In theglobal stem cells marketa sizeable proportion of companies are trying to garner investments from organizations based overseas. This is one of the strategies leveraged by them to grow their market share. Further, they are also forging partnerships with pharmaceutical organizations to up revenues.

In addition, companies in the global stem cells market are pouring money into expansion through multidisciplinary and multi-sector collaboration for large scale production of high quality pluripotent and differentiated cells. The market, at present, is characterized by a diverse product portfolio, which is expected to up competition, and eventually growth in the market.

Some of the key players operating in the global stem cells market are STEMCELL Technologies Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., Cellular Engineering Technologies Inc., BioTime Inc., Takara Bio Inc., U.S. Stem Cell, Inc., BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc., Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., and Caladrius Biosciences, Inc.

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As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global market for stem cells is expected to register a healthy CAGR of 13.8% during the period from 2017 to 2025 to become worth US$270.5 bn by 2025.

Depending upon the type of products, the global stem cell market can be divided into adult stem cells, human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, etc. Of them, the segment of adult stem cells accounts for a leading share in the market. This is because of their ability to generate trillions of specialized cells which may lower the risks of rejection and repair tissue damage.

Depending upon geography, the key segments of the global stem cells market are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. At present, North America dominates the market because of the substantial investments in the field, impressive economic growth, rising instances of target chronic diseases, and technological progress. As per the TMR report, the market in North America will likely retain its dominant share in the near future to become worth US$167.33 bn by 2025.

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Investments in Research Drives Market

Constant thrust on research to broaden the utility scope of associated products is at the forefront of driving growth in the global stem cells market. Such research projects have generated various possibilities of different clinical applications of these cells, to usher in new treatments for diseases.Since cellular therapies are considered the next major step in transforming healthcare, companies are expanding their cellular therapy portfolio to include a range of ailments such as Parkinsons disease, type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injury, Alzheimers disease, etc.

The growing prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing investments of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies in stem cell research are the key driving factors for the stem cells therapeutics market. The growing number of stem cell donors, improved stem cell banking facilities, and increasing research and development are other crucial factors serving to propel the market, explains the lead analyst of the report.

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Stem Cells Market : Insights Into the Competitive Scenario of the Market - Online News Guru

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Image caption Caroline Wyatt visited Prof Robin Franklin to find out more about a drug that might help stop the progression of MS

"I don't like to think of the future. It's such a big question mark. I just keep living in the present."

Karine Mather was diagnosed with MS when she was 27, although she noticed the first symptoms much earlier.

It started off as a mental-health issue with anxiety and depression, she remembers. Later, she noticed she was starting to limp when she walked longer distances.

Karine began using a walker to help with her balance and stamina, and then a scooter when she could no longer walk very far.

"I got to the stage where the wheelchair became quite liberating, and gave me back a sense of freedom again. Now I rely on the power-chair full-time because I can't stand by myself any more."

Now Karine and her wife, Sarah, have had to give up their full-time jobs.

Karine was forced to stop working as a customer service adviser at a bank because she could no longer fulfil the physical demands of work and Sarah gave up working as a data analyst so she could take care of Karine.

Now 34, Karine retains the use of just one hand, and suffers pain, stiffness and spasticity in her body that has got worse as the disease has progressed.

"It feels like a fist clenching all the time. And I have days when my mind is cloudy and I miss out words and sentences."

Both remain upbeat but the financial, as well as the emotional, impact of MS has been huge.

Karine's MS is the type known as "primary progressive", or PPMS, which meant that for the first years after diagnosis, no disease-modifying treatment was available.

One new drug - Ocrevus, or ocrelizumab - was recently licensed for early PPMS in the UK but came too late to help Karine.

Now the MS Society is launching an ambitious "Stop MS" appeal, aiming to raise 100m to fund research over the next decade into treatments that can stop the progression of disability in MS.

Since being diagnosed with MS in 2015, after many years of symptoms, I've been looking for anything that might help slow or even stop the progression of my MS, which affects the nerves in my brain and spinal cord.

I last wrote about my MS after travelling to Mexico for an autologous stem cell transplant (aHSCT) in 2017.

Sadly, despite initial improvements, I'm now back to where I was before: slowly but surely getting worse.

The only improvements that have endured are the lifting of some of the crushing brain fog I had before HSCT and less hesitation in my speech.

For both, I am eternally grateful, as they mean I can continue to work at the BBC, in the job I love.

However, I have no idea how long this reprieve will last.

The fatigue that had long been my worst symptom is now back with a vengeance, so that staying awake throughout a busy working day remains a challenge.

That MS fatigue did lift for a few months, and it felt miraculous. I awoke every day refreshed. But then it returned, and I awake after eight full hours fast asleep feeling as if I haven't been to bed at all.

The ageing process - including menopause - has almost certainly been a factor in the worsening of some symptoms.

Ageing cells repair less well, and with my faulty immune system apparently determined to keep stripping away the myelin sheath that should protect my nerves, I'm less able now to repair the damage than I was when the disease first began to affect me in around 1992.

Since 2016, I've had to walk using a stick to aid my balance. It is sparkly-topped; an effort to make the accoutrements of disability just a little more cheery.

Dizziness is now a constant companion. It rarely goes away, making car travel or even buses a nightmare. Just turning my head too fast can make me stagger or fall over.

And for the past year or two, my right foot has begun to drag along the ground thanks to foot drop, meaning that I trip more often because I can't fully raise it.

I am always grateful to the strangers who kindly stop to help me up from the uneven pavement when I do fall.

Perhaps most worrying for me is that my right hand no longer works as it used to, catching on the computer keyboard as my outer fingers drag lazily along the keys, sullenly refusing my brain's command to lift.

In the mornings, both my hands and my feet are numb and frozen, then painfully full of pins and needles before warming up enough to be usable a few hours later.

When I wake, I wonder how long it might be until these hands and feet barely function at all, and quickly push that unwelcome thought away.

I'm well aware how very lucky I am that the progression of my MS has been relatively slow - at least until recently. I've learned how better to conserve energy for the things that really matter, though I still chafe at how little I manage to achieve.

Having enough energy to cook a meal from scratch on a day off is a cause for rejoicing. I'm still learning how to save up enough energy for family and friends, and not use up all of my much-depleted ration for work or research.

I have had to face the fact that I have now probably gone from the relapsing-remitting phase of MS (for which a dozen or so treatments exist) into the secondary progressive phase, for which there is currently no treatment licensed in the UK to stop the relentless progression that will affect so many of the 100,000 or more of us living with MS here.

But that may be about to change.

Anna Williams, professor of regenerative neurology at the University of Edinburgh, is looking at how the brain responds to MS damage and how the fatty myelin sheath under attack in MS can be restored more efficiently.

"We have to look at ways to stop the nerves dying," she says. "We want to be able to try to limit that either by keeping the nerves alive, or keeping them working better."

Repurposing existing drugs to help with remyelination should prove the quickest route to therapies for progressive forms of MS, because creating and licensing new ones is a much lengthier and more expensive process.

Prof Williams still sees patients at the Anne Rowling Clinic of Regenerative Neurology in Edinburgh, named in memory of the Harry Potter author J K Rowling's mother, who had MS. (The author this year donated 15m for research at the unit.)

"At the moment, with PPMS or SPMS, we can always give relief for pain or stiffness but we won't change the course of the disease.

"So for those patients, to slow or stop or reverse the disease can only be done with more research, and money is critical for research."

The biggest trial yet in the UK for patients with secondary progressive MS is the MS STAT2 trial, conducted by Prof Jeremy Chataway for the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London.

The trial is still recruiting at 30 centres across the UK to look at whether simvastatin, a drug used to treat high cholesterol, can slow or stop disability progression. If so, it has the potential to become one of the first disease-modifying therapies for people with secondary progressive MS.

And perhaps most encouraging of all, Prof Robin Franklin and his team at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute recently published research suggesting a common diabetes drug - metformin - could hold the key to stopping disease progression in MS.

Costing just a few pence per tablet, metformin appears to have an ability to restore cells to a younger, healthier state and encourage myelin regrowth.

The next question is whether it works in people as well as it does in the lab.

Prof Franklin says: "This is a drug that's well tolerated and widely available. There is every reason to believe that the effects that we have seen - which have been so spectacular - will translate into humans.

"This is the great frontier of MS therapy. We're good at stopping the inflammation in MS. What we're not so good at doing is repairing the damage. All this work has given us some real hope that this medicine will reverse the damage done by MS."

I certainly feel rather more hopeful than I did.

I've changed as much about my lifestyle as I can - prioritising sleep, eating healthily, largely giving up alcohol, doing yoga and stretching every day, and cutting back on stress, be that reporting from war zones or attending too many BBC meetings.

But I'm all too aware that time is against me as my ageing brain and body struggle to repair the damage done in their lengthy continuing battle with my own immune system.

My hope now is that these trials will show good enough results in the next few years for at least one or two of the drugs to be rapidly approved for MS so they can help people like Karine and me before it's too late.

I ask Karine what she makes of the current research.

She is suitably succinct.

"I'm sitting here with just the one limb working and I'm thinking - quicker, please."

