February 11, 2014 --

Freeport, Bahamas (PRWEB) February 11, 2014

Matt Feshbach, CEO of Okyanos Heart Institute whose mission it is to bring a new standard of care and better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy, announces the company will host a hard hat reception for conference attendees at their new facility in Freeport. The conference, titled Bridging the Gap: Research to Point of Care, brings together medical scientists, clinicians, regulatory experts, and investors to discuss progress in the field of research and clinical protocols and the process of taking promising therapies to fight chronic disease to market in a responsible manner. Gold Sponsor Okyanos Heart Institute hosts a networking reception for conference attendees at their facility in Freeport on Friday, February 21st from 5:00 7:00 p.m. The company is calling the reception a hard hat reception metaphorically as the construction is not yet completed.

Chief Medical Officer Howard Walpole, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I. and Chief Science Officer Leslie Miller, M.D., F.A.C.C. will host the reception, along with CEO Matthew Feshbach and offer tours of the commercial cath lab which will offer stem cell therapy to qualified patients with advanced coronary artery disease under the new laws and regulations in The Bahamas.

Douglas Hammond, president of STEMSO, states, STEMSO will continue to provide a proactive and positive voice for organizations and jurisdictions using adult stem cells for therapies and transplants. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, and our Gold Sponsor Okyanos Heart Institute provide an excellent example of the results that can be brought about with realistic, modern and balanced regulations that serve the national economic interest, patient needs for life-saving medicine and the business advantages for commercialization and translation of adult stem cells.

The reception in our facility will showcase the capabilities in The Bahamas to deliver high quality healthcare to patients in need, says Walpole. It will also provide an informal forum for relevant discussion on bridging the gap between research and point of care between scientists, regulatory experts, clinicians and government officials, and help to address issues of paramount importance such as patient safety and effective tracking of progress once the patients return home. We are proud to host this reception at Okyanos Heart Institute.

Treating patients with adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) is showing existing promise in clinical trials, states Leslie Miller, M.D., F.A.C.C. an investigator in more than eighty clinical trials for heart failure. The next step in delivering stem cells to patients outside of clinical trials is close. I am enormously excited about the opportunity with this conference to engage in meaningful discussion around what parameters must exist to treat heart failure patients safely and tracking the effectiveness of these new options, which previously were unavailable to patients who have had heart attacks and/or stents, and who continue to worsen after exhausting all other interventions available to them.

The complete agenda for the conference can be found on STEMSOs website at http://www.stemso.org. Other speakers include stem cell researchers, scientists and practitioners from around the world with leading discoveries in the field, and investors in the healthcare space.

Registration is open for attending and exhibiting on STEMSOs website.

About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, The Bahamas, Okyanos Heart Institutes mission is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy. Okyanos adheres to U.S. surgical center standards and is led by Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I. Okyanos Treatment utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue. The cells, when placed into the heart via a minimally-invasive catheterization, stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. The treatment facilitates blood flow in the heart and supports intake and use of oxygen (as demonstrated in rigorous clinical trials such as the PRECISE trial). The literary name Okyanos (Oceanos) symbolizes flow. For more information, go to http://www.okyanos.com.

Continued here:
Okyanos Heart Institute Hosts Networking Reception for the ...

MediVet Stem Cell Therapy For Pets
MediVet is the company that created the technology to use stem cell therapy to treat pets with arthritis and hip dysplasia.

By: Newman Veterinary Centers

Read the original:
MediVet Stem Cell Therapy For Pets - Video

By William T. Koustas

The litigation between Regenerative Sciences, LLC (Regenerative) and FDA may have come to an end on Tuesday, February 4th, when the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against Regenerative, concluding that FDA has the authority to regulate certain autologous stem cells procedures. The D.C. Circuit affirmed the lower courts decision granting summary judgment to the government, dismissing Regeneratives counterclaims, and permanently enjoining Regeneratives operations.

