LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

While Roeuy Garay was pregnant with her daughter Brook, she felt weak and an unusual back pain. Her doctors thought it was just part of the pregnancy. But a few weeks after her delivery, her fiance Joseph knew something was seriously wrong.

"I passed out and he took me to urgent care and said, 'Something is wrong with her. It's got to be her kidney or something. We need to do some blood tests,'" Roeuy said.

A bone biopsy and body scan revealed a diagnosis the 36-year-old Corona mother of four could not believe.

"They came in and said, 'Yeah, you have multiple myeloma, and it's about between 70 to 80 percent of your blood is cancer,'" she said.

Multiple myeloma, also called Kahler's disease, is a cancer of the plasma cells, which are in the blood stream. Her best chance at survival is a bone marrow transplant.

None of her siblings were a match and being of Cambodian descent, Roeuy's odds of finding a match are very slim. It's a fact that is hard to hide from her children.

There are 12 million people in the National Bone Marrow Registry, but only 7 percent are Asian and only a small fraction of that are Southeast Asian.

Dr. Elizabeth Budde with City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte said it only takes a cheek swab to be part of the registry and donating stem cells can be as easy as donating blood.

For now, Roeuy is in remission so she needs a match as soon as possible.

See original here:
Mother of 4 seeks bone marrow match

Chris Goodman said its one of the most rewarding things hes ever done.

His stem cells reside inthe blood of a woman hes never met.

Goodman, a junior at Western Kentucky University, is working with a drive sponsored byWKU Greek Life and WKU student-athletesto register people for potential bone marrow donations. Donated stem cells, which are extracted from bone marrow, can be used to help people recover from serious illnesses.

The drive is April 20-22 at Raymond B. Preston Health and Activities Center. The hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.April 20 and 21 and from 10 a.m.to 7 p.m.April 22 in the Blue Court. Goodman will be working at the drive April 21, he said.

Goodman, 20, is from Knoxville, Tenn., and is a backstroke swimmer for WKU. Hes studying speech pathology and communications disorders and wants someday to work with kids who have speech difficulties.

A five-minute swab of your cheek could help save a life, Goodman said.

Goodman received a short note from the woman who was helped by his donation.

The letter I received from my patient was one which was very short in length but nonetheless very impactful, he said in an email. She and her family were very grateful that a complete stranger would give so much to someone they dont know.

His journey to becoming a bone marrow donator began when he registered withDelete Blood Cancer DKMSas a potential donor in April 2013. In October, Delete Blood Cancer sent him to Washington, D.C., and he donated stem cells during a five-day process.

He watched movies while sitting in his hospital bed as the procedure occurred. Having never even given a blood donation before, Goodman said the process did leave him a bit weak, although he participated in a swim meet for WKU within a week following the procedure, he said.

Read the original here:
WKU plans bone marrow registry drive

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

While Roeuy Garay was pregnant with her daughter Brook, she felt weak and an unusual back pain. Her doctors thought it was just part of the pregnancy. But a few weeks after her delivery, her fiance Joseph knew something was seriously wrong.

"I passed out and he took me to urgent care and said, 'Something is wrong with her. It's got to be her kidney or something. We need to do some blood tests,'" Roeuy said.

A bone biopsy and body scan revealed a diagnosis the 36-year-old Corona mother of four could not believe.

"They came in and said, 'Yeah, you have multiple myeloma, and it's about between 70 to 80 percent of your blood is cancer,'" she said.

Multiple myeloma, also called Kahler's disease, is a cancer of the plasma cells, which are in the blood stream. Her best chance at survival is a bone marrow transplant.

None of her siblings were a match and being of Cambodian descent, Roeuy's odds of finding a match are very slim. It's a fact that is hard to hide from her children.

There are 12 million people in the National Bone Marrow Registry, but only 7 percent are Asian and only a small fraction of that are Southeast Asian.

Dr. Elizabeth Budde with City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte said it only takes a cheek swab to be part of the registry and donating stem cells can be as easy as donating blood.

For now, Roeuy is in remission so she needs a match as soon as possible.

Excerpt from:
Corona mother of 4 seeks bone marrow match

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Winship Cancer Institute target graft-versus-host-disease through immune cell therapy

An innovative clinical trial using the science of "personalized" cellular therapy has begun enrolling children and adults suffering from graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), a life-threatening complication of bone marrow transplantation in which donor immune lymphocytes attack the organs of the bone marrow transplant recipient.

Bone marrow transplantation is performed in some patients with cancers of the blood or bone marrow, including multiple myeloma and leukemia, as well as in some patients with sickle cell disease, thallesemia, aplastic anemia and inherited immune deficiency.

Physician-researchers at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University will harvest bone marrow cells from children and adults (12 to 65 years) with GVHD. Those cells will be used to manufacture large numbers of personalized autologous marrow mesenchymal stromal cells in the Emory Personalized Immunotherapy Center (EPIC), a dedicated pharmaceutical grade facility located within Emory University Hospital.

By infusing large doses of these personalized bone marrow cells into bone marrow transplant recipients, the physician-researchers aim to target sites of inflammation, potentially reducing GVHD in the intestine, liver and skin and limiting long-term organ damage.