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Caroline Wyatt: The fight to reverse damage caused by MS - BBC News

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CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 10,286,009, entitled Pluripotent stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells for the treatment of spinal cord injury covering methods for utilizing pluripotent stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) for the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). The claimed methods involve injecting OPCs derived from a pluripotent human stem cell line into the SCI site and covers both human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived OPCs. The issued patent has a term that expires no earlier than 2036.

The issuance of this patent is an important milestone for the Company because the allowed claims provide valuable, long term protection for novel treatments employing off-the-shelf OPC1 cells designed to improve recovery outcomes following severe spinal cord injury, stated Brian M. Culley, Chief Executive Officer of Lineage. We believe we have one of the largest cell therapy intellectual property portfolios in the biotech industry and will continue to grow and defend our position as a leader in this exciting space.

OPC1 cells are produced by directing the developmental lineage of pluripotent cell lines to generate a proprietary and consistent population of oligodendritic cells. These cells are administered to the patient in an effort to confer post-injury regeneration, which is intended to provide greater motor recovery compared to the current standard of care. With encouraging data already generated from a 25-patient Phase I safety trial, the current focus for the OPC1 program is to introduce commercially-viable improvements to the manufacturing process and to initiate a comparative study later in 2020.

About OPC1

OPC1 is currently being tested in Phase I/IIa clinical trial known as SCiStar, for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries. OPCs are naturally-occurring precursors to the cells which provide electrical insulation for nerve axons in the form of a myelin sheath. SCI occurs when the spinal cord is subjected to a severe crush or contusion injury and typically results in severe functional impairment, including limb paralysis, aberrant pain signaling, and loss of bladder control and other body functions. The clinical development of the OPC1 program has been partially funded by a $14.3 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. OPC1 has received Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation for the treatment of acute SCI and has been granted Orphan Drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

About Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs. Lineages programs are based on its proprietary cell-based therapy platform and associated development and manufacturing capabilities. With this platform Lineage develops and manufactures specialized, terminally-differentiated human cells from its pluripotent and progenitor cell starting materials. These differentiated cells are developed either to replace or support cells that are dysfunctional or absent due to degenerative disease or traumatic injury or administered as a means of helping the body mount an effective immune response to cancer. Lineages clinical assets include (i) OpRegen, a retinal pigment epithelium transplant therapy in Phase I/IIa development for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the developed world; (ii) OPC1, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell therapy in Phase I/IIa development for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries; and (iii) VAC2, an allogeneic cancer immunotherapy of antigen-presenting dendritic cells currently in Phase I development for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.lineagecell.com or follow the Company on Twitter @LineageCell.

Forward-Looking Statements

Lineage cautions you that all statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as believe, may, will, estimate, continue, anticipate, design, intend, expect, could, plan, potential, predict, seek, should, would, contemplate, project, target, tend to, or the negative version of these words and similar expressions. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to changes in Lineages manufacturing process and the timing of future studies. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Lineages actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release, including risks and uncertainties inherent in Lineages business and other risks described in Lineages filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Lineages forward-looking statements are based upon its current expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included under the heading Risk Factors in Lineages periodic reports filed with the SEC, including Lineages Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 14, 2019 and its other reports, which are available from the SECs website. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Lineage undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

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Lineage Cell Therapeutics Announces Issuance of U.S ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Lineage Cell Therapeutics Announces Issuance of U.S … | October 3rd, 2019

Inside your body, red blood cells are constantly on the move. They deliver oxygen to every tissue in every part of your body. These blood cells also cart away waste. So their work is crucial to your survival. But all that squeezing through tiny vessels is tough on red blood cells. Thats why they last only about four months.

Where do their replacements come from? Stem cells.

These are a very special family of cells. When most other cells divide, the daughter cells look and act exactly like their parents. For example, a skin cell cant make anything but another skin cell. The same is true for cells in the intestine or liver.

Not stem cells. Stem cells can become many different types. That is how an embryo grows from a single fertilized egg into a fetus with trillions of specialized cells. They need to specialize to make up tissues that function very differently, including those in the brain, skin, muscle and other organs. Later in life, stem cells also can replace worn-out or damaged cells including red blood cells.

The remarkable abilities of stem cells make them very exciting to scientists. One day, experts hope to use stem cells to repair or replace many different kinds of tissues, whether injured in accidents or damaged by diseases. Such stem cell therapy would allow the body to heal itself. Scientists have found a way to put specialized cells to work repairing damage, too. Together, these cell-based therapies might one day make permanent disabilities a thing of the past.

One unusual type of stem cell offers special promise for such therapeutic uses. For the recent development of this cell type, Shinya Yamanaka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine.

Meet the family

Blood stem cells live inside your bones, in what is called marrow. There, they divide over and over. Some of the new cells remain stem cells. Others form red blood cells. Still others morph into any of the five types of white blood cells that will fight infections. Although blood stem cells can become any one of these specialized blood cells, they cannot become muscle, nerve or other types of cells. They are too specialized to do that.

Another type of stem cell is more generalized. These can mature into any type of cell in the body. Such stem cells are called pluripotent (PLU ree PO tint). The word means having many possibilities. And its not hard to understand why these cells have captured the imaginations of many scientists.

Until recently, all pluripotent cells came from embryos. Thats why scientists called them embryonic stem cells. After an egg is fertilized, it divides in two. These two cells split again, to become four cells, and so on. In the first few days of this embryos development, each of its cells is identical to all the others. Yet each cell has the potential to develop into any specialized cell type.

When the human embryo reaches three to five days old, its cells start to realize their potential. They specialize. Some will develop into muscle cells or bone cells. Others will form lung cells or maybe the cells lining the stomach. Once cells specialize, their many possibilities suddenly become limited.

By birth, almost all of a babys cells will have specialized. Each cell type will have its own distinctive shape and function. For example, muscle cells will be long and able to contract, or shorten. Red blood cells will be small and plate-shaped, so they can slip through blood vessels with ease.

Hidden among all of these specialized cells are pockets of adult stem cells. (Yes, even newborns have adult stem cells.) Unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells cannot transform into any and every cell type. However, adult stem cells can replace several different types of specialized cells as they wear out. One type of adult stem cell is found in your marrow, making new blood cells. More types are found in other tissues, including the brain, heart and gut.

Among naturally occurring stem cells, the embryonic type is the most useful. Adult stem cells just arent as flexible. The adult type also is relatively rare and can be difficult to separate from the tissues in which it is found. Although more versatile, embryonic stem cells are both difficult to obtain and controversial. Thats because harvesting them requires destroying an embryo.

Fortunately, recent discoveries in stem cell research now offer scientists a third and potentially better option.

The search for answers

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka discovered that specialized cells like those in skin could be converted back into stem cells. Working at Kyoto University in Japan, this doctor and scientist induced or persuaded mature cells to become stem cells. He did this by inserting a specific set of genes into the cells. After several weeks, the cells behaved just like embryonic cells. His new type of stem cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iP stem cells (and sometimes iPS cells).

Yamanakas discovery represented a huge leap forward. The iP stem cells offer several advantages over both embryonic and adult stem cells. First, iP stem cells are able to become any cell type, just as embryonic stem cells can. Second, they can be made from any starting cell type. That means they are easy to obtain. Third, in the future, doctors would be able to treat patients with stem cells created from their own tissues. Such cells would perfectly match the others, genetically. That means the patients immune system (including all of its white blood cells) would not attack the introduced cells. (The body often mounts a life-threatening attack against transplanted organs that come from other people because they dont offer such a perfect match. To the body, they seem foreign and a potentially dangerous invader.)

Scientists the world over learned of the technique developed by Yamanaka (who now works at the Gladstone Institutes which is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco). Many of these researchers adopted Yamanakas procedure to create their own induced pluripotent stem cells. For the first time, researchers had a tool that could allow them to make stem cells from people with rare genetic diseases. This helps scientists learn what makes certain cell types die. Experts can also expose small batches of these diseased cells to different medicines. This allows them to test literally thousands of drugs to find out which works best.

And in the future, many experts hope induced stem cells will be used to replace adult stem cells and the cells of tissues that are damaged or dying.

Therapies take patients and patience

Among those experts is Anne Cherry, a graduate student at Harvard University. Cherry is using induced stem cells to learn more about a very rare genetic disease called Pearson syndrome. A syndrome is a group of symptoms that occur together. One symptom of Pearson syndrome is that stem cells in bone marrow cannot make normal red blood cells. This condition typically leads to an early death.

Cherry has begun to study why these stem cells fail.

She started by taking skin cells from a girl with the disease. She placed the cells in a test tube and added genes to turn them into stem cells. Over several weeks, the cells began to make proteins for which the inserted genes had provided instructions. Proteins do most of the work inside cells. These proteins turned off the genes that made the cells act like skin cells. Before long, the proteins turned on the genes to make these cells behave like embryonic stem cells.

After about three months, Cherry had a big batch of the new induced stem cells. Those cells now live in Petri dishes in her lab, where they are kept at body temperature (37 Celsius, or 98.6 Fahrenheit). The scientist is now trying to coax the induced stem cells into becoming blood cells. After that, Cherry wants to find out how Pearson syndrome kills them.