Regenerative is a Colorado company that owns a medical technique known as the Regenexx Procedure, a non-surgical procedure by which physicians take bone marrow and blood samples from a patient, culture the stem cells, mix the cultured cells with doxycycline, and inject the stem cell mixture back into the same patient in order to treat joint, muscle, tendon, or bone pain. The Regenexx Procedure is exclusively licensed for use by a Colorado clinic where its inventors practice.

Our prior blog posts on this case provide more background (see here andhere for example), but in essence, FDAs litigation stance was that the stem cell mixture used in the Regenexx Procedure was a drug under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), thus imposing current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and labeling requirements applicable to all drugs. On the other side, Regenerative argued that FDA had no authority over the Regenexx Procedure because it involved the practice of medicine, which is outside of FDAs purview, and because the stem cell mixture was not introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce.

The D.C. Circuit upheld the district courts decision, frequently relying on long-standing principles of food and drug law. The court first found that the stem cell mixture met the definition of drug contained in the FDCA as it was an article derived mainly from human tissue intended to treat orthopedic diseases and to affect musculoskeletal function. Slip Op. at 6. In addition, and perhaps of more consequence, the court disagreed with Regeneratives argument that FDA was interfering with the practice of medicine by preventing physicians from performing autologous stem cell procedures. The D.C. Circuit described this argument as wide of the mark, clarifying that FDA was seeking to regulate the stem cell mixture and not the procedure itself. Id. at 7.

The court also rejected Regeneratives argument that FDA lacked jurisdiction over the stem cell mixture given that the Regenexx Procedure is performed entirely within the State of Colorado. Unsurprisingly, the court restated the well-known principle that the interstate commerce requirement of the FDCA is satisfied if a component of a product is shipped in interstate commerce prior to its administration to a patient. Id. at 9. The court also seemed to agree with FDAs position that the interstate commerce requirement could be satisfied simply because the stem cell mixture would undoubtedly have effects on interstate markets for orthopedic care . . . . Id. at 8.

The D.C. Circuit also dismissed Regeneratives argument that the stem cell mixture was a human cell, tissue, or cellular and tissue-based product (HCT/P), and thus exempt from manufacturing and labeling requirements. The court found that the stem cell mixture was likely more than minimally manipulated [b]ecause [Regenerative] concede[d] that culturing [stem cells] affects their characteristics and offer[ed] no evidence that those effects constitute only minimal manipulation, they fail to carry that burden as a matter of law. Id. at 12.

After summarily rejecting Regeneratives arguments, the D.C. Circuit ruled that the stem cell mixture was adulterated and misbranded. The court found that the stem cell mixture was adulterated because it was not manufactured in conformance with cGMP requirements, and that they were misbranded because the information on the label on the syringe that contains the stem cell mixture did not include adequate directions for use or bear the Rx only symbol. Id. at 14-15.

Although the court upheld the permanent injunction, it did so only after analyzing whether there was a reasonable likelihood of further violations in the future. Id. at 18. While the court determined that such likelihood existed in this case, this suggests that a violation of the FDCA, in and of itself, does not automatically necessitate injunctive relief but must be considered based on the facts of each case.

See more here:
D.C. circuit rules FDA can regulate autologous stem cells

La Jolla, CAA study led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has catapulted the field of regenerative medicine significantly forward, proving in principle that a human genetic disease can be cured using a combination of gene therapy and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. The study, published in the May 31, 2009 early online edition of Nature, is a major milestone on the path from the laboratory to the clinic.

"It's been ten years since human stem cells were first cultured in a Petri dish," says the study's leader Juan-Carlos Izpisa Belmonte, Ph.D., a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory and director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB), Spain. "The hope in the field has always been that we'll be able to correct a disease genetically and then make iPS cells that differentiate into the type of tissue where the disease is manifested and bring it to clinic."

Genetically-corrected fibroblasts from Fanconi anemia patients (shown in green at the top) are reprogrammed to generate induced pluripotent stem cells, which, in turn, can be differentiated into disease-free hematopoietic progenitors, capable of producing blood cells in vitro (bottom: Erythroid colonies.)