Muna Qayed, MD, MSc. a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at the Aflac Cancer Center at Children's and an assistant professor at Emory School of Medicine, will lead the clinical trial, which is offered only in Atlanta and is supported by CURE Childhood Cancer.

"For patients with GVHD who do not respond to first line therapy, there is no reliable cure, and GVHD can be life threatening or a life-long disabling condition," says Dr. Qayed, "But we hope that through our clinical research, we will be able to significantly impact the course of this disease."

"This trial represents one of the most innovative clinical trials to arise from the growing partnership between the Hematology & Medical Oncology and Pediatrics departments at Emory School of Medicine, Emory Healthcare, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta," says William (Bill) G. Woods, MD, director of the Aflac Cancer Center.

Blood and bone marrow cells have been used for more than a quarter century to treat life-threatening hematological conditions and are now used in established therapies worldwide. The current clinical trial will use mesenchymal stromal cells from the bone marrow. These cells have been studied more recently for treatment of a wide array of diseases, including autoimmune diseases.

"The beginning of this clinical trial is the culmination of two years' of collaborative effort by a terrific multidisciplinary team at Emory Healthcare, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Aflac Cancer Center," says Edmund Waller, MD, director of Winship's Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Program and investigator on this trial.

More here:
Clinical trial uses patients' own cells for treatment after bone marrow transplant

This Saturday when the University of Kentucky basketball team faces off with the University of Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament semi-finals, die-hard Kentucky fan Scott Logdon may think twice about rooting against the Wisconsin Badgers.

Nearly two years ago, Logdon was given a life-saving donation of stem cells that helped combat his acute myeloid leukemia. The donor of those cells turned out to be 22-year-old Chris Wirz, a student at the University of Wisconsin.

Logdon, 44, learned the identity of his donor last April, more than a year after the stem cell treatment and just days after the University of Kentucky squeaked past the University of Wisconsin at the NCAA semi-finals with a score of 74 to 73.

Logdon remembers feeling mixed emotions when the Kentucky wildcats won. Later, when he found out about his donor, he joked, That must have been the Badger blood in me.

Courtesy Angela Logdon

PHOTO: Chris Wirz gave life saving stem cells to Scott Logdon, who was suffering from leukemia.

Logdons ordeal started in the fall of 2012, when he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after mistaking early symptoms for strep throat. Logdon said his doctors told him chemotherapy could only keep the cancer at bay. A full stem cell transplant would be needed to cure him of the deadly disease.

Logdons doctors hoped one of his two siblings might be a match, but neither was able to donate. Longons family and community rallied in the small town of Saldasia, Kentucky, and registered over 120 people who would be willing to donate stem cells or bone marrow.

But no one who registered was a good match for Logdon.

[The doctors] went to the national bone marrow registry to try and find the match, the father of four said. I had to go back to the hospital every 30 days [for] maintenance chemo; it was a very long wait.

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Kentucky Fan Gets Life-Saving Stem Cell Donation From Univ. of Wisconsin Student

CHICAGO, April 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --After surgery failed to relieve extreme pain caused by peripheral artery disease in her right leg, Denise Hopkins-Glover was facing a bleak outlook she might never walk again.

"They said they had done everything they could and the only option was amputation of the right leg from the knee down," she said.

Undeterred, Hopkins-Glover chose to participate in an investigational trial at Northwestern Medicine called the MOBILE Study, which makes use of a device called the MarrowStim PAD Kit. In the trial, a randomized group of patients receive injections of their own stem cells retrieved through a bone marrow extraction to try to restore blood flow to the leg.

"MarrowStim offers a new approach for patients with a grim prognosis," said principal investigator Melina Kibbe, MD, a vascular surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We're pleased to be part of this national trial to see if there might be a significant chance of improving treatment for patients with few choices left for treatment."

Hopkins-Glover, a 55-year-old grandmother of two, suffers from peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition affecting 20 percent of Americans where cholesterol and fatty plaque pool in blood vessels, restricting blood flow to the limbs. In its most severe form, PAD causes critical limb ischemia (CLI), which can cause pain in resting legs, sores or ulcers that don't heal, thickening of the toenails and gangrene, which can eventually lead to amputation.

The Chicago resident worked as a phlebotomist before her PAD worsened, and had to stop working because she could no longer walk or stand for extended stretches of time.

"I can walk only a certain distance before the circulation stops getting to certain parts of the body," she said. "It feels like a terrible leg cramp, like a jabbing, stabbing pain."

During the procedure, patients are put under general anesthesia as bone marrow is harvested through a needle from the hip. The bone marrow is loaded into the MarrowStim PAD Kit, an investigational device, where it is processed in a centrifuge. This spinning separates the marrow into different layers, with one of the layers containing the stem cells. Immediately following the separation, the stem cells are injected in 40 different spots on the affected limb, delivering concentrated bone marrow in each one. The entire procedure takes about 90 minutes. Patients follow up with investigators at different intervals in the year following the injections.

Karen Ho, MD, a Northwestern Medicine vascular surgeon who is also an investigator on the trial, said the exact reason the bone marrow injections might help chronic limb ischemia is still a mystery.

"Nobody really knows the exact mechanism," said Dr. Ho, who is also an assistant professor in vascular surgery at Feinberg. "The idea is that it might improve or enhance new blood vessels in the calf."

