KIAH

12:01 p.m. CDT, May 30, 2012

How do you mend a broken heart? Thanks to scientists in Israel, we might soon have an answer.

Dr. Lior Gepstein and his team at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology managed to take skin cells from ailing heart patients and by adding three genes and valproic acid (used to treat epilepsy), they turned the cells into beating heart tissue.

And it was not just any old heart cells, but, according to Gepstein, "heart cells that are healthy, that are young and resemble heart cells at the day that the patient was born."

The researchers put the new beating heart tissue into rat hearts and saw it was not rejected, but seemed to establish connections with the rodents' tissue.

Stem cell experts praised the research as promising but urged people not to expect to be stopping by the clinic for a fresh heart any time soon. Gepstein's researchers say clinical trials should begin within the next 10 years.

See the rest here:
Skin cells turned into beating heart cells

For Jonathan Provost, choosing his Eagle Scout project was an easy choice. Jonathan's cousin, Matthew Zieman, passed away from Acute Lymphatic Leukemia in February at the age of 24. Because of this, Jonathan's Eagle Scout project is a bone marrow donor registry drive.

"Matt was at his apartment last year and noticed a few bumps on the back of his neck," Jonathan said. "He just ignored them for a few weeks and then he told one of his friends, and she said to get it checked out. So he went by the hospital, they did a few tests, and they found out it was leukemia."

Jonathan hopes the drive will find a number of donors who can help current cancer patients, due to the difficulty of finding donor matches. Immediate family members are generally the first place doctors look for bone marrow donors; Matthew's only sibling wasn't a match, however, which made finding a donor more difficult.

The drive will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, at Brad Duren Dentistry, located at 4030 Justin Road, Suite 102, in Flower Mound. The office is past the Chinn Chapel Soccer Complex and across from the Crossroads Bible Church. Jonathan chose the office partly because of its location and partly because of a familiarity.

"It's also off a popular road, and [Brad] told me he'd let me host the donor drive for free," he said. "He's my dentist and my mom works here, too."

The process of becoming a donor is easy. After having a cheek swab done, potential donors merely have to fill out a donor consent form, which will place them in the national bone marrow donor registry. Testing is then done to determine a genetic match between cancer patients and their potential donor. Patients see better results the closer a donor's genetics match his or her own.

If an individual is chosen as a blood donor, he or she will be called to Carter BloodCare to donate blood.

"A lot of people don't know it's really easy to do this -- it's not a complicated process at all," Jonathan said. "They generally don't put a needle in your hip anymore; they normally just take blood and that's it. The process is a lot simpler than it used to be."

Following a successful blood donation, known as peripheral blood stem cell donation, doctors will obtain stem cells from the blood of the donor. Those stem cells will then be given to a cancer patient that's a genetic and blood match in order to stimulate healthy red blood cell production.

If a donor is selected to give a bone marrow donation, he or she will have liquid marrow extracted from the back of the pelvic bone. This type of donation is far less likely, however.

The rest is here:
Flower Mound boy hopes to add bone marrow donors: Jonathan Provost's Eagle Scout project could help save lives

SACRAMENTO California's stem cell agency today approved two grants to UC Davis Health System researchers for their innovative work in regenerative medicine.

Kyriacos A. Athanasiou, distinguished professor of orthopaedic surgery and professor and chair of biomedical engineering, and the Child Family Professor of Engineering at UC Davis, is investigating the use of skin-derived stem cells to heal cartilage injuries and debilitating conditions of the knee such as osteoarthritis.

W. Douglas Boyd, professor of surgery, plans to further refine a novel approach to treating cardiovascular injuries suffered during a heart attack by using stem cells and a tissue-like scaffold to repair cardiac damage.

The pair received individual grants totaling approximately $6.6 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's (CIRM) governing board.

Athanasiou's and Boyd's multi-year grants were among the proposals submitted to CIRM for its third round of Early Translational Awards, which are intended to enable clinical therapies to be developed more rapidly.

"Both of these scientists are conducting exciting research that could have far-reaching implications in health care," said Jan Nolta, director of the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures and the university's stem cell program director. "Dr. Athanasiou is bioengineering new cartilage that could have the same physiological integrity as the cartilage a person is born with. Dr. Boyd is developing a treatment that uses a paper-thin patch embedded with stem cells to harness their regenerative powers to repair damaged heart muscle."

Boyd, who's a pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon, pointed out in his CIRM proposal that heart disease is the nation's number-one cause of death and disability. An estimated 16.3 million Americans over the age of 20 suffer from coronary heart disease, which in 2007 accounted for an estimated 1 in 6 deaths in the U.S. Boyd plans to use bone-marrow derived stem cells -- known as mesenchymal stem cells -- in combination with a bioengineered framework known as an extracellular matrix, to regenerate damaged heart tissue, block heart disease and restore cardiac function, something currently not possible except in cases of a complete and very invasive heart transplant.

An expert in biomedical engineering, Athanasiou is focusing on developing a cellular therapy using stem cells created from an individual's own skin -- known as autologous skin-derived stem cells -- which have shown great promise in animal models. He plans to use the new funding to conduct extensive toxicology and durability tests to determine the technique's long-term safety and efficacy. Such tests are among the many steps needed to advance toward human clinical trials.