Image: Courtesy of Dr. Juan-Carlos Belmonte, Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Although several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of the approach in mice, its feasibility in humans had not been established. The Salk study offers the first proof that this technology can work in human cells.

Belmonte's team, working with Salk colleague Inder Verma, Ph.D., a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, and colleagues at the CMRB, and the CIEMAT in Madrid, Spain, decided to focus on Fanconi anemia (FA), a genetic disorder responsible for a series of hematological abnormalities that impair the body's ability to fight infection, deliver oxygen, and clot blood. Caused by mutations in one of 13 Fanconi anemia (FA) genes, the disease often leads to bone marrow failure, leukemia, and other cancers. Even after receiving bone marrow transplants to correct the hematological problems, patients remain at high risk of developing cancer and other serious health conditions.

After taking hair or skin cells from patients with Fanconi anemia, the investigators corrected the defective gene in the patients' cells using gene therapy techniques pioneered in Verma's laboratory. They then successfully reprogrammed the repaired cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells using a combination of transcription factors, OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and cMYC. The resulting FA-iPS cells were indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells generated from healthy donors.

Since bone marrow failure as a result of the progressive decline in the numbers of functional hematopoietic stem cells is the most prominent feature of Fanconi anemia, the researchers then tested whether patient-specific iPS cells could be used as a source for transplantable hematopoietic stem cells. They found that FA-iPS cells readily differentiated into hematopoietic progenitor cells primed to differentiate into healthy blood cells.

"We haven't cured a human being, but we have cured a cell," Belmonte explains. "In theory we could transplant it into a human and cure the disease."

Although hurdles still loom before that theory can become practice-in particular, preventing the reprogrammed cells from inducing tumors-in coming months Belmonte and Verma will be exploring ways to overcome that and other obstacles. In April 2009, they received a $6.6 million from the California Institute Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to pursue research aimed at translating basic science into clinical cures.

Link:
Genetic Re-disposition: Combined stem cell-gene therapy ...

5 hours ago This image shows iPS cells (green) generated using histone variants TH2A and TH2B and two Yamanaka factors (Oct3/4 and Klf4). Credit: RIKEN

One major challenge in stem cell research has been to reprogram differentiated cells to a totipotent state. Researchers from RIKEN in Japan have identified a duo of histone proteins that dramatically enhance the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and may be the key to generating induced totipotent stem cells.

Differentiated cells can be coaxed into returning to a stem-like pluripotent state either by artificially inducing the expression of four factors called the Yamanaka factors, or as recently shown by shocking them with sublethal stress, such as low pH or pressure. However, attempts to create totipotent stem cells capable of giving rise to a fully formed organism, from differentiated cells, have failed.

The study, published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell and led by Dr. Shunsuke Ishii from RIKEN, sought to identify the molecule in the mammalian oocyte that induces the complete reprograming of the genome leading to the generation of totipotent embryonic stem cells. This is the mechanism underlying normal fertilization, as well as the cloning technique called Somatic-Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT).

SCNT has been used successfully to clone various species of mammals, but the technique has serious limitations and its use on human cells has been controversial for ethical reasons.

Ishii and his team chose to focus on two histone variants named TH2A and TH2B, known to be specific to the testes where they bind tightly to DNA and affect gene expression.

The study demonstrates that, when added to the Yamanaka cocktail to reprogram mouse fibroblasts, the duo TH2A/TH2B increases the efficiency of iPSC cell generation about twentyfold and the speed of the process two- to threefold. And TH2A and TH2B function as substitutes for two of the Yamanaka factors (Sox2 and c-Myc).

By creating knockout mice lacking both proteins, the researchers show that TH2A and TH2B function as a pair, are highly expressed in oocytes and fertilized eggs and are needed for the development of the embryo after fertilization, although their levels decrease as the embryo grows.

In the early embryo, TH2A and TH2B bind to DNA and induce an open chromatin structure in the paternal genome, thereby contributing to its activation after fertilization.

These results indicate that TH2A/TH2B might induce reprogramming by regulating a different set of genes than the Yamanaka factors, and that these genes are involved in the generation of totipotent cells in oocyte-based reprogramming as seen in SCNT.

