Illustration: John Spooner

One of the joys for those who work in the health services area is bringing relief to patients from chronic conditions.

And as the level of desperation rises, some patients will pay over the odds for treatment, pursing unproven options in the hope of some improvement in their condition. And where there is unmet demand, supply soon steps in to fill the gap.

Last year, there was intense global media attention on stem cell treatments following a paralysed patient in Poland who walked after a cell transplant, a project involving Polish and UK researchers.

Stem cells may well offer significant potential promise for patients in a range of treatments. But to date, much of that optimism has run well ahead of the reality.

Advertisement

Clinical trials to ensure the efficacy and safety of medical treatments is slow and laborious, taking several years, at the very least, to verify the merits of a treatment before then seeking approvals to offer the treatment to patients.

But for those searching for a stem cell treatment in Australia, there is a loophole: a referral from your doctor is often all it takes to get access, even though there is scant proof that the patient benefits.

Clearly, some patients so badly want to believe the treatment is good for them that this will override the necessary caution.

Much of this activity is taking place in private clinics, although sharemarket investors, too, have stem cell groups they can invest in.

The rest is here:
Optimism on stem cells, ahead of reality

LAWTON, Okla._A stem cell surgery procedure, not yet approved by the FDA, could give a local paralyzed veteran the use of his arms again.

Two years ago, retired Senior Airman Ted "TJ" Williams was left as a quadriplegic when his Humvee rolled over in a freak accident while on duty in Montana. He spent several weeks in a coma.

Now, he and his wife have found a surgery that may improve his physical abilities. They're dipping into their funds to pay for the procedure, since it's not covered by insurance, but they've set up a GoFundMe account to raise $7,500 to cover travel expenses out of the country to get the treatment.

Williams is able to move his left wrist and arm more, and has even gained more core control, thanks to therapy. But, he still needs his wife's help for simple tasks like getting dressed and using the restroom.

Williams sits next to his wife in his wheelchair and watches TV. Years ago, he would've been running outside, but one accident changed everything.

"I just remember leaving base and then waking up 2 or 3 weeks later, wondering where am I. I couldn't move anything. It was just shocking seeing my family around my bed. I was just like, Wow. What's going on,'" recalled Williams.

On November 29, 2012, Williams was on duty with his security forces team. He was in the back seat when his Humvee suddenly swerved to miss a herd of deer, rolling several times. He was ejected from the vehicle and was later found 60 feet away.

Williams was rushed to the hospital. When he woke up from the coma, doctors told him he had broken the vertebrae in his neck and lost function from the chest down.

"I was really upset and scared. Me and my wife are young. We haven't had children yet or anything. It scared me not knowing what the future was to hold," said Williams.

He was sent to a VA hospital in San Antonio for in-patient rehab. Once he was finished, he met a physical trainer in who specializes in exercises for those who are suffering from spinal cord and other neurological injuries, which was just what he needed.

Read the original here:
Quadriplegic veteran to receive stem cell treatments

Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injuries

SCI or Spinal cord injuries usually occur with a sudden & traumatic injury or blow to the spinal cord that dislocates or fractures the vertebrae. The damage of SCI begins at the point of impact when the displaced disc material,bone fragments, or ligaments either bruise or tear the spinal cord tissue. Most SCI injuries do not sever the spinal cord completely. The SCI is likely to cause minor compressions or fractures of the vertebrae, that crush and destroy the signal carriers called axons. Axons carry electric signals up and down our spinal cords and act as a messenger between our brains and the rest of our bodies. SCI generally cause damage to some,many, or in some cases all the axons.

Some SCI victims can accomplish a complete recovery. Others however,will be left with complete paralysis.SCI are classified in two categories, complete or incomplete. A complete SCI is indicated by the total lack of all sensory and motor functions below the area of injury. An incomplete SCI means that the patient has the ability to convey some messages to &/or from the brain but often in a limited capacity. Most People with incomplete SCI injuries can retain minor sensory and/or motor function below the point of injury. Those who survive SCI will most likely suffer for medical complications like bowel and bladder dysfunction and often have chronic pain. Partial SCI patients also have an increased susceptibility to heart & respiratory problems. Successful recovery usingstem cells to treatspinal cord Injuries depends largely on how well systematic failures and chronic conditions are handled day-to-day.

Cell Therapy for injured Spinal Cordsfocuses on regeneration of the connections between your brain and body that have been broken or severely hampered. Stem cellscan help regain motor functions and regain bowel and bladder dysfunction, regain loss of sensations, help minimize chronic pain,cramps and its associated depression. Conventional treatments for SCI today are focused mainly on providing rehabilitation and the prevention of secondary damage. Recent advancements in spinal cord cell treatments offer hope for thousands of victims around the world who are often left with little or no hope for recovery. Stemcell treatments for spinal cord injury can help support and promote the bodies natural regeneration cycle by stimulating the rapid repair of damaged cells and tissue. The regenerative treatmentgoes well beyond the traditional approach of symptomatic treatments and can help you improve and regain some of the previously lost or impaired physical functions. Cell death normally occurs when our cells are injured. These dead cells are surrounded by both damaged and healthy cells. Stem cells stimulate the healing of these injured cells via the secretion of cytokines and other cells such as NGF or nerve growth factors to trigger the body into self-healing mode.

Thai Medical offers a uniquespinal cordtreatment protocol usinga multi-pronged approach. First, adult stem cells are injected directly into the damaged areas of the spine via the accuracy and precision guidance of a CT-guided intra-spinal injection. The treatment is then supplemented even further with another injection using an LP or lumbar puncture and/or IV drip injections.

