With gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, offending genes could one day be snipped out of hematopoietic stem cells, then be returned to their owners to generate new lines of disease-free blood cells

New research has nudged scientists closer to one of regenerative medicines holy grails: the ability to create customised human stem cells capable of forming blood that would be safe for patients. Advances reported in the journal Nature could not only give scientists a window on what goes wrong in such blood cancers as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, but they could also improve the treatment of those cancers, which affect some 1.2 million Americans. The stem cells that give rise to our blood are a mysterious wellspring of life. In principle, just one of these primitive cells can create much of a human beings immune system, not to mention the complex slurry of cells that courses through a persons arteries, veins and organs. While the use of blood-making stem cells in medicine has been common since the 1950s, it remains pretty crude. After patients with blood cancers have undergone powerful radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill their cancer cells, they often need a bone-marrow transplant to rebuild their white blood cells, which are destroyed by that treatment. The blood-making stem cells that reside in a donors bone marrow and in umbilical cord blood that is sometimes harvested after a babys birth are called hematopoietic, and they can be life-saving. But even these stem cells can bear the distinctive immune system signatures of the person from whom they were harvested. As a result, they can provoke an attack if the transplant recipients body registers the cells as foreign. This response, called graft-versus-host disease, affects as many as 70 percent of bone-marrow transplant recipients in the months following the treatment, and 40 percent develop a chronic version of the affliction later. It can overwhelm the benefit of a stem cell transplant. And it kills many patients. Rather than hunt for a donor whos a perfect match for a patient in need of a transplant a process that can be lengthy, ethically fraught and ultimately unsuccessful doctors would like to use a patients own cells to engineer the hematopoietic stem cells. The patients mature cells would be reprogrammed to their most primitive form: stem cells capable of becoming virtually any kind of human cell. Then factors in their environment would coax them to become the specific type of stem cells capable of giving rise to blood. Once reintroduced into the patient, the cells would take up residence without prompting rejection and set up a lifelong factory of healthy new blood cells. If the risk of deadly rejection episodes could be eliminated, physicians might also feel more confident treating blood diseases that are painful and difficult but not immediately deadly diseases such as sickle cell disease and immunological disorders with stem cell transplants. The two studies published on Wednesday demonstrate that scientists may soon be capable of pulling off the sequence of operations necessary for such treatments to move ahead. One of two research teams, led by stem cell pioneer Dr George Q. Daley of Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, started their experiment with human pluripotent stem cells primitive cells capable of becoming virtually any type of mature cell in the body. Some of them were embryonic stem cells and others were induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which are made by converting mature cells back to a flexible state. The scientists then programmed those pluripotent stem cells to become endothelial cells, which line the inside of certain blood vessels. Past research had established that those cells are where blood-making stem cells are born. Here, the process needed a nudge. Using suppositions gleaned from experiments with mice, Daley said his team confected a special sauce of proteins that sit on a cells DNA and programme its function. When they incubated the endothelial cells in the sauce, they began producing hematopioetic stem cells in their earliest form. Daleys team then transferred the resulting blood-making stem cells into the bone marrow of mice to see if they would take. In two out of five mice who got the most promising cell types, they did. Not only did the stem cells establish themselves, they continued to renew themselves while giving rise to a wide range of blood cells. A second research team, led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicines Ansary Stem Cell Institute in New York, achieved a similar result using stem cells from the blood-vessel lining of adult mice. After programming those cells to revert to a more primitive form, the scientists also incubated those stem cells in a concoction of specialised proteins. When the team, led by Raphael Lis and Dr Shahin Rafii, transferred the resulting stem cells back into the tissue lining the blood vessels of the mice from which they came, that graft also took. For at least 40 weeks after the incubated stem cells were returned to their mouse owners, the stem cells continued to regenerate themselves and give rise to many blood-cell types without provoking immune reactions. In addition to making a workhorse treatment for blood cancers safer, the new advances may afford scientists a unique window on the mechanisms by which blood diseases take hold and progress, said Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. From a research point of view you could now actually begin to model diseases, said Greenberger. If you were to take the cell thats defective and make it revert to a stem cell, you could effectively reproduce the disease and watch its progression from the earliest stages. That, in turn, would make it easier to narrow the search for drugs that could disrupt that disease process early. And it would speed the process of discovering which genes are implicated in causing diseases. With gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, those offending genes could one day be snipped out of hematopoietic stem cells, then be returned to their owners to generate new lines of disease-free blood cells. But Daley cautioned that significant hurdles remain before studies like these will transform the treatment of blood diseases. We do know the resulting cells function like blood stem cells, but they still are at some distance, molecularly, from native stem cells, he said. By tinkering with the processes by which pluripotent stem cells mature into blood-producing stem cells, Daley said his team hopes to make these lab-grown cells a better match for the real things. Los Angeles Times/TNS