Meanwhile, the patient who donated the skin cells remains unable to make blood cells on her own. So doctors must give her regular transfusions of blood from a donor. Though life-saving, transfusions come with risks, particularly for someone with a serious disease.

Cherry hopes to one day turn the girls induced stem cells into healthy new blood stem cells and then return them to the girls body. Doing so could eliminate the need for further transfusions. And since the cells would be the girls own, there would be no risk of her immune system reacting to them as though they were foreign.

Sight for sore eyes

At University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Iqbal Ahmad is working on using stem cells to restore sight to the blind. A neuroscientist someone who studies the brain and nervous system Ahmad has been focusing on people who lost sight when nerve cells in the eyes retina died from a disease called glaucoma (glaw KOH muh).

Located inside the back of the eye, the retina converts incoming light into electrical signals that are then sent to the brain. Ahmad is studying how to replace dead retina cells with new ones formed from induced pluripotent stem cells.

The neuroscientist starts by removing adult stem cells from the cornea, or the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye. These stem cells normally replace cells lost through the wear and tear of blinking. They cannot become nerve cells at least not on their own. Ahmad, however, can transform these cells into iP stem cells. Then, with prodding, he turns them into nerve cells.

To make the transformation, Ahmad places the cornea cells on one side of a Petri dish. He then places embryonic stem cells on the other side. A meshlike membrane separates the two types of cells so they cant mix. But even though they cant touch, they do communicate.

Cells constantly send out chemical signals to which other cells respond. When the embryonic stem cells speak, the eye cells listen. Their chemical messages persuade the eye cells to turn off the genes that tell them to be cornea cells. Over time, the eye cells become stem cells that can give rise to different types of cells, including nerve cells.

When Ahmads team implanted the nerve cells into the eyes of laboratory mice and rats, they migrated to the retina. There, they began replacing the nerve cells that had died from glaucoma. One day, the same procedure may restore vision to people who have lost their sight.

Another approach

In using a bodys own cells to repair injury or to treat disease, stem cells arent always the answer. Although stem cells offer tremendous advances in regenerating lost tissue, some medical treatments may work better without them. Thats thanks to the chemical communication going on between all cells all of the time. In some situations, highly specialized cells can act as a conductor, directing other cells to change their tune.

In 2008, while working at the University of Cambridge in England, veterinary neurologist Nick Jeffery began a project that used cells taken from the back of the nose. But Jeffery and his team were not out to create stem cells. Instead, the scientists used those nasal cells to repair damaged connections in the spinal cord.

The spinal cord is basically a rope of nerve cells that ferry signals to and from the brain and other parts of the body. Injuring the spinal cord can lead to paralysis, or the loss of sensation and the inability to move muscles.

Like Ahmad, some researchers are using stem cells to replace damaged nerve cells. But Jeffery, now at Iowa State University in Ames, doesnt think such techniques are always necessary to aid recovery from spinal injuries. Stem cell transplantation, points out Jefferys colleague, neuroscientist Robin Franklin, is to replace a missing cell type. In a spinal injury, the nerve cells arent missing. Theyre just cut off.

Nerve cells contain long, wirelike projections called axons that relay signals to the next cell. When the spine is injured, these axons can become severed, or cut. Damaging an axon is like snipping a wire the signal stops flowing. So the Cambridge scientists set out to see if they could restore those signals.

Jeffery and his fellow scientists work with dogs that have experienced spinal injuries. Such problems are common in some breeds, including dachshunds. The team first surgically removed cells from the dogs sinuses or the hollow spaces in the skull behind the nose. These are not stem cells. These particular cells instead encourage nerve cells in the nose to grow new axons. These cells help the pooches maintain their healthy sense of smell.

The scientists grew these sinus cells in the lab until they had reproduced to large numbers. Then the researchers injected the cells into the spinal cords of two out of every three doggy patients. Each treated dog received an injection of its own cells. The other dogs got an injection of only the liquid broth used to feed the growing cells.

Over several months, the dogs owners repeatedly brought their pets back to the lab for testing on a treadmill. This allowed the scientists to evaluate how well the animals coordinated their front and hind feet while walking. Dogs that had received the nasal cells steadily improved over time. Dogs that received only the liquid did not.

This treatment did not result in a perfect cure. Nerve cells did reconnect several portions of the spinal cord. But nerve cells that once linked to the brain remained disconnected. Still, these dog data indicate that nasal cells can aid in recovering from a spinal cord injury.

Such new developments in cellular research suggest that even more remarkable medical advancements may be just a few years away. Yamanaka, Cherry, Ahmad, Jeffery, Franklin and many other scientists are steadily unlocking secrets to cellular change. And while you cant teach an old dog new tricks, scientists are finding out that the same just isnt true of cells anymore.

cornea The clear covering over the front of the eye.

embryo A vertebrate, or animal with a backbone, in its early stages of development.

gene A section of DNA that carries the genetic instructions for making a protein. Proteins do most of the work in cells.

glaucoma An eye disease that damages nerve cells carrying signals to the brain.

immune cell White blood cell that helps protect the body against germs.

molecule A collection of atoms.

neuron (or nerve cell) The basic working unit of the nervous system. These cells relay nerve signals.

neuroscientist A researcher who studies neurons and the nervous system.

paralysis Loss of feeling in some part of the body and an inability to move that part.

retina The light-sensitive lining at the back of the eye. It converts light into electrical impulses that relay information to the brain.

sinus An opening in the bone of the skull connected to the nostrils.

spinal cord The ropelike collection of neurons that connect the brain with nerves throughout the body.

tissue A large collection of related, similar cells that together work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues. And brain tissue will be very different from bone or heart tissue.

transfusion The process of transferring blood into one person that had been collected from another.

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Stem cells: The secret to change | Science News for Students

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The prognosis for spinal cord injuries varies depending on the severity of the injury. There is always hope of recovering some function with spinal cord injuries. The completeness and location of the injury will determine the prognosis.

There are two levels of completeness in spinal cord injuries which impact the outlook:

Spinal cord injuries in which the patient has not experienced paralysis have the greatest chance of recovery. However, those patients who do experience paralysis still have a remarkable chance that is improving with research every day. The sooner treatments are implemented to strengthen muscles below the level of the spinal cord injury, the better the prognosis.

The first year of recovery is the hardest as the patient is just beginning to adjust to his or her condition. The use of physical and occupational therapy during this time is the key to recovery. The extent of the function fully returning is typically seen in the first two years after the initial injury.

Treatment options vary with each spinal cord injury, but typically include:

Mental health is a huge part of recovery for the spinal cord injury patient. Anxiety and depression are common in spinal cord injury patients. These patients will go through good days, and not so good days.

There may be days where the patient wants to give up completely on treatments, and will wonder if it is all worth it. Keeping up with the mental health of the spinal cord injury patient is incredibly important for the overall recovery. Mental health has been proven to directly relate to physical health.

Having a good support system is incredibly important to the overall outlook of a spinal cord injury patient. Spinal cord injury patients will need both physical and emotional support.

Caregivers should continually provide patients with:

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Prognosis of Spinal Cord Injuries | SpinalCord.com

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Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are defined as stem cells that have a preference for becoming cells of the blood and immune system, such as white bloodcells, red bloodcells, and platelets. Found in the peripheral blood and bone marrow,hematopoietic stem cells are also present in plentiful supply within the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies.

For the past thirty years, cord blood has been used within transplant medicine, including for the treatment of leukemia and other blood diseases. For most conditions in which a bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplant is an option, a cord blood transplant is a potential alternative.

In this article:

Hematopoietic stem cells(HSCs) are thestem cellsthat repopulate the blood and immune system within humans, via a process known ashaematopoiesis. For this reason, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, better known as HSCT, can be a promising treatment approach for a wide range of conditions.

The use of human cord blood cells dates back as early as 1974, when it was first proposed that stem cell and progenitor cells were present in human cord blood.By 1983, the use of cord blood as an alternative to bone marrow had been proposed. Five years later in 1988, the first successful cord blood transplant to restore a patients blood and immune system cells took place in France.

In addition to a long history of use within transplant medicine, human cord blood cells are playing a growing role within regenerative medicine. Cord blood stem cells have been induced to develop into neural cells, suggesting that they may represent a potential treatment for neurological conditions, such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, spinal cord injury, dementia, and related conditions.

Human cord blood cells can also develop into blood vessels, making them promising for the repair of tissues following stroke, coronary heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, congestive heart failure, and congenital heart conditions.

What Are the Benefits of Banking #CordBlood? The main benefit to banking cord blood is it allows parents to preserve stem cells for future medical use. Many parts of the body do not regenerate, so they are at risk of failing https://t.co/3oc4Ai4qef pic.twitter.com/kYy9Ds64ad

BioInformant (@StemCellMarket) July 23, 2018

It is also interesting to consider the common disease categories treatable with cord blood transplant, as shown in the table below.

There are more than 80 medical conditions for which transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (including cord blood transplant) is a standard treatment option. Most of these therapies require allogeneic transplants, where the patient must use a genetically-matched cord blood donor. The only exceptions to this are patients who are transplanted for solid tumors or acquired anemias. In these situations, the patient may receive an autologous transplant.

Comprehensive lists of conditions treatable with hematopoietic stem cells are available here and here.