Read the original post:
Northwestern Medicine Investigates Using Stem Cells to Save Limbs from Amputation

Low doses of the anti-cancer drug imatinib can spur the bone marrow to produce more innate immune cells to fight against bacterial infections, Emory researchers have found.

The results were published March 30, 2015 in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

The findings suggest imatinib, known commercially as Gleevec , or related drugs could help doctors treat a wide variety of infections, including those that are resistant to antibiotics, or in patients who have weakened immune systems. The research was performed in mice and on human bone marrow cells in vitro, but provides information on how to dose imatinib for new clinical applications.

"We think that low doses of imatinib are mimicking 'emergency hematopoiesis,' a normal early response to infection," says senior author Daniel Kalman, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.

Imatinib, is an example of a "targeted therapy" against certain types of cancer. It,blocks tyrosine kinase enzymes, which are dysregulated in cancers such as chronic myelogenous leukemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Imatinib also inhibits normal forms of these enzymes that are found in healthy cells. Several pathogens - both bacteria and viruses - exploit these enzymes as they transit into, through, or out of human cells. Researchers have previously found that imatinib or related drugs can inhibit infection of cells by pathogens that are very different from each other, including tuberculosis bacteria and Ebola virus.

In the new PLOS Pathogens paper, Emory investigators show that imatinib can push the immune system to combat a variety of bacteria, even those that do not exploit Abl enzymes. The drug does so by stimulating the bone marrow to make more neutrophils and macrophages, immune cells that are important for resisting bacterial infection.

"This was surprising because there are reports that imatinib can be immunosuppressive in some patients," Kalman says. "Our data suggest that at sub-clinical doses, imatinib can stimulate bone marrow stem cells to produce several types of myeloid cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, and trigger their exodus from the bone marrow. However, higher doses appear to inhibit this process."

The authors note that imatinib appears to stimulate several types of white blood cells, which may provide a limit on inflammation, rather than increasing neutrophils only, which can be harmful. The authors go on to suggest that imatinib or related drugs may be useful in treating a variety of infections in patients whose immune system is compromised, such as those receiving chemotherapy for cancer.

###

Original post:
Anticancer drug can spur immune system to fight infection

Scott Logdon is a die-hard University of Kentucky basketball fan, but he can't deny he's got some Wisconsin blood in him -- literally.

When the father of four was being treated for high-risk leukemia at UK in 2013, 20-year-old University of Wisconsin student Chris Wirz anonymously donated bone marrow stem cells to him. The two men first spoke just after the Wildcats bested the Badgers during last year's NCAA Final Four, and basketball was a frequent topic of conversation as their friendship grew.

While each will be rooting for his own team during this Saturday's Final Four rematch, both say they have a soft spot for the other team.

"I've stayed true to UK," said Logdon, 44, of Salvisa, Ky. "But when I talked to Chris for the first time I told him, 'That's why I felt so bad when we beat you: I've got Badger blood in me!"'

Wirz, who lives three blocks from where the Badgers play, hopes Wisconsin wins this year, and has even predicted an upset in his basketball bracket. "Who doesn't want to root for the underdog?" he said.

But he plans to send a text of congratulations if Logdon's team wins -- since their connection is much deeper than basketball rivalry.

"We're literally working off the same immune system," said Wirz, now 22 and a University of Wisconsin senior. "This has been one of the most emotionally overwhelming experiences of my life, realizing how important he is to his family and his community and seeing the hole that would've been left by him."

A dire diagnosis

Logdon, chief deputy at Woodford County Detention Center in Versailles, Ky., and a youth minister in his church, recalled playing basketball with teenagers just a few nights before going to the doctor for what his wife, Angela, initially thought was strep.

But tests showed he had acute myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer estimated by the American Cancer Society to have stricken 18,860 Americans last year and killed about 10,460, mostly adults.

Excerpt from:
Blood ties: Ky. basketball fan gets Wisconsin assist

Costa Mesa and Sherman Oaks, California (PRWEB) March 31, 2015

The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center announces a series of free public seminars on the use of adult stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief.

The seminars will be held on Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm at Ayres Hotel & Suites Costa Mesa/Newport Beach, 325 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; and Wednesday, April 22, 2015, at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm at Hampton Inn, 5638 Sepulveda Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91411. Please RSVP at (949) 679-3889.

The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center (Irvine and Westlake), along with sister affiliates, the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center (Miami; Boca Raton; Orlando; The Villages; Sarasota, Florida) and the Manhattan Regenerative Medicine Medical Group (Manhattan, New York), abide by approved investigational protocols using adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) which can be deployed to improve patients quality of life for a number of chronic, degenerative and inflammatory conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (found within a cellular mixture called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). ADSCs are exceptionally abundant in adipose tissue. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15 minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly adult autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and important Growth Factors that facilitate the stem cell process and promote their activity.

ADSCs are the bodys natural healing cells - they are recruited by chemical signals emitted by damaged tissues to repair and regenerate the bodys injured cells. The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center only uses Adult Autologous Stem Cells from a persons own fat No embryonic stem cells are used; and No bone marrow stem cells are used. Current areas of study include: Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Heart Failure, Heart Attack, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury, Lou Gehrigs Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohns Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, Inflammatory Myopathies, and Degenerative Orthopedic Joint Conditions (Knee, Shoulder, Hip, Spine). For more information, or if someone thinks they may be a candidate for one of the adult stem cell protocols offered by the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center, they may contact Dr. Gionis directly at (949) 679-3889, or see a complete list of the Centers study areas at: http://www.IrvineStemCellsUSA.com.

