PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

26-Nov-2014

Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center @sumedicine

Induced pluripotent stem cells made from patients with a form of blistering skin disease can be genetically corrected and used to grow back healthy skin cells in laboratory dishes, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. They've termed the new technique "therapeutic reprogramming."

The skin cells formed normal human skin when grafted onto the backs of laboratory mice, they said.

The findings represent a major advance in the battle against the disease, epidermolysis bullosa, in which the top layer of skin, called the epidermis, sloughs off with the slightest friction, leaving open wounds that are difficult to heal. Severely stricken children who survive into their late teens or early 20s often die from invasive squamous cell carcinoma, a skin cancer that can arise during repeated cycles of skin wounding and healing.

"Epidermolysis bullosa is a truly horrible, debilitating skin disease in which the top layer of skin is not properly anchored to the underlying layers," said Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology. "When they are born, the trauma of birth rips away their skin, and they continue to suffer severe skin wounds that require constant bandaging and medical attention throughout their lives."

Stanford has one of the largest epidermolysis bullosa clinics in the world, with an extremely active and engaged population of patients and their families eager to help researchers. The Stanford Department of Dermatology has been working to find new treatments for the disease for over 20 years. The latest advance, in which researchers replaced the mutated, disease-causing gene in the donor-made induced pluripotent stem cells with a healthy version, was funded by an $11.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

New avenue of treatment

"This treatment approach represents an entirely new paradigm for this disease," Oro said. "Normally, treatment has been confined to surgical approaches to repair damaged skin, or medical approaches to prevent and repair damage. But by replacing the faulty gene with a correct version in stem cells, and then converting those corrected stem cells to keratinocytes, we have the possibility of achieving a permanent fix -- replacing damaged areas with healthy, perfectly matched skin grafts."

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Blistering skin disease may be treatable with 'therapeutic reprogramming,' researchers say

CINCINNATI -- The daughter of a Cincinnati Bengal who has already been through a lot spent another day in the hospital for treatment Tuesday.

Leah Still -- Devon Stills daughter -- underwent a stem cell transplant procedure at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The stem cell treatment is an effort to regenerate her bone marrow and stem cells.

Stem cells definitely smell like corn...yall wasn't lying

Still flew to Philadelphia Monday to be with Leah. They went shopping at a mall.

The smile you have after shutting down the mall, literally. This girl had security and the... http://t.co/HHWtLhf4pf pic.twitter.com/QFRMJsdlCX

Still tweeted another photo Tuesday while they waited for her treatment to begin.

Selfies in the hospital to pass time by as we wait for the stem cells http://t.co/q6JZOIyi9q pic.twitter.com/ogB0J0Gitg

Leah was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in June. She had surgery to remove a tumor from her abdomen in September, followed by chemotherapy to try to remove the cancer from her bone marrow.

She has already been treated with a round of chemotherapy and radiation.

Still said the family hopes that will be her only round of chemo and radiation but that it depends on how her results come back. He said it will take four to six weeks to determine if more treatments are necessary.

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Leah Still to undergo stem cell therapy

Calorie counts mandated at chain restaurants Calorie counts mandated at chain restaurants

New rules announced Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will have many restaurant chains posting calorie counts on their menus, and the rules even apply to movie theater popcorn and ice cream parlor fare.

New rules announced Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will have many restaurant chains posting calorie counts on their menus, and the rules even apply to movie theater popcorn and ice cream parlor fare.

Eating a serving a day of yogurt may lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

Eating a serving a day of yogurt may lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

Dutch researchers have developed a device that may reduce the discomfort many women feel during a mammogram while preserving the quality of the image.

Dutch researchers have developed a device that may reduce the discomfort many women feel during a mammogram while preserving the quality of the image.

A brain abnormality may be responsible for more than 40 percent of deaths from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a new study suggests.

A brain abnormality may be responsible for more than 40 percent of deaths from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a new study suggests.

Driving a large vehicle and being a young male are among the factors that improve a person's chances of surviving a car crash, a new study finds.

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Researchers find stem cells that help nails regenerate

Freeport, Grand Bahama (PRWEB) November 25, 2014

Okyanos, the leader in cell therapy, announced the adoption of body-jet eco for use in the harvesting of adult stem cells for use in cell therapy. The Okyanos procedure begins with the extraction of a small amount of body fat, a process done using advanced water-jet assisted liposuction technology. The body-jet eco system is utilized during this procedure and allows a larger number of viable adult stem cells to be harvested. After separating the cells from fat tissue, the Okyanos medical doctor immediately injects these cells into and around the area needing treatment allowing targeting of the cells to repair damaged tissue.

