PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Dec-2013

Contact: Shaun Mason smason@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles

Scientists from UCLA are now bringing their groundbreaking stem cell science directly to patients in two exciting new clinical trials scheduled to begin in early 2014, thanks to funding from California's stem cell agency.

The new grants to researchers at UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, which total nearly $21 million, were announced Dec. 12 at a meeting of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Citizen's Oversight Committee. They are apart of the state agency's Disease Team Therapy Development III initiative.

A team led by UCLA's Dr. Dennis Slamon and Dr. Zev Wainberg was awarded nearly $7 million for a clinical trial that will test a new drug targeting cancer stem cells, and UCLA's Dr. Donald Kohn received almost $14 million for a clinical trial that will focus on stem-cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease.

"The CIRM support demonstrates that our multidisciplinary center is at the forefront of translating basic scientific research into new drug and cellular therapies that will revolutionize medicine," said Dr. Owen Witte, director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center.

Dennis Slamon and Zev Wainberg: Targeting solid tumor stem cells

This clinical trial builds on Slamon's previous work, partially funded by CIRM, with Wainberg and Dr. Tak Mak, director of the Campbell Family Institute at the University Health Network in Toronto, aimed at developing a drug that targets those stem cells thought to initiate solid cancer tumors.

The AmericanCanadian collaborative team will lead this first in-human Phase 1 trial testing their new therapy, which has received investigational new-drug approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada, Canada's therapeutic regulatory agency. The project has been approved to begin enrolling patients in both the U.S. and Canada.

Read the original post:
With new multimillion-dollar grants, UCLA scientists take stem cell research to patients

By Andrew Brown

Spinal cord injury typically causes permanent paralysis and is currently a condition without a cure. Could stem cell therapy provide hope?

American actor and activist Christopher Reeve will be remembered for his leading role in the 1978 blockbuster movie Superman. Sadly, he will also be remembered as a man whose tremendously active life, both on and off screen, was shattered by a catastrophic injury that left him paralysed from the neck downwards a state in which he remained until he died in 2004.

In May 1995, during an equestrian competition, Reeve was thrown headfirst off his horse. The weight of his body was thrust through his spine, breaking two of the vertebrae in his neck and causing extensive damage to his spinal cordw1.

What happened during his accident at the level of blood, bones, cells and molecules to cause his life-long paralysis? And how might research into new treatments based on stem cells offer hope for people paralysed by spinal cord injury? Could it help them to regain some control over their bodies and their lives?

What is spinal cord injury?

Your spinal cord is an information highway connecting your brain to the rest of your body (figure 1). Injuries to it are usually caused by sudden trauma, such as that sustained in sports or car accidents, and result in dislocation and / or breakage of vertebrae, which rip into the spinal cord tissue, damaging or severing axons. Sensation and motor control are lost below the level of the injury (figure 2).

Multiple cell types die at or near the site of the spinal cord injury, due tosecondary effects of the trauma, such as changes in blood supply, immune responses and an increase in free radicals and excitatory neurotransmitters (see box on the secondary effects of spinal cord injury).

Figure 1: Anatomy and function of the spinal cord. Click on image to enlarge.

The spinal cord is a soft, jelly-like structure that extends from the base of the brain to the lower back (A). It is 38 to 43 cm long and, at its maximum width, is about as wide as a thumb. It sits in a hollow channel that runs through the spinal columns 33 stacked vertebrae (B).

View post:
Spinal cord injury: do stem cells have the answer? | Science ...

By Dalia Dangerfield, Reporter Last Updated: Saturday, December 14, 2013, 8:48 PM TAMPA --

USF researchers believe stem cell therapy can help men and women with mild brain injuries.

This is quite a phenomenal observation, said Dr. Cesar Borlongan, a neuroscientist from USF Health. In our hands, stem cell therapy may offer this hope for the soldiers to prevent the progression of the disease and hopefully we can stop the disease process at the early stage."