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Regenerative medicine: holy grail within grasp? - Gulf Times

Nearly 40 years after the world was jolted by the birth of the first test-tube baby, a new revolution in reproductive technology is on the horizon and it promises to be far more controversial than in vitro fertilization ever was.

Within a decade or two, researchers say, scientists will likely be able to create a baby from human skin cells that have been coaxed to grow into eggs and sperm and used to create embryos to implant in a womb.

The process, in vitro gametogenesis, or I.V.G., so far has been used only in mice. But stem cell biologists say it is only a matter of time before it could be used in human reproduction opening up mind-boggling possibilities.

With I.V.G., two men could have a baby that was biologically related to both of them, by using skin cells from one to make an egg that would be fertilized by sperm from the other. Women with fertility problems could have eggs made from their skin cells, rather than go through the lengthy and expensive process of stimulating their ovaries to retrieve their eggs.

It gives me an unsettled feeling because we dont know what this could lead to, said Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher at UC Davis. You can imagine one man providing both the eggs and the sperm, almost like cloning himself. You can imagine that eggs becoming so easily available would lead to designer babies.

Some scientists even talk about what they call the Brad Pitt scenario when someone retrieves a celebritys skin cells from a hotel bed or bathtub. Or a baby might have what one law professor called multiplex parents.

There are groups out there that want to reproduce among themselves, said Sonia Suter, a George Washington University law professor who began writing about I.V.G. even before it had been achieved in mice. You could have two pairs who would each create an embryo, and then take an egg from one embryo and sperm from the other, and create a baby with four parents.

Three prominent academics in medicine and law sounded an alarm about the possible consequences in a paper published this year.

I.V.G. may raise the specter of embryo farming on a scale currently unimagined, which might exacerbate concerns about the devaluation of human life, Dr. Eli Y. Adashi, a medical science professor at Brown; I. Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor; and Dr. George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, wrote in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Still, how soon I.V.G. might become a reality in human reproduction is open to debate.

I wouldnt be surprised if it was five years, and I wouldnt be surprised if it was 25 years, said Jeanne Loring, a researcher at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla who, with the San Diego Zoo, hopes to use I.V.G. to increase the population of the nearly extinct northern white rhino.

Loring said that when she discussed I.V.G. with colleagues who initially said it would never be used with humans, their skepticism often melted away as the talk continued. But not everyone is convinced that I.V.G. will ever become a regularly used process in human reproduction even if the ethical issues are resolved.

People are a lot more complicated than mice, said Susan Solomon, chief executive of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. And weve often seen that the closer you get to something, the more obstacles you discover.

I.V.G. is not the first reproductive technology to challenge the basic paradigm of baby-making. Back when in vitro fertilization was beginning, many people were horrified by the idea of creating babies outside the human body. And yet, I.V.F. and related procedures have become so commonplace that they now account for about 70,000, or almost 2 percent, of the babies born in the United States each year. According to the latest estimate, there have been more than 6.5 million babies born worldwide through I.V.F. and related technologies.

Of course, even I.V.F. is not universally accepted. The Catholic Church remains firm in its opposition to in vitro fertilization, in part because it so often leads to the creation of extra embryos that are frozen or discarded.

I.V.G. requires layers of complicated bioengineering. Scientists must first take adult skin cells other cells would work as well or better, but skin cells are the easiest to get and reprogram them to become embryonic stem cells capable of growing into different kinds of cells.

