PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Jul-2014

Contact: Jo Ann Eliason jaeliason@thejns.org 434-982-1209 Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group

Charlottesville, VA (July 8, 2014). A spinal mass was identified in a young woman with complete spinal cord injury 8 years after she had undergone implantation of olfactory mucosal cells in the hopes of regaining sensory and motor function. The case is reported and discussed in "Autograft-derived spinal cord mass following olfactory mucosal cell transplantation in a spinal cord injury patient. Case report," by Brian J. Dlouhy, MD, Olatilewa Awe, MD, Rajesh C. Rao, MD, Patricia A. Kirby, MD, and Patrick W. Hitchon, MD, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. The authors state that this is the first report of a spinal cord mass arising from spinal cord cell transplantation and neural stem cell therapy, and they caution that physicians should be vigilant in their follow-up of patients who undergo stem cell interventions.

In its natural state, the olfactory mucosa lines the roof of the nasal cavity, adjacent to the respiratory mucosa that lines the lower nasal cavity. In addition to smell receptor neurons, the olfactory mucosa contains progenitor cells (also known as adult stem cells) and olfactory ensheathing cellsboth of which have been shown to aid in the repair of the injured spinal cord in laboratory studies and in humans. The respiratory mucosa, on the other hand contains mucus-secreting goblet cells and mucus and serous fluidproducing cells.

The patient was 18 years old when she sustained a fracture dislocation at the 10th and 11th thoracic vertebral level in a motor vehicle accident. Despite surgery to stabilize the spine, the injury rendered the patient paraplegic. Three years later, in the hopes of regaining sensory and motor function in her lower limbs, the young woman underwent additional surgery at an institution outside the United States, during which an autograft of olfactory mucosa was placed in her spinal canal at the site of injury. Eight years after the experimental therapy, the woman sought medical care for mid- to lower-back pain at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. On neurological examination, she showed no sign of clinical improvement from the olfactory mucosal cell implantation, and imaging studies revealed a mass in her spinal canal pressing against the spinal cord. This mass was the source of the patient's pain.

Following surgery to remove the symptom-producing mass at the University of Iowa, a tissue analysis showed that the mass contained a small proportion of nonfunctional tiny nerve branches, whose appearance led the authors to suspect the nerve branches developed from transplanted neural stem-like cells. The tissue analysis also demonstrated that most of the mass consisted of multiple cysts lined with respiratory mucosa and underlying submucosal glands and goblet cells. Abundant mucus-like material was also found in the mass. Accumulation of this material over time produced the patient's symptoms.

The authors describe various ways of extracting olfactory mucosa cells for implantation. In this particular case, a portion of olfactory mucosa was transplanted; in other trials, olfactory ensheathing cells have been extracted from olfactory mucosa and purified prior to implantation. The authors suggest that the choice of bulk olfactory mucosa rather than purified olfactory ensheathing cells or stem cells as an autograft may lead to the development of a mass containing functional respiratory mucosal cells.

The authors point out that a rare case of spinal cord complication such as this should not discourage stem cell research and/or the transition of promising research to the clinical setting. However, the authors indicate the need for a better understanding of what can occur and urge clinicians to extend the monitoring period in patients treated with neural stem cell therapy for many years in case an adverse event such as this should arise. In summarizing the take-away message of the paper, Dr. Brian Dlouhy stated: "Exhaustive research on how transplanted cells divide, differentiate, and organize in animal models of disease, especially spinal cord injury, is critical to providing safe and effective treatments in humans."

###

Read more here:
Spinal cord mass arising from neural stem cell therapy

What Is Cardiac Cell Therapy?

In its simplest form, cardiac cell therapy is simply the use of stem cells to regenerate new heart tissue. Stem cells were originally used to grow your heart before you were born. Stem cells capable of growing new heart tissue reside in all of us. Through the use of trial-tested technologies, your own stem cells can be used to grow and repair your cardiac tissue.

The most difficult aspect of this therapy was developing a way to isolate your stem cells and put them to use to grow new heart tissue. And thanks to years of research, this process has been developed and tested in clinical trials with favorable results.

What Is The Procedure?

There is a wide variety of methods of placing stem cells in the body or near the organ they are intended to help. One procedure tested under trial is through the use of catheters (a specialized tube) and is being implemented in a new state-of-the-art clinic by a U.S. licensed veteran cardiologist. This process requires only a local anesthetic and minimal recovery time (hours vs days). And your own cardiologist is consulted closely to make sure you are a good candidate for the procedure and to monitor your improvements when you return home.