Cartilage is the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones in joints, allowing bones to glide over each other and absorbing the shock of movement. Cartilage defects from injuries and lifelong wear and tear can eventually degenerate into osteoarthritis. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and affects an estimated 27 million Americans over the age of 25.

"For anyone suffering from osteoarthritis or other debilitating cartilage conditions, Dr. Athanasiou's goal of using stem cells to regenerate new tissue could have enormous quality-of-life and economic benefits," said Nolta, who is the recipient of a prior translational grant from CIRM to develop potential therapies for Huntington's disease . "Dr. Boyd's work is equally promising because he's using a bioengineered structure to encourage cardiac tissue repair, which could have important benefits in the treatment of heart disease."

See the article here:
State awards stem cell grants to medical researchers

Editor's Choice Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis Article Date: 24 May 2012 - 14:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'Recovery From Multiple Sclerosis By Growth Factor In Stem Cells'

4.7 (10 votes)

4.5 (2 votes)

Animals that were injected with hepatocyte growth factor were noted to have grown new neural cells and lower levels of inflammation. Most significantly, the researchers noted that the protective envelope of myelin, the myelin sheath, which surrounds the core of a nerve fiber and facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses, re-grew and covered lesions that were caused by MS.

Robert H. Miller, professor of neurosciences at the School of Medicine and vice president for research at Case Western Reserve University declared: "The importance of this work is we think we've identified the driver of the recovery."

MS is caused by damage to the myelin sheath, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. The nerve damage is caused by inflammation, which occurs when the body's own immune cells attacks the nervous systems located in areas of the brain, the optic nerve, and spinal cord. This damage can cause an interruption of the nerve signals, which results in loss of balance and coordination, cognitive ability, as well as in other functions and in time, these intermittent losses may become permanent. In 2009, Caplan and Miller discovered that mice with MS injected with human mesenchymal stem cells recovered from the type of damage that was brought on by MS. A clinical trial is currently underway based on their research, whereby patients with MS are injected with their own stems cells.

During this trial, the team decided to first establish whether the presence of stem cells or other cells induce recovery. They injected a total of 11 animals with MS with the medium, in which mesenchymal stem cells that were taken from bone marrow grew, discovering that all animals displayed a rapid reduction in functional deficits. An analysis demonstrated that unless the injected molecules had a certain size or weight, i.e. between 50 and 100 kiloDaltons, the course of the disease remained unchanged.

Other research, as well as the team's own studies, suggested that this was likely to be instigated by the hepatocyte growth factor, which is secreted by mesenchymal stem cells.

The team then injected the animals with either 50 or 100 nanograms of the growth factor on alternate days for a 5-day period and observed a decrease in the level of signaling molecules that promote inflammation, whilst the level of signaling molecules that oppose inflammation increased. The researchers noted a growth of neural cells, whilst nerves that were exposed because of MS were rewrapped with myelin. Recovery was marginally better in those mice that received the 100-nanogram injections compared with those receiving the 50-nanogram injections.

Read more here:
Recovery From Multiple Sclerosis By Growth Factor In Stem Cells

Public release date: 25-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego

Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer's disease.

The awards mark the third round of funding in CIRM's Early Translational Awards program, which supports projects that are in the initial stages of identifying drugs or cell types that could become disease therapies. More than $69 million in awards were announced yesterday, including funding for first-ever collaboratively funded research projects with China and the federal government of Australia.

"With these new awards, the agency now has 52 projects in 33 diseases at varying stages of working toward clinical trials," said Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD and CIRM governing board chair. "Californians should take pride in being at the center of this worldwide research leading toward new cures. These projects represent the best of California stem cell science and the best international experts who, together, will bring new therapies for patients."

The five new UC San Diego awards are:

With a $1.8 million award, Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program, and colleagues will continue their work developing new methods to find and test drug candidates for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently, there is no effective treatment for AD. The researchers screen novel candidates using purified human brain cells made from human reprogrammed stem cells. Already, they have discovered that these human brain cells exhibit a unique biochemical behavior that indicates early development of AD in a dish.

Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Center for Neural Repair at UC San Diego, and colleagues seek to develop more potent stem cell-based treatments for spinal cord injuries. By combining grafts of neural stem cells with scaffolds placed at injury sites, the researchers have reported substantial progress in restoring functional improvement in impaired animal models. The new $4.6 million grant will fund work to identify the optimal human neural stem cells for preclinical development and, in an unprecedented step, test this treatment in appropriate preclinical models of spinal cord injury, providing the strongest validation for human translation.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) is a progressive neurological condition that is currently incurable. Gene Yeo, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues will use a $1.6 million grant to exploit recent discoveries that specific mutations in RNA-binding proteins cause neuronal dysfunction and death. They will use neurons generated from patient cells containing the mutations to identify the unique RNA "signature" of these doomed neurons and screen for drug-like compounds that bypass the mutations to correct the RNA signature to obtain healthy neurons.