View original post here:
Histones may hold the key to the generation of totipotent stem cells

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Feb-2014

Contact: Nick Miller nicholas.miller@cchmc.org 513-803-6035 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

CINCINNATI Researchers used blood platelets and bone marrow cells to deliver potentially curative gene therapy to mouse models of the human genetic disorder Hurler syndrome an often fatal condition that causes organ damage and other medical complications.

Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) report their unique strategy for treating the disease the week of Feb. 3-7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers were able to genetically insert into the cells a gene that produces a critical lysosomal enzyme (called IDUA) and then inject the engineered cells into mice to treat the disorder. Follow up tests showed the treatment resulted in a complete metabolic correction of the disease, according to the authors.

"Our findings demonstrate a unique and somewhat surprising delivery pathway for lysosomal enzymes," said Dao Pan, PhD, corresponding author and researcher in the Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology at Cincinnati Children's. "We show proof of concept that platelets and megakaryocytes are capable of generating and storing fully functional lysosomal enzymes, which can lead to their targeted and efficient delivery to vital tissues where they are needed."

The mice tested in the study modeled human Hurler syndrome, a subset of disease known as mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), one of the most common types of lysosomal storage diseases. MPS I is a lysosomal storage disease in which people do not make an enzyme called lysosomal alpha-L-iduronidase (IDUA).

IDUA helps break down sugar molecules found throughout the body, often in mucus and fluids around joints, according to the National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health. Without IDUA, sugar molecules build up and cause organ damage. Depending on severity, the syndrome can also cause deafness, abnormal bone growth, heart valve problems, joint disease, intellectual disabilities and death.

Enzyme replacement therapy can be used to treat the disease, but it is only temporary and not curative. Bone marrow transplant using hematopoietic stem cells also has been tested on some patients with mixed results. The transplant procedure can carry severe risks and does not always work.

Read more:
Mouse study shows gene therapy may be possible cure for Hurler syndrome

Cancer drugs that recruit antibodies from the body's own immune system to help kill tumors have shown much promise in treating several types of cancer. However, after initial success, the tumors often return.

A new study from MIT reveals a way to combat these recurrent tumors with a drug that makes them more vulnerable to the antibody treatment. This drug, known as cyclophosphamide, is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat some cancers.

Antibody drugs work by marking tumor cells for destruction by the body's immune system, but they have little effect on tumor cells that hide out in the bone marrow. Cyclophosphamide stimulates the immune response in bone marrow, eliminating the reservoir of cancer cells that can produce new tumors after treatment.

"We're not talking about the development of a new drug, we're talking about the altered use of an existing therapy," says Michael Hemann, the Eisen and Chang Career Development Associate Professor of Biology, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and one of the senior authors of the study. "We can operate within the context of existing treatment regimens but hopefully achieve drastic improvement in the efficacy of those regimens."

Jianzhu Chen, the Ivan R. Cottrell Professor of Immunology and a member of the Koch Institute, is also a senior author of the paper, which appears in the Jan. 30 issue of the journal Cell. The lead author is former Koch Institute postdoc Christian Pallasch, now at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Finding cancer's hiding spots

Antibody-based cancer drugs are designed to bind to proteins found on the surfaces of tumor cells. Once the antibodies flag the tumor cells, immune cells called macrophages destroy them. While many antibody drugs have already been approved to treat human cancers, little is known about the best ways to deploy them, and what drugs might boost their effects, Hemann says.

Antibodies are very species-specific, so for this study, the researchers developed a strain of mice that can develop human lymphomas (cancers of white blood cells) by implanting them with human blood stem cells that are genetically programmed to become cancerous. Because these mice have a human version of cancer, they can be used to test drugs that target human tumor cells.

The researchers first studied an antibody drug called alemtuzumab, which is FDA-approved and in clinical trials for some forms of lymphoma. The drug successfully cleared most cancer cells, but some remained hidden in the bone marrow, which has previously been identified as a site of drug resistance in many types of cancer.