CT-guided intra-spinal stem cell treatments are considered the gold standard in the field of Stem Cell treatment for spinal cord injury and spinal injury stem cell research for Stem Cell Treatments in Thailand. The precision of CT guidance allows the neurosurgeon to precisely aim the stem cells inside the healthy spinal cord tissues directly adjacent to the injury and lesions. The CT-guided intra-spinal stem cell treatments avoids the requirements of open spine surgeries of yesteryear. CT-guided intra-spinal stem cell treatments also avoid the risks, pain and subsequent healing time associated with cell treatment for SCI (spinal cord injury.)

The objectives of the enrichedcell treatments for spinal cord injuries is to help repair the injured areas on the cellular level near the point of impacts and lesions. The resulting therapy will generally lead to improved quality of life and improved symptoms primarily in physical function,movements and abilities. The majority of patients who are accepted into the program have show dramatic improvements usually after the first or second treatments and continue to improve and regenerate 6 months to a year after treatment. The results are permanent barring new injuries.

View original post here:
Stem Cell Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries SCI Therapy

Washington, DC - infoZine - Three-year outcomes from an ongoing clinical trial suggest that high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by transplantation of a person's own blood-forming stem cells may induce sustained remission in some people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). RRMS is the most common form of MS, a progressive autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord.

Three years after the treatment, called high-dose immunosuppressive therapy and autologous hematopoietic cell transplant or HDIT/HCT, nearly 80 percent of trial participants had survived without experiencing an increase in disability, a relapse of MS symptoms or new brain lesions. Investigators observed few serious early complications or unexpected side effects, although many participants experienced expected side effects of high-dose immunosuppression, including infections and gastrointestinal problems.

Scientists estimate that MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide. Symptoms can vary widely and may include disturbances in speech, vision and movement. Most people with MS are diagnosed with RRMS, which is characterized by periods of relapse or flare up of symptoms followed by periods of recovery or remission. Over years, the disease can worsen and shift to a more progressive form.

In the study, researchers tested the effectiveness of HDIT/HCT in 25 volunteers with RRMS who had relapsed and experienced worsened neurological disability while taking standard medications. Doctors collected blood-forming stem cells from participants and then gave them high-dose chemotherapy to destroy their immune systems. The doctors returned the stem cells to the participants to rebuild and reset their immune systems.

"Notably, participants did not receive any MS drugs after transplant, yet most remained in remission after three years," said Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of NIAID's Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation. "In contrast, other studies have shown that the best alternative MS treatments induce much shorter remissions and require long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs that can cause serious side effects."

The study researchers plan to follow participants for a total of five years, recording all side effects associated with the treatment. Final results from this and similar studies promise to help inform the design of larger trials to further evaluate HDIT/HCT in people with MS.

The trial is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the NIAID-funded Immune Tolerance Network (ITN).

The three-year findings are published in the Dec. 29, 2014, online issue of JAMA Neurology.

Related Link Immune Tolerance Network (ITN)

The rest is here:
Stopping Multiple Sclerosis with Stem Cell Transplants

NIH-funded study yields encouraging early results

Three-year outcomes from an ongoing clinical trial suggest that high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by transplantation of a person's own blood-forming stem cells may induce sustained remission in some people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). RRMS is the most common form of MS, a progressive autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord. The trial is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the NIAID-funded Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) .

Three years after the treatment, called high-dose immunosuppressive therapy and autologous hematopoietic cell transplant or HDIT/HCT, nearly 80 percent of trial participants had survived without experiencing an increase in disability, a relapse of MS symptoms or new brain lesions. Investigators observed few serious early complications or unexpected side effects, although many participants experienced expected side effects of high-dose immunosuppression, including infections and gastrointestinal problems. The three-year findings are published in the Dec. 29, 2014, online issue of JAMA Neurology.

These promising results support the need for future studies to further evaluate the benefits and risks of HDIT/HCT and directly compare this treatment strategy to current MS therapies, said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. If the findings from this study are confirmed, HDIT/HCT may become a potential therapeutic option for people with this often-debilitating disease, particularly those who have not been helped by standard treatments.

Scientists estimate that MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide. Symptoms can vary widely and may include disturbances in speech, vision and movement. Most people with MS are diagnosed with RRMS, which is characterized by periods of relapse or flare up of symptoms followed by periods of recovery or remission. Over years, the disease can worsen and shift to a more progressive form.

In the study, researchers tested the effectiveness of HDIT/HCT in 25 volunteers with RRMS who had relapsed and experienced worsened neurological disability while taking standard medications. Doctors collected blood-forming stem cells from participants and then gave them high-dose chemotherapy to destroy their immune systems. The doctors returned the stem cells to the participants to rebuild and reset their immune systems.

Notably, participants did not receive any MS drugs after transplant, yet most remained in remission after three years, said Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of NIAIDs Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation. In contrast, other studies have shown that the best alternative MS treatments induce much shorter remissions and require long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs that can cause serious side effects.

The study researchers plan to follow participants for a total of five years, recording all side effects associated with the treatment. Final results from this and similar studies promise to help inform the design of larger trials to further evaluate HDIT/HCT in people with MS.

The work was sponsored by NIAID, NIH, and conducted by the ITN (contract number N01 AI015416) and NIAID-funded statistical and clinical coordinating centers (contract numbers HHSN272200800029C and HHSN272200900057C). The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier for the study High-Dose Immunosuppression and Autologous Transplantation for Multiple Sclerosis (HALT-MS) is NCT00288626.