In a recent study Borlongan injected adult stem cells in rats with traumatic brain injury. The stem cells served as a bridge, allowing new brain cells to move up to the damaged part of the brain.

That's a new concept, it's like the cells are very smart, said Borlongan.

Over time the adult stem cells helped partially repair the brain damage in rats.

Professor Borlongan believes the same may be true for humans allowing them to slowly get better.

The rest is here:
New study shows stem cell therapy helps brain injuries

Current ratings for: Stem cell transplantation outcomes 'improved with new drug regime'

Ratings require JavaScript to be enabled.

New research suggests that outcomes for patients who have undergone stem cell transplants from unrelated or mismatched donors could be improved with the use of a drug called bortezomib, also known as velcade. This is according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Stem cell transplants are treatments carried out in an attempt to cure some cancers affecting the body's bone marrow, such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

The treatment involves very high doses of chemotherapy (myeloablation) or whole body radiotherapy to clear a person's bone marrow and immune system of cancerous cells.

After this process, the killed cells are replaced with healthy stem cells through a drip that flows into a vein. These stem cells can be from the patient's own body or from a donor - preferably a sibling.

According to researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who conducted the study, stem cells from unrelated or mismatched donors are likely to lead to worse patient outcomes following transplantation.

These patients tend to have a higher mortality rate as a result of the treatment and are more likely to experience graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). This is a disease in which the transplanted cells attack the immune system of the recipient.

According to the researchers, recipients of mismatched donor transplants have a severe GVHD rate of 37%, a 1-year treatment-related mortality rate of 45%, and a 1-year overall survival rate of 43%.

Recipients of unrelated donor transplants have a severe GVHD rate of 28%, a 1-year treatment-related mortality rate of 36%, and a 1-year overall survival rate of 52%.

Read the original here:
Stem cell transplantation outcomes 'improved with new drug regime'

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise Stem cell researchers from UCLAs Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have published the first study to identify the origin cells and track the early development of human articular cartilage, providing what could be a new cell source and biological roadmap for therapies to repair cartilage defects and osteoarthritis. These revolutionary therapies could reach clinical trials within three years.

Led by Dr. Denis Evseenko, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and head of UCLAs Laboratory of Connective Tissue Regeneration, the study was published online ahead of print in Stem Cell Reports on December 12, 2013.

Articular cartilage is a highly specialized tissue formed from cells called chondrocytes that protect the bones of joints from forces associated with load bearing and impact, and allows nearly frictionless motion between the articular surfaces. Cartilage injury and lack of cartilage regeneration often lead to osteoarthritis involving degradation of joints, including cartilage and bone. Osteoarthritis currently affects more than 20 million people in the United States alone, making joint surface restoration a major priority in modern medicine.

Different cell types have been studied with respect to their ability to generate articular cartilage. However, none of the current cell-based repair strategies including expanded articular chondrocytes or mesenchymal stromal cells from adult bone marrow, adipose tissue, sinovium or amniotic fluid have generated long-lasting articular cartilage tissue in the laboratory.

By bridging developmental biology and tissue engineering, Evseenkos discoveries represent a critical missing link providing scientists with checkpoints to tell if the cartilage cells (called chondrocytes) are developing correctly.

We began with three questions about cartilage development, Evseenko said, we wanted to know the key molecular mechanisms, the key cell populations, and the developmental stages in humans. We carefully studied how the chondrocytes developed, watching not only their genes, but other biological markers that will allow us to apply the system for the improvement of current stem cell-based therapeutic approaches.

This research was also the first attempt to generate all the key landmarks that allow generation of clinically relevant cell types for cartilage regeneration with the highest animal-free standards. This means that the process did not rely on any animal components, thus therapeutic products such as stem-cell serums can be produced that are safe for humans.

Evseenko added that in a living organism more than one cell type is responsible for the complete regeneration of tissue, so in addition to the studies involving generation of articular cartilage from human stem cells, he and his team are now trying different protocols using different combinations of adult progenitor cells present in the joint to regenerate cartilage until the best one is found for therapeutic use.