Then, the same kind of signaling factors that occur in nature are used to guide those stem cells to become eggs or sperm. (Cells taken from women could be made to produce sperm, the researchers say, but the sperm, lacking a Y chromosome, would produce only female babies.)

Last year, researchers in Japan, led by Katsuhiko Hayashi, used I.V.G. to make viable eggs from the skin cells of adult female mice, and produced embryos that were implanted into female mice, who then gave birth to healthy babies.

The process strikes some people as inherently repugnant.

There is a yuck factor here, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University. It strikes many people as intuitively yucky to have three parents, or to make a baby without starting from an egg and sperm. But then again, it used to be that people thought blood transfusions were yucky, or putting pig valves in human hearts.

Whatever the social norms, there are questions about the wisdom of tinkering with basic biological processes. And there is general agreement that reproductive technology is progressing faster than consideration of the legal and ethical questions it raises.

We have come to realize that scientific developments are outpacing our ability to think them through, Adashi said. Its a challenge for which we are not fully prepared. It would be good to be having the conversation before we are actually confronting the challenges.

Some bioethicists take the position that while research on early stages of human life can deepen the understanding of our genetic code, tinkering with biological mechanisms that have evolved over thousands of years is inherently wrongheaded.

Basic research is paramount, but its not clear that we need new methods for creating viable embryos, said David Lemberg, a bioethicist at National University in California. Attempting to apply what weve learned to create a human zygote is dangerous, because we have no idea what were doing, we have no idea what the outcomes are going to be.

Lewin writes for The New York Times.

Read the original post:
Growing an entire baby from skin cells could happen in a decade ... - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Its one of those times when serendipity went to work. As a team of UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers were studying a rare form of genetic cancer called Neurofibromatosis Type 1 that causes tumors to grow on nerves, what they discovered instead were hair progenitor cells. Essentially, these are the cells that cause hair to grow. With this new information on hand, the path towards managing hair growth problems, including hair discoloration (a.k.a greying of hair) now seems to have become clearer.

As explained by Dr. Lu Le, one of the researchers and currently an Associate Professor of Dermatology: With this knowledge, we hope in the future to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems.

Prior to this discovery, researchers were already aware that skin stem cells located in the bulge on bottom of hair follicles were involved, in one way or another, in the growth of hair. What they didnt know was how these skin cells turn into hair cells, specifically, what happens after those cells move down to the bulb or the base of hair follicles. This also meant they had no idea what to do to stimulate and manipulate their growth.

As they were studying the nerve cells and how tumors formed on them, they discovered a protein that differentiates the skin stem cells from other types of cells. The protein is called KROX20 and as far as they knew, this protein was more commonly associated with nerve development. In the hair follicles of their mice test subjects, however, they found out that KROX20 becomes activated in the skin cells which eventually turn into hair shafts that cause hair to grow. That said, though, its not as simple as that.

It turned out that KROX20 works in tandem with another protein called SCF (short for stem cell factor) and without either one, hair growth happens abnormally, or not at all.

When KROX20 turns on in a skin cell, it causes the cell to produce SCF. With both proteins now active, they move up the hair bulb, interact with melanocyte cells (the cells that produce pigment), and grow into healthy, colored hairs.

When the team removed the KROX20-producing cells, the mice did not grow any hair, meaning, they became bald. And when they removed the SCF gene, the mices hair started out as gray-colored, then turned white with age.

From these results, the obvious way forward is to backtrack whats happening, possibly try to figure out why and how aging affects KROX20 protein production. Another aspect that will also be looked at is the reason why the SCF gene stops functioning, thereby resulting in gray hair production. The findings could also help provide answers on why hair loss and graying of hair are among the first indications of aging.

The research was recently published in the journal Genes & Development.

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Cells Responsible for Hair Growth Discovered - Wall Street Pit

Exercise can burn the fat found within bone marrow, according to new research. The work, conducted with mice, offers evidence that this process improves bone quality and increases the amount of bone in a matter of weeks.

The study also suggests obese individuals who often have worse bone quality may derive even greater bone health benefits from exercising than their leaner counterparts. Lead author Maya Styner, a physician and assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said:

One of the main clinical implications of this research is that exercise is not just good, but amazing for bone health. In just a very short period of time, we saw that running was building bone significantly in mice.