Eric David Adler, MD, an associate clinical professor of medicine and cardiologist, studies heart failure, including the use of stem cells to treat it. His $1.7 million award will fund research into Danon disease, a type of inherited heart failure that frequently kills patients by their 20s. Adler and colleagues will turn stem cells created from skin cells of patients with Danon disease into heart cells, then screen hundreds of thousands of drug candidates for beneficial effects. The most promising drugs will subsequently be tested on mice with a genetic defect similar to Danon disease, with the ultimate goal of identifying a suitable candidate for human clinical trials. The research may have broader applications for other conditions with similar pathogenesis, such as cancer and Parkinson's disease.

More:
UC San Diego researchers receive new CIRM funding

A growth factor isolated from human stem cells shows promising results in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have become a popular potential therapy for numerous autoimmune and neurological disorders. But while these bone marrow-derived stem cells have been studied in great detail in the dish, scientists know little about how they modulate the immune system and promote tissue repair in living organisms.

Now, one research team has uncovered a molecular mechanism by which hMSCs promote recovery in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

According to research, published online Sunday (May 20) in Nature Neuroscience, a growth factor produced by hMSCs fights MS in two ways: blocking a destructive autoimmune response and repairing neuronal damage. The finding could help advance ongoing clinical trials testing hMSCs as a therapy for MS.

The researchers have identified a unique factor that has surprisingly potent activity mediating neuron repair, said Jacques Galipeau, a cell therapy researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who was not involved in the research. The magnitude of the effect on a mouse model of MS is a big deal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks myelin sheaths that surround and protect nerve cells. The attack leaves nerves exposed and unable to send signals to the brain and back, resulting in the loss of motor skills, coordination, vision, and cognitive abilities. There is no cure for MS, and most current therapies work to simply suppress the immune system, preventing further neuronal damage. None have demonstrated an ability to also repair damaged myelin and promote recovery.

In 2009, Robert Miller and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, demonstrated that hMSCs dramatically reversed the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in a mouse model of the disorder. The animals got better, recalled Miller. The team hypothesized that the stem cells suppress the immune response and promote remyelination.

But Miller wanted to know exactly what the cells were doing. To find out, his team isolated the medium on which the hMSCs were grown to determine if the cells or something they secreted was responsible for the observed recovery. The medium alone was enough to induce recovery in mice, pointing to the latter.

To find out exactly which molecule or molecules in the medium were responsible, the researchers separated the proteins in the fluid based on the molecular weight and injected each isolate into mice exhibiting symptoms of MS. The mid-weight solution, of proteins with masses between 50 and 100 kilodaltons (kDa), caused recovery. That eliminated a huge number of potential candidates, said Miller.

The researchers then narrowed the field again with a literature search for a molecule that fit their criteria: secreted by hMSCs, 50-100 kDa in size, and involved in tissue repair. They identified hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a cytokine made by mesenchymal cells that has been shown to promote tissue regeneration and cell survival in numerous experiments. Sure enough, HGF alone was enough to promote recovery in the MS mouse models, and blocking the receptor for HGF in those mice blocked recovery. The team also demonstrated that HGF suppresses immune responses in vivo and accelerates remyelination of neurons in vitro. Finally, they saw that HGF causes remyelination in rats with a lesion on their spinal cord.

See original here:
Could Stem Cells Cure MS?

After half a year of blood transfusions to treat life-threatening anemia, 9-year-old Ricky Martinez was running out of time.

The Murrieta boy needed a bone marrow transplant to save his life. Although his parents had held numerous drives seeking a match for their son, the perfect donor eluded them.

Then another option appeared ---- doctors found Ricky's own blood from his umbilical cord, banked at birth, and stored in a medical facility.

"I had donated it at birth, when I delivered," said Ricky's mother, Cynthia Martinez. "I had no idea that I'd be using it for him nine years later."

The cord blood discovery represents a "godsend" for the family, Martinez said, because Ricky's body began rejecting the transfusions that keep him alive.

Cord blood contains stem cells ---- undifferentiated cells that can spur production of healthy tissue to help treat various diseases. Doctors believe it could jump-start Ricky's bone marrow, allowing his body to resume normal blood production.

But it's not a guarantee.

Ricky's condition, aplastic anemia, is an extremely rare disease, and cord blood transplantation is an experimental procedure for the condition, said David Buchbinder, a hematologist and transplant physician who is treating Ricky at Children's Hospital Orange County, in the city of Orange.

Although the procedure offers few risks of complications, it also pushes the boundaries of medical practice, placing Ricky in a realm of mixed medical opinions and uncertain results, Buchbinder said.

His parents say they're willing to go there to save their son's life.

See the original post here:
MURRIETA: Surprise cord-blood find is 'godsend' for ailing boy

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

California Stem Cell, Inc. (CSC) announced today that well-known stem cell & regenerative medicine industry veteran Gregory A. Bonfiglio, J.D. has joined its Board of Directors.

Gregory Bonfiglio has over 25 years of experience working with technology companies, and was an early investor in the stem cell industry. He is Managing Partner of Proteus Venture Partners, an investment & advisory firm he founded in early 2006 to provide venture funding and strategic advisory services in the stem cell & regenerative medicine space. Mr. Bonfiglio is on the Boards of VistaGen Therapeutics and StemCyte, Inc.; he is the Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (RM Translation Center in Toronto, Canada). In addition, Mr. Bonfiglio sits on the Advisory Board and Finance Committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR); he is on the Commercialization Committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT).