The rest is here:
UCLA Scientists First to Track Joint Cartilage Development in Humans

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Leonhardt of Leonhardt Ventures and the Cal-X Stars Innovation and Business Accelerator team will present at the 2013 World Stem Cell Summit on Friday, December 6, 2013 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego in two sessions.

2pm Harbor Room AB - Developing Combination Products Cells, Genes, Devices

3pm Harbor Room DE - Startup Considerations for Stem Cell Companies - Getting Funding and Avoiding Pitfalls

Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc.is an innovation accelerator with an unprecedented portfolio of breakthrough cardiovascular life science and high social good impact innovations that have primarily been majority funded to date by Leonhardt Ventures and its associated angel investor network.

The innovation laboratory and business accelerator has two clearfocusareas:

Management team and board have a proven track record in leading breakthrough innovations in these focused spaces -http://www.calstockexchange.com/team-cal-x/.

Cardiovascular portfolio technologies include...

MyoStim Pacershttp:/www.myostimpacers.com- heart failure pacemaker designed to recruit reparative stem cells to damaged and weakened heart tissue.

Bioheart, Inc.http://www.bioheartinc.com- Phase III leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat advanced heart failuresince 1999.Only cell type known to grow new contractile muscle in the depths of heart scar tissue. In the Phase II/III MARVEL randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled study Bioheart's MyoCell achieved 95.7 meters improvement in exercise capacity over placebo (minus 4 meters).

BioPace biological pacemaker made entirely of living cells.

See the original post:
Howard Leonhardt of Leonhardt Ventures to Present at World ...

Skin Doctors YouthCell Range TVC
YouthCell contains the latest plant stem cell technology (PhytoCellTec) to help delay the appearance of chronological ageing of the skin. These plant stem ...

By: Skin Doctors UK

View original post here:
Skin Doctors YouthCell Range TVC - Video

In computer-based text processing and digital typesetting, a non-breaking space, no-break space or non-breakable space (NBSP) is a variant of the space character that prevents an automatic line break (line wrap) at its position. In certain formats (such as HTML), it also prevents the collapsing of multiple consecutive whitespace characters into a single space. The non-breaking space is also known as a hard space or fixed space. In Unicode, it is encoded at U+00A0 no-break space (HTML:    ).

Text-processing software typically assumes that an automatic line break may be inserted anywhere a space character occurs; a non-breaking space prevents this from happening (provided the software recognizes the character). For example, if the text 100 km will not quite fit at the end of a line, the software may insert a line break between 100 and km. To avoid this undesirable behaviour, the editor may choose to use a non-breaking space between 100 and km. This guarantees that the text 100km will not be broken: if it does not fit at the end of a line it is moved in its entirety to the next line.

A second common application of non-breaking spaces is in plain text file formats such as SGML, HTML, TeX, and LaTeX, which sometimes treat sequences of whitespace characters (space, newline, tab, form feed, etc.) as if they were a single white-space character. Such collapsing of white-space allows the author to neatly arrange the source text using line breaks, indentation and other forms of spacing without affecting the final typeset result.[1][2]

In contrast, non-breaking spaces are not merged with neighboring whitespace characters, and can therefore be used by an author to insert additional visible space in the formatted text. For example, in HTML, non-breaking spaces may be used in conjunction with a fixed-width font to create tabular alignment (courier new font family used):

Column 1Column 2 ---------------- 1.22.3

(note that the use of the pre tag, the whitespace:pre CSS rule, or a table are alternative, if not necessarily better, ways to achieve the same result in HTML)

If ordinary spaces are used instead then the spaces are collapsed when the HTML is rendered and the layout is broken:

Column 1 Column 2 -------- -------- 1.2 2.3

Non-breaking space can also be used to automatically change formatting in a document. This is useful for things like class plans and recipe files where the description of a cell or line may be different from the actual text or title.

Unicode defines several other non-break space characters[3] that differ from the regular space in width:

Read the original here:
New transformation: Human stem cells into functional lung ...