If you'd like our recommendations on qualified cardiac stem cell clinics, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@heartcell.org. We'd be happy to connect you to a clinic, doctor or stem cell patient for you to explore your options further.

Read the original here:
What Is Stem Cell Therapy | Stem Cell For Heart | Cardiac ...

Why stem cell therapy is not available in Europe or United States of America
In conversation with Dr Alok Sharma (MS, MCh.) Professor of Neurosurgery Head of Department, LTMG Hospital LTM Medical College, Sion, Mumbai. Explains, Why stem cell therapy is not available...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

Read the original post:
Why stem cell therapy is not available in Europe or United States of America - Video

What Goes Wrong in the Brain of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder ?
Dr. Nandini Gokulchandran from Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute explains what goes wrong in the brain of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder? Stem Cell Therapy done at Dr Alok Sharma...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

See the rest here:
What Goes Wrong in the Brain of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder ? - Video

TAMPA

Twice a week, Gabriela Camargo and her husband, Romulo, get up before dawn to get him dressed, settled in his wheelchair and ready for the two-hour trip to Longwood, near Orlando, for the kind of intense, long-term physical therapy they hope will one day get him walking again.

After Romulo undergoes three hours of guided workouts on advanced exercise machines at Project Walk a therapy center unlike any in the Tampa Bay area, they say they fight the traffic back.

"I-4 is crazy!'' says Gabriela, adding that the couple usually arrives back home in New Tampa about 3:30 p.m.

After about a year of the routine, Gaby, as she's called, decided that she and "Romy'' should open a nonprofit intensive therapy center in Tampa.

"I thought it was a crazy idea,'' said Romy, an Army Special Forces officer who was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the shoulders down during an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008.

But the more he thought about it, the more he liked the plan.

They seem to be on their way, having collected about $216,000 in corporate and individual donations toward the $750,000 they figure they'll need for two years of operating expenses. They hope to open the StayInStep spinal cord injury therapy center in north Tampa in the fall.

Romy, a chief warrant officer 3, remains on active duty until his retirement next spring after 20 years in the service.

In 2011, Dr. Carlos Lima of Portugal, a pioneer in the use of stem cell surgery to stimulate nerve regeneration in spinal cord injury patients, operated on Romy, taking stem cells from tissue inside Romy's nose and transferring them to site of the injury.

Go here to read the rest:
Paralyzed veteran raises money for therapy center in Tampa

By Jim Kasuba The News-Herald Twitter: @JKasuba

Elizabeth Disney (left) turned out to be a suitable blood stem donor for her sister, Brittany, who is afflicted with Burkitt lymphoma, considered to be an extremely rare disease for a young woman of only 23. Photo courtesy of Donna Smith

RIVERVIEW Battling a rare cancer has been a rough road for Brittany Disney, but the worst may be behind her.

The good news is that a suitable stem cell donor has been found and the transplant surgery went well. The not-so-good news is that theres a long recovery period and shes still in a lot of pain.

Donna Smith, a close friend of the family, said the young woman underwent stem cell replacement on June 6.

There was a one in four chance that a sibling would be a match, Smith said. (Her sister) Elizabeth had five out of six markers to be a stem cell donor for her.

Disney, 23, was diagnosed late last year with stage four Burkitt lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in which cancer starts in immune cells called B-cells. Recognized as the fastest growing human tumor, Burkitt lymphoma is associated with impaired immunity and is rapidly fatal if left untreated.

Burkitt lymphoma is so rare in young adult women that the Henry Ford Health System wrote about the case in a medical journal, said one of Disneys college friends.

In November, friends and family sponsored a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to assist the family with medical bills and expenses, but things continued to look bleak, as a stem cell transplant appeared to be the only answer to treating the condition.

Read the rest here:
Riverview woman recovers from stem cell transplant; family seeking notes of encouragement

Alzheimer #39;s Disease Prevention and Treatment
http://www.placidway.com/subtreatment-detail/treatment,31,subtreatment,256.html/Alzheimers-Disease-Stem-Cell-Therapy--Treatment-Abroad - Watch this educational video about Alzheimer #39;s disease...

