PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Apr-2014

Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers report they can generate human motor neurons from stem cells much more quickly and efficiently than previous methods allowed. The finding, described in Nature Communications, will aid efforts to model human motor neuron development, and to understand and treat spinal cord injuries and motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The new method involves adding critical signaling molecules to precursor cells a few days earlier than previous methods specified. This increases the proportion of healthy motor neurons derived from stem cells (from 30 to 70 percent) and cuts in half the time required to do so.

"We would argue that whatever happens in the human body is going to be quite efficient, quite rapid," said University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor Fei Wang, who led the study with visiting scholar Qiuhao Qu and materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng. "Previous approaches took 40 to 50 days, and then the efficiency was very low 20 to 30 percent. So it's unlikely that those methods recreate human motor neuron development."

Qu's method produced a much larger population of mature, functional motor neurons in 20 days.

The new approach will allow scientists to induce mature human motor neuron development in cell culture, and to identify the factors that are vital to that process, Wang said.

Stem cells are unique in that they can adopt the shape and function of a variety of cell types. Generating neurons from stem cells (either embryonic stem cells or those "induced" to revert back to an embryo-like state) requires adding signaling molecules to the cells at critical moments in their development.

Wang and other colleagues previously discovered a molecule (called compound C) that converts stem cells into "neural progenitor cells," an early stage in the cells' development into neurons. But further coaxing these cells to become motor neurons presented unusual challenges.

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Team finds a better way to grow motor neurons from stem cells

Hip/low back arthritis; 1.5yrs later, Sandra #39;s results from stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Hip/low back arthritis; 1.5yrs later, Sandra #39;s results from stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Hip/low back arthritis; 1.5yrs later, Sandra's results from stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

The review retrospectively evaluates and correlates the different approaches employed in cardiac regeneration over the past decade and underscores the recent advances in the purification and lineage specification of stem cells.

The review points to the safety and feasibility of cell-based therapy as worldwide, thousands of patients to date have been treated using autologous approaches. The authors state that the main factors limiting adoption of cell therapies comprise the poor definition of cell types used, diversity in cell handling procedures and functional variability intrinsic to autologously-derived cells.

The outcomes of the various trials analyzed in the review suggest that cardiac-progenitors confer therapeutic benefit. Cardiac progenitors could be either derived from the heart or be cardiac lineagespecified, the latter a method used to generate C-Cure. Cardiac lineage-specified cells are guided ex vivo to differentiate into cardioreparative cells.

In the C-Cure trial, heart failure patients were treated with C-Cure which consists of cardiac progenitor (cardiopoietic) cells. The findings of the study indicate that the use of cardiac progenitor cells (CP-hMSC) is feasible and safe and documents a statistically significant improvement of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction, a measure of heart function, versus baseline compared to no change for the control group who were treated with standard of care. Based on these results, C-Cure is being tested in a Phase III study in Europe and Israel (CHART-1) and has been authorized by the FDA to be tested in the U.S (CHART-2). These phase III therapeutic studies highlight advances in regenerative science.

Dr Christian Homsy, CEO of Cardio3 BioSciences, comments: Being recognized in this review published in Nature Reviews Cardiology highlights Cardio3 BioSciences technology and leadership in bringing new therapeutic options to patients. By choosing the route of lineage specification, we once again demonstrate that we are at the forefront of the cardiac regenerative medicine industry.

1Behfar, A. et al. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 11, 232246 (2014) doi:10.1038/nrcardio.2014.9 Published online 04 March 2014

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About Cardio3 BioSciences

Cardio3BioSciences is a Belgian leading biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of regenerative and protective therapies for the treatment of cardiac diseases. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in the Walloon region of Belgium. Cardio3BioSciences leverages research collaborations in the US and in Europe with Mayo Clinic and the Cardiovascular Centre Aalst, Belgium.

The Companys lead product candidate C-Cure is an innovative pharmaceutical product that is being developed for heart failure indication. C-Cure consists of a patients own cells that are harvested from the patients bone marrow and engineered to become new heart muscle cells that behave identically to those lost to heart disease. This process is known as Cardiopoiesis.