According to Dr. Todd Malan, Chief Cell Therapy Officer and General Surgeon at Okyanos, who was involved in helping develop the appropriate settings of the body-jet eco use in adult stem cell harvesting, The body-jet eco was used during our first stem cell procedure at Okyanos. It performed flawlessly as expected and we feel it meets our tough standards. This is much gentler and more precise, making the overall procedure faster with less trauma to the surrounding tissue and less diversion of the adult stem cells from the intended area.

The body-jet eco is part of the water-jet assisted liposuction (WAL) family of devices, which detaches the fat gently from the tissue structure using a flat, fan-shaped water jet spray. The surrounding connective tissue, nerves and blood vessels remain in-tact which makes this procedure much gentler on the patient and leads to a quicker recovery with less pain medication required. The WAL process has a very high viability of fat cells and stem cells with a high take rate after fat grafting. The WAL family of devices is manufactured by human med AG with its headquarters in Schwerin, Germany, and distributed in North America by CAREstream America with its headquarters in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

Because the treatment is minimally invasive it requires that patients be under only moderate sedation. Post-procedural recovery consists of rest in a private suite for several hours that comfortably accommodates up to 3 family members.

Patients can contact Okyanos at http://www.okyanos.com or by calling toll free at 1-855-659-2667.

About CAREstream America: CAREstream America began in 2013 and is a division of CAREstream Medical Ltd, which has serviced Canadian customers respiratory and anesthesia needs for over 15 years. CAREstream America retains North American distribution rights to the full water-jet assisted human med AG product line. CAREstream America is the premier distributor of Aesthetic product lines ranging from water-jet assisted technology to vascular access imaging to nitrous oxide analgesia which help shape the body, showcase the veins and relieve the pain and anxiety of aesthetic procedures.

About Dr. Malan: Todd Malan, MD, serves as the Chief Cell Therapy Officer and General Surgeon at Okyanos Heart Institute, overseeing the liposuction and stem cell isolation step of the Okyanos cardiac cell therapy process. Known as an innovative cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Malans practices combine the most progressive and minimally-traumatic liposuction technologies available. A pioneer of fat-derived stem cell therapies, he became the first physician in the US to utilize stem cells from fat for soft tissue reconstruction in October, 2009, combining water-assisted liposuction, fat transfer and adult stem cell technologies.

About Okyanos: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Okyanos brings a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease, tissue ischemia, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic neurological and orthopedic conditions. Okyanos Cell Therapy utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from patients own adipose (fat) tissue which helps improve blood flow, moderate destructive immune response and prevent further cell death. Okyanos is fully licensed under the Bahamas Stem Cell Therapy and Research Act and adheres to U.S. surgical center standards. The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of the river Okyanos, symbolizes restoration of blood flow.

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Okyanos Adopts WAL/ body-jet eco for Use in Cell Therapy

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Newswise In a study led by Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research member, Dr. John Chute, UCLA scientists have for the first time identified a unique protein that plays a key role in regulating blood stem cell replication in humans.

This discovery lays the groundwork for a better understanding of how this protein controls blood stem cell growth and regeneration, and could lead to the development of more effective therapies for a wide range of blood diseases and cancers.

The study was published online November 21, 2014 ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the blood-forming cells that have the remarkable capacity to both self-renew and give rise to all of the differentiated cells (fully developed cells) of the blood system. HSC transplantation provides curative therapy for thousands of patients annually. However, little is known about the process through which transplanted HSCs replicate following their arrival in human bone marrow. In this study, the authors showed that a cell surface protein called protein tyrosine phosphatase-sigma (PTP-sigma) regulates the critical process called engraftment, meaning how HSCs start to grow and make health blood cells after transplantation.

Mamle Quarmyne, a graduate student the lab of Dr. Chute and first author of the study, demonstrated that PTP-sigma is produced (expressed) on a high percentage of mouse and human HSCs. She showed further that genetic deletion of PTP-sigma in mice markedly increased the ability of HSCs to engraft in transplanted mice.

In a complementary study, she demonstrated that selection of human blood HSCs which did not express PTP-sigma led to a 15-fold increase in HSC engraftment in transplanted immune-deficient mice. Taken together, these studies showed that PTP-sigma suppresses normal HSC engraftment capacity and targeted blockade of PTP-sigma can substantially improve mouse and human HSC engraftment after transplantation.

Chute and colleagues showed further that PTP-sigma regulates HSC function by suppressing a protein, RAC1, which is known to promote HSC engraftment after transplantation.

These findings have tremendous therapeutic potential since we have identified a new receptor on HSCs, PTP-sigma, which can be specifically targeted as a means to potently increase the engraftment of transplanted HSCs in patients, said Chute, senior author of the study and UCLA Professor of Hematology/Oncology and Radiation Oncology. This approach can also potentially accelerate hematologic recovery in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation, which also suppress the blood and immune systems.

