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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Leah Still to undergo stem cell therapy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

preservation laboratory, where stem cells were kept for use in transplants in children whose bone marrow has been damaged during chemotherapy.

Concerns were first raised when Sophie Ryan-Palmer, 12, who had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, failed to make progress after her transplant in June 2013, which involved using a donors stem cells rather than her own.

She had been diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of two and had undergone three previous transplants. She began fundraising for cancer charities when she was six.

By October last year the hospital had identified that a higher than usual proportion of eight children who had undergone stem cell transplantation between March and August had suffered what doctors call delayed engraftment. But by the time it stopped freezing stem cells on site at its base in Bloomsbury, central London, and launched an investigation, three of the eight had died.

Ryan Loughran, aged 13 months, from Bournemouth, died on July 10. Sophie, from Sunbury in Middlesex, followed on July 17. Katie Joyce, from Hertfordshire, died on October 6. A fourth patient, Muhanna al-Hayany, aged five, died in August this year. He had come from Kuwait to have the treatment. Following the deaths it was discovered that the method used to freeze the stem cells had inexplicably stopped working and that, although still alive, the cells were unable to mature properly.

At the inquest, Katie Beattie, the barrister representing Katie Joyces family, questioned whether the girls transplant in August should have been suspended, knowing Sophie and Ryan had died the previous month. Great Ormond Street went ahead even though there was plenty of time to stop it, she said.

Doctors from the hospital told St Pancras coroners court that they regretted not halting transplants sooner and Katies life might have been saved if they had. But they said they believed they were doing the right thing by continuing with the transplants because cancer doesnt wait.

Great Ormond Street said it has since overhauled its procedures to prevent further incidents, but is still investigating why the freezing process stopped working.

A spokesman said: Before giving our patients any frozen cells we carried out tests, which are standard across most laboratories in the UK, to ensure they were alive and viable. All of the samples passed these tests, so there was nothing to suggest there was a problem at this stage.

The coroner, Mary Hassell, is expected to deliver verdicts on all four deaths on Tuesday.

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Stem cell failure 'led to children's deaths' at Great Ormond Street

The Saint Mary's student club, SMC Stands up to Cancer, held a bone marrow registration drive Friday. Registrants' genetic information will be added to the Be the Match marrow database which searches for possible matches with blood cancer patients. Suitable donors can provide bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells to patients, saving lives.

Allison Lukomski, a communicative sciences and disorders major, was a match for a female cancer patient from last years drive. She said it is very rewarding, knowing she was able to help someone else.

"You could save a life," Lukomski said, "and I just think it is so incredible and it is such an incredible experience I had, my family had, everyone in my family decided to join because they thought it was a really cool process." She said everyone asks about the pain, but once they realize how much information there is every step of the way, many people sign up.

This is the second year for the bone marrow drive. For more information on joining the bone marrow donation registry, visit Be The Match.

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Saint Mary's holds bone marrow drive

Katie Joyce, left, aged four, and Sophie Ryan Palmer, aged 12, were among the four children who died as a result of complications with transplants. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

Four children have died after failings in how stem cells used in life-saving operations were frozen at Great Ormond Street hospital, it emerged this week.

The four, who were between one and 12 years old, were among eight children with cancer whose bone marrow transplants did not work as a result of problems with the freezing process.

Britains best-known childrens hospital has admitted that one of them, four-year-old Katie Joyce, might have survived if it had acted more quickly when problems arose.

An inquest into the deaths this week heard that doctors were initially baffled as to why a decade of success using the procedures suddenly came to a halt in summer 2013. Despite extensive investigations, the hospital failed to pinpoint the source of the setbacks in its cryopreservation laboratory, used for freezing stem cells which were kept there for using in bone marrow transplants in children.

The transplanted stem cells were intended to help the childs bone marrow, damaged during chemotherapy, grow again to maximise the chance of recovery.

At the inquest, lawyers for two of the families whose children died accused Great Ormond Street of taking too long to halt the transplants once staff began having concerns.

The hospital has since overhauled its procedures to prevent further incidents and there are calls for the deaths to lead to tighter procedures around how stem cells are stored at hospitals and research centres across the UK.

Concerns were first raised in June 2013 when 12-year-old Sophie Ryan Palmer, who had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, failed to make progress after her transplant at Great Ormond Street, which involved using a donors stem cells rather than her own.