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Cardio3 BioSciences Cell Therapy Approach for Cardiac Repair Recognized in Nature Reviews Cardiology

The trials involve injecting adult stem cells derived from adipose tissue or fat into cartilage to stimulate its regeneration

Researchers in Galway predict that stem cells could be used to treat osteoarthritis within five years, following successful initial clinical trials.

The trials involve injecting adult stem cells derived from adipose tissue or fat into cartilage to stimulate its regeneration.

Osteoarthritis affects some 70 million people across the EU, and current treatment is limited to surgery or pain management.

Some 400,000 people in Ireland are affected by this most common form of human arthritis, which is characterised by the often very painful degeneration of cartilage in joints.

Successful trial NUI Galway (NUIG) scientists, who are part of a 9 million EU-funded project, have just finished the successful phase one clinical trial.

Prof Frank Barry, scientific director of NUIGs Regenerative Medicine Institute (Remedi), yesterday said the positive early results indicate a treatment was in sight.

From the clinical trials conducted so far, we have seen the first signs of finding a cure for this truly incapacitating disease which affects so many, Prof Barry said. Using the patients own stem cells we have been able to treat their diseased joints, and relieve their suffering and burden of pain.

Whilst we are still in the early stages of clinical trials, the results so far are extremely positive such that the use of stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis could become a reality for patients within the next five years, he said.

Adipose stem cells Stem cells can be harvested in large quantities from adipose tissue or fat, with minimally invasive surgery. These cells have emerged in recent years as a good alternative to stem cells derived from bone marrow, Prof Barry notes.

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Stem cell trials on tackling osteoarthritis may lead to treatment in five years

Researchers have grown embryonic-like stem cells from patients with bipolar disorder and transformed them into brain cells that are already answering questions about the condition.

The cells, which carry the precisely tailored genetic instructions from the patients own cells, behave differently than cells taken from people without the disorder, the researchers report.

Already, we see that cells from people with bipolar disorder are different in how often they express certain genes, how they differentiate into neurons, how they communicate, and how they respond to lithium," Sue O'Shea, a stem cell specialist at the University of Michigan who led the study, said in a statement.

The work, described in the journal Translational Psychiatry, helps fulfill one of the big promises of stem cells research using a patients own cells to study his or her disease.

Mental illness is especially hard to study. Getting into a living persons brain is almost impossible, and scientists cant deliberately cause it in people in order to study it.

Creating animals such as mice with what looks like human mental illness is imprecise at best.

The University of Michigan team turned instead to what are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. These are ordinary skin cells taken from a patient and tricked into turning back into the state of a just-conceived embryo.

These cells, grown from skin cells taken from people with bipolar disorder, arose from stem cells and were coaxed to become neural progenitor cells -- the kind that can become any sort of nervous system cell. The research showed differences in cell behavior compared with cells grown from people without bipolar disorder.

They are pluripotent, meaning they can become any type of cell there is. In this case, the Michigan team redirected the cells to become neurons the cells that make up much of the brain. "This gives us a model that we can use to examine how cells behave as they develop into neurons, OShea said.

Bipolar disorder, once called manic-depression, is very common, affecting an estimated 3 percent of the population globally. It runs in families, suggesting a strong genetic cause, and is marked by mood swings from depression to feelings of euphoria and creativity thats considered the manic phase.

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Stem Cells Shed Light on Bipolar Disorder

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Mar-2014

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research

Studies have shown that the differentiation rate of grafted bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into mature neuron-like cells is very low. Therefore, it is very important to establish an effcient and stable induction protocol to promote the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into neuron-like cells in vitro and elucidate the mechanisms underlying differentiation for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. Jie Du and colleagues from Sichuan University in China found that glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor/bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have a higher rate of induction into neuron-like cells, and this enhanced differentiation into neuron-like cells may be associated with up-regulated expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, nerve growth factor and growth-associated protein-43. The researchers provide experimental support for the therapeutic use of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor gene-modified bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in transplantation strategies for central nervous system diseases. The relevant paper has been published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 1, 2014).