Mr. Bonfiglio brings to CSC an extensive background in strategic consulting, having held partnership positions with various legal and venture firms, and having successfully led a team that took pioneering stem cell company Advanced Cell Technology public in early 2005. Were thrilled to welcome to our board someone with the breadth of industry experience that Greg has, and are very much looking forward to his participation in the continued growth of this Company, said COO Chris Airriess.

This appointment coincides with a ramp up of commercial product sales as well as advancements of CSCs active Phase II clinical trial in metastatic melanoma.

About California Stem Cell

California Stem Cell Inc. (CSC) is an Irvine, CA based company which has developed proprietary methods to generate human stem cell lines, expand them to clinically and commercially useful numbers, and differentiate them at extremely high purity using fully-defined, proprietary media and GMP processes. CSC is able to supply its human cell populations to companies and institutions worldwide for use in the development of therapies, efficacy screening or the creation of toxicity profiles for candidate drugs, and experimental research tools.

CSC is focused on the development of stem cell based therapies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrigs Disease), and metastatic cancers.

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/castemcell

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50281529&lang=en

More here:
Industry Consultant Gregory Bonfiglio Joins California Stem Cell Board of Directors

11-05-2012 14:16 Stem cells are the body's repair cells. They have the ability to divide and differentiate into many different types of cells based on where they are needed throughout the body. Stem cells can divide and turn into tissues such as skin, fat, muscle, bone, cartilage, and nerve to name a few. With this capability, we can use them as a treatment for joint injuries, ligament and tendon damage, and fractured bones. Using MediVet America's Stem Cell Therapy, we have seen positive clinical improvement in 95% of the arthritic cases performed nationwide. Some owners have even reported seeing a difference in as little as a week!

Read the original post:
Stem Cell Therapy Exclusively at Gandy Animal Hospital - Tampa, FL - Video

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Two teams of Boston scientists have developed new ways to turn stem cells into different types of lung tissue, surmounting a major hurdle for scientists trying to harness the power of stem cell biology to study and develop treatments for major lung diseases.

One team then used skin cells from cystic fibrosis patients to create embryonic-like stem cells, then working in lab dishes used those cells to grow tissue that lines the airways and contains a defect responsible for the rare, fatal disease. The technique -- essentially a recipe for growing such lung tissue -- could provide a powerful platform to screen drugs and study the biology of the disease.

Growing lung tissue in the laboratory has long been a goal of stem cell scientists, but has been more technically difficult than growing other types of tissues, such as brain cells or heart cells. Such lung tissue is valuable because it could be used to screen potential drugs and more closely probe the problems that underlie diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and rare genetic diseases. Such techniques may also one day help researchers grow replacement tissues and devise ways to restore or repair injured lung tissue.

A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers created lung tissue from a patient with the genetic mutation that most commonly underlies cystic fibrosis and researchers hope the technique will also be a powerful tool to study other diseases that affect the airway tissue, such as asthma and lung cancer. The other team, led by Boston University School of Medicine scientists, was able to derive cells that form the delicate air sacs of the lung from mouse embryonic stem cells. The team is hoping to refine the recipe for making the cells so that they can be used to derive lung tissue from a bank of 100 stem cell lines of patients with lung disease. Both papers were published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge biotechnology company, earlier this year received approval for Kalydeco -- the first drug to directly target the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. That compound was discovered by screening massive numbers of potential drugs against cells engineered to carry the same defect that underlies cystic fibrosis.

We had to use engineered cells, and certainly using more native human cells ... would be potentially beneficial, said Dr. Frederick Van Goor, head of biology for Vertexs cystic fibrosis research program. We had to rely on donor tissue obtained from patients with cystic fibrosis, and its a bit more challenging, because the number of donor lungs you can get and the number of cells you can derive from there are more limited.

Van Goor said it was too soon to say whether the company would use the new technology in screening, but noted that the tests the company had used to determine whether a drug was likely to work against the disease had, in some cases, given scientists false leads. Some molecules that worked on the engineered cells did not work in the complicated biology of the lung.

Its a significant event for the lung field, said Dr. Thiennu Vu, associate professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, who was not involved in the research. She added that much work remains before such cells could be used to repair or replace damaged tissue, and even before such cells would necessarily be useful for drug screening. It will be important, she said, to refine the recipe to ensure that the technique yields pure populations of the specific types of functional lung cells.

In the competitive world of science, where credit for being the first to do something is crucially important, the two research teams accomplishments are an unusual example of competitors turning into collaborators -- forging a relationship that both teams felt helped speed up progress.

See original here:
Boston scientists grow lung tissue from cystic fibrosis patients’ skin cells

May 4, 2012 9:27am

ABC News Paula Faris reports:

It is a medical claim that sounds like science fiction. Walk into a plastic surgeons office for a face-lift and walk out roughly four hours later with a whole-body makeover that required no incision and leaves you with no scars.