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UCLA Researchers Unlock Protein Key to Harnessing Regenerative Power of Blood Stem Cells

Stem Cell Therapy: Dr. Roberta Shapiro - A NY Physician #39;s Path to Panama
Special Guest Speaker, Roberta F. Shapiro DO, FAAPM R speaks about: A New York Doctor #39;s Path to Panama at the Stem Cell Institute #39;s Stem Cell Therapy Publi...

By: http://www.cellmedicine.com

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Stem Cell Therapy: Dr. Roberta Shapiro - A NY Physician's Path to Panama - Video

Durham, NC (PRWEB) November 20, 2014

With more soldiers returning from combat suffering devastating injuries, doctors are turning to a reconstructive surgery that uses tissue transplantation along with immuno-suppression therapy. This approach has had encouraging results; however, rejection of transplanted tissue from an unmatched donor remains a critical complication. A new study found in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine reports that researchers may have found a way around that.

We demonstrated in mice that a single infusion of adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC) which are stem cells taken from fat in a minimally invasive procedure from an unmatched donor combined with an extremely low dose of bone marrow cells resulted in stable long-term tolerance of the skin graft without undo consequences such as graft versus host disease, said Thomas Davis, Ph.D., a contractor from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation who is working at the Naval Medical Research Centers Regenerative Medicine Department. Dr. Davis is lead author of the study.

He added, As we move forward, we are cautiously optimistic, appreciating that the transition from these laboratory models to proof-of-principle preclinical studies is challenging and not straightforward. If successful, the technology has diverse therapeutic applications in clinical transplantation in both military and civilian settings.

The research team wanted to try using ASCs because these cells have proven to be more potent than bone marrow and cord-blood derived stem cells when it comes to inhibiting the bodys rejection of transplantations from an unmatched donor. They conducted the study by doing skin grafts in mice. One group of grafted mice received no stem cell transfusions; one group received human-derived ASCs after the graft occurred; and another group received a combination of human ASCs and stem cells harvested from the mouses own bone marrow, also after placement of the graft.

More than 200 days later, the combination of human ASC and limited numbers of blood marrow stem cells effectively prevented rejection, with no evidence of graft versus host disease, Dr. Davis reported.

Navy Capt. Eric A. Elster, M.D., professor and chair of the surgery department at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, helped lead the study. ASC constitutively produced high levels of anti-inflammatory/immunoregulatory factors, he said. While further work is needed to validate this approach in other laboratory models before clinical trials can begin, the ability to use ASC, which are non-donor specific and clinically feasible, to induce tolerance opens a new horizon in transplantation.

The implications of this research are broad, said Anthony Atala, MD, editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. If these findings are duplicated in additional models and in human trials, there is potential to apply this strategy to many areas of transplantation.

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This article, Adipose-derived Stromal Cells Promote Allograft Tolerance Induction, and more can be accessed at http://www.stemcellsTM.com.

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Fat and Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells Combo Shows Promise in Preventing Transplant Rejection

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Newswise NEW YORK November 20, 2014 The National Eye Institute (NEI), a division of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai a five-year grant that will support an effort to re-create a patients ocular stem cells and restore vision in those blinded by corneal disease.

About six million people worldwide have been blinded by burns, trauma, infection, genetic diseases, and chronic inflammation that result in corneal stem cell death and corneal scarring. There are currently no treatments for related vision loss that are effective over the long term. Corneal stem cell transplantation is an option in the short term, but availability of donor corneas is limited, and patients must take medications that suppress their immune systems for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection of the transplanted tissue.

A newer proposed treatment option is the replacement of corneal stem cells to restore vision. The grant from the NEI will fund Mount Sinai research to re-create a patients own stem cells and restore vision in those blinded by corneal disease. Technological advances in recent years have enabled researchers to take mature cells, in this case eyelid or oral skin cells, and coax them backward along the development pathways to become stem cells again. These eye-specific stem cells would then be redirected down pathways that become needed replacements for damaged cells in the cornea, in theory restoring vision.

Our findings will allow the creation of transplantable eye tissue that can restore the ocular surface, said Albert Y. Wu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and principle investigator for the grant-funded effort. In the future, we will be able to re-create a patients own corneal stem cells to restore vision after being blind, added Dr. Wu, also Director of the Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory in the Department of Ophthalmology and a member of the Black Family Stem Cell Institute at Icahn School of Medicine. Since the stem cells are their own, patients will not require immunosuppressive drugs, which would greatly improve their quality of life.