[International version] Linda van Laake: "We want to work together to improve stem cell treatment"
Dr Linda van Laake is assistant professor and specialist registrar in Cardiology at the University Medical Center Utrecht and Hubrecht Institute. She carries...

By: UniversiteitUtrecht

Original post:
[International version] Linda van Laake: "We want to work together to improve stem cell treatment" - Video

Stem Cell Therapy Injections
Stem Cell therapy, is one form of Comprehensive Prolotherapy available for arthritis treatment, and other chronic pain conditions at Caring Medical and Rehab...

By: Rob C

Originally posted here:
Stem Cell Therapy Injections - Video

Charles A. Goldthwaite, Jr., Ph.D.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and congestive heart failure (CHF), has ranked as the number one cause of death in the United States every year since 1900 except 1918, when the nation struggled with an influenza epidemic.1 In 2002, CVD claimed roughly as many lives as cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, diabetes mellitus, influenza, and pneumonia combined. According to data from the 19992002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CVD caused approximately 1.4 million deaths (38.0 percent of all deaths) in the U.S. in 2002. Nearly 2600 Americans die of CVD each day, roughly one death every 34 seconds. Moreover, within a year of diagnosis, one in five patients with CHF will die. CVD also creates a growing economic burden; the total health care cost of CVD in 2005 was estimated at $393.5 billion dollars.

Given the aging of the U.S. population and the relatively dramatic recent increases in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and type 2 diabetes,2,3 CVD will continue to be a significant health concern well into the 21st century. However, improvements in the acute treatment of heart attacks and an increasing arsenal of drugs have facilitated survival. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 7.1 million people have survived a heart attack, while 4.9 million live with CHF.1 These trends suggest an unmet need for therapies to regenerate or repair damaged cardiac tissue.

Ischemic heart failure occurs when cardiac tissue is deprived of oxygen. When the ischemic insult is severe enough to cause the loss of critical amounts of cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes), this loss initiates a cascade of detrimental events, including formation of a non-contractile scar, ventricular wall thinning (see Figure 6.1), an overload of blood flow and pressure, ventricular remodeling (the overstretching of viable cardiac cells to sustain cardiac output), heart failure, and eventual death.4 Restoring damaged heart muscle tissue, through repair or regeneration, therefore represents a fundamental mechanistic strategy to treat heart failure. However, endogenous repair mechanisms, including the proliferation of cardiomyocytes under conditions of severe blood vessel stress or vessel formation and tissue generation via the migration of bone-marrow-derived stem cells to the site of damage, are in themselves insufficient to restore lost heart muscle tissue (myocardium) or cardiac function.5 Current pharmacologic interventions for heart disease, including beta-blockers, diuretics, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and surgical treatment options, such as changing the shape of the left ventricle and implanting assistive devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators, do not restore function to damaged tissue. Moreover, while implantation of mechanical ventricular assist devices can provide long-term improvement in heart function, complications such as infection and blood clots remain problematic.6 Although heart transplantation offers a viable option to replace damaged myocardium in selected individuals, organ availability and transplant rejection complications limit the widespread practical use of this approach.

Figure 6.1. Normal vs. Infarcted Heart. The left ventricle has a thick muscular wall, shown in cross-section in A. After a myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart muscle cells in the left ventricle are deprived of oxygen and die (B), eventually causing the ventricular wall to become thinner (C).

2007 Terese Winslow

The difficulty in regenerating damaged myocardial tissue has led researchers to explore the application of embryonic and adult-derived stem cells for cardiac repair. A number of stem cell types, including embryonic stem (ES) cells, cardiac stem cells that naturally reside within the heart, myoblasts (muscle stem cells), adult bone marrow-derived cells, mesenchymal cells (bone marrow-derived cells that give rise to tissues such as muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, and adipose tissue), endothelial progenitor cells (cells that give rise to the endothelium, the interior lining of blood vessels), and umbilical cord blood cells, have been investigated to varying extents as possible sources for regenerating damaged myocardium. All have been tested in mouse or rat models, and some have been tested in large animal models such as pigs. Preliminary clinical data for many of these cell types have also been gathered in selected patient populations.