The study revealed that within the bone marrow, alemtuzumab successfully binds to tumor cells, but macrophages do not attack the cells due to the presence of lipid compounds called prostaglandins, which repress macrophage activity. Scientists believe the bone marrow naturally produces prostaglandins to help protect the immune cells that are maturing there. Tumor cells that reach the bone marrow can exploit this protective environment to aid their own survival.

Go here to read the rest:
New weapon fights drug-resistant tumors hiding in bone marrow

MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images

Scientists were able to reprogram mature stem cells to revert back to an embryonic state, a breakthrough that could make stem cell research easier and less expensive.

In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogram mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue.

The research, described as game-changing by experts in the field, suggests human cells could in future be reprogrammed by the same technique, offering a simpler way to replace damaged cells or grow new organs for sick and injured people.

Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells.

RELATED: NEW YORK DOCS' 3D-PRINTED WINDPIPE REPRESENTS FUTURE OF TRANSPLANTS

"If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material - the age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived," he said.

The experiments, reported in two papers in the journal Nature on Wednesday, involved scientists from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.

Beginning with mature, adult cells, researchers let them multiply and then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments.

RELATED: SCIENTISTS GROW TEETH USING STEM CELLS FROM URINE

See the rest here:
Stem cell breakthrough: Scientists create embryonic-type ...

This image from the journal Nature shows a mouse embryo formed with specially-treated cells from a newborn mouse that had been transformed into stem cells. If the same technique works for humans, it may provide a new way to grow tissue for treating illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease. AP

NEW YORK -- Scientists are reporting a stem cell breakthrough using a simple lab technique that may create reprogrammed cells after dipping them in acid for under 30 minutes.

The technique turned ordinary cells from mice into stem cells, according to the surprising new study that hints at a possible new way to grow tissue for treating illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Play Video

Dr. Jon LaPook goes inside the trial and approval process for an experimental treatment using stem cells designed to make Multiple Sclerosis pati...

Cells from skin, muscle, fat and other tissue of newborn mice appeared to go through the same change, which could be triggered by exposing cells to any of a variety of stressful situations, researchers said.

(This) approach in the mouse is the most simple, lowest cost and quickest method to generate pluripotent cells from mature cells, professor Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing, at University College London who was not involved in the research, told The Telegraph. If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patients own cells as starting material the age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived.

Play Video

Scientists in Edinburgh, Scotland, are one step closer to being able to create human tissue using a 3D printer, with stem cells as "ink." CBSNews...

Human cells are now routinely turned into so-called "iPS" stem cells. That involves reprogramming an ordinary cell by slipping genes or substances into its nucleus. The new method, in contrast, lets the cell change its own behavior after researchers have applied an external stress.

See original here:
Stem cells made quickly in acid in possible game-changing ...

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Jan-2014

Contact: Bill Hathaway william.hathaway@yale.edu 203-432-1322 Yale University

A fundamental axiom of biology used to be that cell fate is a one-way street once a cell commits to becoming muscle, skin, or blood it always remains muscle, skin, or blood cell. That belief was upended in the past decade when a Japanese scientist introduced four simple factors into skin cells and returned them to an embryonic-like state, capable of becoming almost any cell type in the body.

Hopeful of revolutionary medical therapies using a patient's own cells, scientists rushed to capitalize on the discovery by 2012 Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka. However, the process has remained slow and inefficient, and scientists have had a difficult time discovering a genetic explanation of why this should be.

In the Jan. 30 issue of the journal Cell, Yale School of Medicine researchers identified a major obstacle to converting cells back to their youthful state the speed of the cell cycle, or the time required for a cell to divide.

When the cell cycle accelerates to a certain speed, the barriers that keep a cell's fate on one path diminish. In such a state, cells are easily persuaded to change their identity and become pluripotent, or capable of becoming multiple cell types

"One analogy may be that when temperature increases to sufficient degrees, even a very hard piece of steel can be malleable so that you can give it a new shape easily," said Shangqin Guo, assistant professor of cell biology at the Yale Stem Cell Center and lead author of the paper. "Once cells are cycling extremely fast, they do not seem to face the same barriers to becoming pluripotent."