Also, you can listen and call into our new radio show, The Stem Cell Show, hosted by Dr. Gionis on TalkRadio 790 AM KABC, Sundays @ 4pm PST, or worldwide on KABC.com ("Listen Live" at 4pm PST) or the KABC app available on the App Store or Google Play.

About the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center: The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center, along with sister affiliates, the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center and the Manhattan Regenerative Medicine Medical Group, is an affiliate of the California Stem Cell Treatment Center / Cell Surgical Network (CSN); we are located in Irvine and Westlake, California. We provide care for people suffering from diseases that may be alleviated by access to adult stem cell based regenerative treatment. We utilize a fat transfer surgical technology to isolate and implant the patients own stem cells from a small quantity of fat harvested by a mini-liposuction on the same day. The investigational protocols utilized by the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Health, Office of Human Research Protection (OHRP); and our studies are registered with Clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information, visit our websites: http://www.IrvineStemCellsUSA.com, http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com, or http://www.NYStemCellsUSA.com; http://www.TheStemCellShow.com.

The rest is here:
The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center Announces Adult Stem Cell Public Seminars in Costa Mesa and Sherman Oaks ...

Lung diseases like emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis are common among people with malfunctioning telomeres, the "caps" or ends of chromosomes. Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins say they have discovered what goes wrong and why.

Mary Armanios, M.D., an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine., and her colleagues report that some stem cells vital to lung cell oxygenation undergo premature aging -- and stop dividing and proliferating -- when their telomeres are defective. The stem cells are those in the alveoli, the tiny air exchange sacs where blood takes up oxygen.

In studies of these isolated stem cells and in mice, Armanios' team discovered that dormant or senescent stem cells send out signals that recruit immune molecules to the lungs and cause the severe inflammation that is also a hallmark of emphysema and related lung diseases.

Until now, Armanios says, researchers and clinicians have thought that "inflammation alone is what drives these lung diseases and have based therapy on anti-inflammatory drugs for the last 30 years."

But the new discoveries, reported March 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest instead that "if it's premature aging of the stem cells driving this, nothing will really get better if you don't fix that problem," Armanios says.

Acknowledging that there are no current ways to treat or replace damaged lung stem cells, Armanios says that knowing the source of the problem can redirect research efforts. "It's a new challenge that begins with the questions of whether we take on the effort to fix this defect in the cells, or try to replace the cells," she adds.

Armanios and her team say their study also found that this telomere-driven defect leaves mice extremely vulnerable to anticancer drugs like bleomycin or busulfan that are toxic to the lungs. The drugs and infectious agents like viruses kill off the cells that line the lung's air sacs. In cases of telomere dysfunction, Armanios explains, the lung stem cells can't divide and replenish these destroyed cells.

When the researchers gave these drugs to 11 mice with the lung stem cell defect, all became severely ill and died within a month.

This finding could shed light on why "sometimes people with short telomeres may have no signs of pulmonary disease whatsoever, but when they're exposed to an acute infection or to certain drugs, they develop respiratory failure," says Armanios. "We don't think anyone has ever before linked this phenomenon to stem cell failure or senescence."

In their study, the researchers genetically engineered mice to have a telomere defect that impaired the telomeres in just the lung stem cells in the alveolar epithelium, the layer of cells that lines the air sacs. "In bone marrow or other compartments, when stem cells have short telomeres, or when they age, they just die out," Armanios says. "But we found that instead, these alveolar cells just linger in the senescent stage."

Continued here:
Premature aging of stem cell telomeres, not inflammation, linked to emphysema

An injection of a patient's bone marrow stem cells during rotator cuff surgery significantly improved healing and tendon durability, according to a study presented today at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Each year in the U.S., more than 2 million people have rotator cuff surgery to re-attach their shoulder tendon to the head of the humerus (upper arm bone). Rotator cuff tears can occur during a fall or when lifting an extremely heavy object; however, most tears are the result of aging and overuse.

The French study, of which a portion appeared in the September 2014 issue of International Orthopaedics, included 90 patients who underwent rotator cuff surgery. Researchers tried to make the two groups as equivalent as possible based on rotator cuff tear size, tendon rupture location, dominate shoulder, gender and age. Forty-five of the patients received injections of bone marrow concentrate (BMC) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at the surgical site, and 45 had their rotator cuff repaired or reattached without MSCs.

Patient ultrasound images were obtained each month following surgery for 24 months. In addition, MRI images were obtained of patient shoulders at three and six months following surgery, and at one year, two years, and 10 years following surgery.

At six months, all 45 of the patients who received MSCs had healed rotator cuff tendons, compared to 30 (67 percent) of the patients who did not receive MSCs. The use of bone marrow concentrate also prevented further ruptures or retears. At 10 years after surgery, intact rotator cuffs were found in 39 (87 percent) of the MSC patients, but just 20 (44 percent) of the non-MSC patients.

In addition, "some retears or new tears occurred after one year," said Philippe Hernigou, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Paris and lead study author. "These retears were more frequently associated with the control group patients who were not treated with MSCs.