Specifically, the grant will support efforts to discover new stem cell therapies for ocular surface disease and make regenerative medicine a reality for people who have lost their vision. The research team will investigate the most viable stem cell sources, seek to create ocular stem cells from eyelid or oral skin cells, explore the molecular pathways involved in ocular and orbital development, and develop cutting-edge biomaterials to engraft a patients own stem cells and restore vision.

Other investigators from Mount Sinai include Ihor Lemischka, PhD, Director, Black Family Stem Cell Institute and J. Mario Wolosin, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology. The research is supported by NEI grant EY023997.

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Mount Sinai Researchers Awarded $1 Million Grant to Find New Stem Cell Therapies for Vision Recovery

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Newswise UCLA stem cell researchers have pioneered a stem cell gene therapy cure for children born with adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), often called Bubble Baby disease, a life-threatening condition that if left untreated can be fatal within the first year of life.

The groundbreaking treatment was developed by renowned stem cell researcher and UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research member Dr. Donald Kohn, whose breakthrough was developed over three decades of research to create a gene therapy that safely restores immune systems in children with ADA-deficient SCID using the patients own cells with no side effects.

To date, 18 children with SCID have been cured of the disease after receiving the stem cell gene therapy in clinical trials at UCLA and the National Institutes of Health.

All of the children with SCID that I have treated in these stem cell clinical trials would have died in a year or less without this gene therapy, instead they are all thriving with fully functioning immune systems said Kohn, a professor of pediatrics and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in Life Sciences.

To protect children born with SCID they are kept in isolation, in controlled environments because without an immune system they are extremely vulnerable to illness and infection that could be lethal.

Other current options for treating ADA-deficient SCID are not always optimal or feasible for many children, said Kohn. We can now, for the first time, offer these children and their families a cure, and the chance to live a full healthy life.

Defeating ADA-Deficient SCID: A Game-Changing Approach

Children born with SCID, an inherited immunodeficiency, are generally diagnosed at about six months. They are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases, and in a child with ADA-deficient SCID even the common cold can prove fatal. The disease causes cells to not create an enzyme called ADA, which is critical for production of the healthy white blood cells that drive a normal, fully-functioning immune system. About 15 percent of all SCID patients are ADA-deficient.

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UCLA Stem Cell Researcher Pioneers Gene Therapy Cure for Children with "Bubble Baby" Disease

New York, New York (PRWEB) November 17, 2014

Beyond Batten Disease Foundation (BBDF) and the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) have been selected as a national innovator by the Milken Institute and will present their breakthrough findings about juvenile Batten disease at the 6th annual Partnering for Cures, November 16-18 in New York City. The presentation will highlight the collaborative efforts of NYSCF, BBDF and Batten Disease Support and Research Association.

Craig and Charlotte Benson established Beyond Batten Disease Foundation in August 2008 after their then five-year-old daughter, Christiane, was diagnosed with juvenile Batten disease. Together with hundreds of families affected by Batten disease, and many more supporters who share their hope and resolve, they are working tirelessly to create a brighter future for Christiane, and all children with Batten disease.

Watch the Benson Family story:

The Benson Family Story

Beyond Batten Disease and the New York Stem Cell Foundation hope to ramp up funding and partnerships to develop stem cell resources to investigate and explore new treatments and ultimately find a cure for juvenile Batten disease, a fatal illness-affecting children as they convene at the FasterCures, conference. The Washington, D.C.-based center of the Milken Institute will bring together nearly 1,000 medical research leaders, investors and decision-makers to forge the collaborations needed to speed and improve outcomes-driven R&D. NYSCF scientists have created the first iPS cells from a neurological disease and the first ever stem cell disease model from any disease. This discovery was named Time Magazine #1 breakthrough in 2008 because it was the first time anyone has made stem cells from a person with a disease and used them to produce the type of cell that degenerated in that patient. Again, in 2012 Time Magazine recognized the Beyond Batten Disease Foundations creation of a rate genetic disease test as a top ten medical breakthrough.

We know the genetic mutations associated with juvenile Batten disease. This partnership will result in stem cell models of juvenile Batten, giving researchers an unprecedented look at how the disease develops, speeding research towards a cure, said Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF Chief Executive Officer.

Working with NYSCF to generate functional neuronal subtypes from patients and families is a stellar example of one of our key strategies in the fight against juvenile Batten disease: creating resource technology with the potential to transform juvenile Batten disease research and accelerate our timeline to a cure, said Danielle M. Kerkovich, PhD, BBDF Principal Scientist.

Juvenile Batten disease begins in early childhood between the ages of five and ten. Initial symptoms typically begin with progressive vision loss, followed by personality changes, behavioral problems, and slowed learning. These symptoms are followed by a progressive loss of motor functions, eventually resulting in wheelchair use and premature death. Seizures and psychiatric symptoms can develop at any point in the disease.