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Article: " Transfection of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor gene promotes neuronal differentiation," by Jie Du1, 2, Xiaoqing Gao3, Li Deng3, Nengbin Chang2, Huailin Xiong2, Yu Zheng1 (1 Department of Physiology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China; 2 Department of Anatomy, Luzhou Medical College, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China; 3 Research Center for Preclinical Medicine, Luzhou Medical College, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China)

Du J, Gao XQ, Deng L, Chang NB, Xiong HL, Zheng Y. Transfection of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor gene promotes neuronal differentiation. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(1):33-40.

Contact:

Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research http://www.nrronline.org/

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GDNF transfection promotes neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Arthritic shoulders; Len discusses his results 9 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Arthritic shoulders; Len discusses his results 9 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Arthritic shoulders; Len discusses his results 9 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Mar-2014

Contact: Charles Casey charles.casey@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9048 University of California - Davis Health System

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) For the first time, scientists have succeeded in coaxing laboratory cultures of human stem cells to develop into the specialized, unique cells needed to repair a patient's defective or diseased bladder.

The breakthrough, developed at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures and published today in the scientific journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine, is significant because it provides a pathway to regenerate replacement bladder tissue for patients whose bladders are too small or do not function properly, such as children with spina bifida and adults with spinal cord injuries or bladder cancer.

"Our goal is to use human stem cells to regenerate tissue in the lab that can be transplanted into patients to augment or replace their malfunctioning bladders," said Eric Kurzrock, professor and chief of the division of pediatric urologic surgery at UC Davis Children's Hospital and lead scientist of the study, which is titled "Induction of Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Urothelium."

To develop the bladder cells, Kurzrock and his UC Davis colleagues investigated two categories of human stem cells. In their key experiments, they used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which were derived from lab cultures of human skin cells and umbilical blood cells that had been genetically reprogrammed to convert to an embryonic stem cell-like state.

If additional research demonstrates that grafts of bladder tissue grown from human stem cells will be safe and effective for patient care, Kurzrock said that the source of the grafts would be iPS cells derived from a patient's own skin or umbilical cord blood cells. This type of tissue would be optimal, he said, because it lowers the risk of immunological rejection that typifies most transplants.

In their investigation, Kurzrock and his colleagues developed a protocol to prod the pluripotent cells into becoming bladder cells. Their procedure was efficient and, most importantly, the cells proliferated over a long period of time a critical element in any tissue engineering application.

"What's exciting about this discovery is that it also opens up an array of opportunities using pluripotent cells," said Jan Nolta, professor and director of the UC Davis Stem Cell program and a co-author on the new study. "When we can reliably direct and differentiate pluripotent stem cells, we have more options to develop new and effective regenerative medicine therapies. The protocols we used to create bladder tissue also provide insight into other types of tissue regeneration."

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Stem cell findings may offer answers for some bladder defects and disease

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Mar-2014

Contact: Matthew Inlay minlay@uci.edu 949-824-8226 University of California - Irvine

Irvine, Calif., March 20, 2014 Hematopoietic stem cells are now routinely used to treat patients with cancers and other disorders of the blood and immune systems, but researchers knew little about the progenitor cells that give rise to them during embryonic development.

In a study published April 8 in Stem Cell Reports, Matthew Inlay of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center and Stanford University colleagues created novel cell assays that identified the earliest arising HSC precursors based on their ability to generate all major blood cell types (red blood cells, platelets and immune cells).

This discovery of very early differentiating blood cells, Inlay said, may be very beneficial for the creation of HSC lines for clinical treatments.

"The hope is that by defining a set of markers that will allow us to make purer, cleaner populations of these precursor cells, we'll be able to reveal the key molecular events that lead to the emergence of the first HSCs in development. This could give us a step-by-step guide for creating these cells in a dish from pluripotent stem cell lines" added Inlay, who is an assistant professor of molecular biology & biochemistry at UC Irvine and conducted the study while a postdoctoral researcher in the Irving Weissman lab in the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University.