"While the risk of a retear after arthroscopic repair of the rotator cuff has been well documented, publications with long-term follow-up (more than three years) are relatively limited," said Dr. Hernigou. "Many patients undergoing rotator cuff repair surgery show advanced degeneration of the tendons, which are thinner and atrophic (more likely to degenerate), probably explaining why negative results are so often reported in the literature, with frequent post-operative complications, especially retear. Observations in the MSC treatment group support the potential that MSC treatment has both a short-term and long-term benefit in reducing the rate of tendon retear."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Link:
Stem cells may improve tendon healing, reduce retear risk in rotator cuff surgery

LAS VEGAS, March 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An injection of a patient's bone marrow stem cells during rotator cuff surgery significantly improved healing and tendon durability, according to a study presented today at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Each year in the U.S., more than 2 million people have rotator cuff surgery to re-attach their shoulder tendon to the head of the humerus (upper arm bone). Rotator cuff tears can occur during a fall or when lifting an extremely heavy object; however, most tears are the result of aging and overuse.

The French study, of which a portion appeared in the September 2014 issue of International Orthopaedics, included 90 patients who underwent rotator cuff surgery. Researchers tried to make the two groups as equivalent as possible based on rotator cuff tear size, tendon rupture location, dominate shoulder, gender and age. Forty-five of the patients received injections of bone marrow concentrate (BMC) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at the surgical site, and 45 had their rotator cuff repaired or reattached without MSCs.

Patient ultrasound images were obtained each month following surgery for 24 months. In addition, MRI images were obtained of patient shoulders at three and six months following surgery, and at one year, two years, and 10 years following surgery.

At six months, all 45 of the patients who received MSCs had healed rotator cuff tendons, compared to 30 (67 percent) of the patients who did not receive MSCs. The use of bone marrow concentrate also prevented further ruptures or retears. At 10 years after surgery, intact rotator cuffs were found in 39 (87 percent) of the MSC patients, but just 20 (44 percent) of the non-MSC patients.

In addition, "some retears or new tears occurred after one year," said Philippe Hernigou, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Paris and lead study author. "These retears were more frequently associated with the control group patients who were not treated with MSCs.

"While the risk of a retear after arthroscopic repair of the rotator cuff has been well documented, publications with long-term follow-up (more than three years) are relatively limited," said Dr. Hernigou. "Many patients undergoing rotator cuff repair surgery show advanced degeneration of the tendons, which are thinner and atrophic (more likely to degenerate), probably explaining why negative results are so often reported in the literature, with frequent post-operative complications, especially retear. Observations in the MSC treatment group support the potential that MSC treatment has both a short-term and long-term benefit in reducing the rate of tendon retear."

Study abstract

View 2015 AAOS Annual Meeting disclosure statements

About AAOS

See original here:
Stem cells may significantly improve tendon healing, reduce retear risk in rotator cuff surgery

Tampa, FL. (PRWEB) March 26, 2015

This month, the Lung Institute has started treating people suffering from chronic lung diseases with stem cells extracted from their bone marrow. This treatment protocol is added to the two other treatment options offered by the Lung Institute: venous (blood-derived) and adipose (fat-derived) stem cell therapy.

The bone marrow and adipose treatments offer the highest concentration of stem cells and allow for the cells to be reintroduced directly into the lungs through a nebulizer. Given this added benefit, most patients in the past opted to receive the adipose treatment over venous. However, many patients have other medical conditions that preclude them from choosing the adipose treatment. Since the number of stem cells harvested from a bone marrow procedure matches that of the adipose procedure, patients that have previously only qualified for the venous procedure are now eligible for a treatment option that produces the highest chance of success.

Patients are often surprised by the simplicity of these minimally invasive procedures, but with cutting-edge technology and the patient-centric clinical team at the Lung Institute, patients can rest assured that they are in good hands. Throughout the entire treatment process, patients have the opportunity to get any questions immediately answered by our knowledgeable medical staff. The Lung Institute clinical team remains in contact with patients after treatment and works together with the patients physician and pulmonologist to create a strong support system for the patient.

About the Lung Institute At the Lung Institute, we are changing the lives of hundreds of people across the nation through the innovative technology of regenerative medicine. We are committed to providing patients a more effective way to address pulmonary conditions and improve their quality of life. Our physicians, through their designated practices, have gained worldwide recognition for the successful application of revolutionary minimally invasive stem cell therapies. With over a century of combined medical experience, our doctors have established a patient experience designed with the highest concern for patient safety and quality of care. For more information, visit our website at LungInstitute.com, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or call us today at (855) 313-1149.