In addition, there is a range of disease categories for which cord blood transplant could represent a viable treatment method in the future. For these conditions, there are still unknown criteria that need to be determined before the cord blood stem cell transplant can become commonplace, such as patient criteria for optimal treatment effectiveness, optimum stem cell quantity for use in transplant, and preferred method of stem cell delivery into the patient, as shown below.

Download this infographic now and reference it later.

What do you think of the future of hematopoietic stem cell transplant? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Hematopoietic Stem Cells: What Diseases Can these Stem Cells Treat?

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Hematopoietic Stem Cells: What Diseases Can these Stem ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Hematopoietic Stem Cells: What Diseases Can these Stem … | October 2nd, 2019

The Central Nervous System

The mature mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is composed of three major differentiated cell types: neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Neurons transmit information through action potentials and neurotransmitters to other neurons, muscle cells or gland cells. Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, collectively called glial cells, play important roles of their own, in addition to providing a critical support role for optimal neuronal functioning and survival. During mammalian embryogenesis, CNS development begins with the induction of the neuroectoderm, which forms the neural plate and then folds to give rise to the neural tube. Within these neural structures there exists a complex and heterogeneous population of neuroepithelial progenitor cells (NEPs), the earliest neural stem cell type to form.1,2 As CNS development proceeds, NEPs give rise to temporally and spatially distinct neural stem/progenitor populations. During the early stage of neural development, NEPs undergo symmetric divisions to expand neural stem cell (NSC) pools. In the later stage of neural development, NSCs switch to asymmetric division cycles and give rise to lineage-restricted progenitors. Intermediate neuronal progenitor cells are formed first, and these subsequently differentiate to generate to neurons. Following this neurogenic phase, NSCs undergo asymmetric divisions to produce glial-restricted progenitors, which generate astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The later stage of CNS development involves a period of axonal pruning and neuronal apoptosis, which fine tunes the circuitry of the CNS. A previously long-held dogma maintained that neurogenesis in the adult mammalian CNS was complete, rendering it incapable of mitotic divisions to generate new neurons, and therefore lacking in the ability to repair damaged tissue caused by diseases (e.g. Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis) or injuries (e.g. spinal cord and brain ischemic injuries). However, there is now strong evidence that multipotent NSCs do exist, albeit only in specialized microenvironments, in the mature mammalian CNS. This discovery has fuelled a new era of research into understanding the tremendous potential that these cells hold for treatment of CNS diseases and injuries.

Neurobiologists routinely use various terms interchangeably to describe undifferentiated cells of the CNS. The most commonly used terms are stem cell, precursor cell and progenitor cell. The inappropriate use of these terms to identify undifferentiated cells in the CNS has led to confusion and misunderstandings in the field of NSC and neural progenitor cell research. However, these different types of undifferentiated cells in the CNS technically possess different characteristics and fates. For clarity, the terminology used here is:

Neural Stem Cell (NSCs): Multipotent cells which are able to self-renew and proliferate without limit, to produce progeny cells which terminally differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The non-stem cell progeny of NSCs are referred to as neural progenitor cells.

Neural Progenitor Cell: Neural progenitor cells have the capacity to proliferate and differentiate into more than one cell type. Neural progenitor cells can therefore be unipotent, bipotent or multipotent. A distinguishing feature of a neural progenitor cell is that, unlike a stem cell, it has a limited proliferative ability and does not exhibit self-renewal.

Neural Precursor Cells (NPCs): As used here, this refers to a mixed population of cells consisting of all undifferentiated progeny of neural stem cells, therefore including both neural progenitor cells and neural stem cells. The term neural precursor cells is commonly used to collectively describe the mixed population of NSCs and neural progenitor cells derived from embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.

Prior to 1992, numerous reports demonstrated evidence of neurogenesis and limited in vitro proliferation of neural progenitor cells isolated from embryonic tissue in the presence of growth factors.3-5 While several sub-populations of neural progenitor cells had been identified in the adult CNS, researchers were unable to demonstrate convincingly the characteristic features of a stem cell, namely self-renewal, extended proliferative capacity and retention of multi-lineage potential. In vivo studies supported the notion that proliferation occurred early in life, whereas the adultCNS was mitotically inactive, and unable to generate new cells following injury. Notable exceptions included several studies in the 1960s that clearly identified a region of the adult brain that exhibited proliferation (the forebrain subependyma)6 but this was believed to be species-specific and was not thought to exist in all mammals. In the early 1990s, cells that responded to specific growth factors and exhibited stem cell features in vitro were isolated from the embryonic and adult CNS.7-8 With these studies, Reynolds and Weiss demonstrated that a rare population of cells in the adult CNS exhibited the defining characteristics of a stem cell: self-renewal, capacity to produce a large number of progeny and multilineage potential. The location of stem cells in the adult brain was later identified to be within the striatum,9 and researchers began to show that cells isolated from this region, and the dorsolateral region of the lateral ventricle of the adult brain, were capable of differentiating into both neurons and glia.10

During mammalian CNS development, neural precursor cells arising from the neural tube produce pools of multipotent and more restricted neural progenitor cells, which then proliferate, migrate and further differentiate into neurons and glial cells. During embryogenesis, neural precursor cells are derived from the neuroectoderm and can first be detected during neural plate and neural tube formation. As the embryo develops, neural stem cells can be identified in nearly all regions of the embryonic mouse, rat and human CNS, including the septum, cortex, thalamus, ventral mesencephalon and spinal cord. NSCs isolated from these regions have a distinct spatial identity and differentiation potential. In contrast to the developing nervous system, where NSCs are fairly ubiquitous, cells with neural stem cell characteristics are localized primarily to two key regions of the mature CNS: the subventricular zone (SVZ), lining the lateral ventricles of the forebrain, and the subgranular layer of thedentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation (described later).11 In the adult mouse brain, the SVZ contains a heterogeneous population of proliferating cells. However, it is believed that the type B cells (activated GFAP+/PAX6+ astrocytes or astrogliallike NSCs) are the cells that exhibit stem cell properties, and these cells may be derived directly from radial glial cells, the predominant neural precursor population in the early developing brain. NPCs in this niche are relatively quiescent under normal physiological conditions, but can be induced to proliferate and to repopulate the SVZ following irradiation.10 SVZ NSCs maintain neurogenesis throughout adult life through the production of fast-dividing transit amplifying progenitors (TAPs or C cells), which then differentiate and give rise to neuroblasts. TAPs and neuroblasts migrate through the rostral migratory stream (RMS) and further differentiate into new interneurons in the olfactory bulb. This ongoing neurogenesis, which is supported by the NSCs in the SVZ, is essential for maintenance of the olfactory system, providing a source of new neurons for the olfactory bulb of rodents and the association cortex of non-human primates.12 Although the RMS in the adult human brain has been elusive, a similar migration of neuroblasts through the RMS has also been observed.13 Neurogenesis also persists in the subgranular zone of the hippocampus, a region important for learning and memory, where it leads to the production of new granule cells. Lineage tracing studies have mapped the neural progenitor cells to the dorsal region of the hippocampus, in a collapsed ventricle within the dentate gyrus.10 Studies have demonstrated that neurogenic cells from the subgranular layer may have a more limited proliferative potential than the SVZ NSCs and are more likely to be progenitor cells than true stem cells.14 Recent evidence also suggests that neurogenesis plays a different role in the hippocampus than in the olfactory bulb. Whereas the SVZ NSCs play a maintenance role, it is thought that hippocampal neurogenesis serves to increase the number of new neurons and contributes to hippocampal growth throughout adult life.12 Neural progenitor cells have also been identified in the spinal cord central canal ventricular zone and pial boundary15-16, and it is possible that additional regional progenitor populations will be identified in the future.

In vitro methodologies designed to isolate, expand and functionally characterize NSC populations have revolutionized our understanding of neural stem cell biology, and increased our knowledge of the genetic and epigenetic regulation of NSCs.17 Over the past several decades, a number of culture systems have been developed that attempt to recapitulate the distinct in vivo developmental stages of the nervous system, enabling theisolation and expansion of different NPC populations at different stages of development. Here, we outline the commonly used culture systems for generating NPCs from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), and for isolating and expanding NSCs from the early embryonic, postnatal and adult CNS.