But some doctors say that fiction is now reality in the form of a stem-cell makeover, a procedure that uses the fat and stem cells from one part of the body to revamp another part of the body, all in a single office visit.

Such a claim convinced Debra Kerr to try the procedure herself in hopes of achieving a younger look. My eyes are looking heavier, and the lines are so pronounced and gravitys really taken over, Kerr, 55, said. I want to look as good and as young as I really feel.

Kerr, a skin-care specialist from Ohio, underwent a stem-cell makeover in which fat was removed from her waist via liposuction. The fat was then spun in the lab to concentrate its stem cells and, hours later, injected into Kerrs face and breasts.

Were taking a patients own fatty tissue, and we are just repositioning it in another part of their body, said Dr. Sharon McQuillan, a physician and founder of the Ageless Institute in Aventura, Fla., where Kerr had her procedure done.

Courtesy Dr. Sharon McQuillan

Because the makeover uses a patients own stem cells, there is virtually no risk that the body will reject the transfer, according to doctors like McQuillan who perform the procedure.

This enhancement will be enough to make her [Kerr] happy, McQuillan said. She wont have any scars. She doesnt really have any of the risks associated with general anesthesia or a full face lift.

More here:
4-Hour, Whole-Body 'Face-Lift' Uses Patient's Own Fat, Stem Cells

Public release date: 3-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Caroline Marin crmarin@umn.edu 612-624-5680 University of Minnesota Academic Health Center

MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL (May 4, 2012) Researchers from the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart Institute have effectively treated muscular dystrophy in mice using human stem cells derived from a new process that for the first time makes the production of human muscle cells from stem cells efficient and effective.

The research, published today in Cell Stem Cell, outlines the strategy for the development of a rapidly dividing population of skeletal myogenic progenitor cells (muscle-forming cells) derived from induced pluripotent (iPS) cells. iPS cells have all of the potential of embryonic stem (ES) cells, but are derived by reprogramming skin cells. They can be patient-specific, which renders them unlikely to be rejected, and do not involve the destruction of embryos.

This is the first time that human stem cells have been shown to be effective in the treatment of muscular dystrophy.

According to U of M researchers who were also the first to use ES cells from mice to treat muscular dystrophy there has been a significant lag in translating studies using mouse stem cells into therapeutically relevant studies involving human stem cells. This lag has dramatically limited the development of cell therapies or clinical trials for human patients.

The latest research from the U of M provides the proof-of-principle for treating muscular dystrophy with human iPS cells, setting the stage for future human clinical trials.

"One of the biggest barriers to the development of cell-based therapies for neuromuscular disorders like muscular dystrophy has been obtaining sufficient muscle progenitor cells to produce a therapeutically effective response," said principal investigator Rita Perlingeiro, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in the Medical School's Division of Cardiology. "Up until now, deriving engraftable skeletal muscle stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells hasn't been possible. Our results demonstrate that it is indeed possible and sets the stage for the development of a clinically meaningful treatment approach."

Upon transplantation into mice suffering from muscular dystrophy, human skeletal myogenic progenitor cells provided both extensive and long-term muscle regeneration which resulted in improved muscle function.

To achieve their results, U of M researchers genetically modified two well-characterized human iPS cell lines and an existing human ES cell line with the PAX7 gene. This allowed them to regulate levels of the Pax7 protein, which is essential for the regeneration of skeletal muscle tissue after damage. The researchers found this regulation could prompt nave ES and iPS cells to differentiate into muscle-forming cells.

Continue reading here:
U of M researchers develop new muscular dystrophy treatment approach using human stem cells

When Tyler was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, causing a lack of oxygen to his brain that led to Tyler suffering a stroke during delivery. The stroke caused damage to the back of Tylers brain. Tyler was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and his mother, Lisa Biermann, was told to expect the worst: a child who would never walk, talk, or have any chance at a normal life.

Lisa refused to give up hope. She tried everything she could to help Tyler. Tyler could not walk because his feet would not sit flat on the floor. She tried botox injections every three months, braces, casts and even ankle cord surgery. Nothing worked.

Lisa said Tyler could not communicate with her at all. She never knew when he was in pain because he was unable to tell her.

Tyler was considered to be blind, with a prescription that was over nine units nearsighted, and his eyes jumped around. Even with glasses, he could not focus his vision, and doctors did not believe he could see, or ever would see.

Until he was 8 years old, Lisa would carry Tyler from his classes at Woodland Park Elementary.

When Tyler was 8, he had a seizure. Dr. David Steenblock, who is based in California, heard about Tyler and offered to help him with umbilical cord stem cell therapy. Lisa said she thought hard about it, and because she had tried everything else and nothing had worked, she decided to try the stem cell therapy, which Dr. Steenblock told her had no side effects.

In December 2007, Lisa, Dr. Steenblock and his team took Tyler for the treatment, which had to be done in Tijuana, Mexico, because stem cells injection is currently not legal in the United States. Three months later, they went for a second injection.

The stem cells were given to Tyler intravenously for a period of approximately 45 minutes.

Lisa said within weeks, she saw monumental changes in Tyler. All the milestones he never reached as a baby, he began reaching.