By: placidways

Excerpt from:
Alzheimer's Disease Prevention and Treatment - Video

treatment available for autism spectrum disorder
After stem cell therapy treatment available for autism spectrum disorder parents of the child from London United Kingdom testifying most of the amazing improvements they saw after stem cell...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

Link:
treatment available for autism spectrum disorder - Video

Madison, Wisconsin - Scientists at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) report that a new class of tumor-targeting agents can seek out and find dozens of solid tumors, even illuminating brain cancer stem cells that resist current treatments.

Whats more, years of animal studies and early human clinical trials show that this tumor-targeting alkylphosphocholine (APC) molecule can deliver two types of payloads directly to cancer cells: a radioactive or fluorescent imaging label, or a radioactive medicine that binds and kills cancer cells.

This series of images shows how the alkylphosphocholine (APC) molecule targets and illuminates cancer cells.

The results are featured in todays issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine with the journals cover illustration and a podcast.

The APC targeting molecule was created to exploit a weakness shared by tumors as diverse as breast, brain, colorectal, lung, prostate and skin cancers. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lack the enzymes to metabolize APC and similar phospholipid ethers that merge with cell membranes.

Read more here:
New tumor-targeting agent images and treats variety of cancers

The Board of Directors of Asterias is honored that Pedro elected to join Asterias as CEO and is very pleased that he also chose to make a significant financial commitment to the company, said Alfred D. Kingsley, Chairman of the Asterias Board of Directors. With Pedro at the helm, Asterias is focused on its efforts to develop and commercialize therapies that have the potential to treat patients with serious unmet medical needs. In particular, Pedro will lead Asterias through the process of advancing its lead clinical-stage programs, AST-OPC1 for the treatment of spinal cord injury and the AST-VAC2 allogeneic dendritic cell cancer immunotherapy platform.

I believe in Asterias technology, its therapeutic programs, and its talented employees and am committed to making the company a success, remarked Mr. Lichtinger. My efforts as the companys CEO will focus on developing innovative therapies for critically ill and chronically ill patients, and creating significant value over time for Asterias shareholders.

About Asterias

Asterias Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Our core technologies center on stem cells capable of becoming all of the cell types in the human body, a property called pluripotency. We plan to develop therapies based on pluripotent stem cells to treat diseases or injuries in a variety of medical fields, with an initial focus on the therapeutic applications of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (AST-OPC1) and antigen-presenting dendritic cells (AST-VAC1 and AST-VAC2) for the fields of neurology and oncology respectively. AST-OPC1 was tested for treatment of spinal cord injury in the worlds first Phase 1 clinical trial using human embryonic stem cell-derived cells. We plan to seek FDA clearance to reinitiate clinical testing of AST-OPC1 in spinal cord injury this year, and are also evaluating its function in nonclinical models of multiple sclerosis and stroke. AST-VAC1 and AST-VAC2 are dendritic cell-based vaccines designed to immunize cancer patients against telomerase, a protein abnormally expressed in over 95% of human cancer types. AST-VAC2 differs from AST-VAC1 in that the dendritic cells presenting telomerase to the immune system are produced from human embryonic stem cells instead of being derived from human blood.

In October of 2013, Asterias acquired the cell therapy assets of Geron Corporation. These assets included INDs for the clinical stage AST-OPC1 and AST-VAC1 programs, banks of cGMP-manufactured AST-OPC1 drug product, cGMP master and working cell banks of human embryonic stem cells, over 400 patents and patent applications filed worldwide including broad issued claims to fundamental platform technologies for the scalable growth of pluripotent stem cells and compositions of matter for several hESC-derived therapeutic cell types, research cell banks, customized reagents and equipment, and various assets relating to the AST-VAC2 program and preclinical programs in cardiology and orthopedics.

Asterias is a member of the BioTime family of companies.

Additional information about Asterias can be found at http://www.asteriasbiotherapeutics.com.

About BioTime

BioTime is a biotechnology company engaged in research and product development in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine refers to therapies based on stem cell technology that are designed to rebuild cell and tissue function lost due to degenerative disease or injury. BioTimes focus is on pluripotent stem cell technology based on human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. hES and iPS cells provide a means of manufacturing every cell type in the human body and therefore show considerable promise for the development of a number of new therapeutic products. BioTimes therapeutic and research products include a wide array of proprietary PureStem progenitors, HyStem hydrogels, culture media, and differentiation kits. BioTime is developing Renevia (a HyStem product) as a biocompatible, implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based matrix for cell delivery in human clinical applications, and is planning to initiate a pivotal clinical trial around Renevia, in 2014. In addition, BioTime has developed Hextend, a blood plasma volume expander for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment and other applications. Hextend is manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by Hospira, Inc. and in South Korea by CJ HealthCare Corporation, under exclusive licensing agreements.