Juvenile Batten disease is one disorder in a group of rare, fatal, inherited disorders known as Batten disease. Over 40 different errors (mutations) in the CLN3 segment of DNA (gene) have been attributed to juvenile Batten disease. The pathological hallmark of juvenile Batten is a buildup of lipopigment in the bodys tissues. It is not known why lipopigment accumulates or why brain and eventually, heart cells are selectively damaged. It is, however, clear that we need disease-specific tools that reflect human disease in order to figure this out and to build therapy.

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Beyond Batten Disease Foundation and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Chosen as a National Innovator by the Milken ...

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Newswise Led by Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research member Dr. Hanna Mikkola, UCLA scientists have discovered a unique protein that is integral to the self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) during human development.

This discovery lays the groundwork for researchers to generate HSCs in the lab (in vitro) that better mirror those that develop in their natural environment (in vivo). This could lead to improved therapies for blood-related diseases and cancers by enabling the creation of patient-specific blood stem cells for transplantation.

The findings are reported online November 13, 2014, ahead of print in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

The research community has long sought to harness the promise of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to overcome a significant roadblock in making cell-based therapies blood and immune diseases more broadly available, which has been hampered by the inability to generate and expand human HSCs in culture. HSCs are the blood forming cells that serve as the critical link between PSCs and fully differentiated cells of the blood system. The ability of HSCs to self-renew (replicate themselves) and differentiate to all blood cell types, is determined in part by the environment that the stem cell came from, called the niche.

In the five-year study, Mikkola and Drs. Sacha Prashad and Vincenzo Calvanese, members of Mikkolas lab and lead authors of the study, investigated a unique HSC surface protein called GPI-80. They found that it was produced by a specific subpopulation of human fetal hematopoietic cells that were the only group that could self-renew and differentiate into various blood cell types. They also found that this subpopulation of hematopoietic cells was the sole population able to permanently integrate into and thrive within the blood system of a recipient mouse.

Mikkola and colleagues further discovered that GPI-80 identifies HSCs during multiple phases of human HSC development and migration. These include the early first trimester of fetal development when newly generated HSCs can be found in the placenta, and the second trimester when HSCs are actively replicating in the fetal liver and the fetal bone marrow.

We found that whatever HSC niche we investigated, we could use GPI-80 as the best determinant to find the stem cell as it was being generated or colonized different hematopoietic tissues, said Mikkola, associate professor of molecular, cell and development biology at UCLA and also a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Moreover, loss of GPI-80 caused the stem cells to differentiate. This essentially tells us that GPI-80 must be present to make HSCs. We now have a very unique marker for investigating how human hematopoietic cells develop, migrate and function.

Mikkolas team is actively exploring different stages of human HSC development and PSC differentiation based on the GPI-80 marker, and comparing how blood stem cells are being generated in vitro and in vivo. This paves the way for scientists to redirect PSCs into patient-specific HSCs for transplantation into the patient without the need to find a suitable donor.

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UCLA Researchers Identify Unique Protein Key to the Development of Blood Stem Cells

AP Glowing: Model Kate Moss

For someone who has mature skin, it is annoying watching 20-somethings with blemish-less complexions worrying about wrinkles and crowfeet. No one seems to be concerned about those over 40 who, for the better part of their 20s and 30s, were busy cooking, cleaning and washing up instead of pandering to their skin.

So when Page 3 Salon, in Race Course, issued an invitation to try its new award-winning skin therapy for mature skin all the way from Spain, one jumped at it. It is supposed to be the same treatment celebrities such as Elton John, Penelope Cruz, Jemima Khan and Kate Moss use to keep their skin glowing and young.

If you have mature skin, this treatment is the one for you, says a spokesperson for the brand Skeyndor (meaning golden skin), who was in Coimbatore recently to promote the product and train the beauty therapists at Page 3 the correct way to use the products. Skeyndor has over 200 products to suit other skin types, too. R&D is the companys strength and it is also one of the first in the cosmetic industry to use nano-technology for skin care.

She says, comfortingly, that my skin is still not too bad and sits me down to explain what I can do to keep it from aging too fast.

The special facial that is recommended for me uses products that are gentle on the skin and one particular treatment that has the same effect as Botox. And, without being invasive at all. Before the facial commences a photograph is taken focussing on the problem areas of the skin. And once the hour-plus, soothing treatment is done (so soothing that I fall asleep), it is time for another photograph. And strangely enough, even the sceptic in me has to admit there is a discernible difference in skin texture. It felt more elastic and from the photographs I could tell there were fewer few lines.