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Lung Institute Announces New Treatment with Bone Marrow

Beneath several blankets and a stuffed giraffe in her UC San Francisco hospital bed, 11-year-old Myla Cunanan is resting after a morning of dialysis to treat a kidney-related complication from her bone marrow transplant last year.Myla is sedated and tired, but not enough to silence her spritely personality.Mom, you put the cover on backwards! she exclaimed, disassembling her iPhone from its case and flipping it around as her mother, Leyna Cunanan, laughed and lovingly stroked the hand of her youngest daughter.She makes us all brave around her, Leyna said of her daughter. She knows that there is a purpose for her for being here. Tuesday marked one year to the day since Myla was diagnosed with myeloid sarcoma, a rare cancer in which a solid collection of leukemic cells occur outside of the bone marrow. The last year also thrust Myla into the spotlight as she and her family sought to find a bone marrow donor, a mission that turned out to be impossible due to a severe lack of Asian donors worldwide.Myla is Filipino-American, and when doctors told her after three rounds of chemotherapy in spring 2014 that she urgently needed a bone marrow transplant, her family learned just how difficult it is to find a match.In fact, Asians comprise just 6 percent of donors with Be The Match Registry, the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world.The rarer your ethnic subtype is, at least in the U.S., the less likely we are to find you a good donor, said Dr. Christopher Dvorack, who has treated Myla since last year and is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics in the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Blood and Marrow Transplant at UC San Francisco.Last summer, her family registered about 300 donors through drives at their church, Mylas school and local shopping centers, and shared Mylas plight on social media with a photo of Myla holding a sign that reads, Will you marrow me?But a match was not found, and by August, doctors told Mylas family they would need to use a half-match donor, which was Mylas father.There are two main ways to donate bone marrow. The first is to have needles inserted into hip bones to extract a small amount of bone marrow. The second requires four days of injections of medicine designed to stimulate bone marrow and cause it to release stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood.The problem with half-match donors is the patients immune system can reject the donated bone marrow, which is what happened to Myla, Dvorack explained.She initially did well, she then later developed a complication that has kept her in the hospital, he said.The complication, thrombotic microangiopathy with renal involvement, means Mylas kidneys function less than 15 percent. She was subsequently diagnosed as chronic kidney disease Stage 5, and has been receiving hemodialysis several times a week.But her family remain advocates for the need for more bone marrow donors, particularly among ethnic minorities.We didnt find a match for Myla ... but we would like to continue to [hold] drives for other patients, her mother said.Ruby Law, a recruitment director for the Asian American Donor Program based in Alameda, worked with Myla and her family last year to seek a donor and said their efforts have extended beyond simply finding a match.Mylas family is very passionate about raising awareness of marrow and blood stem cell donation, Law said.Since Mylas most recent hospitalization, which began a week before Thanksgiving, her mother has lived with her at UCSF. Myla was among the 126 patients transferred from the UCSF Parnassus Campus to the new complex at Mission Bay on Feb. 1.Recently, Myla has been writing a book to help other kids going through similar journeys.When you read this book, I want you to think positive always, the last line of the opening letter states.And that pretty much sums up Mylas attitude, according to her doctor and family. Despite having been hospitalized for the majority of the past year, Myla insists she has plenty to be thankful for. While hospitalized, Myla has held book, bracelet and band-aid drives.There are days, of course, when she doesnt feel good, her mother said. But she always thinks about other people. She likes to give.To sign up as a donor, visit http://www.aadp.org or call (510) 568-3700.

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One year after cancer diagnosis, Bay Area girl continues to highlight need for Asian bone marrow donors

My bone marrow began sending me messages long before I Learned to listen..I was exhausted, pale, drained, and tired all of the time. I eventually landed myself in the emergency room, and was handed a full membership to the cancer club. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer.

My bone marrow began sending me messages long before I Learned to listen..I was exhausted, pale, drained, and tired all of the time. I eventually landed myself in the emergency room, and was handed a full membership to the cancer club. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer.

That was June 23, 2009.

As it turned out I was very fortunate. I beat the statistical odds and circumstances were in my favour. After four months of chemo and steroids, I was able to use my own stem cells in what is called an autologous stell cell transplant.

My stem cell transplant was a journey to my very core. It's like witnessing a rebirth. It's awe-inspiring and essential. Visualizing those 'yellow' cells stream their way back into my bone marrow opened my eyes to the singular power stem cells bring into our world.

But I was also reminded of Michael Pinto the undertaker in Bombay.

'Grave Problems Resurrected here'

That's so not gonna happen. Not on my resurrection.

My passage through illness taught me that the knowledge of the curative properties of stem cells needs to be shared to offer hope of renewed life. If you knew what medical science can do with stem cells, and if you saw what I did in the labs, through microscropes, you too would feel like using both hands to scoop those secrets out into the world.

Occasionally I gloss over my past cancer club membership--my treatment, my illnessbut then I am remember what a profound reboot my body has gone through, and I remember why. It's true that the deepest crises are moments of great opportunity; an event that shocks you into seeing with your heart. It is a place that combines survival with celebration.

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My message in a bottle, writes Lisa Ray

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Newswise (New York March 25, 2015) Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)adult cells reprogrammed back to an embryonic stem cell-like statemay better model the genetic contributions to each patient's particular disease. In a process called cellular reprogramming, researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have taken mature blood cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and reprogrammed them back into iPSCs to study the genetic origins of this rare blood cancer. The results appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Biotechnology.

In MDS, genetic mutations in the bone marrow stem cell cause the number and quality of blood-forming cells to decline irreversibly, further impairing blood production. Patients with MDS can develop severe anemia and in some cases leukemia also known as AML. But which genetic mutations are the critical ones causing this disease?

In this study, researchers took cells from patients with blood cancer MDS and turned them into stem cells to study the deletions of human chromosome 7 often associated with this disease.