By October 2013 the hospital had identified that a higher than usual proportion of eight patients who had undergone stem cell transplantation between March and August had suffered setbacks after encountering what doctors call delayed engraftment. It immediately stopped freezing stem cells on site at its base in Bloomsbury, central London, and launched an investigation.

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Great Ormond Street deaths caused by stem cell lab failures, inquest told

Researchers of CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU-UCH) for the first time transplanted bone marrow stem cells into damaged brain tissue while applying lipoic acid (a potent antioxidant), with the aim of improving neuroregeneration in the tissue. This new way of repairing brain damage, which combines cellular treatment with drug therapy, has shown positive results, especially in forming blood vessels (a process called angiogenesis) in damaged areas of the brains of adult laboratory mice. Angiogenesis is a process that is essential to the recovery of damaged neural tissues. The investigation was led by Jos Miguel Soria Lpez, deputy director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at CEU-UCH, and its results were published in the international medical journal Brain Injury.

Professor Soria, who is affiliated to the Department of Biomedical Sciences at CEU-UCH, heads the investigative group 'Strategies in Neuroprotection and Neuroreparation', which carried out the investigation in cooperation with the Andalusian Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine Centre (CABIMER), located in Sevilla, and the Mediterranean Ophthalmological Foundation, located in Valencia. The research team used the experience they obtained from their previous investigations on the neuroregenerative efficiency of lipoic acid to develop a new remediation strategy for patients of brain damage. This new therapy combines the transplantation of bone marrow stem cells into the brain -- in this case, the brains of adult rats -- with the administration of the potent antioxidant lipoic acid.

Lipoic acid is already used in the treatment of degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis or diabetic neuropathy. Professor Soria concluded from previous researches he conducted at CEU-UCH that it has the ability to increase the creation of blood vessels, which speeds up cerebral immune response after an injury and stimulates the restoration of damaged tissues. Several other researches, for their part, proved that after brain damage stem cell therapies using a patient's own bone marrow induce functional improvements. The two therapies -- one cellular; the other one pharmacological -- were both applied in this research so as to evaluate their combined effect.

New blood vessels

Angiogenesis -- the process that forms new blood vessels -- in the treated neuronal tissue began only eight days after the application of this new, combined therapy. CEU-UCH professor Soria says that "although bone marrow stem cells disappear from the brain tissue where they were transplanted after only 16 days, new cells keep forming. To put it another way, brain tissue is regenerated by new cells that appear in the brain as a result of stem cell transplantation. This proves the regenerative efficiency of the new combined therapy."

The research also shows how the blood vessels that formed after the treatment grow into the damaged area of the brain. "They act as a kind of scaffolding to that area that allows microglia cells to migrate," professor Soria says. "In the damaged area, they contribute to regeneration." He adds that "the application of both treatments results into high angiogenic activity, which is crucial for an efficient recovery of the damaged brain area." According to Soria, "the laboratory mice that recovered fastest from brain injuries were those that had a higher density of regenerated blood vessels."

Taking into consideration brain damage is, especially among children and adolescents, one of the leading causes of disability and death in the developed world, the good results that were obtained from the combination of the two therapies make the research team very hopeful. "Combining an antioxidant such as lipoic acid with bone marrow stem cells has proven to be an effective remedy," Soria observes. The team plans to conduct future research into similar combined therapies.

The image above shows the transplant of bone marrow stem cells from transgenic mice under the effects of cerebral cortex after suffering local brain damage. Also visible is a neuroprotective drug therapy.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Asociacin RUVID. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Brain injuries in mice treated using bone marrow stem cells, antioxidants

Patients, aged one to 12, among eight children whose transplants failed Concerns arose in 2013 after operation on fundraiser Sophie Palmer, 12 Hospital says Katie Joyce, 4, could have been saved if quicker action taken Lawyers have also accused hospital of taking too long to stop transplants Ryan Loughran, 13 months, and Muhanna al-Hayany, 4, also died last year Doctors 'regret' not stopping sooner but decision seemed right at time Seventeen months on, investigations are still ongoing into exact cause

By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline

Published: 06:45 EST, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 08:49 EST, 22 November 2014

Four cancer-stricken children died at Great Ormond Street Hospital after a series of failures in stem cell transplants at the world-renowned hospital, an inquest has heard.

The young patients, aged between one and 12, were among eight children whose transplants failed when the stem cell freezing system - used in life-saving operations - inexplicably stopped working.

