines.

For many areas of research in academia and in industry, understanding the biological basis of disease heterogeneity is the next horizon. A bank of well-characterised iPS lines with strong relevance to the entire research community will help us all in our mission to bring therapies to patients.

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Pfizer buys into Cambridge life science innovation

MIAMI - When Bruce Daily woke up after having lumbar surgery a year ago, he realized he couldn't move the right side of his body.

"It took me a long while to figure out I wasn't gonna walk again," he said. "I knew I was down."

Daily, 69, had gone in for lumbar surgery at the University of Miami hospital and had an ischemic stroke while under anesthesia. An ischemic stroke results from an obstruction in a blood vessel that blocks the blood from getting to the brain.

Because he was unconscious, he missed the four-to-five hour-window to apply the tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only medication available to treat ischemic strokes. The medication dissolves the clot, restoring blood flow to the brain.

But while he missed that chance, he was right on time to meet Dr. Dileep Yavagal, a neurosurgeon who practices at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial hospitals. Yavagal was enrolling patients in RECOVER-stroke, a clinical trial treating recent stroke patients with stem cells from their bone marrow and applying them directly into the carotid artery, one of two arteries that supply the neck and head with blood. Daily was one of 47 patients nationwide who qualified for the study.

The study is funded by Cytomedix, the company that developed the technology to extract stem cells from bone marrow. The firm chose Yavagal to lead a national blind study at the end of 2012.

Yavagal enrolled 13 patients at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, between the end of 2012 and January of 2014. So far, the initial three-month results have revealed that the marrow cells are not doing any damage, and there was no clear difference between those who received the cells and those who didn't. The study's one-year final results will be revealed in January.

"There is severe need for developing treatment for ischemic stroke, and stem cells are the most promising," said Yavagal, whose own research is still in its initial phase, focusing on using a healthy donor's bone marrow stem cells versus the patient's own marrow.

Stroke, the leading cause of adult disability in the United States, and the No. 4 cause of death in the country, causes 130,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yavagal, associate professor of clinical neurology and neurosurgery and the director of interventional neurology at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, said that restricted mobility or loss of speech resulting from a moderate to severe stroke can be devastating because patients often become dependent on someone else for daily activities.

Excerpt from:
Can stem cells help mobility after stroke?

Q: My daughter plays college soccer and ruptured her ACL. The coaches mentioned stem cell injections that some big-name athletes have used to recover from injuries. Should we consider them? Paige R., Chicago

A: Professional athletes are always looking for the fastest way to heal their injuries. In 2010, Yankees pitcher Bartolo Colon was treated for a torn rotator cuff with injections of fat and bone marrow adult stem cells; he's playing for the Mets this season. And in 2011, Denver Broncos' Peyton Manning opted for injections of his own fat stem cells to try to get over a neck injury. Two years later, he had a record-breaking season and took the Broncos to the Super Bowl. But does this mean the injections worked? Nope.

Colon's agent attributes the pitcher's career turnaround to a re-dedication to the game, not the injections, and Manning followed up his stem cell treatment with major surgery and intense rehab (done in secret).

There's just no solid evidence yet that injections of adult bone marrow (or fat) stem cells effectively regenerate and repair damaged tendons or ligaments, and you cannot be certain of what the injections contain or their side effects. They often are delivered in an unregulated environment and aren't FDA-approved.

We suspect your daughter is headed for reconstructive surgery and six months of rehab. Then she needs to learn new ways to move so she reduces stress on her knees. One metastudy found that two ACL-injury-prevention regimens were effective: Sportsmetrics promotes leg and core strength, increases vertical jump height and may improve speed and agility; the Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) program, makes a big difference in the flexion strength of the knee. Both improve athletic performance tests and reduce injury rates. Rehab is tough, and there are no shortcuts, but we bet your daughter has the grit to do it!

Q: I had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery last year, and my blood glucose levels were almost normal even before I lost any weight. How is that possible? Marty Z., Jupiter, Florida

A: Congrats, Marty. We hope you're continuing to have such good results. It is amazing that bypassing part of your stomach and intestine could have such an immediate effect on your blood sugar levels, and just recently researchers have figured out why that happens sometimes. It seems to have something to do with the bacteria that live in your digestive tract, also called your gut biome.

Roux-en-Y surgery bypasses most of the stomach and the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. That's where a lot of your gut bacteria live and where they influence gut hormones that regulate appetite, insulin use, glucose levels and more. So right away, the surgery decreases levels of hormones that regulate appetite; you can eat less without being hungry. That alone lowers glucose levels and increases the effectiveness of your body's insulin supply.

Also, when you have diabetes, your gut bacteria are thrown out of balance; the bad guys overwhelm the good guys (like bifidobacteria and lactobacillus). And that means the hormones that affect how cells get and use glucose can't do their job. The glucose stays in your bloodstream instead of being used as fuel by your cells. But once a lot of the bad gut bacteria are bypassed, your gut biome snaps back into balance and the bacteria and hormones work together to regulate blood sugar levels.

So we suggest you keep your gut biome balanced and happy with a healthy diet of five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day. Asparagus, garlic, cooked onions and dandelion greens deliver prebiotics that help good-for-you gut bacteria thrive. Fermented foods like nonfat kefir and kimchi contain healthful probiotics. Also, avoid saturated fats and added sugars they just make your biome miserable. And we like daily spore probiotic supplements containing bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 and lactobacillus GG.

Original post:
Stem cells for sports injuries; gastric bypass and the gut biome

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, August 26, 2014 6:45AM EDT

TORONTO -- Canadian doctors have begun using stem cell transplants to treat "stiff person syndrome," a rare neurological condition in which a patient's leg and other muscles suddenly contract painfully, often leaving them immobilized like a tin soldier.

The disorder, which affects an estimated one in a million people, occurs when the immune system turns against a person's own tissues, in this case attacking cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Stem cell transplants have been used to treat patients with other auto-immune diseases, among them multiple sclerosis, scleroderma and Crohn's disease, but this may be the first time the procedure has been employed to alleviate the symptoms of stiff person syndrome, or SPS, the researchers reported Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology.

SPS is characterized by episodes of stiffness in the muscles and painful muscle spasms, which can be brought on by stress, loud noises or emotional distress. Some people with the disorder are so disabled they are unable to walk or move and may isolate themselves at home to avoid triggering an attack.

"Sometimes this happens when they're startled," said Dr. Harry Atkins of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Ottawa Hospital, who headed a team that transplanted stem cells into two women with the disease.

"So you can imagine walking across the street and someone honks the horn and you can't move, or you start falling and because your muscles can't move, you just fall and you hurt yourself," Atkins said Monday from Ottawa.

"It really does provide a barrier with just going on with your life."

Tina Ceroni of Toronto is one of the two SPS patients who had the stem-cell transplant -- and she said it has given back her life.

The personal fitness trainer, now 36, started getting severe symptoms in her late 20s. Initially she was diagnosed with hyponatremia, or low blood sodium, thought to be related to her heavy training schedule for a half-ironman competition.

Originally posted here:
Canadian doctors use stem cells to treat 'stiff person syndrome'

LUMINESCE Stem cell Therapy Dr Nathan Newman
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