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The work was performed in collaboration with Thomas Serwold, now an assistant professor in the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School.

The research reported in this article was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants 5 T32 AI07290, R01HL058770, R01CA86085 and U01HL09999), the California Institute for Stem Cell Research (grants T1-00001, RT2-02060 to I.L.W.), the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Siebel Stem Cell Institute, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, and the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research.

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Stem cell study finds source of earliest blood cells during development

Durham, NC (PRWEB) March 19, 2014

In a study just published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, a group of researchers have discovered what appears to be an easy way to collect large quantities of viable stem cells that can be banked for future regenerative medicine purposes all from the simple prick of a finger.

We show that a single drop of blood from a finger-prick sample is sufficient for performing cellular reprogramming, DNA sequencing and blood typing in parallel. Our strategy has the potential of facilitating the development of large-scale human iPSC banking worldwide, said Jonathan Yuin-Han Loh, Ph.D., of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. He is principal investigator on the study that also included scientists from other Singapore facilities as well as those in the United States and Great Britain.

The medical world in general is excited about the potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for studying diseases and for therapeutic regenerative medicine. Stem cells harvested from bone marrow and cord blood are highly amenable to reprogramming.

Some methods can result in negative side effects, and then you have bone-marrow harvesting, which is invasive, while cord blood is limited to individuals who have deposited their samples at birth, Dr. Loh explained. The large amount of blood needed to collect enough cells for reprogramming has also deterred many potential donors.

"We gradually reduced the starting volume of blood (collected using a needle) and confirmed that reprogramming can be achieved with as little as .25 milliliters, Hong-kee Tan, lead author on the study and a research officer in the Loh lab reported.

This then made the team wonder whether a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach to blood collection might work too.

To test this idea, we asked donors to prick their own fingers in a normal room environment and collect a single drop of blood sample into a tube, Tan said. The tube was placed on ice and delivered to the lab for reprogramming.

The cells were treated with a buffer at 12-, 24- or 48-hour increments and observed under the microscope for viability and signs of contamination. After 12 days of expansion in medium, the cells appeared healthy and were actively dividing. The team next tested what happened when they reprogrammed the cells and succeeded in forcing them to become mesodermal, endodermal and neural cells. They were even able to induce some into giving rise to rhythmically beating cardiomyocytes.

Interestingly, we did not observe any noticeable reduction in reprogramming efficiency between the freshly collected and the DIY finger-prick samples, Dr. Loh said. In summary, we derived healthy iPSCs from tiny volumes of venipuncture and a single drop finger-prick blood samples. We also report a high reprogramming yield of 100 to 600 colonies per milliliter of blood.

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DIY Finger Prick Yields Ample Stem Cells for Banking

Introducing the spinal cord

The spinal cord is the delicate tissue encased in and protected by the hard vertebrae of the spinal column. Together the brain and spinal cord form the bodys central nervous system.

The spinal cord is made up of millions of nerve cells that carry signals to and from the brain and out into other parts of the body. The information that allows us to sit, run, go to the toilet and breathe travels along the spinal cord.

The main cell type found in the spinal cord, the neuron, conveys information up and down the spinal cord in the form of electrical signals. An axon(also known as a nerve fibre) is a long, slender projection of a neuron that conducts these signals away from the neuron's cell body. Each neuron has only one axon, and it can be as long as the entire spinal cord, up to 45cm in an adult human.

The axons that carry messages down the spinal cord (from the brain) are called motor axons. They control the muscles of internal organs (such as heart, stomach, intestines) and those of the legs and arms. They also help regulate blood pressure, body temperature, and the bodys response to stress.

The axons that travel up the cord (to the brain) carry sensory information from the skin, joints and muscles (touch, pain, temperature) and from internal organs (such as heart and lungs). These are the sensory axons.

Neurons in the spinal cord also need the support of other cell types. The oligodendrocyte, for example, forms structures that wrap around and insulate the axon. Called myelin, this insulating material helps the electrical impulse to flow quickly and efficiently down the axon.