Four children went on to recover. But well-known charity fundraiser Sophie Ryan Palmer, 12, one-year-old Ryan Loughran, four-year-old Katie Joyce and Muhanna al-Hayany, also four, died between July and October last year.

Katie Joyce (left) and Sophie Ryan (right) were among two of the four young patients who died after a series of failures in stem cell transplants at Great Ormond Street Hospital

The children's hospital has now admitted that Katie might have survived if it had acted more quickly to resolve the problems.

Lawyers for two of the families have also accused Great Ormond Street of taking too long to stop the transplants once concerns arose.

At an inquest into the deaths this week, the court heard that doctors were initially dumbfounded as to why the procedures suddenly started failing after a decade of success, the Guardian reports.

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Four children dead at Great Ormond Street after stem cell transplant failure

Sue Walters only chance of survival from leukaemiawas a stem cell transplant No one in her family matched her tissue type Doctors searched the worldwide donor register They found Nicola Gerber, a student from Mechern, near the French border

By Chloe Lambert for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:21 EST, 17 November 2014 | Updated: 04:28 EST, 18 November 2014

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When Sue Walters was diagnosed with leukaemia, she hoped that the best of medical science would be used to cure it.

What she could never have anticipated was that her life would be saved by an 18-year-old boy from a remote German village.

Sues only chance of survival was a stem cell transplant previously known as a bone marrow transplant.

What Nicola has done is amazing it really is a gift of life. If I hadnt had the transplant, it was unlikely Id have lived beyond three months,' said Sue Walters of her donor Nicola Gerber

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Donor: The German teenager who saved my life

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Nov-2014

Contact: Nik Papageorgiou n.papageorgiou@epfl.ch 41-216-932-105 Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne @EPFL_en

Chronic myeloid leukemia develops when a gene mutates and causes an enzyme to become hyperactive, causing blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow to grow rapidly into abnormal cells. The enzyme, Abl-kinase, is a member of the "kinase" family of enzymes, which serve as an "on" or "off" switch for many functions in our cells. In chronic myeloid leukemia, the hyperactive Abl-kinase is targeted with drugs that bind to a specific part of the enzyme and block it, aiming to ultimately kill the fast-growing cancer cell. However, treatments are often limited by the fact that the cancer cells can adapt to resist drugs. EPFL scientists have identified an alternative part of Abl-kinase on which drugs can bind and act with a reduced risk of drug resistance. Their work is published in Nature Communications.

Abl-kinase and leukemia

Abl-kinase can turn "on" molecules that are involved in many cell functions including cell growth. In chronic myeloid leukemia, the chromosome that contains the gene for Abl-kinase swaps a section with another chromosome, causing what is known as the "Philadelphia chromosome". When this mutation takes place in the blood stem cells in the bone marrow, Abl-kinase fuses with another protein, turning into a deregulated, hyperactive enzyme. This causes large numbers of blood-forming stem cells to grow into an abnormal type of white blood cell, which gives rise to chronic myeloid leukemia.

To treat this type of leukemia we use drugs that specifically bind and block a part of Abl-kinase called the "active site". As the name suggests, this is the part of the enzyme that binds molecules to turn them on. Therefore, blocking the active site with a drug stops the hyperactivity of Abl-kinase caused by the Philadelphia mutation and slow down or even abolishes the production of abnormal cancerous blood cells. The problem is that targeting the active site of Abl-kinase often causes the cancer cells to adapt and develop drug resistance, making them harder to kill.

An indirect path against resistance

A team of researchers led by Oliver Hantschel at EPFL (ISREC) has now discovered a new way to indirectly inhibit the activity of Abl-kinase. The scientists systematically made small, strategic mutations to Abl-kinase that caused its 3D structure to change. Then they tested each mutant version of the enzyme to see if its function would change.

Hantschel's team built on previous studies showing that Abl-kinase is indirectly controlled by another part of itself called the "SH2 region", which is located close to the active site. Normally, the SH2 region regulates the active site by opening and closing it. But under the Philadelphia mutation, that regulation is lost. What the scientists discovered was that when the Philadelphia mutation takes effect, the SH2 region actually "clamps" open the active site of Abl-kinase and forces it to go into overdrive.

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A new approach to fighting chronic myeloid leukemia

A large-scale trial conducted in India has shown that stem cell therapy does not work in stroke patientsREUTERS

A study conducted on 120 patients in India has shown that stem cell treatment is not effective in treating paralysis resulting from a stroke.