With this approach, we were able to pinpoint a region on chromosome 7 that is critical and were able to identify candidate genes residing there that may cause this disease, said lead researcher Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD, Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Chromosomal deletions are difficult to study with existing tools because they contain a large number of genes, making it hard to pinpoint the critical ones causing cancer. Chromosome 7 deletion is a characteristic cellular abnormality in MDS and is well-recognized for decades as a marker of unfavorable prognosis. However, the role of this deletion in the development of the disease remained unclear going into this study.

Understanding the role of specific chromosomal deletions in cancers requires determining if a deletion has observable consequences as well as identifying which specific genetic elements are critically lost. Researchers used cellular reprogramming and genome engineering to dissect the loss of chromosome 7. The methods used in this study for engineering deletions can enable studies of the consequences of alterations in genes in human cells.

Genetic engineering of human stem cells has not been used for disease-associated genomic deletions, said Dr. Papapetrou. This work sheds new light on how blood cancer develops and also provides a new approach that can be used to study chromosomal deletions associated with a variety of human cancers, neurological and developmental diseases.

Reprogramming MDS cells could provide a powerful tool to dissect the architecture and evolution of this disease and to link the genetic make-up of MDS cells to characteristics and traits of these cells. Further dissecting the MDS stem cells at the molecular level could provide insights into the origins and development of MDS and other blood cancers. Moreover, this work could provide a platform to test and discover new treatments for these diseases.

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Mount Sinai Researchers Discover Genetic Origins of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Using Stem Cells

(New York - March 25, 2015) Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- adult cells reprogrammed back to an embryonic stem cell-like state--may better model the genetic contributions to each patient's particular disease. In a process called cellular reprogramming, researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have taken mature blood cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and reprogrammed them back into iPSCs to study the genetic origins of this rare blood cancer. The results appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Biotechnology.

In MDS, genetic mutations in the bone marrow stem cell cause the number and quality of blood-forming cells to decline irreversibly, further impairing blood production. Patients with MDS can develop severe anemia and in some cases leukemia also known as AML. But which genetic mutations are the critical ones causing this disease?

In this study, researchers took cells from patients with blood cancer MDS and turned them into stem cells to study the deletions of human chromosome 7 often associated with this disease.

"With this approach, we were able to pinpoint a region on chromosome 7 that is critical and were able to identify candidate genes residing there that may cause this disease," said lead researcher Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD, Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Chromosomal deletions are difficult to study with existing tools because they contain a large number of genes, making it hard to pinpoint the critical ones causing cancer. Chromosome 7 deletion is a characteristic cellular abnormality in MDS and is well-recognized for decades as a marker of unfavorable prognosis. However, the role of this deletion in the development of the disease remained unclear going into this study.

Understanding the role of specific chromosomal deletions in cancers requires determining if a deletion has observable consequences as well as identifying which specific genetic elements are critically lost. Researchers used cellular reprogramming and genome engineering to dissect the loss of chromosome 7. The methods used in this study for engineering deletions can enable studies of the consequences of alterations in genes in human cells.

"Genetic engineering of human stem cells has not been used for disease-associated genomic deletions," said Dr. Papapetrou. "This work sheds new light on how blood cancer develops and also provides a new approach that can be used to study chromosomal deletions associated with a variety of human cancers, neurological and developmental diseases."

Reprogramming MDS cells could provide a powerful tool to dissect the architecture and evolution of this disease and to link the genetic make-up of MDS cells to characteristics and traits of these cells. Further dissecting the MDS stem cells at the molecular level could provide insights into the origins and development of MDS and other blood cancers. Moreover, this work could provide a platform to test and discover new treatments for these diseases.

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This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Society of Hematology, the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund, and a John H. Tietze Stem Cell Scientist Award.

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Researchers discover genetic origins of myelodysplastic syndrome using stem cells

Mar 23, 2015 by Denis Paiste MIT biological engineering graduate student Frances Liu works with a spiral-shaped inertial microfluidic separation device for separating stem cell populations in the Laboratory for Material Chemomechanics at MIT. This device was adapted from previous designs to separate cells as a function of diameter. Liu also grows bone marrow-derived stem cells and studies how those stem cells release certain chemicals in response to mechanical interactions with materials in the surrounding environment. Credit: Denis Paiste/Materials Processing Center

Researchers in MIT Associate Professor Krystyn J. Van Vliet's group last year showed that three biomechanical and biophysical markers could accurately identify the most desirable stem cells from a mixed group of bone marrow-derived cells. Now, MIT biological engineering graduate student Frances Liu is trying to advance that work by understanding how to alter the stem cells' physical environment to get them to produce the most desirable chemical output.

The bone marrow cells secrete special chemicals called cytokines that are needed in the body to repair bone tissue, fat tissue, and connective tissue like cartilage. "These so-called factors that the cells produce are associated with those tissue growth functions and tissue repair functions," Van Vliet says.

Liu grows bone marrow-derived stem cells and studies how those stem cells release certain chemicals in response to mechanical interactions with materials in their surrounding environment. "I would like to manipulate the cells, using cell-material interactions, or synthetic materials, to produce certain chemicals beneficial to tissue repair," Liu explains in the Laboratory for Material Chemomechanics at MIT. "Right now we are in the characterization phase, quantifying which and how much of different cytokines the cells secrete in response to different chemical and mechanical cues that we provide. Down the line, we aim to engineer those cytokine profiles using cell-material interactions." Liu, 24, is a third-year PhD student and expects to complete her doctorate in 2017. She received her bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering from Brown University.