A spinal cord injury affects both neurons and the myelin sheath that insulates axonsWhen the spinal cord is injured, the initial trauma causes cell damage and destruction, and triggers a cascade of eventsthat spread around the injury site affecting a number of different types of cells. Axons are crushed and torn, and oligodendrocytes, the nerve cells that make up the insulating myelin sheath around axons, begin to die. Exposed axons degenerate, the connection between neurons is disrupted and the flow of information between the brain and the spinal cord is blocked.

The spine has different sections. The level of paralysis depends on the location of the injury.

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Spinal cord injuries: how could stem cells help? | Europe ...

5 hours ago Schematic illustrating how mechanical properties of substrates affect where YAP/TAZ protein localization in cardiac stem cells (left) and how this affects stem cell development and function (right).

Proteins associated with the regulation of organ size and shape have been found to respond to the mechanics of the microenvironment in ways that specifically affect the decision of adult cardiac stem cells to generate muscular or vascular cells.

Cell development for specific functionsso-called cell differentiationis crucial for maintaining healthy tissue and organs. Two proteins in particularthe Yes-associated protein (YAP) and WW domain-containing transcription regulator protein 1 (WWTR1 or TAZ)have been linked with control of cell differentiation in the tissues of the lymphatic, circulatory, intestinal and neural systems, as well as regulating embryonic stem cell renewal. An international collaboration of researchers has now identified that changes in the elasticity and nanotopography of the cellular environment of these proteins can affect how heart stem cells differentiate with implications for the onset of heart diseases.

Researchers at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) collaborated with researchers in Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic in the study.

They engineered YAP and TAZ proteins that expressed green fluorescent protein so that their location within the cell could be tracked. They then prepared cell substrates from smart biomaterials displaying dynamic control of elasticity and nanostructure with temperature. "Our data provide the first evidence for YAP/TAZ shuttling activity between the nucleus and the cytoplasm being promptly activated in response to dynamic modifications in substrate stiffness or nanostructure," explain the researchers.

Observations of gene expression highlighted the key role of YAP/TAZ proteins in cell differentiation. In further investigations on the effect of substrate stiffness they also found that cell differentiation was most efficient for substrates displaying stiffness similar to that found in the heart.

The authors suggest that understanding the effects of microenvironment nanostructure and mechanics on how these proteins affect cell differentiation could be used to aid processes that maintain a healthy heart. They conclude, "These proteins are indicated as potential targets to control cardiac progenitor cell fate by materials design."

Explore further: Study identifies gene important to breast development and breast cancer

More information: Hippo pathway effectors control cardiac progenitor cell fate by acting as dynamic sensors of substrate mechanics and nanostructure. Diogo Mosqueira, et al. 2014 ACS Nano; DOI: 10.1021/nn4058984

A new study in Cell Reports identifies a gene important to breast development and breast cancer, providing a potential new target for drug therapies to treat aggressive types of breast cancer.

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Heart cells respond to stiff environments

Boca Raton, Florida (PRWEB) March 12, 2014

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida, offers a free public seminar on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief, and, Dr. Nia Smyrniotis, Medical Director. The next upcoming seminar will be held on March 16th at the Comfort Suites Weston, 2201 N. Commerce Parkway, Weston, Florida 33326, at 2pm.

Regenerative Medicine: Our Procedure The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center uses Autologous Adult Adipose Stem Cells to provide care for patients suffering from chronic conditions that may benefit from adult stem cell-based regenerative medicine.

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center follows the regenerative medicine procedures developed by the California Stem Cell Treatment Centers (CSCTC) and Cell Surgical Network (CSN) which involves the initial screening, examination and evaluation of every potential candidate for stem cell investigational therapy by one of our physicians. Once a patient is deemed to be an appropriate candidate, the procedure itself is performed by our Surgeon-in-Chief, who is assisted by a team of experienced surgical team members and surgical technicians. The entire process from start to finish takes less than two hours. It is relatively painless, and recovery time is minimal.