However, clinical trials to date using stem cells to repair damaged cardiac tissue vary in terms of the condition being treated, the method of cell delivery, and the primary outcome measured by the study, thus hampering direct comparisons between trials.7 Some patients who have received stem cells for myocardial repair have reduced cardiac blood flow (myocardial ischemia), while others have more pronounced congestive heart failure and still others are recovering from heart attacks. In some cases, the patient's underlying condition influences the way that the stem cells are delivered to his/her heart (see the section, quot;Methods of Cell Deliveryquot; for details). Even among patients undergoing comparable procedures, the clinical study design can affect the reporting of results. Some studies have focused on safety issues and adverse effects of the transplantation procedures; others have assessed improvements in ventricular function or the delivery of arterial blood. Furthermore, no published trial has directly compared two or more stem cell types, and the transplanted cells may be autologous (i.e., derived from the person on whom they are used) or allogeneic (i.e., originating from another person) in origin. Finally, most of these trials use unlabeled cells, making it difficult for investigators to follow the cells' course through the body after transplantation (see the section quot;Considerations for Using These Stem Cells in the Clinical Settingquot; at the end of this article for more details).

Despite the relative infancy of this field, initial results from the application of stem cells to restore cardiac function have been promising. This article will review the research supporting each of the aforementioned cell types as potential source materials for myocardial regeneration and will conclude with a discussion of general issues that relate to their clinical application.

Go here to see the original:
6. Mending a Broken Heart: Stem Cells and Cardiac Repair [Stem ...

http://www.CLINICell.com "MENISCUS TEAR alternative with PRP and Stem Cell Therapy"
http://www.CLINICell.com offers the latest alternative treatments with PRP and Stem Cell Therapy for an MENISCUS Tear. Platelet Rich Plasma and Stem Cell treatments can be used as an alternative...

By: ClinicellTech

See the original post:
http://www.CLINICell.com "MENISCUS TEAR alternative with PRP and Stem Cell Therapy" - Video

An experiment conducted by a team of Japanese researchers from the Keio University School of Medicine, offers new hope for patients with spinal cord injuries. They managed to obtain motor functional recovery after injecting neural stem / progenitor cells (NS / PCs ) in mice. It was known for some time that transplantation of neural stem / progenitor cells (NS / PCs ) promotes functional recovery in spinal cord injury, but it was not very clear what is the optimal transplantation site. Therefore, researchers made an experiment in which they injected NS / PCs in four groups of mice in several sites : at the lesion epicenter, caudal and rostral sites; the control group received phosphate buffered saline. It should be noted that all mice included in the study received contusivespinal cord injury at the T10 level.

Dr. Masaya Nakamura of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Keio University School of Medicine, emphasizedthat it is critical to determine the optimal site for transplanting NS / PCs designed to treat spinal cord injury.Previous studies conducted by the same team showed that NS / PCs injected intravenously or intrathecally in non injury sites, did not engraft at the lesion site in sufficient numbers; the researchers observed that instead these NS / PCs were trapped in the lungs or kidney. In this way they concluded that the optimal outcome for transplantation of NS / PCs can be obtained by intralesional application. To determine how effective isintralesional injection, researchers conducted another study on laboratory mice with spinal cord injury. They injected NS / PCstaken from transgenic mice for Venus and luciferase fusion protein, a method that allowed the researchers to track the cells after transplantation by bioluminescence imaging ( BLI ).

Dr. Nakamura explained that wild-type mice received a spinal cord injury at T10 and thatlow and high doses of NS / PCs taken from fetal transgenic mice were administered to four groups of mice; the fifth group received phosphate buffered saline. Researchers reported that all four groups of mice had functional motor recovery while mice in the control group did not. The researchers also mentioned that in all four groups, the photon counts from BLI transplant were similar. In other words, the survival of stem cells was uniform when it was transplanted more than acertain threshold number of cells. However, it seems that there is a difference between rostral and caudal (RC ) sites and lesion epicenter (E ) because brain -derived neurotropic factor expression was higher in RC.This may mean that the microenvironments of the E and RC sites are similarly able to support NS/PCs transplanted during the sub-acute phase of SCI, researchers said.