Although research in mice is not directly translatable to the human condition, the kinds of stem cells that produce bone and fat in mice are the same kind as those that produce bone and fat in humans.

In addition to its implications for obesity and bone health, Styner says the research also could help illuminate some of the factors behind bone degradation associated with conditions like diabetes, arthritis, anorexia, and the use of steroid medications.

I see a lot of patients with poor bone health, and I always talk to them about what a dramatic effect exercise can have on bones, regardless of what the cause of their bone condition is, says Styner. With obesity, it seems that you get even more bone formation from exercise. Our studies of bone biomechanics show that the quality and the strength of the bone is significantly increased with exercise and even more so in the obese exercisers.

Bone marrow coordinates the formation of bone and cartilage while simultaneously churning out blood cells, immune cells, and cancerous cells.

Marrow also produces fat, but the physiological role of bone marrow fat in the body and even whether it is beneficial or harmful for ones health has remained somewhat mysterious.

Generally, marrow fat has been thought to comprise a special fat reserve that is not used to fuel energy during exercise in the same way other fat stores are used throughout the body during exercise. The new study offers evidence to the contrary.

Styners work also offers fundamental insights on how marrow fat forms and the impact it has on bone health. Previous studies have suggested that a higher amount of marrow fat increases the risk of fractures and other problems.

Theres been intense interest in marrow fat because its highly associated with states of low bone density, but scientists still havent understood its physiologic purpose, says Styner. We know that exercise has a profound effect on fat elsewhere in the body, and we wanted to use exercise as a tool to understand the fat in the marrow.

The research leaves a few lingering mysteries. A big one is figuring out the exact relationship between burning marrow fat and building better bone.

It could be that when fat cells are burned during exercise, the marrow uses the released energy to make more bone. Or, because both fat and bone cells come from parent cells known as mesenchymal stem cells, it could be that exercise somehow stimulates these stem cells to churn out more bone cells and less fat cells.

More research will be needed to clarify all this.

What we can say is theres a lot of evidence suggesting that marrow fat is being used as fuel to make more bone, rather than there being an increase in the diversion of stem cells into bone, says Styner.

The National Institutes of Health Funded this research.

Styner, M., Pagnotti, G. M., McGrath, C., Wu, X., Sen, B., Uzer, G., Xie, Z., Zong, X., Styner, M. A., Rubin, C. T. and Rubin, J. (2017) Exercise Decreases Marrow Adipose Tissue Through -Oxidation in Obese Running Mice J Bone Miner Res. doi:10.1002/jbmr.3159

Originally posted here:
Exercise Decreases Fat In Bone Marrow Through -Oxidation - ReliaWire

Researchers in the U.K. are set to test whether the Zika virus can fight difficult-to-treat brain cancer by attacking its cells, potentially opening up new pathways to treat the aggressive disease. Researchers will focus on glioblastoma, which is the most common form of brain cancer and has a five-year survival rate of 5 percent, Reuters reported.

QUINOA 'MILK' DIET KILLED BABY, AUTHORITIES SAY

The Zika virus causes severe birth defects in an unborn fetus when contracted during pregnancy by attacking developing stem cells in the brain. However, the disease does not have the same devastating effect on fully developed brains, suggesting that if scientists can harness the virus ability to attack the cancer cells, which are similar to developing brain stem cells, healthy brain tissue will go unharmed.

Were taking a different approach, and want to use these new insights to see if the virus can be unleashed against one of the hardest-to-treat cancers, Harry Bulstrode, a lead researcher at Cambridge University, said, in a statement to Reuters.

ITALY VOTES TO MAKE VACCINES MANDATORY

Researchers will use tumor cells in mice to test the virus, and hope that it will slow tumor growth.

If we can learn lessons from Zikas ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and target brain stem cells selectively, we could be holding the key to future treatments, Bulstrode told Reuters.