Within three months Tyler could put his feet flat on the floor and could walk independently. At six months post-treatment, he no longer needed the painful braces that gave him bunions.

The rest is here:
Stem cell therapy for WCMS student has remarkable results

Public release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vanessa McMains vmcmain1@jhmi.edu 410-502-9410 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Human Genome Research Institute has evaluated the whole genomic sequence of stem cells derived from human bone marrow cellsso-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cellsand found that relatively few genetic changes occur during stem cell conversion by an improved method. The findings, reported in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell, the official journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), will be presented at the annual ISSCR meeting in June.

"Our results show that human iPS cells accrue genetic changes at about the same rate as any replicating cells, which we don't feel is a cause for concern," says Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and oncology, and a member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.

Each time a cell divides, it has the chance to make errors and incorporate new genetic changes in its DNA, Cheng explains. Some genetic changes can be harmless, but others can lead to changes in cell behavior that may lead to disease and, in the worst case, to cancer.

In the new study, the researchers showed that iPS cells derived from adult bone marrow cells contain random genetic changes that do not specifically predispose the cells to form cancer.

"Little research was done previously to determine the number of DNA changes in stem cells, but because whole genome sequencing is getting faster and cheaper, we can now more easily assess the genetic stability of these cells derived by various methods and from different tissues," Cheng says. Last year, a study published in Nature suggested higher than expected cancer gene mutation rates in iPS cells created from skin samples, which, according to Cheng, raised great concerns to many in the field pertaining to usefulness and safety of the cells. This study analyzed both viral and the improved, nonviral methods to turn on stem cell genes making the iPS cells

To more thoroughly evaluate the number of genetic changes in iPS cells created by the improved, non-viral method, Cheng's team first converted human blood-forming cells or their support cells, so-called marrow stromal cells (MSCs) in adult bone marrow into iPS cells by turning on specific genes and giving them special nutrients. The researchers isolated DNA from--and sequenced--the genome of each type of iPS cells, in comparison with the original cells from which the iPS cells were derived.

Cheng says they then counted the number of small DNA differences in each cell line compared to the original bone marrow cells. A range of 1,000 to 1,800 changes in the nucleic acid "letters" A, C, T and G occurred across each genome, but only a few changes were found in actual genes--DNA sequences that act as blueprints for our body's proteins. Such genes make up two percent of the genome.

The blood-derived iPS cells contained six and the MSC-derived iPS cells contained 12 DNA letter changes in genes, which led the researchers to conclude that DNA changes in iPS cells are far more likely to occur in the spaces between genes, not in the genes themselves.

Go here to see the original:
Improved adult-derived human stem cells have fewer genetic changes than expected

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT; OTCBB: ACTC), a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that Massachusetts Eye and Ear (Mass. Eye and Ear) has received institutional review board (IRB) approval to be a site for the companys Phase I/II clinical trial for dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD), using human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.

We are delighted to announce that Mass. Eye and Ear will participate as a site for our clinical trial for dry AMD, said Gary Rabin, ACTs chairman and CEO. Dr. Dean Eliott and his team are deeply committed to finding new treatments for preventing blindness, and we very much look forward to tapping into his expertise and insight into the progression of macular degenerative disorders. The primary teaching hospital for ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Mass. Eye and Ear is ranked as among the top ophthalmology hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report and has a reputation that is unrivaled.

The Phase I/II trial is a prospective, open-label study designed to determine the safety and tolerability of the hESC-derived RPE cells following sub-retinal transplantation into patients with dry AMD. The trial will ultimately enroll 12 patients, with cohorts of three patients each in an ascending dosage format.

Dry AMD represents one of the largest unmet medical needs in ophthalmology, commented Dr. Dean Eliott, M.D. a full time retina surgeon, scientist and Associate Director of the Retina Service at Mass. Eye and Ear. We appreciate the opportunity to get some first-hand experience with the protocol and be involved with the international team that has been assembled around the U.S. and European trials.

Founded in 1824, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary is an independent specialty hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Further information about patient eligibility for the dry AMD study is available at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01344993.

About dry AMD Degenerative diseases of the retina are among the most common causes of untreatable blindness in the world. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in people over age 60 in the United States, and the vast majority of cases of AMD are of the dry form, which is currently untreatable.

About hESC-derived RPE Cells The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a highly specialized tissue located between the choroid and the neural retina. RPE cells support, protect and provide nutrition for the light-sensitive photoreceptors. Human embryonic stem cells differentiate into any cell type, including RPE cells, and have a similar expression of RPE-specific genes compared to human RPE cells and demonstrate the full transition from the hESC state.

About Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology company applying cellular technology in the field of regenerative medicine. For more information, visit http://www.advancedcell.com.

Here is the original post:
ACT Announces Massachusetts Eye and Ear as Additional Site for Clinical Trial for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration ...

"See The Potential" program sponsored by Canada's Stem Cell Network and Pfizer

MONTRAL, May 2, 2012 /CNW/ - The first two postdoctoral research fellowships of a new program to promote stem cell research in Canada were announced today by the program's sponsors, Canada's Stem Cell Network and Pfizer.