NIAID conducts and supports research at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

See the article here:
News & Events

Spinal cord injuries are devastating, leaving the person injured facing a life time of challenges, and placing a huge strain on their family and loved ones who help care for them.

The numbers affected are not small. More than a quarter of a million Americans are living with spinal cord injuries and there are more than 11,000 new cases each year.

Its not just a devastating injury, its also an expensive one. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center it can cost more than $775,000 to care for a patient in the first year after injury, and the estimated lifetime costs due to spinal cord injury can be as high as $3 million.

Right now there is no cure, and treatment options are very limited. We have heard for several years now about stem cell research aimed at helping people with spinal cord injuries, but where is that research and how close are we to testing the most promising approaches in people?

Thats going to be the focus of a Google Hangout on Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Research that we are hosting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18 from noon till 1pm PST.

Well be looking at the latest stem cell-based treatments for spinal cord injury including work being done by Asterias Biotherapeutics, which was recently given approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to start a clinical trial for spinal cord injury. We are giving Asterias $14.3 million to carry out that trial and you can read more about that work here.

Were fortunate in having three great guests for the Hangout: Jane Lebkowski, Ph.D., the President of research and development at Asterias; Roman Reed, a patient advocate and tireless champion of stem cell research and the founder of the Roman Reed Foundation; and Kevin Whittlesey, Ph.D., a CIRM science officer, who will discuss other CIRM-funded research that aims to better understand spinal cord injury and to bring stem cell-based therapies to clinic trials.

You can find out how to join the Hangout by clicking on the event page link: http://bit.ly/1sh1Dsm

The event is free and interactive, so youll be able to ask questions of our experts. You dont need a Google+ account to watch the Hangout just visit the event page at the specified time. If you do have a G+ account, please RSVP at the event page (link shown above). Also, with the G+ account you can ask questions in the comment box on this event page. Otherwise, you can tweet questions using #AskCIRMSCI or email us at info@cirm.ca.gov.

We look forward to seeing you there!

View original post here:
Spinal cord injury and stem cell research; find out the ...

Public Abstract:

1.3 million Americans suffer chronically from spinal cord injuries (SCI); each year ~15,000 individuals sustain a new injury. For California, this means nearly 147,000 individuals are living with a SCI which can leave otherwise healthy individuals with severe deficits in movement, sensation, and autonomic function. Recovery after SCI is often limited, even after aggressive emergency treatment with steroids and surgery, followed by rehabilitation. The need to develop new treatments for SCI is pressing. We believe that stem cell therapies could provide significant functional recovery, improve quality of life, and reduce the cost of care for SCI patients. The goal of this Disease Team is to evaluate a novel cell therapy approach to SCI involving transplantation of human neural stem cells. In 2005, the FDA authorized the worlds first clinical testing of human neural stem cell transplantation into the CNS. Since then, our research team has successfully generated clinical grade human neural stem cells for use in three clinical trials, established a favorable safety profile that now approaches five years in some subjects and includes evidence of long-term donor-cell survival. Relevant to this Disease Team, the most recent study began testing human neural stem cells in thoracic spinal cord injury. The initial group of three patients with complete injury has been successfully transplanted. The Disease Team seeks to extend the research into cervical SCI. Neural cell transplantation holds tremendous promise for achieving spinal cord repair. In preliminary experiments, the investigators on this Disease Team showed that transplantation of both murine and human neural stem cells into animal models of SCI restore motor function. The human neural stem cells migrate extensively within the spinal cord from the injection site, promoting new myelin and synapse formation that lead to axonal repair and synaptic integrity. Given these promising proof-of-concept studies, we propose to manufacture clinical-grade human neural stem cells and execute the preclinical studies required to submit an IND application to the FDA that will support the first-in-human neural stem cell transplantation trial for cervical SCI. Our unmatched history of three successful regulatory submissions, extensive experience in manufacturing, preclinical and clinical studies of human neural stem cells for neurologic disorders, combined with an outstanding team of basic and clinical investigators with expertise in SCI, stem cell biology, and familiarity with all the steps of clinical translation, make us an extremely competitive applicant for CIRMs Disease Team awards. This award could ultimately lead to a successful FDA submission that will permit human testing of a new treatment approach for SCI; one that could potentially reverse paralysis and improve the patients quality of life.

Statement of Benefit to California:

Spinal cord injuries affect more than 147,000 Californians; the majority are injuries to the cervical level (neck region) of the spinal cord. SCI exacts a devastating toll not only on patients and families, but also results in a heavy economic impact on the state: the lifetime medical costs for an individual with a SCI can exceed $3.3 million, not including the loss of wages and productivity. In California this translates to roughly $86 billion in healthcare costs. Currently there are no approved therapies for chronic thoracic or cervical SCI. We hope to advance our innovative cell therapy approach to treat patients who suffer cervical SCI. For the past 9 years, the assembled team (encompassing academic experts in pre-clinical SCI models, complications due to SCI, rehabilitation and industry experts in manufacturing and delivery of purified neural stem cells), has developed the appropriate SCI models and assays to elucidate the therapeutic potential of human neural stem cells for SCI repair. Human neural stem cell transplantation holds the promise of creating a new treatment paradigm. These cells restored motor function in spinal cord injured animal models. Our therapeutic approach is based on the hypothesis that transplanted human neural stem cells mature into oligodendrocytes to remyelinate demyelinated axons, and/or form neurons to repair local spinal circuitry. Any therapy that can partially reverse some of the sequelae of SCI could substantially change the quality-of-life for patients by altering their dependence on assisted living, medical care and possibly restoring productive employment. Through CIRM, California has emerged as a worldwide leader in stem cell research and development. If successful, this project would further CIRMs mission and increase Californias prominence while providing SCI therapy to injured Californians. This Team already has an established track record in stem cell clinical translation. The success of this Disease Team application would also facilitate new job creation in highly specialized areas including cell manufacturing making California a unique training ground. In summary, the potential benefit to the state of California brought by a cervical spinal cord Disease Team project would be myriad. First, a novel therapy could improve the quality of life for SCI patients, restore some function, or reverse paralysis, providing an unmet medical need to SCI patients and reducing the high cost of health care. Moreover, this Disease Team would maintain Californias prominence in the stem cell field and in clinical translation of stem cell therapies, and finally, would create new jobs in stem cell technology and manufacturing areas to complement the states prominence in the biotech field.