Neural induction and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells: Early NPCs can be derived from mouse and human PSCs, which include embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), using appropriate neural induction conditions at the first stage of differentiation. While these neural differentiation protocols vary widely, a prominent feature in popular embryoid body-based protocols is the generation of neural rosettes, morphologically identifiable structures containing NPCs, which are believed to represent the neural tube. The NPCs present in the neural rosette structures are then isolated, and can be propagated to allow NPC expansion, while maintaining the potential to generate neurons and glial cells. More recently, studies have shown that neural induction of PSCs can also be achieved in a monolayer culture system, wherein human ESCs and iPSCs are plated onto a defined matrix, and exposed to inductive factors.18 A combination of specific cytokines or small molecules, believed to mimic the developmental cues for spatiotemporal patterning in the developing brain during embryogenesis, can be added to cultures at the neural induction stage to promote regionalization of NPCs. These patterned NPCs can then be differentiated into mature cell types with phenotypes representative of different regions of the brain.19-24 New protocols have been developed to generate cerebral organoids from PSC-derived neural progenitor cells. Cerebral organoids recapitulate features of human brain development, including the formation of discrete brain regions featuring characteristic laminar cellular organization.25

Neurosphere culture: The neurosphere culture system has been widely used since its development as a method to identify NSCs.26-29 A specific region of the CNS is microdissected, mechanically or enzymatically dissociated, and plated in adefined serum-free medium in the presence of a mitogenic factor, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and/or basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). In the neurosphere culture system, NSCs, as well as neural progenitor cells, begin to proliferate in response to these mitogens, forming small clusters of cells after 2 - 3 days. The clusters continue to grow in size, and by day 3 - 5, the majority of clusters detach from the culture surface and begin to grow in suspension. By approximately day seven, depending on the cell source, the cell clusters, called neurospheres, typically measure 100 - 200 m in diameter and are composed of approximately 10,000 - 100,000 cells. At this point, the neurospheres should be passaged to prevent the cell clusters from growing too large, which can lead to necrosis as a result of a lack of oxygen and nutrient exchange at the neurosphere center. To passage the cultures, neurospheres are individually, or as a population, mechanically or enzymatically dissociated into a single cell suspension and replated under the same conditions as the primary culture. NSCs and neural progenitor cells again begin to proliferate to form new cell clusters that are ready to be passaged approximately 5 - 7 days later. By repeating the above procedures for multiple passages, NSCs present in the culture will self-renew and produce a large number of progeny, resulting in a relatively consistent increase in total cell number over time. Neurospheres derived from embryonic mouse CNS tissue treated in this manner can be passaged for up to 10 weeks with no loss in their proliferative ability, resulting in a greater than 100- fold increase in total cell number. NSCs and neural progenitors can be induced to differentiate by removing the mitogens and plating either intact neurospheres or dissociated cells on an adhesive substrate, in the presence of a low serum-containing medium. After several days, virtually all of the NSCs and progeny will differentiate into the three main neural cell types found in the CNS: neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. While the culture medium, growth factor requirements and culture protocols may vary, the neurosphere culture system has been successfully used to isolate NSCs and progenitors from different regions of the embryonic and adult CNS of many species including mouse, rat and human.

Adherent monolayer culture: Alternatively, cells obtained from CNS tissues can be cultured as adherent cultures in a defined, serum-free medium supplemented with EGF and/or bFGF, in the presence of a substrate such as poly-L-ornithine, laminin, or fibronectin. When plated under these conditions, the neural stem and progenitor cells will attach to the substrate-coated cultureware, as opposed to each other, forming an adherent monolayer of cells, instead of neurospheres. The reported success of expanding NSCs in long-term adherent monolayer cultures is variable and may be due to differences in the substrates, serum-free media andgrowth factors used.17 Recently, protocols that have incorporated laminin as the substrate, along with an appropriate serum-free culture medium containing both EGF and bFGF have been able to support long-term cultures of neural precursors from mouse and human CNS tissues.30-32 These adherent cells proliferate and become confluent over the course of 5 - 10 days. To passage the cultures, cells are detached from the surface by enzymatic treatment and replated under the same conditions as the primary culture. It has been reported that NSCs cultured under adherent monolayer conditions undergo symmetric divisions in long-term culture.30,33 Similar to the neurosphere culture system, adherently cultured cells can be passaged multiple times and induced to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes upon mitogen removal and exposure to a low serum-containing medium.

Several studies have suggested that culturing CNS cells in neurosphere cultures does not efficiently maintain NSCs and produces a heterogeneous cell population, whereas culturing cells under serum-free adherent culture conditions does maintain NSCs.17 While these reports did not directly compare neurosphere and adherent monolayer culture methods using the same medium, growth factors or extracellular matrix to evaluate NSC numbers, proliferation and differentiation potential, they emphasize that culture systems can influence the in vitro functional properties of NSCs and neural progenitors. It is important that in vitro methodologies for NSC research are designed with this caveat in mind, and with a clear understanding of what the methodologies are purported to measure.34-35

Immunomagnetic or immunofluorescent cell isolation strategies using antibodies directed against cell surface markers present on stem cells, progenitors and mature CNS cells have been applied to the study of NSCs. Similar to stem cells in other systems, the phenotype of CNS stem cells has not been completely determined. Expression, or lack of expression, of CD34, CD133 and CD45 antigens has been used as a strategy for the preliminary characterization of potential CNS stem cell subsets. A distinct subset of human fetal CNS cells with the phenotype CD133+ 5E12+ CD34- CD45- CD24-/lo has the ability to form neurospheres in culture, initiate secondary neurosphere formation, and differentiate into neurons and astrocytes.36 Using a similar approach, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)- based isolation of nestin+ PNA- CD24- cells from the adult mouse periventricular region enabled significant enrichment of NSCs(80% frequency in sorted population, representing a 100-fold increase from the unsorted population).37 However, the purity of the enriched NSC population was found to be lower when this strategy was reevaluated using the more rigorous Neural Colony-Forming Cell (NCFC) assay.38-39 NSC subsets detected at different stages of CNS development have been shown to express markers such as nestin, GFAP, CD15, Sox2, Musashi, CD133, EGFR, Pax6, FABP7 (BLBP) and GLAST40-45. However, none of these markers are uniquely expressed by NSCs; many are also expressed by neural progenitor cells and other nonneural cell types. Studies have demonstrated that stem cells in a variety of tissues, including bone marrow, skeletal muscle and fetal liver can be identified by their ability to efflux fluorescent dyes such as Hoechst 33342. Such a population, called the side population, or SP (based on its profile on a flow cytometer), has also been identified in both mouse primary CNS cells and cultured neurospheres.46 Other non-immunological methods have been used to identify populations of cells from normal and tumorigenic CNS tissues, based on some of the in vitro properties of stem cells, including FABP7 expression and high aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme activity. ALDH-bright cells from embryonic rat and mouse CNS have been isolated and shown to have the ability to generate neurospheres, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in vitro, as well as neurons in vivo, when transplanted into the adult mouse cerebral cortex.47-50 NeuroFluor CDr3 is a membrane-permeable fluorescent probe that binds to FABP7 and can be used to detect and isolate viable neural progenitor cells from multiple species.42-43

Multipotent neural stem-like cells, known as brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs) or cancer stem cells (CSCs), have been identified and isolated from different grades (low and high) and types of brain cancers, including gliomas and medulloblastomas.51-52 Similar to NSCs, these BTSCs exhibit self-renewal, high proliferative capacity and multi-lineage differentiation potential in vitro. They also initiate tumors that phenocopy the parent tumor in immunocompromised mice.53 No unique marker of BTSCs has been identified but recent work suggests that tumors contain a heterogenous population of cells with a subset of cells expressing the putative NSC marker CD133.53 CD133+ cells purified from primary tumor samples formed primary tumors, when injected into primary immunocompromised mice, and secondary tumors upon serial transplantation into secondary recipient mice.53 However, CD133 is also expressed by differentiated cells in different tissues and CD133- BTSCs can also initiate tumors in immunocompromised mice.54-55 Therefore, it remains to bedetermined if CD133 alone, or in combination with other markers, can be used to discriminate between tumor initiating cells and non-tumor initiating cells in different grades and types of brain tumors. Recently, FABP7 has gained traction as a CNS-specific marker of NSCs and BTSCs.42-43, 57

Both the neurosphere and adherent monolayer culture methods have been applied to the study of BTSCs. When culturing normal NSCs, the mitogen(s) EGF (and/or bFGF) are required to maintain NSC proliferation. However, there is some indication that these mitogens are not required when culturing BTSCs.57 Interestingly, the neurosphere assay may be a clinically relevant functional readout for the study of BTSCs, with emerging evidence suggesting that renewable neurosphere formation is a significant predictor of increased risk of patient death and rapid tumor progression in cultured human glioma samples.58-60 Furthermore, the adherent monolayer culture has been shown to enable pure populations of glioma-derived BTSCs to be expanded in vitro.61

Research in the field of NSC biology has made a significant leap forward over the past ~30 years. Contrary to the beliefs of the past century, the adult mammalian brain retains a small number of true NSCs located in specific CNS regions. The identification of CNS-resident NSCs and the discovery that adult somatic cells from mouse and human can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state,62-68 and then directed to differentiate into neural cell types, has opened the door to new therapeutic avenues aimed at replacing lost or damaged CNS cells. This may include transplantation of neural progenitors derived from fetal or adult CNS tissue, or pluripotent stem cells. Recent research has shown that adult somatic cells can be directly reprogrammed to specific cell fates, such as neurons, using appropriate transcriptional factors, bypassing the need for an induced pluripotent stem cell intermediate.69 Astroglia from the early postnatal cerebracortex can be reprogrammed in vitro to neurons capable of action potential firing, by the forced expression of a single transcription factor, such as Pax6 or the pro-neural transcription factor neurogenin-2 (Neurog2).70 To develop cell therapies to treat CNS injuries and diseases, a greater understanding of the cellular and molecular properties of neural stem and progenitor cells is required. To facilitate this important research, STEMCELL Technologies has developed NeuroCult proliferation and differentiation kits for human, mouse and rat, including xenofree NeuroCult-XF. The NeuroCult NCFC Assay provides a simple and more accurate assay to enumerate NSCs compared to the neurosphere assay. These tools for NSC research are complemented by the NeuroCult SM Neuronal Culture Kits, specialized serum-free medium formulations for culturing primary neurons. Together, these reagents help to advance neuroscience research and assist in its transition from the experimental to the therapeutic phase.