The research which is thefirst large-scale study conducted in Indiacompared outcomes in those treated with stem cells to others and found no difference, reports Down to Earth.

While 60 patients with some form of disability of limbs caused by a stroke were given conventional treatment, an equal number received bone marrow stem cells in addition. All had experienced a stroke 3-4 weeks before the trial.

"We found that at the end of the first month, patients with stem cells showed more improvement compared to the control group. But at the end of the third month and one year, there was no difference," said Kameshwar Prasad, head, Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who led the study.

On an average 280 million bone marrow cells were injected, of which blood forming stem cells were around 2.9 million per patient.

The average age of patients in the study was around 50.

The study, published in the current issue of American journal Stroke, was conducted at AIIMS in New Delhi and four other hospitals covering four cities.

The study comes when many others have been suggesting that stem cells could help treat paralysis in stroke patients. The earlier study was done on a small number of patients as compared to the AIIMs study.

More research needs to be done, before stem cells are used in therapy as in India, many private clinics are openly offering stem cell treatment for various diseases.

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Stem Cells Treatment Not Useful In Stroke Patients Finds Indian Study

NOTRE DAME - You could be a life saver!

On Friday, November 21, 2014, the Saint Mary's College student club SMC Stands Up To Cancer will hold a bone marrow registration drive on campus.

It'll take place from 11am to 3pm in Reignbeaux Lounge in Le Mans Hall. For a campus map click here.

To participate, you must be between the ages of 18 and 44. It's completely painless to sign up, requiring just a swab of the inside of your cheek to get a sample of cells.

Your genetic information will be added to the Be the Match marrow database, which searches for possible matches for blood cancer patients. Suitable donors can provide bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells to patients, saving lives.

This will be the second annual bone marrow drive held on Saint Mary's campus. Typically, one person in 540 is a match for a patient with a blood cancer. But a match surfaced out of the 50 registered on campus at the last drive. Allison Lukomski '16, a communicative sciences and disorders major, was a match for a female cancer patient. Lukomski donated peripheral blood stem cells over fall break through a non-surgical procedure.

The bone marrow registration event comes on the heels of the Pink Party Zumbathon, hosted by SMC Stands Up to Cancer, which raised money for cancer research through the national organization Stand Up To Cancer.

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Bone marrow registration drive to be held at Saint Mary's College

November 13, 2014

Marc-Andr Skelling of East Angus needs help. The 23-year-old man has Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer affecting the bodys white blood cells and lymph nodes. He has been told that without a viable donation of bone marrow stem cells he has less than a month to live.

We need to find a donor, its urgent, said Muguette Skelling, Marc-Andrs mother. Were inviting everyone, no matter who they are, to register with Hma-Quebec.

Bone marrow is responsible for the production of red and white blood cells in the body and therefore a bone marrow transplant can be an effective treatment for a range of blood related diseases. Depending on the context, individuals can receive a transplant either from another part of their own body, or from an outside donor.

Individuals in good health who are between 18 and 35 years of age can register to donate in Quebec. Registration is done online through the Hma-Quebec website. Once registration is complete, a test kit containing a cheek swab is mailed to the registrant that must then be returned. According to Mnard, the whole process from registration to getting onto the list takes twelve weeks.

Read the full story in Thursday's Record.

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East Angus man looking for stem cells

TOWIE tonight will feature a fundraising event for the blood cancer charity and bone marrow register Anthony Nolan, in support of Bobby Norris' mum Kym.

The finale of the ITVBe show will centre around the gala - with a few TOWIE stars reportedly planning surprise fundraising stunts!

Bobby Norris started the campaign #SaveBobbysMum in the summer [PH]

OK! Online columnist Bobby Norris launched a campaign for the charity in the summer after his mum Kym, 54, was diagnosed with leukaemia.

The #SaveBobbysMum campaign led to an astonishing 750% increase in sign-ups for the bone marrow register, but a match for Kym is yet to be found.

TOWIE stars including Chloe Sims have backed the campaign [PH]

Bobby said: "Both me and my mum were over the moon to hear about these huge increases in potential donors."

"It's given us something positive to focus on at a really difficult time."

Bobby Norris has shared this sweet snap of himself with mum Kym [PH]

He added: "For the donor, it's probably just a case of sitting still for a few hours while the stem cells are taken out of their blood.