More:
Neural stem cell transplantation for chronic cervical ...

Keith Vanderlinde/NSF

The BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole may have spied gravitational waves or dust.

This year may be best remembered for how quickly scientific triumph morphed into disappointment, and even tragedy: breakthroughs in stem-cell research and cosmology were quickly discredited; commercial spaceflight faced major setbacks. Yet landing a probe on a comet, tracing humanitys origins and a concerted push to understand the brain provided reasons to celebrate.

Asian nations soared into space this year. The Indian Space Research Organisation put a mission into orbit around Mars the first agency to do so on its first try. Japan launched the Hayabusa-2 probe, its second robotic voyage to bring back samples from an asteroid. And even as Chinas lunar rover Yutu (or Jade Rabbit) stopped gathering data on the Moons surface, mission controllers took the next step in the countrys lunar exploration programme by sending a test probe around the Moon and back to Earth.

But for commercial spaceflight, it was a bad year. Virgin Galactics proposed tourism vehicle SpaceShipTwo disintegrated during a test flight in California and killed one of its pilots. That came just three days after a launch-pad explosion in Virginia destroyed an uncrewed private rocket intended to take supplies to the International Space Station. The accident wiped out a number of research experiments destined for the station, whose managers are trying to step up its scientific output. Problems on the station also delayed the deployment of a flock of tiny Earth-watching satellites, nicknamed Doves, which are part of the general trend of using miniature CubeSats to collect space data.

On a bigger scale, the European Space Agency successfully launched the first in its long-awaited series of Sentinel Earth-observing satellites.

After a decade-long trip, the European Space Agencys Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko in August and settled into orbit. Three months later, Rosetta dropped the Philae probe to 67Ps surface, in the first-ever landing on a comet. Philae relayed science data for 64hours before losing power in its shadowy, rocky landing site.

Meanwhile, a flotilla of Mars spacecraft probes from India, the United States and Europe had an unplanned close brush with comet Siding Spring, which zipped past the red planet in October at a distance of 139,500kilometres about one-third of the distance from Earth to the Moon. NASA rovers continued to trundle along on the Martian surface: Curiosity finally reached the mountain that it has been heading towards since landing in 2012, and Opportunity passed 40kilometres on its odometer, breaking a Soviet lunar rovers distance record for off-Earth driving.

The search for planets beyond the Solar System also got a huge boost. In February, the team behind the now mostly defunct Kepler spacecraft announced that it had confirmed the existence of 715extrasolar planets, the largest-ever single haul. Kepler data also revealed the first known Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star, a step closer to the long-sought Earth twin.

Considering that they have been dead for around 30,000 years, Neanderthals had a hell of a year. Their DNA survives in non-African human genomes, thanks to ancient interbreeding, and two teams this year catalogued humans Neanderthal heritage. Scientists learnt more about the sexual encounters between Homo neanderthalensis and early humans after analysing the two oldest Homo sapiens genomes on record from men who lived in southwest Siberia 45,000years ago and in western Russia more than 36,000years ago, respectively. The DNA revealed hitherto-unknown human groups and more precise dates for when H.sapiens coupled with Neanderthals, which probably occurred in the Middle East between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating of dozens of archaeological sites in Europe, meanwhile, showed that humans and Neanderthals coexisted there for much longer than was once thought up to several thousand years in some places.

Read more from the original source:
365 days: 2014 in science

Stem cell therapy is a potential treatment for spinal cord injury and different stem cell types have been grafted into animal models and humans suffering from spinal trauma. Due to inconsistent results, it is still an important and clinically relevant question which stem cell type will prove to be therapeutically effective. Thus far, stem cells of human sources grafted into spinal cord mostly included barely defined heterogeneous mesenchymal stem cell populations derived from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood. Here, we have transplanted a well-defined unrestricted somatic stem cell isolated from human umbilical cord blood into an acute traumatic spinal cord injury of adult immune suppressed rat. Grafting of unrestricted somatic stem cells into the vicinity of a dorsal hemisection injury at thoracic level eight resulted in hepatocyte growth factor-directed migration and accumulation within the lesion area, reduction in lesion size and augmented tissue sparing, enhanced axon regrowth and significant functional locomotor improvement as revealed by three behavioural tasks (open field Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan locomotor score, horizontal ladder walking test and CatWalk gait analysis). To accomplish the beneficial effects, neither neural differentiation nor long-lasting persistence of the grafted human stem cells appears to be required. The secretion of neurite outgrowth-promoting factors in vitro further suggests a paracrine function of unrestricted somatic stem cells in spinal cord injury. Given the highly supportive functional characteristics in spinal cord injury, production in virtually unlimited quantities at GMP grade and lack of ethical concerns, unrestricted somatic stem cells appear to be a highly suitable human stem cell source for clinical application in central nervous system injuries.