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Neural Stem Cells - Stemcell Technologies

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Neural Stem Cells – Stemcell Technologies | October 2nd, 2019

06/06/2018

A stem cell treatment which is in primary stages of trials, has proved effective in treatment when using non-donor stem cells.

Spinal cord injuries can happen to anyone, the condition tends to be a result of a fall or accident, although it can also be an outcome of a brain injury. When the spinal cord is injured the pathway is practically closed. Nerve impulses cant get through, this has problematic symptoms such as; a person suffering paralysis, a loss of mobility and sensation.

Using stem cell therapy where the stem cells havent been donated mean they are more likely to be accepted by the patient when they are injected.

This new trial was published on the 9th of May 2018 inScience Translational Medicine, a team of international scientist led by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine successfully grafted stem cells back into a spinal cord without aggravating the immune system or reducing it in any way.

The stem cells injected in the trial were accepted and survived long term without causing a tumor. Researchers also found that the same cells showed a long-term survival when injected into an injured spinal cord.

Senior author Martin Marsala, MD, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, said: The promise of iPSCs is huge, but so too have been the challenges. In this study, weve demonstrated an alternate approach,

We took skin cells, then induced them to becomeneural precursor cells(NPCs), destined to become nerve cells. Because they are syngeneicgenetically identical with the cell-graftthey are immunologically compatible. They grow and differentiate with no immunosuppression required.

Co-author Samuel Pfaff, PhD, professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, said: Using RNA sequencing and innovative bioinformatic method to deconvolute the RNAs species-of-origin, the research team demonstrated that iPSC-derived neural precursors safely acquire the genetic characteristics of mature CNS tissue.

In their study, researchers found that the stem cells survived and differentiated into neurons and supporting glial cells. The grafted stem cells were detected to be working and responsive seven months after transplantation.

Researchers, then grafted stem cells into similar tissues in the body that had severespinal cord injuries, this injection of stem cells was then followed by a transient four-week course of drugs that suppress the immune system. The stem cells then could work in the spinal cord and begin to allow movement.

Our current experiments are focusing on generation and testing of clinical grade human iPSCs, which is the ultimate source of cells to be used in future clinical trials for treatment of spinal cord and central nervous system injuries in a syngeneic or allogeneic setting, said Marsala.

Because long-term post-grafting periodsone to two yearsare required to achieve a full graftedcells-induced treatment effect, the elimination of immunosuppressive treatment will substantially increase our chances in achieving more robust functional improvement in spinal trauma patients receiving iPSC-derived NPCs.

In our current clinical cell-replacement trials, immunosuppression is required to achieve the survival of allogeneic cell grafts. The elimination of immunosuppression requirement by using syngeneic cell grafts would represent a major step forward said co-author Joseph Ciacci, MD, a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health and professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The treatment is expected to go to the next stage of trials in the next few years, with the hope that this stem cell therapy can be used in modern medicine.

This research forms another significant step towards stem cell therapy and spinal cord injury. Yet the type of cell used is still in contention when it comes to human application. iPSC are undoubtedlyauseful research tool in the laboratory and as a result because of their pluripotency, many scientists continue to hopethat they can one day be used for therapeutic applications, including regenerative medicine in humans. This strategy continues to proveproblematic ashave been shown to produce lesions and tumors when injected or transplanted.

This type of research does however contribute to ongoing developments for the use of stem cells, where possible use of Adult Stem Cells, known not to be problematic as a result of tumors could be used.

We believe the best stem cells to use in emergingtreatmentswill be the patients own stem cells as this doesnt require a search for a suitable donor and in turn, eliminates chances of the transplanted cells being rejected.

If you want more information on how you can protect your childs future health by banking their cells, get in touch with our friendly team today or order your free information pack.

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Stem Cell Therapy May Be The Cure For Spinal Cord Injury ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Stem Cell Therapy May Be The Cure For Spinal Cord Injury … | September 14th, 2019

Open AccessReview

1

Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

2

ICVS/3BsPT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimares, Portugal

*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 12 March 2019 / Revised: 15 April 2019 / Accepted: 23 April 2019 / Published: 29 April 2019

No

MDPI and ACS Style

Pereira, I.M.; Marote, A.; Salgado, A.J.; Silva, N.A. Filling the Gap: Neural Stem Cells as A Promising Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury. Pharmaceuticals 2019, 12, 65.

Pereira IM, Marote A, Salgado AJ, Silva NA. Filling the Gap: Neural Stem Cells as A Promising Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury. Pharmaceuticals. 2019; 12(2):65.

Pereira, Ins M.; Marote, Ana; Salgado, Antnio J.; Silva, Nuno A. 2019. "Filling the Gap: Neural Stem Cells as A Promising Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury." Pharmaceuticals 12, no. 2: 65.

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Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Filling the Gap: Neural Stem Cells as A Promising Therapy ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Filling the Gap: Neural Stem Cells as A Promising Therapy … | June 3rd, 2019

JavaScript is disabled on your browser. Please enable JavaScript to use all the features on this page.Highlights

NSI-566 grafted injured spines in rats with near complete cavity-filling

The differentiation profile of grafted cells showed all three neural lineage cells

High-density human axonal sprouting was seen throughout the NSI-566 grafted region

NSI-566 transplanted in the spinal injury site of patients can be performed safely

We tested the feasibility and safety of human-spinal-cord-derived neural stem cell (NSI-566) transplantation for the treatment of chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). In this clinical trial, four subjects with T2T12 SCI received treatment consisting of removal of spinal instrumentation, laminectomy, and durotomy, followed by six midline bilateral stereotactic injections of NSI-566 cells. All subjects tolerated the procedure well and there have been no serious adverse events to date (1827months post-grafting). In two subjects, one to two levels of neurological improvement were detected using ISNCSCI motor and sensory scores. Our results support the safety of NSI-566 transplantation into the SCI site and earlysigns of potential efficacy in three of the subjects warrant further exploration of NSI-566 cells in dose escalation studies. Despite these encouraging secondary data, we emphasize that this safety trial lacks statistical power or a control group needed to evaluate functional changes resulting from cell grafting.

spinal cord injury

SCI

stem cell therapy

spinal surgery

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2018 Elsevier Inc.

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A First-in-Human, Phase I Study of Neural Stem Cell ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on A First-in-Human, Phase I Study of Neural Stem Cell … | May 26th, 2019

"Stem Cell Cure Pvt. Ltd." is one of the most trusted and highlighted company in India which has expertise in providing best Stem Cell Services (for Blood disorders) in top most hospital of India for all major degenerative diseases. Our company is providing advanced medical treatment in India which applies in case of all other medical treatment fail to cure non-treatable diseases. We provide our services through some medical devices such as bone marrow aspiration concentrate (BMAC) kit, platelet rich plasma (PRP) kit, stem cell banking and stem cells services (isolated from bone marrow, placenta and adipose) for research/clinical trial purpose only.We are providing advanced medical treatment in India where all other medical treatment fail then this stem cell treatment apply to cure such non-treatable diseases.

It is the single channel that has comprehensive stem cell treatment and other medical treatment protocols and employs stem cells in different form as per the requirement of best suite on the basis of degenerative disease application. Stem cell therapy is helpful to treat many blood disorder such as thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, aplastic anemia and other organ related disorder such as muscular dystrophy, spinal cord Injury, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), cerebral palsy, autism, optic nerve atrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, lung (COPD) disease and liver cirrhosis and our list of services doesn't end here.

"Stem Cell Cure" company is working with some India's top stem cell therapy centers, cord blood stem cell preservation banks and approved stem cell research labs to explore and share their unique stem cell solutions with our best services via coordinating of our clinician and researcher and solving every type of patient queries regarding stem cell therapy.

Our company is providing best medical treatment in India and also has expertization in stem cell therapy and for the needed patients in all those application which can treat by stem cell therapy. We have stem cells in different forms to make the better recovery of patient and refer the best stem cell solutions after the evaluation of patient case study by our experts. Our experts in this field work together with patients though the collaborative patient experience to give you greater peace of mind to develop clear evidence based path. We have highly experts in our team and our experts are strong in research and clinical research from both points of view.

Our mission is to provide best stem cell therapy at reasonable price not only in India but also throughout the whole world so that every needed patients can get best stem cell therapy to improve his life.

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Stem Cell Therapy in India - Stem Cell Treatment in Delhi ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Stem Cell Therapy in India – Stem Cell Treatment in Delhi … | May 20th, 2019

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative condition of the articular cartilage, which is the most common cause of disability in patients over age 65. Treatment options are limited towards alleviating symptomology.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are effective at treating osteoarthritis (OA) in animal models and clinical trials [1-6]. Mechanisms of therapeutic activity appear to be associated with regenerative and anti-inflammatory factors produced by MSC [7, 8]. On the one hand, MSC produce soluble factors that are antioxidant [9], antifibrotic [10], and stimulate endogenous chondrogenic progenitors [11], on the other hand MSC directly can differentiate into cartilage tissue [12].