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TOWIE cast gather to lend support to Bobby Norris' #SaveBobbysMum campaign at charity gala

Sabah becomes third to provide bone marrow transplant

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Women and Children's Hospital in Likas became the third government hospital in the country to provide bone marrow transplant after General Hospital Kuala Lumpur (GHKL) and Ampang Hospital.

State Health Director Dr Christina Rundi (pic) said, Tuesday, the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit is housed on the 7th Floor of the Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine Centre of the hospital.

At the official handover of the hospital to the State Health Department in April, last year, she mentioned that bone marrow transplant (also called stem cell transplant) would be possible in Sabah in the near future.

"Since then, we have made the necessary preparations to set up the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Our nurses went for training at the Ampang Hospital in Kuala Lumpur while we procured the equipment such as stem cell processor and blood irradiator.

"We are fortunate to have the services of Paediatric Haemato-Oncologist, Dr Asohan Thevarajah who reported for work in July.

"And on Oct. 31, our dream came true when the Sabah Women and Children's Hospital performed the first bone marrow transplant on a 12-year-old leukaemic girl from Tuaran," she confirmed, when contacted.

The stem cell processor arrived last December followed by the blood irradiator in August this year. The purpose of the second machine is to sterilise the bone marrow donor's blood to reduce the risk of "graft (donor) versus host (patient)" disease.

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside the hollow part of bones which helps form blood cells. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of one's blood cells.

Excerpt from:
Sabah becomes third to provide bone marrow transplant

How donation is done

Stem cell donation: For peripheral bloodstream cell donation, stem cells are filtered from the donor's blood in a nonsurgical outpatient procedure. Donors may experience head or muscle aches that go away shortly after the donation. They are typically back to their normal routine in one to two days.

Marrow donation: This is a surgical, usually outpatient, procedure using anesthesia. Holes are drilled into the patient's spine to get the marrow. Donors may feel soreness in the lower back afterward. Recovery takes two to seven days.

Outcomes: Survival rate for recipients was 69 percent for unrelated donors and 79 percent for related donors in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Be the Match is a national registry that connects patients with their donor match for a marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. The registry is looking for diverse donors between age 18 and 44. Information: 800-627-7692 or BeTheMatch.org

Something was killing his wife from within, and Todd Miller had no idea what it was.

He didnt understand why she needed more than 100 blood transfusions. He couldnt fathom why Joselyn, a healthy person who barely got the sniffles, suddenly struggled to lift her arms.

The symptoms started in April 2012, soon after the Millers returned to their Laguna Beach home from the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Joselyn Millers arm and thigh muscles were so tight, she could barely move them.

They saw 10 specialists. No one could figure out what it was.

The second neurologist they saw suspected it was a very rare disease Shulmans syndrome, or eosinophilic fasciitis. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, only 300 known cases have ever been recorded in medical literature.

Read more from the original source:
Laguna Beach family was given the gift of life, now they're giving it to others

CHENNAI: It is harder for natives of Tamil Nadu to find a matching donor for a stem cell transplant compared to other states in the country. The suspected villain: Their genes.

A study published recently in British medical journal 'The Lancet' found that the likelihood of finding a matching stem cell donor for patients with blood-related problems in Tamil Nadu is 44.2% provided the registry had 10 lakh donors. The situation is the opposite in Haryana, with people in that state having the best chances (81.2%) of finding a donor.

Experts say consanguineous marriages are to blame. Consanguineous marriages increase the chances of patients finding a match within their small community but limit the possibility of finding one from a general donor pool.

"Unlike in other countries, stem cell variation in India is complex and dependent on ethnic variation," said Dr Dolly Daniel, professor of the department of transfusion medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore, who was party of the study team. "Our aim was to find the size and genetic composition of each region and its impact on the proportion of patients who will be able to ?nd a suitable match."

She said Tamil Nadu could be at the tail-end of the list of states they surveyed because of inbreeding and a limited number of donors.

Stem cells are used to regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissues. Adult stem cells are drawn from bone marrow, blood and the umbilical cord and are used to treat blood-related ailments like leukemia, thalassemia and as well as immunodeficiency.

The possibility of finding a matching stem cell donor within the family is around 30%.

"Finding a matching stem cell donor for the remaining 70% is a complex process. Most seek a graft from registries of unrelated adult donors or banked umbilical cord blood units," said Dr P Srinivasan, co-founder and chairman of Jeevan Stem Cell Bank.