The beautician recommends a series of facials at regular intervals (depending on the condition of the skin and the amount of repair it needs). The salon will make a schedule for you and remind you when it is time to come for a treatment. The salon also provides you with tips on home care. Page 3 offers two high-end special facials. Both sound tempting: One is called Revisit your youth and the other Turn Back Time.

Anyone who is 35 plus can go for the Turn Back Time facial, says Shan of Page 3. This treatment is supposed to arrest ageing and promote the production of epidermal stem cells. It holds off the fine lines, wrinkles and sagging. Revisit Your Youth on the other hand is corrective. It promises to reduce the crows feet and lines that have already appeared on your face. The products in this line work like Botox without being invasive, says Shan.

The products are available at the salon. For appointments and details call:0422-4393333/4223331

What is mature skin?

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A mature approach

Dopamine-making neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells.

See correction at end of article.

A rat model of Parkinson's disease has been successfully treated with neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells, according to a study led by Swedish scientists. Its a promising sign for scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Scripps Health who hope to perform similar therapy on Parkinsons patients, using artificial embryonic stem cells.

In rats and people, neurons that make the neurotransmitter dopamine are essential for normal movement. The cells are destroyed in Parkinson's, leading to the difficulty in movement that characterizes the disease.

Researchers transplanted dopamine-producing cells grown from human embryonic stem cells into the brains of rats whose own dopamine-making neurons had been destroyed. The rats were immune-suppressed so they would not reject the cells. Within five months, the transplanted cells boosted dopamine production to normal levels, restoring normal movement in the rats.

The study was published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The senior author was Malin Parmar of Lund University in Lund, Sweden.

The results support the Scripps approach of using the artificial embryonic stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, said Jeanne Loring, who heads the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. Loring is part of a group called Summit 4 Stem Cell that's raising funds to treat eight Parkinson's patients with their own IPS cells.

Particularly significant is the study's comparison of the effects of dopamine-making neurons derived from fetal cells to that of embryonic stem cells, Loring said by email.

"In the 1980s and 1990s, there were several clinical trials that showed that grafts of fetal brain containing the precursors of dopamine neurons could reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease in some patients," Loring said. "We, and the others developing stem cell therapies, based our plans on the results of those studies, but no one had ever directly compared fetal tissue and human pluripotent stem cell-derived dopamine neurons in an animal model of PD."

Induced pluripotent stem cells appear to have much the same capacity as human embryonic stem cells to generate different tissues and organs.

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Parkinson's stem cell therapy works in rats

The day Olivia Cox was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 16, her mother vowed to find a cure.

"I said to her, "there's someone walking this Earth who has been cured of diabetes, and I'm going to find him," Ruth Cox said.

Cox's search started with a call to Harvard University and ended with a family trip to Lima, Peru. It was at a clinic there that now 18-year-old Olivia and her father, Jeff, 54, who also has diabetes, received an infusion of stem cells designed to wipe out diabetes in their bodies or, at the very least, lessen its impact. The treatment illegal in the United States cost $70,000 for both father and daughter. Two months later, the Niskayuna family is waiting for a transformation and wondering if, in their desperation for a cure, they were snookered by false promises.

Because stem cells can be programmed to become anything from heart muscle to toenails, stem cell therapy can hypothetically be used to treat anything, from baldness to Lou Gehrig's Disease. But the study of regenerative medicine is still nascent in the United States, where it is restricted to procedures that use the patient's own cells, and it has been primarily used in treating cancer a procedure that saved Ruth Cox 13 years ago, when she had breast cancer.

Stem cell treatment using donor cells is more common elsewhere in the world, but with varying results and none that could be described as a cure. An executive order from President Barack Obama opened up funding for stem cell research and there are now more than 4,000 clinical trials under way, some on animals and some recruiting people with various ailments.

The American Diabetes Association strongly supports stem cell research, according to a statement posted on its website, which reads in part:

"Scientists from across the United States and throughout the world, including those involved with the American Diabetes Association believe that stem cell research, especially embryonic stem cell research, holds great promise in the search for a cure and better treatments for diabetes."

Jeff Cox, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 11, has suffered none of the complications that often come with the disease neuropathy, loss of vision and heart disease. But Cox said living with diabetes is hell. He pricks his finger at least a dozen times a day to check his blood sugar level, because it is a more precise reading than the glucose monitor he wears. He also wears a pump that he programs to inject him with insulin automatically based on his diet and exercise each day. All the therapies used to treat diabetes are designed to intervene where the pancreas has gone awry.

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas doesn't produce insulin due to an autoimmune attack against the beta cell that produces insulin the hormone that converts glucose into energy our bodies need to survive. The Coxes didn't want their daughter to face a lifetime of managing her diabetes. They wanted a cure, and they were willing to take a risk to find it.