BioTime is also developing stem cell and other products for research, therapeutic, and diagnostic use through its subsidiaries:

Go here to read the rest:
BioTime Subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics Announces Investment by CEO

MP calls for more donors in Pendle to register

11:43am Tuesday 17th June 2014 in News

THE Anthony Nolan charity is searching for more heroes in Pendle to join their bone marrow register in the fight against blood cancer.

Championed by Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson, this search is under way as the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register has been mapped across the UK by area for the first time.

In Pendle, there are more than 1,500 residents willing to donate their stem cells, or bone marrow, to save the life of a stranger.

Anthony Nolan, now in its 40th anniversary year, was the worlds first bone marrow register.

Mr Stephenson said: I am delighted that Pendle has one of the highest number of heroes on the register out of anywhere in Britain, but we could get even more.

Im hunting for more people to sign up today, so we can fight blood cancer together. It is something truly heroic to give a stranger a second chance at life. That is why Im proud of the huge number of Pendle residents already signed up and proud to champion this cause.

For details, visit www. anthonynolan.org/superhero.

Read this article:
MP calls for more donors in Pendle to register

Poway, CA (PRWEB) June 20, 2014

Vet-Stem, Inc. announced that another patent has issued under its exclusive worldwide license with Artecel, Inc. and with The University of California. This patent covers compositions of adipose tissue-derived stem cells that can differentiate into many types of tissues include cartilage, bone, nerve, kidney, heart and skin. This patent will provide coverage for the on-going commercial and development programs at Vet-Stem.

This new patent adds to the other patents in the Vet-Stem portfolio that cover compositions and methods of production of regenerative cells from adipose tissue for many diseases in humans and animals. Vet-Stem has exclusive worldwide rights for veterinary use of these patents (over 50 issued and 70 pending patents) which improves the companys intellectual property position in this rapidly developing field.

As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. In the last decade over 10,000 animals including horses, dogs, cats, and some exotics have been treated using Vet-Stems services.

Intellectual property rights are key assets in these markets and our investments in the area over the last decade have created tremendous value for our shareholders, said Robert Harman, DVM, MPVM, CEO and Founder of Vet-Stem. We need to do everything possible to protect and grow the market that we are creating in Regenerative Veterinary Medicine by providing the highest quality control in the industry. The value of this technology has increased greatly since the founding of the company in 2002 by providing clear evidence of the therapeutic activity and safety of these stem cells.

Vet-Stem researchers have been authors on 11 peer-reviewed papers including the first blinded, controlled, multicenter study of adipose-derived stem cells for chronic osteoarthritis in the canine hip joint, and the first multicenter clinical study of adipose-derived stem cells for chronic osteoarthritis in the canine elbow. Vet-Stem is actively investigating stem cell therapy for immune-mediated and inflammatory disease, as well as organ disease and failure.

About Vet-Stem, Inc. Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. The company holds exclusive licenses to over 50 patents including world-wide veterinary rights for use of adipose derived stem cells. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

Read more here:
Canadian Patent for Adipose Stem Cells Issued Under Vet-Stem License

Lumbar disc pain one year after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Lisa describes her outcome one year after having bone marrow stem cells injected into her degenerated and dehydrated lumbar discs by Dr Harry Adelson http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

Read the rest here:
Lumbar disc pain one year after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

Stem cell therapy | stem cells laboratory chip osteoarthritis
http://www.arthritistreatmentcenter.com A 3 D lab chip for osteoarthritis... learn more next... Living human cartilage grown on lab chip In Business Standard...

By: Nathan Wei

See the original post:
Stem cell therapy | stem cells laboratory chip osteoarthritis - Video

Cambridge News Follow us on

Friday 13 Jun 2014 3:52 AM

Written byJORDAN DAY

Leukaemia survivor, Bill Evans, pictured with his family.

2 Images

A grandfather whose life was saved by an anonymous bone marrow donor is urging others to consider donating theirs.

It was in January 2008 that Bill Evans was diagnosed with Leukaemia, aged 62, at Addenbrookes Hospital.