View original post here:
Significant clinical, neuropathological and behavioural ...

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise Stem cells in early embryos have unlimited potential; they can become any type of cell, and researchers hope to one day harness this rejuvenating power to heal disease and injury. To do so, they must, among other things, figure out how to reliably arrest stem cells in a Peter Pan-like state of indefinite youth and potential. Its clear the right environment can help accomplish this, acting as a sort of Neverland for stem cells. Only now are scientists beginning to understand how.

New collaborative research between scientists at Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center offers an explanation: Stem cells can rewire their metabolism to enhance an erasure mechanism that helps them avoid committing to a specific fate; in turn, this improves stem cells ability to renew themselves.

Experiments described today (December 10) in Nature link metabolism, chemical reactions that turn food into energy and cellular building materials, with changes to how genes are packaged, and, as a result, read. It turns out that by skewing their metabolism to favor a particular product, stem cells can keep their entire genome accessible and so maintain their ability to differentiate into any adult cell.

All of the principal enzymes charged with modifying DNA as well as DNA-histone protein complexes called chromatin use the products of cellular metabolism to do so. But how specific alterations in metabolic pathways can impact gene expression programs during development and differentiation has remained a mystery, says lead researcher C. David Allis, Joy and Jack Fishman Professor and head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics. This collaborative effort with Craig Thompsons lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering reveals that the nutrients a stem cell uses, and how it uses them, can contribute to a cells fate by changing the chromatin landscape and, as a result, influencing gene expression.

These changes are epigenetic, meaning they do not affect genes themselves, instead they alter how DNA is packaged, making it more or less accessible for expression. In this case, researchers were interested in a specific type of epigenetic change: chemical groups, known as methyl groups, that attach to chromatin. Generally, the addition of these methyl groups compacts and silences regions of the genome. To maintain their ability to give rise to any type of cell in the body, stem cells need all of their genome available, and so they must keep methylation in check.

Some epigenetic marks, such as methyl groups, are themselves products of metabolism metabolites. Whats more some other metabolites participate in the reactions that remove methylations, making genes available for expression. After joining the Allis Lab, postdoc Bryce Carey presented an idea that tied these concepts together: What if in stem cells the changes to chromatin reflect a unique metabolism that helps to drive reactions that help to keep chromatin accessible? This connection would explain how embryonic stem cells are so uniquely poised to activate so much of their genomes, Carey says.

Mouse embryonic stem cells grown in a medium known as 2i are much better at renewing themselves than those grown in the traditional medium containing bovine serum, although researchers dont fully understand why. Carey and co-first author Lydia Finley, a postdoc in Thompsons metabolism-focused lab, compared the metabolism of cells grown in both media.

Carey and Finley first noticed that the 2i cells did not require glutamine, an amino acid most cells need to make the metabolite alpha-ketoglutarate, an important player in a series of metabolic reactions known as the citric acid cycle and a metabolite that had also been previously implicated in regulation of methylations on chromatin. Even without glutamine, however, the 2i cells managed to produce significant amounts of alpha-ketoglutarate.

Go here to see the original:
Discovery Links Shift in Metabolism to Stem Cell Renewal

When Mount Sinai Hospital researcher Dr. Andras Nagy initiated a huge project to demystify the process by which specialized cells become stem cells, he wasnt expecting to discover a whole new type of stem cell.

Its a big finding, because identifying a new class of stem cells means a 100 per cent increase in possible sources of cells for therapeutic use.

He describes a stem cell as a blank tablet. They hold great potential to treat diseases that result from damaged tissue or loss of cells, such as Alzheimers, spinal cord injuries and blindness.

His latest research, dubbed Project Grandiose because of its sheer scale, has involved employing a team of nearly 50 researchers across four continents to document the process of creating stem cells. These cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells can be used to form any type of cell in the body as an alternative to using the more controversial stem cells derived from embryos.

The findings will be published Thursday in a package of papers in Nature and Nature Communications .

The oldest example of a therapy based on stem calls is bone marrow transplants, which have been performed for more than 40 years.

One of the newest applications of stem cells is treating and preventing the loss of vision using iPS cells. Japan has permitted the use of these cells to regenerate eye tissue this year. A woman in her 70s was the first to receive retinal tissue created from iPS cells to combat a degenerative condition that can lead to blindness.

Nagy characterizes this procedure as an icebreaker, hoping it will lead to further treatment and perhaps even cures in other diseases.

But understanding these cells first is key to safer use.

If we understand this process better and deeper, we will be in a better position to create safer and (more therapeutically useful) cell types in the future, said Nagy.

The rest is here:
Pioneering Toronto scientists latest research to demystify stem cells

A frozen vial of human embryonic stem cells is shown at the University of Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Oct. 22, 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Paul Sancya

A Canadian-led international team of researchers has begun solving the mystery of just how a specialized cell taken from a persons skin is reprogrammed into an embryonic-like stem cell, from which virtually any other cell type in the body can be generated.

The research is being touted as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine that will allow scientists to one day harness stem cells to treat or even cure a host of conditions, from blindness and Parkinsons disease to diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

Besides creating the reprogramming roadmap, the scientists also identified a new type of stem cell, called an F-class stem cell due to its fuzzy appearance. Their work is detailed in five papers published Wednesday in the prestigious journals Nature and Nature Communications.