In recent times, the bone marrow has been a source for stem cells. Taking bone marrow, however, is a painful procedure. Fat, however, contains many times more stem cells than bone marrow and is much easier and safer to harvest.

For many disease types such as cardiac pathology, adipose derived cells appear to be showing superiority to bone marrow derived cells. This may be related to the well documented fact that chronic disease causes bone marrow suppression. Fat derived cells are a natural choice for our investigational work considering their easy and rapid availability in extremely high numbers.

With our current technology, we can harvest your own fat cells, digest the fat cells and separate out the stem cells. The most significant advantage of using your fat as a source for the stem cells, is that the procedure can be done in the office in only a few hours, as the stem cells can be ready for injection after only 60 minutes of processing with our state of the art equipment. Your stem cells do NOT need to be sent out for processing and there is no need for you to travel outside of the U.S. to have them injected.

Indeed, adipose tissue is an abundant source of mesenchymal stem cells, which have shown promise in the field of regenerative medicine. Furthermore, these cells can be readily harvested in large numbers with low donor-site morbidity. During the past decade, numerous studies have provided pre-clinical data on the safety and efficacy of adipose-derived stem cells, supporting the use of these cells in clinical applications. Various clinical trials have shown the regenerative capability of adipose-derived stem cells in numerous fields of medicine. In addition, a great deal of knowledge concerning the harvesting, characterization, and culture of adipose-derived stem cells has been reported.

Our current areas of study include: Heart Failure, Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and orthopedic joint injections. . The investigational protocols utilized by the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Research Protections; and the study is registered with http://www.Clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information contact: Miami(at)MiamiStemCellsUSA(dot)com or visit our website: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

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Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: What The Stem Cell Procedure Entails and An Invitation To MSCTC Public Seminar; Meet ...

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

11-Mar-2014

Contact: Karen Richardson krchrdsn@wakehealth.edu 336-716-4453 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. March 11, 2014 Discovering where a common virus hides in the body has been a long-term quest for scientists. Up to 80 percent of adults harbor the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which can cause severe illness and death in people with weakened immune systems.

Now, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine report that stem cells that encircle blood vessels can be a hiding place, suggesting a potential treatment target.

In the American Journal of Transplantation (online ahead of print), senior scientist Graca Almeida-Porada, M.D., Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, and colleagues report that perivascular stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and surround blood vessels in the body's organs, are a reservoir of HCMV.

The virus, which is part of the herpes family, is unnoticed in healthy people. Half to 80 percent of all adults in the U.S. are infected with HCMV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In people with weakened immune systems, including those with HIV, undergoing chemotherapy, or who are organ or bone marrow transplant recipients, the virus can become re-activated.

Once re-activated, HCMV can cause a host of problems from pneumonia to inflammation of the liver and brain that are associated with organ rejection and death.

"There are anti-viral medications designed to prevent HCMV from re-activating, but HVMC infection remains one of the major complications after both organ and bone marrow transplants," said Almeida-Porada. "The question scientists have been asking for years is, 'Where does the virus hide when it is latent?' Maybe if we knew, we could target it."

Scientists have previously shown that one hiding place is hematopoietic stem cells, which give rise to blood cells. "There has been research on and off looking for the other hiding places," said Almeida-Porada. "Identifying the cells that can harbor the virus and are responsible for its re-activation could potentially lead to development of novel targeted therapies."

Originally posted here:
Finding hiding place of virus could lead to new treatments

Harvard scientists have made a breakthrough in studying early onset Alzheimers Disease by converting patients skin cells into neurons in the hopes of facilitating a better understanding of the disease and creation of drug therapies.

The study, led by Tracy Young-Pearse, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute affiliate and member of Brigham and Womens hospital, concluded what had previously only been observed in micethat the early onset of Alzheimers is directly correlated to higher levels of amyloid beta protein 42. Most people generally produce amyloid beta with only 40 amino acids, but in early onset of the disease, amyloid beta protein 42, which has two extra amino acids, was more prevalent.