In order to treat diabetes with stem cell therapy, pancreatic stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood that are programmed to produce insulin, plus autologous mesenchymal stem cells from the patient's bone marrow, are injected. Once in the pancreas, the cells are supposed to replicate themselves, gradually replacing the non-insulin producing cells in the host's pancreas. The treatment is conducted in Peru, China, Russia and India and elsewhere, but Zubin Master, a bioethicist at Albany Medical College, said the risks of traveling abroad for stem cell therapy range from paying for an expensive treatment that doesn't work, to cancer and death.

Read more from the original source:
Family's desperate bet on a diabetes cure

Published November 07, 2014

A team of stem cell scientists has identified the biological mechanisms of Parkinsons disease and recreated a model of the disease in a dish.

Researchers at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute studied a pair of identical twins one with Parkinsons and one without as well as another unrelated Parkinsons patient and four healthy control subjects to observe key characteristics of the disease. After comparing the individuals biological factors, they noticed differences in the patients neurons ability to produce dopamine. Dopamine production is deficient in Parkinsons disease.

"The unique scenario of identical twins, one with this disease and one without, allowed our scientists an unprecedented look into the mechanisms of Parkinson's disease," Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF chief executive officer, said in a news release. "Advanced stem cell research techniques allow us to push the boundaries of science and see what actually goes wrong at the cellular level, step by step during the disease process."

Parkinsons disease affects an estimated 500,000 people in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The average age of onset is 60, and the risk of developing it increases with age. Symptoms of Parkinsons include tremor, shaking in the hands, arms, legs, jaw or head; impaired balance or postural instability; slowness of movement; and stiffness of the limbs and trunk.

There is currently no cure for Parkinsons.

While the disease is moderately hereditary, scientists have yet to fully understand the mechanisms of inheritance. The researchers note the DNA mutations that produce the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GBA) have been linked to a five-fold increased risk of developing Parkinsons, but only 30 percent of people with this mutation have been shown to get the disease by age 80. This suggests that genetic and non-genetic factors cause Parkinsons. In studying the identical twins, scientists were able to analyze these mechanisms.

The scientists made induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from skin samples from both twins to generate a cellular model of Parkinsons in a dish, recreating the outstanding features of the disease specifically the dopamine and a-synuclein deficiency.

Scientists saw that the neurons from the twin affected by Parkinsons produced less dopamine and had higher levels of an enzyme called monomine oxidase B (MAO-B), as well as a poorer ability to connect with each other, compared to the twin that did not have the disease.

The findings suggest a possible therapy for Parkinsons: treating neurons with molecules that reduce the activity of MAO-B and GBA, while normalizing -synuclein and dopamine levels.

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Researchers create stem cell model of Parkinsons disease in a dish

David C P. Chen, MD., MHP - Stem Cell Therapy Q A2

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Contact: Craig Brierley craig.brierley@admin.cam.ac.uk 44-012-237-66205 University of Cambridge @Cambridge_Uni

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have managed to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing that a critical mass of cells not too few, but not too many is needed for the cells to being self-organising into the correct structure for an embryo to form.

All organisms develop from embryos: a cell divides generating many cells. In the early stages of this process, all cells look alike and tend to aggregate into a featureless structure, more often than not a ball. Then, the cells begin to 'specialise' into different types of cell and space out asymmetrically, forming an axis which begins to provide a structure for the embryo to develop along.

In animal embryos this stage is followed by a process known as gastrulation: a choreographed movement of the cells that, using the initial axis as a reference, positions the head and the tail, the front and the back. During the process, the cells begin to forum three distinct layers: the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm, determining which tissues or organs the cells will then develop into.

Professor Alfonso Martinez-Arias from the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, who led the research, says: "Gastrulation was described by biologist Professor Lewis Wolpert as being 'truly the most important event in your life' because it creates the blueprint of an organism. Axis formation and gastrulation are the two central processes that initiate the development of an organism and are inextricably associated with the embryo. We have managed to recreate this for the first time in the lab."

Professor Martinez-Arias and colleagues, supported by the European Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, have reconstructed these early stages of development using mouse embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, discovered in the Department of Genetics in the 1980s (for which Sir Martin Evans was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007), have become an important tool for developmental biology, understanding disease, and in regenerative medicine due to the ability to give rise to all cell types in culture. Over the last few years, they have been used to 'grow' organs including the eye and the cerebral cortex; surprisingly, these structures develop without an axis.