Dr. Andras Nagy, a senior scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, led the team of 50 researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and Australia, which spent four years analyzing and cataloguing the day-by-day process that occurs in stem cell reprogramming.

The work builds on the 2006-2007 papers by Shinya Yamanaka, who showed that adult skin cells could be turned into embryonic-like, or pluripotent, stem cells through genetic manipulation, a discovery that garnered the Japanese scientist the Nobel Prize in 2012.

Nagy likened the roughly 21-day process to complete that transformation to a black box, so called because scientists did not know what went on within the cells as they morphed from one cell type into the other.

It was just like a black box, Nagy said Wednesday, following a briefing at the hospital. You start with a skin cell, you arrive at a stem cell but we had no idea what was happening inside the cell.

Nagys team set about cataloguing the changes as they occurred by removing cells from culture dishes at set points during the three-week period, then analyzing such cellular material as DNA and proteins present at that moment.

The result is a database that will be available to scientists around the world, which the team hopes will spur new research to advance the field of stem cell-based regenerative medicine.

Originally posted here:
Stem cell breakthrough holds promise for treating blindness, Alzheimers

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press Published Wednesday, December 10, 2014 1:39PM EST Last Updated Thursday, December 11, 2014 7:42AM EST

TORONTO -- A Canadian-led international team of researchers has begun solving the mystery of just how a specialized cell taken from a person's skin is reprogrammed into an embryonic-like stem cell, from which virtually any other cell type in the body can be generated.

The research is being touted as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine that will allow scientists to one day harness stem cells to treat or even cure a host of conditions, from blindness and Parkinson's disease to diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

Besides creating the reprogramming roadmap, the scientists also identified a new type of stem cell, called an F-class stem cell due to its fuzzy appearance. Their work is detailed in five papers published Wednesday in the prestigious journals Nature and Nature Communications.

Dr. Andras Nagy, a senior scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, led the team of 50 researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and Australia, which spent four years analyzing and cataloguing the day-by-day process that occurs in stem cell reprogramming.

The work builds on the 2006-2007 papers by Shinya Yamanaka, who showed that adult skin cells could be turned into embryonic-like, or pluripotent, stem cells through genetic manipulation, a discovery that garnered the Japanese scientist the Nobel Prize in 2012.

Nagy likened the roughly 21-day process to complete that transformation to a "black box," so called because scientists did not know what went on within the cells as they morphed from one cell type into the other.

"It was just like a black box," Nagy said Wednesday, following a briefing at the hospital. "You start with a skin cell, you arrive at a stem cell -- but we had no idea what was happening inside the cell."

Nagy's team set about cataloguing the changes as they occurred by removing cells from culture dishes at set points during the three-week period, then analyzing such cellular material as DNA and proteins present at that moment.

The result is a database that will be available to scientists around the world, which the team hopes will spur new research to advance the field of stem cell-based regenerative medicine.

Read more:
Canadian-led team unlocks process to 'reprogram' stem cells

TORONTO A Canadian-led international team of researchers has created the first high-resolution characterization of the process in which stem cells are formulated from other specialized cells.

The research is being touted as a breakthrough in utilizing stem cells to treat or even cure a host of diseases in the future. Certain stem cells have the potential to become any cell type in the body.

Dr. Andras Nagy of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who led the international research team, says stem cells hold enormous promise for treating or reversing such conditions as blindness, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, spinal cord injury and stroke-related brain damage.

The researchers also identified a new type of stem cells, called F-class stem cells due to their fuzzy appearance.

Nagy says these F-class stem cells have unique properties that could open up new avenues for generating designer cells that may be safer and more efficient when used in future therapies.

Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins hails the research as a game-changer that will open up new frontiers in scientific and medical knowledge worldwide.

The research is detailed in five papers published Wednesday in the prestigious journals Nature and Nature Communications.

See the article here:
Breakthrough research may speed up stem cell treatments

Marion Welch and Dr. Paul Sanberg

Ridgefielder and cord blood advocate Marion Welch recently met Dr. Paul Sanberg, aneuroscientist and cord blood stem cell researcher and currently distinguished professor at the College of Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Southern Florida.

Ms. Welch has been educating parents in Connecticut and New York for the past 15 years on preserving cord blood stem cells at the time of birth. She serves as a senior member of Cryo-Cell Internationals field cord blood educator team.

Dr. Sanberg is the author of more than 600 scientific articles and has published 13 books, including Neural Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols and Neural Stem Cells for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair, and is an inventor with more than 100 United States patents. His work is pioneering the clinical use of using cord blood stem cells to treat neurological disorders, Ms. Welch said.

Connecticut has mandated cord blood education for all expectant parents for the last five years.

For more information on cord blood banking, contact Marion Welch at mwelch@cryo-cell.com

For more information on Dr. Sanberg and his research, contact USF Research & Innovation, 3702 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 165, Tampa FL 33612.

Original post:
Cord blood educator meets neuroscientist

Researchers say they've developed a drug that may help heal a damaged spine the first time anything like a drug has been shown to help.

The drug works on nerve cells that are cut, sending connections across the break, and it helped injured rats move their back legs again and also gave them back control of their bladders.

"This recovery is unprecedented," said Jerry Silver, a neuroscience professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who led the study.

Right now, there's no good way to heal a broken spine. Sometimes people grow nerve cells back, but usually not. All the cures that are in the works require invasive surgery, whether it's injections of stem cells, nerve tissue transplants or implants of neurostimulators.

But Silver's team came up with a compound that is injected. It doesn't require surgery.

"We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries."