"See The Potential" is a program established to encourage the work of promising young scientists in the field of stem cell and regenerative medicine research. Under the program, six postdoctoral fellowships will be funded from competitions over the next three years. Fellows will receive a grant of $50,000 per year for up to three years and will conduct two years of stem cell and regenerative medicine research at a recognized research laboratory in Canada as well as another year of research at the Pfizer Neusentis laboratories in the United Kingdom.

The 2011 fellowship recipients that have just been announced, following an internationally publicized competition, are Dr. Corinne Hoesli from Laval University in Qubec City and Dr. Reaz Vawda from University Health Network in Toronto. Dr. Hoesli proposes to conduct research related to engineering artificial blood vessels and is speaking today at the Till and McCulloch Meetings in Montral about the program and her research strategies. The research specialty of Dr. Vawda is comparative investigations on the therapeutic repair function of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of spinal cord injury.

"We are very pleased to name these first recipients of the See The Potential postdoctoral fellowships in partnership with Pfizer Inc," said Dr. Verna Skanes, Chair of the Board of the Stem Cell Network. "This program is an exciting way to provide young researchers with the opportunity to develop their research efforts and their careers while building important collaborations for the future with other researchers connected to the Stem Cell Network and, internationally, through Pfizer network. This is exactly the type of collaboration with industry that is the hallmark of translational research and one that can provide benefits to all involved."

Half the program is funded by the Stem Cell Network and other half shared by Pfizer.

"This is an excellent initiative aligned with the Pfizer Neusentis' mission to develop innovative cell therapies to benefit patients through research and development, clinical and business innovation," said academic liaison, Dr. Tim Allsopp, Head of External Research for the Regenerative Medicine activities at Pfizer Neusentis Ltd. "We congratulate our winners and look forward to witnessing the results of their important research."

The second See The Potential fellowship competition is now open with an application deadline set for June 26, 2012. For more information on the competition please visit http://www.seethepotential.ca

Canada's Stem Cell Network The Stem Cell Network, established in 2001, brings together more than 100 leading scientists, clinicians, engineers, and ethicists from universities and hospitals across Canada. The Network supports cutting-edge projects that translate research discoveries into new and better treatments for millions of patients in Canada and around the world. Hosted by the University of Ottawa, the Stem Cell Network is one of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence funded through Industry Canada and its three granting councils. http://www.stemcellnetwork.ca

Read this article:
First fellowships awarded in new Canadian stem cell and regenerative medicine research program

Public release date: 24-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr Boris Kovacic Boris.Kovacic@vetmeduni.ac.at 43-125-077-5622 University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna

Although people generally talk about "cancer", it is clear that the disease occurs in a bewildering variety of forms. Even single groups of cancers, such as those of the white blood cells, may show widely differing properties. How do the various cancers arise and what factors determine their progression? Clues to these two issues, at least for leukaemias, have now been provided by Boris Kovacic and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna). The results are published in the current issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine and have extremely important consequences for the treatment of a particularly aggressive type of leukaemia.

It is well known that many types of cancer arise as a result of a mutation within a cell and prevailing wisdom has held that the stage of differentiation of this cell determines exactly what form of cancer develops. For example, it was believed that so-called chronic myeloid leukaemia or CML arises from bone marrow stem cells, while a different type of leukaemia, known as B-cell acute lymphoid leukaemia or B-ALL, results from B-cell precursors. This belief has been spectacularly refuted by the latest results from Boris Kovacic and colleagues in the Vetmeduni Vienna's institutes of Animal Breeding and Genetics and of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

The researchers have now shown that both CML and B-ALL arise from the most primordial kind of blood cell (long-term haematopoietic stem cells), although the pathways by which the diseases progress are different. The usual causes of CML and B-ALL are two highly related versions of the same oncogene, BCR/ABL. If the primordial blood cells are transformed or made potentially cancerous by a particular version of BCR/ABL, for technical reasons termed BCR/ABLp210, the result is chronic myeloid leukaemia or CML. The long-term haematopoietic stem cells remain and act as the dreaded cancer stem cells, or CSCs, which ensure that the disease persists. Curing chronic myeloid leukaemia requires the complete elimination of the CSCs. However, if the long-term haematopoietic stem cells are transformed by a related version of BCR/ABL, BCR/ABLp185, the result is a highly aggressive form of leukaemia, B-ALL. The finding that B-ALL actually originates from the same stem cells as CML was both unexpected and highly provocative.

Kovacic and colleagues have shown further that B-ALL only develops if the transformed stem cell is exposed to a particular growth factor, interleukin-7. If interleukin-7 is present (it usually is), the transformed long-term haematopoietic stem cells undergo a differentiation step to CSCs, which in this case correspond to pro-B cells. If interleukin-7 is absent during the initial phase of transformation, B-ALL cannot develop.