As a form of progressive dementia that affects more than 26 million people worldwide, early onset AD usually brings about cognitive decline and memory loss in individuals in their 30s to 50s while the more common late onset AD tends to affect individuals in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

Researchers also concluded that the neurons had higher amounts of tau protein, a classic signal of Alzheimers presence.

The recent findings could lead to the development of potential therapies for this common disease.

The ability to direct stem cells generated from patients to become brain cells allows us with an unprecedented opportunity to study, on a large scale, living patient-derived brain cells in a dish, Young-Pearse said. Not only can we use these to better understand the mechanisms underlying the disease, but we also can use these to test novel therapeutic strategies in the cell types involved in the disease.

Moreover, this research serves as a proof-of-concept that stem cells can be used to model diseases and discover therapies.

The field is highly collaborative, working together to[make] different types of neurons that are affected in various neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's, ALS, Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease, Young-Pearse said.

Staff writer Arjun S. Byju can be reached at arjun.byju@thecrimson.com.

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Researchers Find Novel Methods to Study Alzheimer's

14 hours ago This is Kevin Kit Parker, the Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Applied Science and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Harvard Stem Cell Institute Principal Faculty member, has identified standards making it possible to quantitatively judge and compare commercially available stem cell lines. Credit: Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

After more than a decade of incremental and paradigm shifting, advances in stem cell biology, almost anyone with a basic understanding of life sciences knows that stem cells are the basic form of cell from which all specialized cells, and eventually organs and body parts, derive.

But what makes a "good" stem cell, one that can reliably be used in drug development, and for disease study? Researchers have made enormous strides in understanding the process of cellular reprogramming, and how and why stem cells commit to becoming various types of adult cells. But until now, there have been no standards, no criteria, by which to test these ubiquitous cells for their ability to faithfully adopt characteristics that make them suitable substitutes for patients for drug testing. And the need for such quality control standards becomes ever more critical as industry looks toward manufacturing products and treatments using stem cells.

Now a research team lead by Kevin Kit Parker, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Principal Faculty member has identified a set of 64 crucial parameters from more than 1,000 by which to judge stem cell-derived cardiac myocytes, making it possible for perhaps the first time for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to quantitatively judge and compare the value of the countless commercially available lines of stem cells.

"We have an entire industry without a single quality control standard," said Parker, the Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Core Member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

HSCI Co-director Doug Melton, who also is co-chair of Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, called the standard-setting study "very important. This addresses a critical issue," Melton said. "It provides a standardized method to test whether differentiated cells, produced from stem cells, have the properties needed to function. This approach provides a standard for the field to move toward reproducible tests for cell function, an important precursor to getting cells into patients or using them for drug screening."

Parker said that starting in 2009, he and Sean P. Sheehy, a graduate student in Parker's lab and the first author on a paper just given early on-line release by the journal Stem Cell Reports, "visited a lot of these companies (commercially producing stem cells), and I'd never seen a dedicated quality control department, never saw a separate effort for quality control." Parker explained many companies seemed to assume that it was sufficient simply to produce beating cardiac cells from stem cells, without asking any deeper questions about their functions and quality.

"We put out a call to different companies in 2010 asking for cells to start testing," Parker says, "some we got were so bad we couldn't even get a baseline curve on them; we couldn't even do a calibration on them."

Brock Reeve, Executive Director of HSCI, noted that "this kind of work is as essential for HSCI to be leading in as regenerative biology and medicine, because the faster we can help develop reliable, reproducible standards against which cells can be tested, the faster drugs can be moved into the clinic and the manufacturing process."

The quality of available human stem cells varied so widely, even within a given batch, that the only way to conduct a scientifically accurate study, and establish standards, "was to use mouse stem cells," Parker said, explaining that his group was given mouse cardiac progenitor cells by the company Axiogenesis.

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Establishing standards where none exist: Researchers define 'good' stem cells

Inhibition of a prostaglandin with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has been found to cause stem cells to leave marrow, where they could be harvested for patients with blood disorders

Tino Soriano/National Geographic Society/Corbis

Aspirin-like drugs could improve the success of stem-cell transplants for patients with blood or bone-marrow disorders, a study suggests. The compounds coax stem cells from bone marrow into the bloodstream where they can be harvested for use in transplantation and they do so with fewer side effects than drugs now in use.