Although the India stem cell industry is estimated to touch $540 million (Rs 3,250 crore) by 2015, the study noted that in terms of the number of donors, India has lagged in meeting demand. The study surveyed 10 adult donor and umbilical cord bank registries and clinical transplant centres in India and studied stem cells of 26 239 individuals.

The possibility of finding a perfect match within India is an average of 14.4% for a registry size of 25,000 and touches 60.6% for a size of 10 lakh. Registries in the country currently have around 1 lakh donors. The study said only when Indian registries have more than 2 lakh donors would patients have a good chance of finding the right match.

Read more from the original source:
Toughest for Tamil Nadu patients to get donor stem cells

An eight-year-old girl whose hunt for a bone marrow donor inspired hundreds to take selfies with their pants on their heads has died.

Hollie Clarks family broke the news on the Facebook page that they used to raise awareness of her battle with the bone marrow disorder MDS, Wales Online reports.

Her dad Stephen of Penylan, Cardiff, wrote: Sad news today Im afraid.

"After a seven month battle with MDS Hollie past away peacefully in her parents arms. It is utterly heartbreaking and makes no sense.

We have a million memories and take huge comfort in the number of Anthony Nolan registrations that the campaign made.

We are sure that someday soon one of you will be asked to donate stem cells and give someone like Hollie a chance.

Thank you all for your support. We would appreciate some time and space to try and pick ourselves up. Love from Hollies Dad. The proudest Dad in the world.

The family also used the @HelpHollie Twitter account to tell all those who had supported their campaign the news.

They wrote: Very sadly today our brave little angel passed away. Hollie was the happiest child ever and we are blessed that she was part of our family.

RIP Hollie. We tried our best. You were the best daughter any mum and dad could wish for. Thank you.

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Inspirational girl loses fight with rare condition - after encouraging hundreds to wear pants on head

TIME Health HIV/AIDS It May Be Possible To Prevent HIV Even Without a Vaccine "We're removing the doorway that HIV uses to get into cells"

Natural immunity is the most reliable way to protect yourself from viruses, bacteria and parasites. And the best way to acquire such immunity, in most cases, is to expose your immune system to the bug in questioneither by getting infected or getting immunized.

Until now, such protection was only possible with diseases like chicken pox or polio. But now, scientists at Harvard University say that people might soon arm themselves against HIV in a similar way, but through a different method.

Chad Cowan and Derrick Rossi, both in the department of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, and their colleagues report in the journal Cell Stem Cell that they have successfully edited the genomes of blood cells to make them impervious to HIV. In order survive, HIV needs to insert its genome into that of a healthy cell, and to infect these cells, HIV latches onto a protein on their surface called CCR5. If CCR5 is mutated, however, its as if the locks have been changed and HIV no longer has the right key; it cant attach itself and the cells are protected from infection. So the scientists tried a new gene editing technique called CRISPR that allows them to precisely snip out parts of a cells genome, and they spliced out the CCR5 gene. To their surprise, the technique was relatively efficient, transforming about half of the cells they treated with CRISPR into CCR5-free, or HIV-resistant, cells.

It was stunning to us how efficient CRISPR was in doing the genome editing, says Cowan.

Scientists have previously used CRISPR to make another change in how HIV infects cells; they snipped out the HIV genes that the virus inserted into healthy cells. That process essentially returned HIV infected cells back to healthy ones.

The latest results, however, suggest that the technique may be useful even before HIV gets inside cells. CRISPR could be useful in treating HIV patients if it can replace patients own immune cells with the blockaded versions. The cells Cowan and Rossi used were blood stem cells, which give rise to the bodys entire blood and immune system. In order to work as a potential treatment for HIV, patients would provide a sample of blood stem cells from their bone marrow, which would be treated with CRISPR to remove the CCR5 gene, and these cells would be transplanted back to the patient. Since the bone marrow stem cells populate the entire blood and immune system, the patient would eventually have blood cells that were protected, or immunized, against HIV. Were removing the doorway that HIV uses to get into cells, says Cowan.

To test this idea, they are already working with another research group to see if the HIV-impervious cells can treat mice infected with HIV.