"There are currently no drug therapies available that improve the very limited natural recovery from spinal cord injuries that patients experience," said Lyn Jakeman, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, which helped pay for the study. "This is a great step toward identifying a novel agent for helping people recover."

"We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries," Silver added.

One of the problems with repairing a crushed spine is scar tissue. The body grows a lot of it, and even if nerve cells try to send out little growths called axons across the breach, they get bogged down by the scar tissue.

The culprits are molecules called proteoglycans. They are covered with sugars, and like anything sugary, they are sticky and grab the delicate axons that nerve cells grow to connect to other nerves. "What we found is that when nerve fibers are damaged they have a receptor that can see those proteoglycan molecules and stick tightly to it. They stick so tightly they can't move. It's like flypaper," Silver told NBC News.

Original post:
'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spines

At Stem Cell Treatment Institute advanced stem cell procedures are performed at some of the most scientifically advanced hospitals in the world. Stem cell therapy is focused on affecting physical changes in the Spinal Cord that can improve a patient's quality of life. Spinal Cord Injury patients can be treated by lumbar puncture (injecting the cells into the cerebrospinal fluid), IV, or other techniques. Typically this is an outpatient procedure. however patients may stay for 4 or 5 nights in our suites during the process.

Treatment using autologous (patient source) or donor cells (placenta) are available

If Autologous Bone Marrow is used bone marrow is collected from the patient's iliac crest (hip bone) using thin-needle puncture under local anesthesia. Once the bone marrow collection is complete, patients may return to their suite or hotel and go about normal activities.

The stem cells are then processed in a state-of-the-art laboratory. In the lab, both the quantity and quality of the stem cells are measured. The stem cells are then implanted back into the patient by lumbar puncture or IV.

Cost: Stem cell treatments begin around $13,500 (adults).

To contact us and learn more Click Here >>>

We offer Stem Cell treatments with enhanced or manipulated stem cells. These expanded and mobilized stem cells have been found to provide better results than non-manipulated stem cell applications. Manipulation or amplification of the stem cells is done in the lab, where care is taken to retain the cell properties. These expanded and mobilized cells provide superior results and cell recovery has been found to occur twice as fast as with non-manipulated stem cell applications.

Studies where both types of cells were used show that results were quicker and were obtained predominantly from the manipulated stem cells.

Stem Cells can come from the patients fat or bone marrow, but stem cells from donor placenta or umbilical cord blood is also available and may have improved benefits. Donor characteristics (i.e., age) play a key role in treatment success. Your individual situation will be considered and suitable options will be discussed.

As we age our stem cells become less effective. For this reason younger cells are often preferred. We do not need to go all the way back to an early stage embryo to get young cells. Young cord blood cells can be used from The Placenta, Umbilical Cord, and other young sources. These cord blood cells are more likely than stem cells found in bone marrow to have proliferative properties. This means that stem cells found in cord blood have a greater ability to regenerate.

See original here:
Stem Cell Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury

The Safety and Efficacy of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation in Spinal Cord Injury Patients Location: China

Overview: This trial aims to investigate transplantation of umbilical cord stem cells from patients with paraplegia. The study is being conducted at the General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces in Haidian. Stem cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood will be given to the trial participants via the femoral artery. The trial expect to enrol 20 patients with traumatic paraplegia [levels T10 through to L2] between April 2012 and December 2013. Participants will be assessed for complications and for improvement in functions such as bladder contracting capacity as well as sensory responsiveness.

Trial Design: Safety and Efficacy Study

Status: Open - Recruiting

Stem Cell: Umbilical Cord Stem Cells

Intrathecal Transplantation Of Autologous Adipose Tissue Derived MSC in the Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Location: South Korea

Overview: This trial is investigating the effects of stem cells from the patient's own fat in the treatment of chronic spinal cord injury. The trial is being conducted at the Korea University Anam Hospital in Seoul and plans to recruit 15 participants. The fat stem cells will be injected into the fluid surrounding the spinal (intrathecal injection) three times over approximately two months. Participants will be monitored for complications and assessed for changes in neurological and sensory function. The trial is expected to complete in December 2013.

Trial Design: Safety and Efficacy Study

Status: Open - Recruiting

Stem Cell: Adult Fatty Tissue Stem Cells

Read the original:
Spinal Cord Injury - Stem Cells Australia

Researchers from the University of Dresden have usedembryonic stem cells to grow an intact spinal cord in a petri dish, the team reported this week. Its an enormous achievement in a field that has long viewed neural tissue as the ultimate challenge, and one which could give hope to millions of people suffering fromspinal cord injuries.

Neurons, the cells that form the thinking matrix of your brain and carry its orders to the rest of your body, are very difficult to grow. For a long time growing neurons was thought to be impossible, but then it was discovered that olfactory neurons regrow. This is why you can lose your sense of smell for a few days then slowly regain it; the neuron ends, basically open-ended synapses facing into your nasal cavity, areburned away by corrosive smells, butslowly growback. Intense study followed this discovery, as scientists tried to track down how our olfactory neurons regrow, and others packed them directly into severed spinal cords with real success. In the image above, olfactory neurons have granted a lab rat regains some ability to walk again after being paralyzed (though to be fair, those same researchers are the ones who paralyzed it).

Even if you can grow one, the spinal cord still needs to form connections with an incredible number of body parts.