Like Loading...

See more here:
Stem cell transplantation for treat spinal cord injury offers ...

Cell therapy (or Cellular therapy) is therapy in which cellular material is injected into a patient.[1]

Cell therapy originated in the nineteenth century when scientists experimented by injecting animal material in an attempt to prevent and treat illness.[2] Although such attempts produced no positive benefit, further research found in the mid twentieth century that human cells could be used to help prevent the human body rejecting transplanted organs, leading in time to successful bone marrow transplantation.[3]

Today two distinct categories of cell therapy are recognized.[1]

The first category is cell therapy in mainstream medicine. This is the subject of intense research and the basis of potential therapeutic benefit.[4] Such research, especially when it involves human embryonic material, is controversial.

The second category is in alternative medicine, and perpetuates the practice of injecting animal materials in an attempt to cure disease. This practice, according to the American Cancer Society, is not backed by any medical evidence of effectiveness, and can have deadly consequences.[1]

Cell therapy can be defined as therapy in which cellular material is injected into a patient.[1]

There are two branches of cell therapy: one is legitimate and established, whereby human cells are transplanted from a donor to a patient; the other is dangerous alternative medicine, whereby injected animal cells are used to attempt to treat illness.[1]

The origins of cell therapy can perhaps be traced to the nineteenth century, when Charles-douard Brown-Squard (18171894) injected animal testicle extracts in an attempt to stop the effects of aging.[2] In 1931 Paul Niehans (18821971) who has been called the inventor of cell therapy attempted to cure a patient by injecting material from calf embryos.[1] Niehans claimed to have treated many people for cancer using this technique, though his claims have never been validated by research.[1]

In 1953 researchers found that laboratory animals could be helped not to reject organ transplants by pre-innoculating them with cells from donor animals; in 1968, in Minnesota, the first successful successful human bone marrow took place.[3]

Bone marrow transplants have been found to be effective, along with some other kinds of human cell therapy for example in treating damaged knee cartilage.[1] In recent times, cell therapy using human material has been recognized as an important field in the treatment of human disease.[4] The experimental field of Stem cell therapy has shown promise for new types of treatment.[1]

View original post here:
Cell therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

News Release: Dr. Andrew Cappuccino #39;s Insight on Adult Stem Cell Therapy
Dr. Andew Cappuccino, team orthopedist for the Buffalo Bills, gives insight on using Adult Stem Cells to treat back pain. More information at http://medrebel...

By: Med Rebels

See the original post:
News Release: Dr. Andrew Cappuccino's Insight on Adult Stem Cell Therapy - Video

A Nurse #39;s Testament on Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Back Pain
A registered nurse describes her experience with an adult stem cell therapy procedure for back pain. More information at medrebels.org.

By: Med Rebels

Read the original here:
A Nurse's Testament on Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Back Pain - Video

Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside some of your bones, such as your hip and thigh bones. It contains immature cells, called stem cells. The stem cells can develop into red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body, white blood cells, which fight infections, and platelets, which help the to blood clot.

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure that replaces a person's faulty bone marrow stem cells. Doctors use these transplants to treat people with certain diseases, such as

Before you have a transplant, you need to get high doses of chemotherapy and possibly radiation. This destroys the faulty stem cells in your bone marrow. It also suppresses your body's immune system so that it won't attack the new stem cells after the transplant.

In some cases, you can donate your own bone marrow stem cells in advance. The cells are saved and then used later on. Or you can get cells from a donor. The donor might be a family member or unrelated person.

Bone marrow transplantation has serious risks. Some complications can be life-threatening. But for some people, it is the best hope for a cure or a longer life.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Read more:
Bone Marrow Transplantation: MedlinePlus - National Library of ...