But thanks to the blood cancer charity, Anthony Nolan, and a generous man who still to this day Bill does not know, the father-of-two and grandfather-of-four was able to fight the cancer.

Bill, now aged 69 and who lives in Ely, said: Last weekend I celebrated my five years post transplant. There are no words to express my gratitude.

Because of Anthony Nolan and the wonderful man who donated his stem cells to me, Ive been able to see my four lovely grandchildren growing up, my wife and I have celebrated our Ruby wedding anniversary and next year I will be 70.

Read the rest here:
Leukaemia survivor Bill Evans urges more people to donate bone marrow

More people in the capital have signed up to donate their stem cells than residents in any other part of Britain - d espite Londoners having an unfriendly reputation .

Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan has mapped its bone marrow register for the first time, showing the proportion of people in each region who are signed up to the bone marrow register.

The charity said that more than 80,000 people in the capital are now signed up to the register - 0.97% of London's population.

A spokeswoman said that other "selfless hotspots" are the East Midlands, where 0.91% of the population has signed up, Scotland where 0.89% of people are on the register and in the south east where 0.87% of people have pledged to donate their stem cells.

Places with the lowest rates of sign-ups are the West Midlands and the south west, where just 0.66% and 0.65% of people, respectively, have signed up to the register.

The register was set up 40 years ago to help find lifesaving matches for people with blood cancer who desperately need a stem cell, or bone marrow, transplant.

Ann O'Leary, head of register development at Anthony Nolan, said: "Donating stem cells to save the life of a stranger is a remarkably selfless act so it's great to see so many Londoners challenging the city's stereotype and signing up to our register.

"Two thirds of patients will not find a matching donor from within their families; instead they turn to Anthony Nolan to find them an unrelated donor.

"Even though London has the highest proportion of donors of any region, it's still less than one per cent of the overall population of London, which shows us that we urgently need to recruit donors from all over the UK so we can give people with blood cancer the best possible hope of a cure."

Ms O'Leary added: "Mapping the register in this way will help us to target our efforts in order to grow the register and save more lives.

See the original post:
UK & World

A pre-clinical biotech startup that was awarded more than $1 million in state money last year said it has demonstrated that a certain type of abundant stem cells significantly reduce the severity of multiple sclerosis in mice.

Farmington's ImStem Biotechnology Inc., which is a member of UConn's technology incubator, said it worked with UConn Health Center scientists and Massachusetts company Advanced Cell Technology Inc. to determine that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human embryonic stem cells are more effective at treating MS in mice than MSCs from the bone marrow of adult donors.

In fact, the researchers said they found unexpectedly that the use of adult bone marrow stem cells to treat MS is highly variable and may carry a previously unrecognized risk of poor outcome.

The work is published in the June 5 online edition of Stem Cell Reports.

ImStem is seeking approvals and investment for Phase 1 clinical trials.

Read the original:
Farmington startup treats MS in mice with stem cells

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

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

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 5, 2014) Scientists in Taiwan have found that intravenous injections of stem cells derived from human exfoliated deciduous tooth pulp (SHED) have a protective effect against brain damage from heat stroke in mice. Their finding was safe and effective and so may be a candidate for successfully treating human patients by preventing the neurological damage caused by heat stroke.

The study is 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-CT1100Tseng.

"Heat stroke deaths are increasing worldwide and heat stroke-induced brain injury is the third largest cause of mortality after cardiovascular disease and traumatic brain injury," said study lead author Dr. Ying-Chu Lin of the Kaohsiung Medical University School of Dentistry, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. "Heat stroke is characterized by hyperthermia, systemic inflammatory response, multiple organ failure and brain dysfunction."

To investigate the beneficial and potentially therapeutic effects afforded by the protective activities of self-renewing stem cells derived from human exfoliated deciduous teeth, the scientists transplanted SHED into mice that had suffered experimental heat stroke.

According to the research team, these cells have "significantly higher proliferation rates" than stem cells from bone marrow and have the added advantages of being easy to harvest and express several growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and they can promote the migration and differentiation of neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs).

"We observed that the intravenous administration of SHED immediately post-heat stroke exhibited several therapeutic benefits," said Dr. Lin. "These included the inhibition of neurological deficits and a reduction in oxidative damage to the brain. We suspect that the protective effect of SHED may be related to a decreased inflammatory response, decreased oxidative stress and an increase in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity following the heat stroke injury."