Active outbreaks of the mosquito-borne illness were reported in at least 51 countries and territories, with pregnant women advised to avoid travel to so-called virus hotbeds. In addition to birth defects, Zika has been associated with neurological disorders including brain and spinal cord infections. Long-term health consequences remain unclear.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Researchers consider Zika virus for brain cancer treatment - Fox News

By Anette Breindl Senior Science Editor

"With the advent of targeted cancer therapies, what we've found is that many of them are cardiotoxic," Saptarsi Haldar told BioWorld Today. "Pathways that are effective in cancer are toxic in the heart."

In the May 17, 2017, issue of Science Translational Medicine, Haldar, who is an associate investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, and his colleagues showed that a class of epigenetic drugs, the BET bromodomain inhibitors, may be not just an exception to that rule, but a class of drugs that has therapeutic utility in heart failure.

The team showed that the bromodomain inhibitor JQ-1 had therapeutic benefits in two separate animal models of advanced heart failure, but did not affect the beneficial changes to heart muscle cells that are a consequence of exercise.

The paper shows a potential new approach to heart failure an indication that, with a five-year survival rate of 60 percent, needs them.

It also shows a potential approach to another vexing problem, namely drugging transcription factors.

"There's a surprisingly tractable therapeutic index for drugging transcription in diseases," Haldar said.

While BRD4 is not itself a transcription factor, inhibiting it "dampens the transcription factor-driven network that's driving the disease . . . This is really about dampening transcriptional rewiring," he added.

In heart failure, those happen to be innate immune signaling and fibrotic signaling. Experiments in cardiac cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) showed that JQ-1 acted by blocking the activation of innate immune and profibrotic pathways, essentially preventing heart cells from rewiring themselves in maladaptive ways in response to being chronically overworked.

Haldar said the original idea to test whether the compound would have an effect in heart failure was based on "an educated guess."

Previous work had shown that certain epigenetic marks, namely acetyl marks on lysines, play a role in heart failure.

"There is a lot known about lysine acetylation in heart failure," Haldar said, and there had been previous attempts at targeting the process, which had "fallen to the wayside, in part because of issues with therapeutic index."

Even studying the molecular details of lysine acetylation's role in heart failure was challenging, because genetic approaches are not viable.

The problem became tractable with the synthesis of JQ-1 in the laboratory of James Bradner, who is a co-author on the Science Translational Medicine paper. The compound, which has been used to gain insight into epigenetic aspects of a large number of biological processes thanks to the decision of its developers to distribute it freely, targets BRD4, a "reader" protein that recognizes acetylated lysines. (See BioWorld Insight, Aug. 12, 2013.)

With the advent of JQ-1, Haldar said, "we immediately made the connection that here's a target BRD4 that you could specifically modulate that is recognizing acetyl-lysines on chromatin."

The team initially published work in 2013 showing that JQ-1 affected cellular processes in heart failure, and was an effective therapeutic in mice when given very early in the disease.

Patients, though, don't show up in their doctor's office very early in the disease. They show up with "pre-existing, often chronic heart failure," Haldar said.

At that point, the heart has already undergone significant remodeling that includes fibrosis and an activation of innate immune pathways.

The work now published in Science Translational Medicine showed that JQ-1 had effects even when given to mice that had established heart failure either due to a heart attack, or pressure overload, but did not block exercise-induced remodeling.

The team is hoping to test JQ-1 derivatives in large animal models, and ultimately take them into the clinic. Haldar is a co-founder of Tenaya Therapeutics Inc., a company launched in December with a $50 million series A financing from The Column Group. Haldar said that while he holds a patent on BET protein inhibition in heart disease, BET proteins are only "one of many targets/pathways that Tenaya is considering."

Original post:
Cancer drug class has cardiac benefits - BioWorld Online

Welsh rockers The Alarm are using their shows to encourage fans to become bone marrow donors.

The band, who are set to play at the Electric Ballroom in London, on Saturday, have arranged for swabbing station to be set up at the venue.

It means fans will be able to join a bone marrow donor registry with a simple cheek swab.

Leader singer Mike Peters, who has battled cancer three times, co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation in 2007 with the aim to "save lives, one concert at a time".

It hosts donor drives at concerts and festivals around the world by encouraging music fans aged 18 to 55 to sign up to the International Bone Marrow Registry.