Guo's team studied blood-forming cells, which when dividing undergo specific changes in their cell cycle to produce new blood cells. Blood-forming progenitor cells normally produce only new blood cells. However, the introduction of Yamanaka factors sometimes but not always help these blood-forming cells become other types of cells. The new report finds that after this treatment blood-forming cells tend to become pluripotent when the cell cycle is completed in eight hours or less, an unusual speed for adult cells. Cells that cycle more slowly remain blood cells.

"This discovery changes the way people think about how to change cell fate and reveals that a basic 'house-keeping' function of a cell, such as its cell cycle length, can actually have a major impact on switching the fate of a cell," said Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center.

Go here to see the original:
Cell cycle speed is key to making aging cells young again

Best Candidate for Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Techniques?
Dr Robert Wagner discusses the profile of the best candidate for stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine techniques. To learn more, visit http://www.stemcellarts,com.

By: StemCell ARTS

Read more here:
Best Candidate for Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Techniques? - Video

AAP Scientists in Ireland aim to produce adult cells to combat conditions like arthritis.

Stem cells for human use are to be made in a university lab in the first medical program of its kind in Ireland.

Scientists behind the new facility at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway will aim to produce adult cells to combat conditions like arthritis, heart disease and diabetes.

Stem cells created at the lab will be used in clinical trials following regulatory approval - the first of which is to test their effects on critical limb ischemia, a common complication associated with diabetes which often results in amputation.

The cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), will undergo safety tests after being isolated from bone marrow from donors and grown in the laboratory to generate sufficient quantities.

The university said it will position it as a global player in regenerative medicine.

NUI Galway's Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland is the first facility in Ireland to receive a licence from the Irish Medicines Board to manufacture culture-expanded stem cells for human use.

And it is one of less than half a dozen in Europe authorised for the process.

"Developing Galway's role as med-tech hub of global standing, the Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland captures NUI Galway's commitment to bring bold ideas to life," said NUI Galway president Dr Jim Browne.

"Innovation can bridge the gap between patient and provider and meet the needs of industry and the wider society in a balanced way."

More here:
Ireland university lab in stem cells move

Embryonic stem cells have been highly valued for their ability to turn into any type of cell in the body.

Stem cells can be manufactured for human use for the first time in Ireland, following Irish Medicines Board licensing of a new facility in Galway.

NUI Galways Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland aims to culture adult stem cells to tackle conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, diabetes and associated conditions.

The centre, which is one of less than half a dozen in Europe authorised for stem cell manufacture, has been developed by researchers at NUIGs regenerative medicine institute.

Stem cells serve as the bodys repair mechanism. They can be isolated from tissues such as bone marrow and fat, and cultured in laboratory settings.

More controversially, embryonic stem cells have been highly valued for their ability to turn into any type of cell in the body, but scientists can now use reprogrammed adult skin cells to create a stem cell that is very similar to embryonic versions.

The centre will be opened today by Minister of State for Research and Innovation Sen Sherlock, at a time when the Health Research Board and Science Foundation Ireland have approved funding there for clinical trials on using mesenchymal stem cells cells that can differentiate into a variety of types for treatment of critical limb ischemia, a condition associated with diabetes that can result in amputation.

The new centres director Prof Tim OBrien explained that the stem cells must be grown in the laboratory to generate sufficient quantities, following their isolation from the bone marrow of adult donors, and the facility will help Ireland to develop therapies for a broad range of clinical problems which do not have effective treatments today.

It will also allow us to translate discoveries from the basic stem cell research programme led by Prof Frank Barry at the Science Foundation Ireland-funded REMEDI to the clinic, and to be competitive for grant funding under the Horizon 2020 programme of the EU, he said.

Stem cell research in Ireland is in what scientists have described as a legislative lacuna, but this relates to use of embryonic stem cells and does not in any way inhibit the use of adult stem cells, Prof OBrien explained.