In research published today in the journal Development, the researchers report a way to coax cells to reorganize in the manner that they do in an embryo, creating an axis and undergoing movements and organisations that mimic the process of gastrulation. Over the years researchers have been making aggregates of embryonic stem cells to obtain certain cell types, for example red blood cells. However, these aggregates lack structure and the different cell types emerge in a disorganised fashion. This is the first time that researchers have been able to elicit axis formation, spatial organisation and gastrulation-like movements from aggregates of embryonic stem cells.

The researchers show that if the number of cells aggregated initially is similar to that of a mouse embryo, the cells generate a single axis and this serves as a template for a sequence of events that mimics those of the early embryo. By manipulating the signals that the cells see at a particular time, the researchers were able to influence what type of cell they become and how they are organised. In one of the experiments, for example, activation of a particular signal at the correct time elicits the appearance of the mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm the precursors of all cell types with a spatial organization similar to that of an embryo.

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Shaping up: Researchers reconstruct early stages of embryo development

PURTIER LIVE STEM CELL THERAPY
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DALLAS, October 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report The"Cell Expansion Marketby Product (Reagent, Media, Serum, Bioreactors, Centrifuge), Cell Type (human, animal), Application (Stem Cell Research, Regenerative Medicine, Clinical Diagnostics), End User (Hospital, Biotechnology, Cell Bank) - Forecast to 2019", published by MarketsandMarkets, provides a detailed overview of the major drivers, restraints, challenges, opportunities, current market trends, and strategies impacting the Cell Expansion Market along with the estimates and forecasts of the revenue and share analysis.

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The global Cell Expansion Market is expected to reach $14.8 Billion by 2019 from $6.0 Billion in 2014, growing at a CAGR of 19.7% from 2014 to 2019.

The report segments this market on the basis of product, cell type, application, and end user. Among various applications, the regenerative medicines is expected to account for the largest share in 2014 and is expected to account for the fastest-growing segment in the cell expansion market, owing to technological advancement due to which new products are being launched in the market. Furthermore, rising investments by companies and government for research is another major reason for the growth of this market.

Based on geography, the global Cell Expansion Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (RoW). North America is expected to account for the largest share of the market by the end of 2014. The large share of this region can be attributed to various factors including increasing government support for cancer and stem cell research and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases in this region.

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Prominent players in the Cell Expansion Market are Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Corning Incorporated (U.S.), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K.), Merck Millipore (U.S.), Miltenyi Biotec (Germany), STEMCELL Technologies (Canada), Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (U.S.), Terumo BCT (U.S.), and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.).

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Cell Expansion Market Worth $14.8 Billion by 2019

3 hours ago Amy Ralston, MSU biochemist and molecular biologist, has identified a possible source of stem cells, which can advance regenerative and fertility research. Credit: G.L. Kohuth

When most animals begin life, cells immediately begin accepting assignments to become a head, tail or a vital organ. However, mammals, including humans, are special. The cells of mammalian embryos get to make a different first choice to become the protective placenta or to commit to forming the baby.

It's during this critical first step that research from Michigan State University has revealed key discoveries. The results, published in the current issue of PLOS Genetics, provide insights into where stem cells come from, and could advance research in regenerative medicine. And since these events occur during the first four or five days of human pregnancy, the stage in which the highest percentage of pregnancies are lost, the study also has significant implications for fertility research.

Pluripotent stem cells can become any cell in the body and can be created in two ways. First, they can be produced when scientists reprogram mature adult cells. Second, they are created by embryos during this crucial four-day window of a mammalian pregnancy. In fact, this window is uniquely mammalian, said Amy Ralston, MSU assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and lead author on the study.

"Embryos make pluripotent stem cells with 100 percent efficiency," she said. "The process of reprogramming cells, manipulating our own cells to become stem cells, is merely 1 percent efficient. Embryos have it figured out, and we need to learn how they're doing it."

The researchers' first discovery is that in mouse embryos, the gene, Sox2, appears to be acting ahead of other genes traditionally identified as playing crucial roles in stem cell formation. Simply put, this gene could determine the source of stem cells in mammals. Now researchers are trying to decipher why Sox2 is taking the lead role.

"Now we know Sox2 is the first indicator that a cell is pluripotent," Ralston said. "In fact, Sox2 may be the pre-pluripotent gene. We show that Sox2 is detectable in just one or two cells of the embryo earlier than previously thought, and earlier than other known stem cell genes."

The second discovery is that Sox2 has broader influence than initially thought. The gene appears to help coordinate the cells that make the fetus and the other cells that establish the pregnancy and nurture the fetus.

Future research will focus on studying exactly why Sox2 is playing this role. The team has strong insights, but they want to go deeper, Ralston said.

"Reprogramming is amazing, but it's inefficient," she said. "What we've learned from the embryo is how to improve efficiency, a process that could someday lead to generating stem cells for clinical purposes with a much higher success rate."

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Identifying the source of stem cells