To date, more than 150,000 music fans have joined the registry, and more than 3,100 potentially-lifesaving matches for blood cancer patients.

Bone marrow is a soft tissue found in the middle of certain bones. It contains stem cells, which are the "building blocks" for other normal blood cells (like red cells, which carry oxygen, and white cells, which fight infection).

Some diseases, such as leukaemia, prevent people's bone marrow from working properly. And for certain patients, the only cure is to have a stem cell transplant from a healthy donor.

Peters, 58, from North Wales, was first diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1995. He has also battled leukaemia twice.

He said: "It's humbling to see how many people have responded to the Get On The List campaign so far."

Blood cancer charity DKMS, which is the world's largest donor centre, has worked with the LHS Foundation since 2013.

Joe Hallett, senior donor recruitment manager at the charity, said: "Only one in three people with a blood cancer in the UK and in need of a life-saving blood stem cell transplant will be lucky enough to find a suitable match within their own family.

"Finding a match from a genetically similar person can offer the best treatment, a second chance of life."

Last updated Fri 19 May 2017

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Rock band encourages fans to become bone marrow donors - ITV.com - ITV News

Two different groups of researchers have developed ways to generate red and white blood cells in the lab Photograph: Steve Gschmeissner/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RM

How might blood cells be made?

Different groups of researchers say they have developed a way of producing blood cells from human or mouse cells that have been reprogrammed in the lab an advance that has been touted as offering a solution to the need for blood donation. The latest studies are the result of 20 years work in the field.

How exactly did they do it?

The two pieces of work, published at the same time in Nature but by different research groups, take differing approaches. One study, led by George Daley at Harvard Medical School, began with human cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells cells that can make any type of human cell, and which can be produced by genetically reprogramming adult cells, such as those in skin. These were chemically tinkered with to create a tissue that can give rise to blood stem cells and implanted into mice, where blood stem cells were made, which then churned out the different types of cells found in blood, including white blood cells and red blood cells. The approach also worked starting with human embryonic stem cells.

The big achievement is being able to do that transition from a pluripotent stem cell to a blood stem cell, which has never been [done] before, said Cedric Ghevaert of the Cambridge Blood Centre at the University of Cambridge. That is a big story and there is no denying the impact of that.

The other research, led by Raphael Lis, at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, took a different tack, converting cells taken from the lungs of mice directly into blood stem cells. Once implanted into mice, they too churned out the panoply of blood cells.

Will these breakthroughs remove the need for blood donation?

No. Both of the approaches ultimately produced a collection of different types of blood cells. This, said Ghevaert, is not so useful for transfusions, where particular components of blood, for example, red blood cells, are needed separately. Instead, the research is more relevant for patients who need bone marrow transplants, for example, those withleukaemia.

This is what you get when you get a bone marrow transplant youre given another persons stem cells, said Ghevaert. That has got drawbacks because that other person is never quite a complete match to you, which is why bone marrow transplant is quite a serious procedure. For years we have been asking the question: Could we make the blood stem cells from something else that belongs to the patients that needs those stem cells? he added. This [research] shows the first glimpse of hope. However, there is still some way to go. They have generated enough to transplant a mouse, but if you wanted to transplant a human or indeed produce vast vats of blood cells, you would need an awful lot more and by that, I dont mean even 10 times more, you would need 1,000, 100,000 cells, said Ghevaert. One of biggest problems in this is the manufacturing process, because there is no point in making a pint of blood that costs 1m. As for the second approach, carried out in mice alone, Ghevaert is more cautious. I have seen a lot of very good things done in mice that then dont translate to anything in humans.

Is anyone trying to make blood for transfusions?

Yes, a number of researchers around the world are attempting to manufacture specific components of blood, including Ghevaert, who has been working on using human pluripotent stem cells to produce platelets (the component of blood that helps it to clot).

Is laboratory blood better than donatedblood?