See the original post here:
Island’s first stem cell manufacturing centre approved at NUI Galway

CALGARY- A Winnipeg paramedic has become the first Canadian to take part in an international clinical trial involving the treatment of spinal cord injuries using stem cells.

Alex Petric was injured last year during a winter vacation in Panama.

I misjudged the water and just dove in, the 29-year-old recalls. I hit shallow water and became paralyzed immediately.

Petric, now a paraplegic, became involved with the trial just four months after his injury.

Its a phase one trial which means that its looking at the safety and tolerability of the procedure, explains Dr. Steve Casha, medical team lead for the University of Calgary.

A Swiss company, calledStem Cells Incorporatedis the driving force behind the research. A team in Switzerland has already treated eight other spinal cord patients.

During the trial, researchers must first identify the precise location of Petrics spinal cord injury. Then, stem cells are injected into two sites above and two sites below the injury to hopefully recreate lost tissue.

What these cells will hopefully do, and what they seem to do from previous clinical studies is take up residence in the spinal cord. They are a self-renewing population and they can differentiate or become various cells, Dr. Casha explains.

While the first phase of the trial focuses on safety, the ultimate goal is to develop a cure for spinal cord injuries. So far, two patients in the study have regained sensation.

Petric says his expectations are realistic, but his dream is to walk again.

Originally posted here:
New trial offers new hope for those with spinal cord injuries

stem cell therapy treatment for cerebral palsy sri lanka by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india
improvement seen in just 3 months after stem cell therapy treatment for cerebral palsy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india. Stem Cell Therapy done date 4/10/201...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

See more here:
stem cell therapy treatment for cerebral palsy sri lanka by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

A team of international researchers has turned to stem cells in a quest to find an a more effective treatment for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). The new method being investigated involves using the patients own bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to boost immune response and heal damaged tissue.

Multi-drug resistant TB effects around 450,000 in Eastern Europe, Asia, and South Africa according to the World Health Organization, and conventional treatments have a low rate of success.

Currently in its preliminary stages, the study is designed to investigate the possibility that MSCs can help organs to regulate themselves and repair damaged or traumatized tissues. Specifically in this case, the stem cells migrate to the lung with TB bacteria inflammation and improve the immune response to help the body get rid of the bacteria.

Between September 2009 and June 2011, the study looked at 30 patients from a specialist center in Minsk, Belarus, whose age varied from 21 to 65 years old, and who were resistant to TB drugs. They chose Belarus because of the high rate of resistant tuberculosis (76 percent) among treated patients in that region. They also observed 30 patients who met the inclusion criteria and who opted not to have MSC therapy.

Besides giving patients the anti-TB antibiotics, the researchers collected cells from their own bone marrow, cultured them and introduced them back into the patient within four weeks of the start of the anti-TB drug treatment. Eighteen months later, the rate of cure for patients who received MSC therapy was more than three times higher compared with those who didnt get treated with the cells.

MSC therapy produced a few side effects, which the researchers considered mild. Fourteen patients had high cholesterol, 11 patients suffered from nausea while 10 others had lymphopenia (low level of lymphocytes in the blood) or diarrhoea.

The researchers noted MSC cells harvested from TB patients did not present any aberrant features in comparison with those extracted from healthy donors. Neither did the anti-TB drugs seem to have a negative impact on the harvest. Concerns over the risk of suppressing an immune response, leading to the worsening of tuberculosis, did not materialize. However, they highlight that future studies would need to assess whether certain anti-M tuberculosis drug combinations or concomitant M. tuberculosis infection (a type of TB infection) could have an impact.

The results of this novel and exciting study show that the current challenges and difficulties of treating multi-drug resistant TB are not insurmountable, and they bring a unique opportunity with a fresh solution to treat hundreds of thousands of people who die unnecessarily of drug-resistant TB," says co-author Professor Alimuddin Zumla. "Further evaluation in phase 2 trials is now urgently required to ascertain efficacy and further safety in different geographical regions such as South Africa where multi-drug resistant and extensively-drug resistant TB are rife.