The proposed study will involve intra-articular injection of umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC) into joints of 20 patients with grade 2-4 radiographic OA severity and intravenously in 20 patients with grade 2-4 radiographic OA severity. The primary endpoint will be safety and feasibility as assessed by lack of treatment associated adverse events. The secondary endpoint will be improvements in joint function as assessed by Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). Patients will be examined at baseline and 3 and 12 months after treatment.

This, study will provide support for double-blind placebo controlled investigations. The potential of using UC-MSC for this debilitating condition will open the door for future investigations in other inflammatory conditions if results demonstrate safety and feasibility of this approach.

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Human Umbilical Cord Stem Cells for Osteoarthritis ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Human Umbilical Cord Stem Cells for Osteoarthritis … | April 22nd, 2019

Statistics indicate that approximately 17,500 people suffer spinal cord injuries each year. Although these injuries can impact anyone, they are most commonly seen in younger men, primarily because these injuries are often driven by lifestyle choices that people may make. Yet, despite efforts to more effectively treat these spinal cord injuries and restore full quality of life, traditional medical treatments have largely been unsuccessful.

Due to this fact, medical professionals have increasingly turned their attention to stem cells and how these stem cells could be used to treat spinal cord injuries.

In short, there is no way to reverse damage to the spinal cord that doesnt include replacing the old cells, like with stem cells. However, there are some treatment options available as to prevent the injury becoming worse, especially immediately during or after the injury event. With any luck, some patients can return to an active and normal life through these means without having to resort to stem cells, which is still a clinical and expensive treatment.

Most of what can be done for a spinal cord injury is at the scene. These require the patient to remain motionless in order to prevent shock. Immobilizing the neck and spinal cord can help reduce further injury and complications, not to mention maintaining steady breathing. Surgery is often necessary for this type of injury. Some medication, particularly methylprednisolone, can be used, but the side effects of blood clots and illness usually outweigh the benefits.

In the long run, doctors make a priority to prevent problems with other parts of the body as a result of spinal cord injuries. Blood clots, respiratory infections, pressure ulcers and other issues have been known to arise.

Otherwise, rehabilitation is almost always recommended to rebuild muscle strength while in the early stages of recovery. Education on how to prevent further complications in day-to-day life is also given to patients with these types of injuries, along with learning new skills to help through their new situation.

With treatment for spinal cord injuries being severely limited, there is little wonder why doctors and researchers have turned to the idea of using stem cells to rebuild and replace damaged cells. However, these stem cells cant just be injected in any traditional sense. They need to be placed accurately in an environment where they can grow. This is where 3D printing comes in.

Recognizing the fact that traditional treatment methods have not been able to fully improve patients quality of life, medical professionals are shifting their attention to exploring stem cells and how stem cells can improve functioning for individuals with spinal cord injuries. The pioneering study in this sphere came out of the University of California San Diegos School of Medicine and Institute of Engineering.

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3D Printing Stem Cells for Treating Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on 3D Printing Stem Cells for Treating Spinal Cord Injuries | April 18th, 2019

Together, the brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system. This complex system is part of everything we do. It controls the things we choose to do -- like walk and talk -- and the things our body does automatically -- like breathe and digest food. The central nervous system is also involved with our senses -- seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling -- as well as our emotions, thoughts, and memory.

The brain is a soft, spongy mass of nerve cells and supportive tissue. It has three major parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The parts work together, but each has special functions.

The cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, fills most of the upper skull. It has two halves called the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The cerebrum uses information from our senses to tell us what's going on around us and tells our body how to respond. The right hemisphere controls the muscles on the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the muscles on the right side of the body. This part of the brain also controls speech and emotions as well as reading, thinking, and learning.

The cerebellum, under the cerebrum at the back of the brain, controls balance and complex actions like walking and talking.

The brain stem connects the brain with the spinal cord. It controls hunger and thirst and some of the most basic body functions, such as body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing.

The brain is protected by the bones of the skull and by a covering of three thin membranes called meninges. The brain is also cushioned and protected by cerebrospinal fluid. This watery fluid is produced by special cells in the four hollow spaces in the brain, called ventricles. It flows through the ventricles and in spaces between the meninges. Cerebrospinal fluid also brings nutrients from the blood to the brain and removes waste products from the brain.

The spinal cord is made up of bundles of nerve fibers. It runs down from the brain through a canal in the center of the bones of the spine. These bones protect the spinal cord. Like the brain, the spinal cord is covered by the meninges and cushioned by cerebrospinal fluid.

Spinal nerves connect the brain with the nerves in most parts of the body. Other nerves go directly from the brain to the eyes, ears, and other parts of the head. This network of nerves carries messages back and forth between the brain and the rest of the body

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About The Brain and Spinal Cord | Neurosurgery ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on About The Brain and Spinal Cord | Neurosurgery … | March 16th, 2019

Scientists in Japan now have permission to inject 'reprogrammed' stem cells into people with spinal-cord injuries.

An upcoming trial will mark the first time that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been used to treat spinal-cord injuries, after a committee at Japans health ministry approved the study on 18 February. IPS cells are created by inducing cells from body tissue to revert to an embryonic-like state, from which they can develop into other cell types.

Hideyuki Okano, a stem-cell scientist at Keio University in Tokyo, will coax donor iPS cells into becoming neural precursor cells, which can develop into neurons and glial cells. His team will then inject two million of the precursor cells per patient into the site of spinal injury around 24 weeks after the injury occurs. .

Okano has demonstrated that the procedure can regenerate neurons in monkeys with injured spinal cords and increase their mobility1.

Okanos team will carry out the experimental therapy in four people, monitoring them to ensure it is safe and effective before deciding whether to start a larger clinical trial with more participants. The first patient is expected to be treated in the second half of this year.

IPS cells have been used in a handful of other clinical applications, including to treat age-related macular degeneration in 2014 and 2017, and Parkinsons disease in 2018.

A clinical trial in the United States is also testing a treatment for spinal-cord injuries using embryonic stem cells. The study has so far only led to minor improvements in a few patients, and has yet to demonstrate that it works in a controlled trial.

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Reprogrammed stem cells to treat spinal-cord injuries ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Reprogrammed stem cells to treat spinal-cord injuries … | February 24th, 2019

Japan trial to treat spinal cord injuries with stem cells

TOKYO: A team of Japanese researchers will carry out an unprecedented trial using a kind of stem cell to try to treat debilitating spinal cord injuries, the specialists said on Monday.

The team at Tokyos Keio University has received government approval for a trial using so-called induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body, to treat patients with serious spinal cord injuries.

The trial, expected to begin later this year, will initially focus on four patients who suffered their injuries just 14 to 28 days beforehand, the university said. The team will transplant two million iPS cells into the spines of the patients, who will then go through rehabilitation and be monitored for a year.

The strict limitations on the number of participants is necessary because the process is an "unprecedented, world first clinical trial", the university added. "Its been 20 years since I started researching cell treatment. Finally we can start a clinical trial," Hideyuki Okano, a professor of physiology, said at a press conference.

"We want to do our best to establish safety and provide the treatment to patients," he added. The study will be carried out on patients aged 18 or older who have completely lost their motor and sensory functions.

There are more than 100,000 patients in Japan who are paralysed due to spinal cord injuries but there is no effective treatment. The primary purpose of the trial is to confirm the safety of the transplanted cells and the method of the transplant, the researchers said.

The research team hopes to test the efficacy and safety of the treatment for chronic injuries as well in the future if they can confirm the safety of the technique through the clinical trial. The announcement comes after researchers in Kyoto said in November they had transplanted iPS cells into the brain of a patient in a bid to cure Parkinsons disease. The man was stable after the operation and he will be monitored for two years.

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Japan trial to treat spinal cord injuries with stem cells ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Japan trial to treat spinal cord injuries with stem cells … | February 20th, 2019

You may have heard of stem cells in the news and that they are being used in medical research. This can be a controversial topic for many, but the fact is that the research is happening in specialties across the medical industry. Lets start with the basics to clarify how stem cells are being used in research for spinal cord injuries.

This is the bundle of nerve fibers that transmits information between the brain and rest of the body, protected by the hard vertebrae spinal column. Made up of millions of nerve cells, when connected to the brain, this forms the central nervous system. Injury to the spinal cord can cause paralysis or even death, and there is currently no effective treatment.

Following an injury, the nerve cells and motor axons, which make up the spinal cord, are crushed and torn, and the insulating sheath around the axons begins to die. Any exposed axons begin to degenerate, which means the neuron connection is disrupted, and the flow of information between thebrain and the spinal cord is subsequently blocked.

When this happens, the body is unable to replace lost cells from a spinal cord injury. As a result, their function becomes permanently impaired, leading to severe movement and sensation disability which doctors measure on various scales, including the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS).

Although the research is still in its infancy, professionals believe stem cells are an ideal answer to contribute to spinal cord treatment and repair. The two main characteristics of stem cells, which make them so well-suited for this use, is

Stem cells, come from two main sources- embryonic stem cells from an embryo and somatic stem cells found throughout the body.