For patients with blood disorders such as leukemia, multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkins lymphoma, transplantation of haematopoietic stem cells precursor cells that reside in the bone marrow and give rise to all types of blood cell can be an effective treatment.

Previous work has shown that prostaglandin E2, or PGE2, a lipid known to regulate multiple bodily reactions including pain, fever and inflammation, also has a role in keeping stem cells in the bone marrow. In the latest study, researchers show that in mice, humans and baboons, inhibition of PGE2 with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) causes stem cells to leave the bone marrow.

Releasing the stem cells The team gave baboons and humans an NSAID called meloxicam. They saw a subsequent increase in the numbers of haematopoietic stem cells in the bloodstream.

The researchers think that the departure of stem cells is caused by the disturbance of a group of bone-forming cells called osteoblasts. These cells secrete a protein called osteopontin that hooks the stem cells to the bone marrow. Inhibiting PGE2 would disrupt the production of osteopontin.

At present, doctors use a drug called filgrastim to mobilize haematopoietic stem cells in donors or in patients undergoing autotransplantation (in which they receive their own stem cells). In patients with multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkins lymphoma, however, and in some donors, stem cells dont mobilize well with filgrastim and other drugs in its class. Using NSAIDs such as meloxicam could enhance filgrastims efficacy, says lead author Louis Pelus of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. The study appears in Nature.

Meloxicam also has comparatively few side effects, says Pelus. He and his colleagues found that other NSAIDs, including aspirin and ibuprofen, can also mobilize haematopoietic stem cells, but these drugs can cause gastrointestinal upset in patients. PGE2 controls the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, and when you block that youve reduced your ability to control acid secretion. Meloxicam doesnt do that as badly as many of the other [drugs] do, he says.

For Charles Craddock, director of the blood and marrow transplant unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK, the results might also hold clues about how to mediate the tricky process of getting cells back to the bone marrow once transplanted. If youre beginning to understand what mediates cells moving out, you might be able to understand what mediates cells moving in. If you can make bone marrow more sticky, when you put cells back, you might be able to keep them in.

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Researchers in London, UK, are investigating the effectiveness of stem cell therapies for facial reconstruction.

A joint team, from London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and University College London's Institute of Child Health, has published the findings of their research in the journal Nanomedicine.

This follows the recent news that another UK-based team, of The London Chest Hospital, has begun the largest ever trial of adult stem cells in heart attack patients.

Great Ormond Street has a proven track record in facial reconstruction, particularly with regard to treating children with a missing or malformed ear - a condition called microtia. This kind of reconstructive surgery involves taking cartilage from the patient's ribs to craft a "scaffold" for an ear, which is then implanted beneath the skin.

Despite successes with this method, the researchers thought the treatment may be improved by bringing stem cells into the process.

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Reconstructing faces using human stem cells from fat

Scientists have managed to use body fat and turned it into cartilage It is now hoped technique could help patients born with microtia At the moment, doctors take cartilage from other parts of the body

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:43 EST, 2 March 2014 | UPDATED: 06:46 EST, 2 March 2014

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British scientists are aiming to grow ears and noses in a laboratory to transplant then into humans.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London have managed to use abdominal body fat and turn it into cartilage.

It is now hoped that the technique could help patients who have been born with microtia, which means the ear fails to develop properly, or who have been in an accident.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital are aiming to grow ears and noses in a laboratory to transplant then into humans

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Ears and noses to be grown in lab from stem cells for human transplants thanks to revolutionary technique

The stem cell therapy delivering incredible results to severe MS sufferers
BEDRIDDEN AND WHEELCHAIR-BOUND TO WALKING - the extraordinary cutting edge treatment transforming lives. Telecast date: Wednesday 26 February 2014.

By: Channel Seven Perth

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The stem cell therapy delivering incredible results to severe MS sufferers - Video