In other words, two distinct types of cell are involved in leukaemia development, the primordial cells (also termed the cells of origin of cancer) and the cancer stem cells that cause the disease to progress. Unless the CSCs are eliminated, fresh cancer cells can arise at any time and the leukaemia will recur. The problem is that current leukaemia therapies are not designed to target CSCs. The primordial CSCs in CML are highly quiescent and thus difficult to target. In contrast, the CSCs in B-ALL are abundant and have a high turnover rate, which makes them susceptible to treatment. Treatment of B-ALL may thus succeed in eliminating most CSCs but if even a single cell remains intact it is likely that the patient will relapse, possibly with an even more aggressive form of leukaemia. "A therapy that targets the bulk of tumour cells will not work," as Kovacic succinctly summarizes his results. "To treat B-ALL successfully it will be necessary for us to learn much more about the development of the disease. A combined therapy is required, so future work should aim at developing drugs that target the long-term haematopoietic stem cells from which B-ALL is derived."

###

The paper "Diverging fates of cells of origin in acute and chronic leukemia" by Boris Kovacic, Andrea Hoelbl, Gabriele Litos, Memetcan Alacakaptan, Christian Schuster, Katrin M. Fischhuber, Marc A. Kerenyi, Gabriele Stengl, Richard Moriggl, Veronika Sexl and the late Hartmut Beug is published in the current issue of the journal "EMBO Molecular Medicine" (2012, Vol. 4 pp. 283-297).

The work was initiated at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and was performed together with groups at the Medical University of Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research in Vienna.

Originally posted here:
Leukaemia cells have a remembrance of things past

As the basketball frenzy that accompanies March Madness draws to the fever pitch of the Final Four, it brings to mind that basketball is a high contact sport. A quick peek at the NBA injured list reveals a catalog of breaks and tears that affect tendons, ligaments and bones.

The pressure to improve performance and search for quick recoveries has led some celebrity athletes to seek out stem cell treatments overseas and in the U.S. Among NBA players to get stem cell treatments are Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Amar Stoudemire, Allan Houston and Kenyon Martin, according to a Sports Illustrated article.

Advertisement

Dragoo said in a phone interview that the publicity has actually had a negative impact on the development of clinically proven stem cell therapies for orthopedic medicine and how it is perceived. Because of this market pressure, private clinics have been offering stem cells treatments both here in the USA as well as around the world. Often, these treatments have not been studied and are not regulated in any way. FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulations have also severely limited new clinical trials in stem cell therapy in the USA.

The ethical debate of using embryonic stem cells taken from fetuses has been sidestepped to some extent by the viability of adult stem cells for stem cell therapy. Although the FDA permits cells being extracted from individuals and transformed into stem cells, and re-inserted back into the same person, it requires that the conversion involve no more than water, preservatives and storage products. Anything more than that, the FDA policy states, would be classified as a drug therapy and need to go through the proper application protocol.

But a much-awaited decision by the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. expected in May that may resolve a four-year-old battle between the FDA and Regenerative Science in Colorado could represent a sea change in how autologous adult stem cell treatments are regulated. The FDA is seeking to prevent the company from providing autologous adult stem cell treatment for musculoskeletal and spinal injuries. If the FDA were to lose, anyone with a medical license could develop autologous stem cells and inject them back into patients, without any regulatory oversight, according to a Cell Press article.

Although stem cells are the focus of numerous clinical trials, they are mainly for cancer and rare diseases, most are being conducted outside the United States. While there have been some developments for sports medicine applications produced by research from academic institutions, there have been no clinical trials for stem cell treatments in sports medicine in the United States because of the FDAs reservations about using adult stem cells. Despite the laxer regulations in Japan, China and Europe, its not in the financial interest of companies there to spend the money to do clinical trials if they dont have to.

Among the most interesting applications for orthopedic medicine are the restoration of articular cartilage and patching defects in joint cartilage, with the hope of resurfacing arthritic joints in the future, Dragoo said. Stanford is preparing to initiate its own clinical trial next year looking at inducible stem cells.

This technique takes adult cells and makes them young again by inserting four genes, which makes the cells immature and allows them to be directed into different types of tissues, Dragoo said.

Go here to see the original:
Basketball’s influence on stem cell treatments in sports medicine

28-03-2012 10:17 Dr Joshua Hare is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami. The interview was conducted on 25 March 2012 at the American College of Cardiology's (ACC's) 61st Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago. See more ACC.12 Coverage: http://www.getinsidehealth.com

Originally posted here:
Stem cell therapy for the repair of myocardium in heart failure patients - Video

Arkansas State University-Newport will host a Bone Marrow Donor Drive on campus Thursday, March 29 from 10am until 7pm and Saturday, March 31 from 9am until 1pm in the Student/Community Center, Merchants & Planters Insurance and Investments room. A bone marrow transplant is a lifesaving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases. First, patients undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor's healthy blood-forming stem cells are transfused directly into the patient's bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply. For a patient's body to accept these healthy cells, the patient needs a donor who is a close match. Seventy percent of patients cannot find a matching donor within their family and depend on the national registry to find an unrelated bone marrow donor. Even with a registry of millions, 6 out of 10 patients NEVER receive the lifesaving transplant they need. Donors of all ethnicities are needed to change this. To see if you can be a bone marrow donor and to read about the process of testing and donating, go to http://www.dkmsamericas.org and click on Get Educated.

More here:
ASUN to host Bone Marrow Donor Drive