Studies in animals demonstrated that transplantation of stem cells contributed to the repair of spinal cord material. It did so in various ways, and these included the replacement of dead nerve cells; the generation of new cells to re-form the aforementioned insulating sheath around the axons, to stimulate the regrowth of damaged axons. It also acted to protect cells at the site of the injury from any further damage.

In prior testing situations, stem cells have been removed from brain tissue, nasal cavity lining, and tooth pulp for applications. This has only ever resulted in partial recovery of function, however, and remains in experimental stages.

There is controversy over this type of treatment at the moment; due to the fact stem cells need further research into how they behave and how they could work in a form of treatment. Stem cell behavior is directed by chemical signals, some of which are internal, and others of which are external and depend on the environment they find themselves in. These chemical signals would need to be created in the spinal cord environment in order to encourage relative growth and development.

Although stem cell treatment continues to be in testing stages, it is still a possible solution for repairing spinal cord injuries at some point in the future.

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What Do Stem Cells Have to Do with a Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on What Do Stem Cells Have to Do with a Spinal Cord Injury? | February 5th, 2019

At Spinal Cord, were excited to share that researchers at the University of California, San Diego successfully created spinal cord neural stem cells (NSCs) that could have clinical applications in spinal cord injury and disorder treatments.

The spinal cord injury research, conducted by postdoctoral scholar Hiromi Kumamaru and Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the UCSD Translational Neuroscience Institute Mark Tuszynski, grafted the cultured cells into the spinal cords of rats with spinal cord injuries (SCIs).

Kumamaru says about the spinal cord injury research:

In grafts, these cells could be found throughout the spinal cord, dorsal to ventral. They promoted regeneration after spinal cord injury in adult rats, including corticospinal axons, which are extremely important in human voluntary motor function. In rats, they supported functional recovery.

These diverse cells are derived from immature self-replicating human stem cells known as human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which morph into different types of stem cells that could disperse throughout the spinal cord. According to the researchers, these pluripotent cells could serve as a scalable source of replacement cells for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

In the Universitys press release, Tuszynski says that the new cells could serve as source cells for human clinical trials in three to five years. First, however, it first needs to be determined whether the cells are safe over long-time periods via studies on rodents and non-human primates and that the results are replicable.

According to the Universitys press release on the new stem cell research:

The achievement, described in the August 6 online issue of Nature Methods, advances not only basic research like biomedical applications of in vitro disease modeling, but may constitute an improved, clinically translatable cell source for replacement strategies in spinal cord injuries and disorders.

The hope is that the cultured spinal cord neural stem cells from this stem cell research will benefit people with other spinal cord dysfunction disorders via modeling and drug screening. According to UCSD, such disorders would include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy, hereditary spastic paraplegia and spinocerebellar ataxia, a group of genetic disorders characterized by progressive discoordination of gait, hands and eye movement.

Although significant research has been done to explore the potential use of hPSC stem cells in creating new cells to repair diseased or damaged spinal cords, historically, progress has been slow and limited.

It is one of the goals of the Spinal Cord team to help keep you and your family informed about the newest medical advances in spinal cord injury research. We recently shared about exciting advances in gene therapy research that helped to restore hand function in rats with SCIs, as well as the use of olfactory ensheathing cells (cells from the bodys system that enables you to perceive smells) to trigger spinal cord nerve regeneration.

Please be sure to subscribe to our blog to get the latest updates on stem cell and other spinal cord injury research.

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Spinal Cord Injury Research Advances with New Stem Cells

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Spinal Cord Injury Research Advances with New Stem Cells | February 4th, 2019

Spinal Cord Injuries Are Not JustCaused by Trauma

When you think of spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic events like a serious car accident may come to mind. While its true that car accidents are the leading cause of traumatic SCI, you may be surprised that non-traumatic diseasessuch as a spinal tumorcan also cause SCI.

SCI involves damage to the spinal cord that temporarily or permanently changes how it functions. SCI is divided into 2 categories: traumatic or non-traumatic. Even if the cause of SCI is non-traumatic, that doesnt lessen its impact or severitythe aftermath of SCI can have devastating effects on a persons life.Falls are the second most common cause of traumatic spinal cord injury. Photo Source: 123RF.com.Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Traumatic SCI occurs more often in men than womennearly 80% of cases affect men. People of all ages may experience SCI, but certain activities tend to affect different age groups more. For example, high-impact events like car accidents and sports injuries tend to occur more often in younger people. On the other hand, traumatic SCI caused by a fall is more common in adults over age 60.

Regardless of the cause, traumatic SCI occurs most frequently in the cervical spine (about 60% of cases involve the neck), followed by thoracic spine (32% involve the mid-back). Only 9% of cases occur in the lumbosacral spine, or low back and tailbone.

Understanding the Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury CascadeA traumatic SCI doesnt simply damage your spinal cord at the point of initial impact. In traumatic SCI, the primary injury (that is, the initial traumatic event that caused the SCI) may damage cells and dislocate your spinal vertebrae, which causes spinal cord compression. The primary injury also triggers a complex secondary injury cascade, which causes a series of biological changes that may occur weeks and months after the initial injury.

During the secondary injury cascade, the following processes occur:

This cascade changes the spinal cords structure and how it normally operates. Ultimately, this secondary injury cascade may interfere with the spinal cords ability to recover itself. This means a person with traumatic SCI may experience permanent nerve pain and dysfunction because of their injury.

Non-traumatic Spinal Cord InjuryTraumatic events arent the only causes of spinal cord damageSCI can also be caused by non-traumatic diseases in the spine. Spinal tumors are the leading cause of non-traumatic SCI, but infections and degenerative disc disease can also damage your spinal cord.

Though most people connect traumatic events to SCI, non-traumatic causes of SCI are a much more likely cause. To highlight just how common non-traumatic cases are versus their traumatic counterparts, consider the incidence of traumatic SCI in North America: 39 cases per million people. On the other hand, the incidence of non-traumatic SCI is 1,227 cases per million people for Canada alone (data for the rest of North America is not available).

A Healthy Research Outlook to Improve Spinal Cord Injury OutcomesOver the past 30 years, spine researchers have made great strides in developing successful protective and regenerative therapies to improve the health of the spinal cord and the survival rate of people with SCIbut the work is far from over. Current studies and clinical trials are examining innovative medical, surgical and cell-based treatments to further the medical communitys understanding of SCI, which will improve the quality of life and preserve a brighter future for people who experience these injuries.

Suggested Additional ReadingA special issue of the Global Spine Journal set forth guidelines for the Management of Degenerative Myelopathy and Acute Spinal Cord Injury, which is summarized on SpineUniverse in Summary of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy and Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.

Sources:Ahuja CS, Wilson JR, Nori S, et al. Traumatic spinal cord injury. Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 3, 17018. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrdp201718. Accessed January 10, 2018.

Spinal Cord Injury. Facts and figures at a glance. National SCI Statistical Center (NSCI SC). 2017. https://www.nscisc.uab.edu/. Accessed January 10, 2018.

Updated on: 01/27/19

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Spinal Cord Injury Center - Treatments, Research ...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Spinal Cord Injury Center – Treatments, Research … | February 2nd, 2019

The C3, C4, and C5 vertebrae form the midsection of the cervical spine, near the base of the neck. Injuries to the nerves and tissue relating to the cervical regionare the most severe of all spinal cord injuries because the higher up in the spine an injury occurs, the more damage that is caused to the central nervous system. Depending on the how severe the damage to the spinal cord is, the injury may be noted as complete or incomplete.

The C2 - C3 junction of the spinal column is important, as this is where flexion and extension occur (flexion is the movement of the chin toward the chest and extension is the backward movement of the head). Patients with spinal cord damage at the C3 level will have limited mobility in both their flexion and extension.

Symptoms of a spinal cord injury corresponding toC3 vertebrae include:

The portion of the spinal cord which relatesto the C4 vertebra directly affects the diaphragm. Patients with C4 spinal cord injuries typically need 24 hour-a-day support to breathe and maintain oxygen levels.

Symptoms of a spinal cord injury corresponding toC4 vertebrae include:

Damage to the spinal cord at the C5 vertebra affects the vocal cords, biceps, and deltoid muscles in the upper arms. Unlike some of the higher cervical injuries, a patient with a C5 spinal cord injury will likely be able to breath and speak on their own.

Symptoms of a spinal cord injury corresponding to C5 vertebrae include:

The most common causes of cervical spinal cord injuries are:

Unfortunately, there is no treatment which will completely reverse the damage frominjuries to the spinal cord at the C3 - C5 levels. Medical care is focused on preventingfurther damage to the spinal cord and utilization of remaining function.

Current treatments available for patients are:

It is an unfortunate truth that there are not many options to date to completely recover from a cervical spinal cord injury. Medical researchers are continuously looking into new drug therapies to help regain sensory and motor function. The use of stem cells is seen more and more in research as these cells are specialized enough to possibly regenerate damaged spinal cord tissues. Lab study results show greater sensory and motor function in those patients treated with stem cells for spinal cord damage.

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C3, C4, & C5 Vertebrae Spinal Cord Injury | SpinalCord.com

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on C3, C4, & C5 Vertebrae Spinal Cord Injury | SpinalCord.com | February 2nd, 2019