Details of the study are published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Source: UCL

Continued here:
Stem cells could offer alternative treatment for patients with resistant tuberculosis

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise DALLAS Jan. 22, 2014 Scientists have known for years that stem cells in male and female sexual organs are regulated differently by their respective hormones. In a surprising discovery, researchers at the Childrens Medical Center Research Institute at UTSouthwestern (CRI) and Baylor College of Medicine have found that stem cells in the blood-forming system which is similar in both sexes also are regulated differently by hormones, with estrogen proving to be an especially prolific promoter of stem cell self-renewal.

The research, published in Nature, raises several intriguing possibilities for further investigation that might lead to improved treatments for blood cancers and increased safety and effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Before the finding, blood-forming stem cells were thought to be regulated similarly in both males and females, according to the papers senior author, Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of CRI, Professor of Pediatrics, and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UTSouthwestern Medical Center.

However, while working in Dr. Morrisons laboratory as postdoctoral fellows, Dr. Daisuke Nakada, the first and co-corresponding author of the study, and Dr. Hideyuki Oguro discovered that blood-forming stem cells divide more frequently in females than in males due to higher estrogen levels. The research, conducted using mice, demonstrated that the activity of blood-forming stem cells was regulated by systemic hormonal signals in addition to being regulated by local changes within the blood-forming system.

This discovery explains how red blood cell production is augmented during pregnancy, said Dr. Morrison. In female mice, estrogen increases the proliferation of blood-forming stem cells in preparation for pregnancy. Elevated estrogen levels that are sustained during pregnancy induce stem cell mobilization and red cell production in the spleen, which serves as a reserve site for additional red blood cell production.

The study involved treating male and female mice over a period of several days with amounts of estrogen needed to achieve a level consistent with pregnancy. When an estrogen receptor that is present within blood-forming stem cells was deleted from those cells, they were no longer able to respond to estrogen, nor were they able to increase red blood cell production. The results demonstrate that estrogen acts directly on the stem cells to increase their proliferation and the number of red blood cells they generate.

If estrogen has the same effect on stem cells in humans as in mice, then this effect raises a number of possibilities that could change the way we treat people with diseases of blood cell-formation, said Dr. Morrison. Can we promote regeneration in the blood-forming system by administering estrogen? Can we reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy to the blood-forming system by taking into account estrogen levels in female patients? Does estrogen promote the growth of some blood cancers? There are numerous clinical opportunities to pursue.

Research support for Dr. Morrison came from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT); the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and donors to Childrens Medical Center Foundation. Dr. Nakada is now a CPRIT Scholar and Assistant Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. The research was initiated in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan and completed at Baylor College of Medicine and CRI.

Read the rest here:
Scientists Find That Estrogen Promotes Blood-Forming Stem Cell Function

Stem Cell, Eye Stem Cell,Copd Stem Cell
http://yourservice.us/jeunesseglobal.html Stem cell therapy is an intervention strategy that introduces new adult stem cells into damaged tissue in order to ...

By: Agus Saifudin

Here is the original post:
Stem Cell, Eye Stem Cell,Copd Stem Cell - Video

Crystalbartonnyc, Anti Aging Routine,Blind Girl Headed To China For Stem Cell Surgery
http://yourservice.us/jeunesseglobal.html Stem cell therapy is an intervention strategy that introduces new adult stem cells into damaged tissue in order to ...

By: Agus Saifudin

Originally posted here:
Crystalbartonnyc, Anti Aging Routine,Blind Girl Headed To China For Stem Cell Surgery - Video

Eye Stem Cell, Copd Stem Cell, Burt Stem Cell, Sarah Palin on Stem Cell Research
http://yourservice.us/jeunesseglobal.html Stem cell therapy is an intervention strategy that introduces new adult stem cells into damaged tissue in order to ...

By: Agus Saifudin

See the original post here:
Eye Stem Cell, Copd Stem Cell, Burt Stem Cell, Sarah Palin on Stem Cell Research - Video