Now, rather than trying toforceour spinal neurons to act like nasalones, this German teammay have a way of making new ones from scratch. Certain diseases and massive injuries could easily render a spine beyond all hope of repair, but in such a situation a full replacement might still work. Remember, though, that one of the reasons neurons are hard to work with is that they must form complex synaptic connections with other neurons to work properly; just growing the spinal cord is only half the battle, and the patients body still has to accept the new routing hardware and integrate it properly.Still, even just the ability to closelyobserve the growth ofa full spinal cord could move neuronal research forward by leaps and bounds.

This technique worked essentially by letting the stem cells go to work and getting as far out of the way as possible; rather than introducing some novel new growth factor, the researchers basically just created an environment where the spine could grow just like it would in a body. Their setup involved inserting small bubbles of stem cells into a nutrient-rich growth mediumand letting them go from there.Given all the opportunities they required, the cells naturally started coordinating andshuntinggrowth factors around most notably the trio of hedgehog signaling molecules.

The teams diagram shows inserted ESC colonies growing into larger cysts which eventually associate.

The most famous of the three-member band, both for its name and its function, is Sonic Hedgehog, which can stimulate directed neuron growth through itsconcentration gradient. A high concentration of Sonic Hedgehog leads the cord to growmotor neurons tocarry the brains muscular commands, while a lower concentration near the top of the cord will lead to interneurons that wire up the spine itself. This is roughly analogous to growth factors in trees, where the widen the trunk molecule is made at the bottom and ferried up, and the split the trunk into branches molecule is made at the top and ferried down; the two opposing concentration gradients lead to the tree-shaped trees we all know so well, with branches becoming less common toward the bottom, where trunk-width takes priority.

In this case, the stem cells and spinal cord were froma mouse, which allowed for lower cost and ethical considerations, butthe principles of growth and signaling should bethe same. This technique made use of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which in humans must be collected from fertility clinics and similar, but the ultimate human progenitor cell might not be necessary to further research. As scientists come to understand the mechanics of this breakthrough better, and replicate its results a few more times, it would presumably become possible to begin thisprocesswithinduced stem cells made from adult tissue. If not, this will remain an interesting research tool with little real-world applicabilitydue to the costs and regulatory problemswith ESCs.

Star Trek had a spinal transplant episode but even in the 24th century, its an experimental procedure.

Lab-grown organs are coming far, fast. Somewhere in the world today there are gel baths and petri dishes growing human bladders, eyes, and penises, esophagi, livers, and breasts. Even the quest for lab grown meatfalls under the same basic research umbrella, as scientists use similartechniques to create high quality chicken andbovine skeletal muscle. As with this spinal cord, each of these areas of research is trying to create laboratory conditions that perfectly mimic the body, so cells grow and develop normally.

See the original post here:
Spinal cord has successfully been grown in a lab

I have to admit that my first response to these reports out of Britain that stem cells had been successfully used to repair a complete spinal cord transection was skepticism incredulity even. Theyre reporting that a man with a completely severed spinal cord at level T10-T11 is able to walk again! The Guardian gushes! The Daily Mail gets in the act (always a bad sign)! When I read that the patient had an 8mm gap in his spinal cord that had been filling up with scar tissue for the last two years, I was even more doubtful: under the best of conditions, it was unlikely that youd get substantial connectivity across that distance.

So I read the paper. Im less skeptical now, for a couple of reasons. They actually did this experiment on 3 people, and all showed degrees of improvement, although the newspapers are all focusing on just the one who had the greatest change. The gradual changes are all documented thoroughly and believably. And, sad to say, the improvements in the mans motor and sensory ability are more limited and more realistic than most of the accounts would have you think.

The story is actually in accord with what weve seen in stem cell repair of spinal cord injury in rats and mice.

Overall, they found that stem cell treatment results in an average improvement of about 25% over the post-injury performance in both sensory and motor outcomes, though the results can vary widely between animals. For sensory outcomes the degree of improvement tended to increase with the number of cells introduced scientists are often reassured by this sort of dose response, as it suggests a real underlying biologically plausible effect. So the good news is that stem cell therapy does indeed seem to confer a statistically significant improvement over the residual ability of the animals both to move and feel things beyond the spinal injury site.

Significant but far from complete improvement is exactly what wed expect, and that improvement is a very, very good thing. It is an accomplishment to translate animal studies into getting measurable clinical improvements in people.

The basic procedure is straightforward. There is a population of neural cells in humans that do actively and continuously regenerate: the cells of the olfactory bulb. So what they did is remove one of the patients own olfactory bulbs, dissociate it into a soup of isolated cells, and inject them into locations above and below the injury. They also bridged the gap with strips of nerve tissue harvested from the patients leg. The idea is that the proliferating cells and the nerves would provide a nerve growth-friendly environment and build substrate bridges that would stimulate the damaged cells and provide a path for regrowth.

Big bonus: this was an autologous transplant (from the patients own tissues), so there was no worry about immune system rejection. There were legitimate worries about inflammation, doing further damage to the spinal cord, and provoking greater degeneration, and part of the purpose of this work was to assess the safety of the procedure. There were no complications.

Also, Im sure you were worried about this, but the lost olfactory cells also regenerated and the patients completely recovered their sense of smell.

Now heres the clinical assessment. Three patients were operated on; T1 is the one who has made all the news with the most remarkable improvement. There were also three control patients who showed no improvement over the same period.

Neurological function improved in all three transplant recipients (T1, T2, T3) during the first year postsurgery. This included a decrease of muscle spasticity (T1, T2) as well as improvement of sensory (T1, T2, T3) and motor function (T1, T2, T3) below the level of spinal cord injury.

Read this article:
Stem cell treatment of spinal cord injuries