Liu is examining how various groups of stem cells differ in response to lab-controlled changes in their environment in ways that might be important for tissue repair in the body. "Frances is determining the correlations between the mechanical properties of the materials the cells interact with and the chemical factors that they produce in response to that chemomechanical coupling," Van Vliet says.

Heterogeneous cellular factories

"You can think of the cells as factories; they're factories of chemicals," Van Vliet explains. "One of the main ways you change the way that factory operates is you change the material properties of its environment. How stiff that environment is, how acidic that environment is, how rough that environment is, all of those characteristics of the cell's outside world can directly correlate with the chemicals that that cell produces. We don't really understand all of why that happens yet, but part of Frances' thesis is to understand these particular stem cells and the subpopulations within them."

While other researchers previously studied mechanical factors such as stiffness on the function of these mesenchymal (bone marrow-derived) stem cells, it wasn't widely recognized that they were examining a mixed population of cells, not a single well-defined cell population. "Some of them were stem cells, but some were not," Van Vliet says.

One way that Liu sorts her stem cells into groups is using an inertial microfluidic separation device that separates cells of large diameter cells from those of small diameter. This device was adapted from previous designs of their collaborator, MIT Professor Jongyoon Han, as part of the interdisciplinary team that Van Vliet leads within the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). The group showed in a 2014 paper that three markerssize, mechanical stiffness, and how much the nucleus inside the cell moves aroundare sufficient to identify stem cells in a heterogeneous population of chemically similar but non-stem cells. "We measured those three properties as well as several other properties, but only those three properties together, that triplet of properties, distinguished a stem cell from a non-stem cell," Van Vliet says.

By using the microfluidic device, we can better understand the differences between the subpopulations of these heterogeneous bone marrow cells and which cytokines each subpopulation may be secreting, both in the body and in the lab.

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Altering mechanical properties of cell environments to produce desired chemical outputs

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Newswise LA JOLLA, CA March 23, 2015 Stem cells can generate any type of cell in the body, but they are inactive most of the timeand for good reason. When stem cells become too active and divide too often, they risk acquiring cell damage and mutations. In the case of blood stem cells (also called hematopoietic stem cells or HSCs), this can lead to blood cancers, a loss of blood cells and an impaired ability to fight disease.

Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that a particular enzyme in HSCs is key to maintaining healthy periods of inactivity. Their findings, published recently in the journal Blood, show that animal models without this enzyme experience dangerous HSC activation and ultimately succumb to lethal anemia.

These HSCs remain active too long and then disappear, said TSRI Associate Professor Karsten Sauer, senior author of the new study. "As a consequence, the mice lose their red blood cells and die."

With this new understanding of the enzyme, called Inositol trisphosphate 3-kinase B (ItpkB), scientists are closer to improving therapies for diseases such as bone marrow failure syndrome, anemia, leukemia, lymphoma and immunodeficiencies.

Stem Cells Need Rest

HSCs are a type of adult stem cell that live in little niches in the bone marrow. They are normally inactive, or quiescent, and only divide to self-renew about every two months.

However, when mature blood cells are lost, for example through severe bleeding or during infections, HSCs become activated to generate new progenitor cellsthe cells that replenish the blood supply and produce immune cells to fight disease. Once the blood cells have been replenished, the HSCs become quiescent again.

The balance between inactivity and activity is important because HSC activation generates side products that harm HSCs. In addition, every division introduces a risk of mutation, sometimes leading to cancer. Its like a car wearing down its own engine while it is doing its work, said Sauer. "Like people, HSCs need long periods of rest to remain healthy and work well."

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TSRI Team Discovers Enzyme that Keeps Blood Stem Cells Functional to Prevent Anemia

FREDERICK, Md., March 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Recent studies employing adult stem cells obtained from bone marrow and fat have been used in patients suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee. Results have indicated not only symptomatic improvement but also suggest that cartilage healing and regeneration may be taking place.

According to Director, Dr. Nathan Wei of the Arthritis Treatment Center, "Osteoarthritis options in the past have been limited to symptom relief. We are now entering an era where we have therapies that may also rebuild lost cartilage."

Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee affects more than 20 million Americans. It is a disease due to loss of cartilage, the gristle that caps the ends of long bones and provides cushioning and shock absorption.

He goes on to say, "by administering adult stem cells, in a certain fashion, we may be able to restore lost cartilage. While this action has been demonstrated in multiple animal models, it has only been described in anecdotal reports in humans. Fortunately, we are now conducting clinical studies that are much better controlled and more scientifically valid."

Dr. Wei adds, "The positive effect on arthritis is not only due to multiplication, division, and transformation of the stem cell into cartilage, but it is also due to the fact the stem cell releases proteins that attract other reparative cells to the area. This is called the 'paracrine' effect."

"We are excited about the early results of our investigation and hope the results will continue to be positive. If so, I hope that knee replacement surgery might become a thing of the past," he concludes.

Dr. Wei is a board-certified rheumatologist and regenerative medicine expert. He is director of the Arthritis Treatment Center located in Frederick, Maryland.

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Stem cell treatment for knee arthritis shows promising results