There are currently some drawbacks to the experimental therapy, said the researchers. First, there is a limited supply of SHED. Also, SHED transplantation has been associated with cancer and immune rejection.

Read more:
Future heat stroke treatment found in dental pulp stem cells

13 hours ago Microscope And Digital Camera. Credit: Richard Wheeler/ Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

Case Western Reserve researchers have discovered landmarks within pluripotent stem cells that guide how they develop to serve different purposes within the body. This breakthrough offers promise that scientists eventually will be able to direct stem cells in ways that prevent disease or repair damage from injury or illness. The study and its results appear in the June 5 edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Pluripotent stem cells are so named because they can evolve into any of the cell types that exist within the body. Their immense potential captured the attention of two accomplished faculty with complementary areas of expertise.

"We had a unique opportunity to bring together two interdisciplinary groups," said co-senior author Paul Tesar, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at CWRU School of Medicine and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor.

"We have exploited the Tesar lab's expertise in stem cell biology and my lab's expertise in genomics to uncover a new class of genetic switches, which we call seed enhancers," said co-senior author Peter Scacheri, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at CWRU School of Medicine. "Seed enhancers give us new clues to how cells morph from one cell type to another during development."

The breakthrough came from studying two closely related stem cell types that represent the earliest phases of developmentembryonic stem cells and epiblast stem cells, first described in research by Tesar in 2007. "These two stem cell types give us unprecedented access to the earliest stages of mammalian development," said Daniel Factor, graduate student in the Tesar lab and co-first author of the study.

Olivia Corradin, graduate student in the Scacheri lab and co-first author, agrees. "Stem cells are touted for their promise to make replacement tissues for regenerative medicine," she said. "But first, we have to understand precisely how these cells function to create diverse tissues."

Enhancers are sections of DNA that control the expression of nearby genes. By comparing these two closely related types of pluripotent stem cells (embryonic and epiblast), Corradin and Factor identified a new class of enhancers, which they refer to as seed enhancers. Unlike most enhancers, which are only active in specific times or places in the body, seed enhancers play roles from before birth to adulthood.

They are present, but dormant, in the early mouse embryonic stem cell population. In the more developed mouse epiblast stem cell population, they become the primary enhancers of their associated genes. As the cells mature into functional adult tissues, the seed enhancers grow into super enhancers. Super enhancers are large regions that contain many enhancers and control the most important genes in each cell type.

"These seed enhancers have wide-ranging potential to impact the understanding of development and disease," said Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa & Patricia Shiverick and Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology and Director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. "In the stem cell field, this understanding should rapidly enhance the ability to generate clinically useful cell types for stem cell-based regenerative medicine."

Read more from the original source:
Stem cells hold keys to body's plan

GOLTRY, Okla. Armed with stem cells, a Goltry area woman will be heading to Milwaukee next week to join in her brothers cancer fight.

Jeni Sumner was the only match among family members tested to donate stem cells to her younger brother, Ed Dee.

To me, Ive been given a gift. I know everybodys congratulating me and saying its a wonderful thing, and not taking it away from that, but I think Ive been given just a tremendous gift, Sumner said.

Along with helping her brother, Sumner is trying to encourage others to join the bone marrow donor registry.

I think a lot of people are afraid to join because they might get called, because they dont know what its like to be a donor, she said. I want more people to become aware of what its actually like to be a donor.

Sumner set up a Facebook page It Doesnt Hurt - To Save a Life to chronicle everything she will go through, as a donor, during the procedure.

Its an unknown for me, but its nothing compared to what my brothers going through, she said. I know the feeling that I got when I got the call from the doctor saying that I was his donor. The relief and the joy that I felt that our family doesnt have to look anymore. If anything happens, were covered because we have a donor, we have a match. The feeling that I got was incredible, she said.

Dee, of Milwaukee, Wis., was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia last year. Sumner said he went into remission last October.

Unfortunately, the cancer came back. This type of leukemia is a very dangerous and aggressive form. He, every couple of weeks, would go in for a blood test and this March he was informed that his leukemia had come back, she said. His doctors feel that a stem cell transplant would be the best for him, at this time.

Following the return of the cancer, Dee went through five days of rigorous chemotherapy to put him back into remission. He recently finished a lower dose session of chemo, Sumner said.

See the original post here:
Using stem cells, woman joins brothers cancer fight