What Is Stem Cell Therapy? Get The Candy Coated Illustration - Dr. Bill Johnson, Dallas
http://www.InnovationsStemCellCenter.com (214) 699-6948 Find out just how your own body #39;s stem cells can help you build new cells that have been damaged. SVF...

By: dallasdrj

Read the original post:
What Is Stem Cell Therapy? Get The Candy Coated Illustration - Dr. Bill Johnson, Dallas - Video

Medical investigators are embarking on a study that involves infusing 10 million stem cells directly into a coronary artery of heart attack patients in an effort to regenerate tissue that otherwise would be forever damaged.

Regeneration has been an ongoing theme in science fiction and a goal of real-life scientists.

Dr. Luis Gruberg, of the Stony Brook Heart Institute, and Dr. Allen Jeremias, director of the intensive care unit, led a team late last month in a novel case, which they describe as a clinical trial designed to harvest, and then inject, a patient's own stem cells into the blocked artery responsible for the attack.

"This is a post-heart attack procedure and it is for patients who have had a large heart attack," said Gruberg, director of interventional cardiology research.

In patients whose attacks are severe, vast portions of the heart are irreparably damaged, resulting in cardiac tissue that no longer performs efficiently.

Every year about 715,000 Americans have a heart attack. Of those, 525,000 are a first heart attack and 190,000 are repeat episodes. Every 44 seconds someone in the United States dies of a heart attack, according to federal data.

If stem cells can aid in the remodeling of the heart, regenerating healthy tissue, then medicine can offer patients a new lease on life, the doctors said.

Arriving at a point when such a treatment can be offered, Gruberg added, requires research. The gold standard of clinical study in Western medicine is the placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial, which means some of the Stony Brook heart patients will receive a stem cell transplant, others, a placebo.

Doctors began their study, part of a larger national investigation, abruptly late last month because they had been awaiting the perfect patient.

That person, a 66-year-old man who had been visiting Long Island from the Midwest, arrived at Stony Brook University Hospital as a transfer from Southampton Hospital.

See more here:
Study to infuse stem cells into coronary artery to regenerate ...

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan was the first to disprove the previous notion that reversible cell differentiation of mammals was impossible. He reprogrammed a fully differentiated mouse cell into a pluripotent stem cell by introducing four genes, Oct-4, SOX2, KLF4, and Myc, into the mouse fibroblast through gene-carrying viruses. With this method, he and his coworkers created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), the key component in this experiment.[1] Scientists have been able to conduct experiments that show the ability of iPS cells to treat and even cure diseases. In this experiment, tests were run on mice with inherited sickle cell anemia.Skin cells were turned into cells containing genes that transformed the cells into iPS cells. These replaced the diseased sickled cells, curing the test mice. The reprogramming of the pluripotent stem cells in mice was successfully duplicated with human pluripotent stem cells within about a year of the experiment on the mice.

Sickle cell anemia is a disease in which the body produces abnormally shaped red blood cells. Red blood cells are flexible and round, moving easily through the blood vessels. Infected cells are shaped like a crescent or sickle (the namesake of the disease). As a result of this disorder the hemoglobin protein in red blood cells is faulty. Normal hemoglobin bonds to oxygen, then releases it into cells that need it. The blood cell retains its original form and is cycled back to the lungs and re-oxygenated.

Sickle cell hemoglobin, however, after giving up oxygen, cling together and make the red blood cell stiff. The sickle shape also makes it difficult for the red blood cell to navigate arteries and causes blockages.[2] This can cause intense pain and organ damage. The sickled red blood cells are fragile and prone to rupture. When the number of red blood cells decreases from rupture (hemolysis), anemia is the result. Sickle cells also die in 1020 days as opposed to the traditional 120-day lifespan of a normal red blood cell.

Sickle cell anemia is inherited as an autosomal (meaning that the gene is not linked to a sex chromosome) recessive condition.[2] This means that the gene can be passed on from a carrier to his or her children. In order for sickle cell anemia to affect a person, the gene must be inherited from both the mother and the father, so that the child has two recessive sickle cell genes (a homozygous inheritance). People who inherit one sickle cell gene from one parent and one normal gene from the other parent, i.e. heterozygous patients, have a condition called sickle cell trait. Their bodies make both sickle hemoglobin and normal hemoglobin. They may pass the trait on to their children.