Because healthy cells would be barricaded from HIV, the process might also lead to a cure for the disease. While the results are currently being tested to treat animals already infected with HIV, it may also be possible to one day transform a persons immune cell genomes to be protected against the virus. Some people are already fortunate enough to be protected this waya small percentage of people of European ancestry have natural immunity against HIV because they have two copies of mutated CCR5. They have been well studied and so far, their CCR5 aberrations dont seem to be linked to any known health issues. They are totally normal except for the fact that they are resistant to HIV, says Cowan. Thats a heartening thing: to have a group of people who are alive today who have been studied and looked at and seem totally fine.

Thats why clinicians who research the virus and treat HIV patients are excited by the possibilities of CRISPR-aided strategies. If its possible to close the door on HIV, then it may be realistic to start thinking about closing the door on the AIDS epidemic in the near future.

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It May Be Possible To Prevent HIV Even Without a Vaccine

Durham, NC (PRWEB) November 05, 2014

Half of all traumatic injuries to the face result in a loss of teeth and the surrounding tissue and bone that once supported them, which in turn makes these types of injuries very debilitating and difficult to treat. But in a new study published in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, doctors at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry (UMSoD), Ann Arbor, have found a new way to regenerate a patients jawbone through the use of stem cells.

The procedure, done under local anesthesia, significantly speeds up the healing time relative to that of traditional bone grafting while allowing a patient to experience only a minimal amount of pain.

Part of a larger clinical trial, the findings highlighted in this issue focus on a 45-year-old woman missing seven front teeth plus 75 percent of the bone that once supported them, the result of a blow to her face five years earlier. She was left with severe functional and cosmetic deficiencies, since the missing bone made it impossible for her to have dental implant-based teeth replacements.

Darnell Kaigler, DDS, MS, PhD, an assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, was a lead member of the study team. "In small jawbone defects of the mouth created after teeth were extracted, we have placed gelatin sponges populated with stem cells into these areas to successfully grow bone."

Since the sponge material is soft, it does not work in larger areas. Thus, he and his team of researchers decided to try b-tricalcium phosphate (b-TCP) as a scaffold upon which to place the cells instead. "For treating larger jawbone defects, it is important to have a scaffold material that is rigid and more stable to support bone growth," he explained.

They then placed the b-TCP scaffold, which had been seeded with a mixed population of bone marrow-derived autologous stem and progenitor cells 30 minutes prior to treatment at room temperature, into the defective area of the patients mouth during a procedure that requires only local anesthesia. Four months later, 80 percent of her missing jawbone had been regenerated, allowing them to proceed with placing oral implants that supported a dental prosthesis to once again give her a complete set of teeth.

Study team member Sharon Aronovich, DMD, FRCD(C), a clinical assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the UMSoD, said, I am very grateful to all the patients and researchers that participated in this study. Thanks to everyone's efforts, we are one step closer to providing patients with a minimally invasive option for implant-based tooth replacement.

As the first report to describe a cell therapy for craniofacial trauma reconstruction, this research serves as the foundation for expanded studies using this approach, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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Stem cells help doctors restore womans smile, regenerating bone to hold dental implants

Mark and Mindy Ammons lost their 2-year-old son, Christopher, in 1988 to neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. In 2009, Mindy Ammons donated her own stem cells to a woman with cancer. And this weekend, the family's youngest son will prepare a bone marrow donor registry in memory of his oldest brother as an Eagle Scout project.

Family photo

Bone marrow donation is close to the heart for the Ammons family of Provo.

Mark and Mindy Ammons lost their 2-year-old son, Christopher, in 1988 to neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. In 2009, Mindy Ammons donated her own stem cells to a woman with cancer. And this weekend, the familys youngest son will lead a bone marrow registry drive as an Eagle Scout project in memory of his oldest brother.

We are in the unique position of having been on both sides of the process, Mindy Ammons said.

In the "Be The Match" flier created for the project, Will Ammons, 13, explains that Christophers only chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant, but sadly, no one in our family was a match, so he had to be his own donor.

Christopher underwent treatment at the UCLA Medical Center where, after five days of chemotherapy, three days of full-body radiation and then surgery, he received his own marrow as a transplant. He died two weeks into the process, just shy of his third birthday.

Over the years, the Ammonses talked about this experience with their children and stayed informed on treatment advances. When it came time for their second oldest son, Jon, to do his Eagle Scout project, he didn't just want to do something to check off on a list. He wanted a meaningful project.

He wanted to do something that would make a difference and was cancer-related," Mindy Ammons said.

They discussed raising money for cancer research but decided that would be like dropping a coin in a well, she said.

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Family honors child's memory through bone marrow registry and stem cell donation