It depends. Blood given in a transfusion has to be of the right type, matching the recipients blood group. For most people, transfusion from donor blood will continue to be the norm such blood is cheap, readily available and safe. But blood manufactured in alaboratory could help some. The only advantage of producing cells in the lab is, for example, to make blood cells that are compatible with patients who are very difficult to transfuse because we simply cant find them a blood group match, said Ghevaert. Donated blood works extremely well for 99.99% of people, therefore I think we have to see these products as a niche product.

Manufactured blood, said Ghevaert, could be a boon in developing countries. If you consider countries where the rate of HIV is 30%, and hepatitis B 60%, finding safe blood is extremely difficult, he said. Manufactured blood in a country where you have endemic viral infections that make the blood supply extremely unsafe, that would be extremely relevant.

Does all this mean that we dont need togive blood any more?

No. A spokesperson for NHS Blood and Transplant said: It will be some time before this research leads to manufactured blood cells being used for patient treatment. Volunteer donors remain a vital lifeblood for patients and will remain so for many years to come.

Link:
Can you manufacture blood cells? - The Guardian

Exercise can burn the fat found within bone marrow, according to new research. The work, conducted with mice, offers evidence that this process improves bone quality and increases the amount of bone in a matter of weeks.

The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, also suggests obese individualswho often have worse bone qualitymay derive even greater bone health benefits from exercising than their lean counterparts.

One of the main clinical implications of this research is that exercise is not just good, but amazing for bone health, says lead author Maya Styner, a physician and assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In just a very short period of time, we saw that running was building bone significantly in mice.

Although research in mice is not directly translatable to the human condition, the kinds of stem cells that produce bone and fat in mice are the same kind as those that produce bone and fat in humans.

In addition to its implications for obesity and bone health, Styner says the research also could help illuminate some of the factors behind bone degradation associated with conditions like diabetes, arthritis, anorexia, and the use of steroid medications.

I see a lot of patients with poor bone health, and I always talk to them about what a dramatic effect exercise can have on bones, regardless of what the cause of their bone condition is, says Styner. With obesity, it seems that you get even more bone formation from exercise. Our studies of bone biomechanics show that the quality and the strength of the bone is significantly increased with exercise and even more so in the obese exercisers.

Bone marrow coordinates the formation of bone and cartilage while simultaneously churning out blood cells, immune cells, and cancerous cells.

Marrow also produces fat, but the physiological role of bone marrow fat in the bodyand even whether it is beneficial or harmful for ones healthhas remained somewhat mysterious.

Generally, marrow fat has been thought to comprise a special fat reserve that is not used to fuel energy during exercise in the same way other fat stores are used throughout the body during exercise. The new study offers evidence to the contrary.

Styners work also offers fundamental insights on how marrow fat forms and the impact it has on bone health. Previous studies have suggested that a higher amount of marrow fat increases the risk of fractures and other problems.

Theres been intense interest in marrow fat because its highly associated with states of low bone density, but scientists still havent understood its physiologic purpose, says Styner. We know that exercise has a profound effect on fat elsewhere in the body, and we wanted to use exercise as a tool to understand the fat in the marrow.

The researchers performed their experiments in two groups of mice. One group was fed a normal diet (lean mice) and the other received a high-fat diet (obese mice) starting a month after birth. When they were four months old, half the mice in each group were given a running wheel to use whenever they liked for the next six weeks. Because mice like to run, the group with access to a wheel tended to spend a lot of time exercising.

The researchers analyzed the animals body composition, marrow fat, and bone quantity at various points. Predictably, the obese mice started with more fat cells and larger fat cells in their marrow. After exercising for six weeks, both obese and lean mice showed a significant reduction in the overall size of fat cells and the overall amount fat in the marrow. In these respects, the marrow fat of exercising obese mice looked virtually identical to the marrow fat of lean mice, even those that exercised.

Perhaps more surprising was the dramatic difference in the number of fat cells present in the marrow, which showed no change in lean mice but dropped by more than half in obese mice that exercised compared to obese mice that were sedentary. The tests also revealed that exercise improved the thickness of bone, and that this effect was particularly pronounced in obese mice.

According to Styner, all of this points to the conclusion that marrow fat can be burned off through exercise and that this process is good for bones.