The effects of sickle cell anemia vary from person to person. People who have the disease suffer from varying degrees of chronic pain and fatigue. With proper care and treatment, the quality of health of most patients will improve. Doctors have learned a great deal about sickle cell anemia since its discovery in 1979. They know its causes, its effects on the body, and possible treatments for complications. Sickle cell anemia has no widely available cure. A bone marrow transplant is the only treatment method currently recognized to be able to cure the disease, though it does not work for every patient. Finding a donor is difficult and the procedure could potentially do more harm than good. Treatments for sickle cell anemia are generally aimed at avoiding crises, relieving symptoms, and preventing complications. Such treatments may include medications, blood transfusions, and supplemental oxygen.

During the first step of the experiment, skin cells (also known as fibroblasts) were collected from infected test mice and put in a culture. The fibroblasts were reprogrammed by infecting them with retroviruses that contained genes common to embryonic stem cells. These genes were the same four used by Yamanaka (Oct-4, SOX2, KLF4, and Myc) in his earlier study. The investigators were trying to produce cells with the potential to differentiate into any type of cell needed (i.e. pluripotent stem cells). As the experiment continued, the fibroblasts multiplied into identical copies of iPS cells. The cells were then treated to form the mutation needed to reverse the anemia in the mice. This was accomplished by restructuring the DNA containing the defective globin gene into DNA with the normal gene through the process of homologous recombination. The iPS cells then differentiated into blood stem cells, or hematopoietic stem cells. The hematopoietic cells were injected back into the infected mice, where they proliferate and differentiate into normal blood cells, curing the mice of the disease.[3][4][verification needed]

To determine whether the mice were cured from the disease, the scientists checked for the usual symptoms of sickle cell disease. They examined the blood for mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and red cell distribution width (RDW) and urine concentration defects. They also checked for sickled red blood cells. They examined the DNA through gel electrophoresis, checking for bands that display an allele that causes sickling. Compared to the untreated mice with the disease, which they used as a control, the treated animals had marked increases in RBC counts, healthy hemoglobin, and packed cell volume levels.[5]

Researchers examined the urine concentration defect, which results from RBC sickling in renal tubules and consequent reduction in renal medullary blood flow, and the general deteriorated systemic condition reflected by lower body weight and increased breathing.[5] They were able to see that these parts of the body of the mice had healed or improved. This indicated that all hematological and systemic parameters of sickle cell anemia improved substantially and were comparable to those in control mice.[5] They cannot say if this will work in humans because a safe way to inject the genes for the induced pluripotent cells is still needed.[citation needed]

The reprogramming of the induced pluripotent stem cells in mice was successfully duplicated in humans within a year of the successful experiment on the mice. This reprogramming was done in several labs and it was shown that the iPS cells in humans were almost identical to original embryonic stem cells (ES cells) that are responsible for the creation of all structures in a fetus.[1] An important feature of iPS cells is that they can be generated with cells taken from an adult, which would circumvent many of the ethical problems associated with working with ES cells. These iPS cells also have potential in creating and examining new disease models and developing more efficient drug treatments.[6] Another feature of these cells is that they provide researchers with a human cell sample, as opposed to simply using an animal with similar DNA, for drug testing.

One major problem with iPS cells is the way in which the cells are reprogrammed. Using gene-carrying viruses has the potential to cause iPS cells to develop into cancerous cells.[1] Also, an implant made using undifferentiated iPS cells, could cause a teratoma to form. Any implant that is generated from using these iPS cells would only be viable for transplant into the original subject that the cells were taken from. In order for these iPS cells to become viable in therapeutic use, there are still many steps that must be taken.[5][7]

Read more from the original source:
Induced pluripotent stem cell therapy - Wikipedia, the free ...