Obesity appears to increase a fat depot in the bone, and this depot behaves very much like abdominal and other fat depots, says Styner. Exercise is able to reduce the size of this fat depot and burn it for fuel and at the same time build stronger, larger bones.

The research leaves a few lingering mysteries. A big one is figuring out the exact relationship between burning marrow fat and building better bone. It could be that when fat cells are burned during exercise, the marrow uses the released energy to make more bone. Or, because both fat and bone cells come from parent cells known as mesenchymal stem cells, it could be that exercise somehow stimulates these stem cells to churn out more bone cells and less fat cells.

More research will be needed to parse this out. What we can say is theres a lot of evidence suggesting that marrow fat is being used as fuel to make more bone, rather than there being an increase in the diversion of stem cells into bone, says Styner.

Coauthors of the study are from UNC and State University of New York, Stony Brook. The National Institutes of Health Funded this research.

Source: UNC-Chapel Hill

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Exercise can even burn off fat in bone marrow - Futurity: Research News

BENGLURU: Fateh Singh, a six-year-old thalassemia major patient from Amritsar, underwent a bone marrow transplant last May which gave him a new lease of life. A year later, the boy met his saviour, Naval Chaudhary, whose stem cells were used for the procedure. The child was diagnosed with the condition when he was one-and-a-half years old.

On Thursday, the donor and recipient met for the first time. Naval, 28, a professional living in Bengaluru, had registered with DATRI, an unrelated blood stem cell donors registry in 2015. He said: "I was very happy to hear I was a potential match for a patient. But then I was told the donation process had to be done through bone marrow harvesting. Initially, I was a tad hesitant but then I researched the procedure and was counselled by Dr Sunil Bhat, paediatric haemato-oncologist from Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre."

"I realized that saving a life is more important than the type of procedure I had to go through. So I decided to go ahead," he added.

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6-year-old thalassemia patient from Punjab meets his stem cell ... - Times of India

Athlone mother's desperate search for bone marrow donor for son (3)

Raqeeb Palm was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in October after his mother noticed unusual bruises on his body.

Three-year-old Raqeeb Palm was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in October after his mother noticed unusual bruises on his body. Picture: Monique Mortlock/EWN.

CAPE TOWN A mother from Heideveld in Athlone is desperately trying to find a bone marrow donor for her three-year-old son.

Raqeeb Palm was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in October after his mother noticed unusual bruises on his body.

The boy had to undergo various blood tests and two bone marrow biopsies over a two-month period, before being diagnosed with the rare disease which damages bone marrow and stem cells.

Zaida Palm says her outgoing child can no longer play outside or do many of the activities three-year-olds enjoy due to his severely weakened immune system.

Hes got practically no immune system. So going out, malls, play areas, doing fun things is on a stop. Because any germ, he gets admitted [to the hospital] for a cold, he needs to go to the hospital.

Palm says they have been unable to find a bone marrow donor in South Africa.

A transplant is her son's only chance of survival.

Her medical aid won't cover an investigation for international donors, which is why she's turned to online crowd-funding.

The hundred thousand on the Backabuddy [website] is just the start to the campaign.

Palm has also urged people to become bone marrow donors.

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Athlone mother's desperate search for bone marrow donor for son (3) - Eyewitness News

The new technique heals burns much faster and more effectively than traditional skin grafting.

Burn victims may no longer be forced to undergo painful skin grafts, thanks to a revolutionary piece of technology that uses adult stem cells.

Instead of taking skin from one part of the body and transplanting it onto the burned area, a stem-cell spraying device simply covers the affected area with the victims own stem cells.

By taking adult stem cells from a healthy section of skin, placing them in a solution, and spraying the solution onto the wound, the patients own skin grows back and heals naturally.

The procedure has been in development for some time, and is not yet commercially available, but its capability was publicised in the press earlier this month.

The technology was featured in the Journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries, and showed incredible before and after images of the horrific injuries, and the victims almost full recoveries.

Patients who have benefitted from early treatments say their new skin is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of their body.

Commenting on the journals research, Thomas Bold, CEO of RenovaCare a company developing this technology said, the skin that regrows looks, feels and functions like the original skin.

By using adult stem cells, the healing process of the victims was also vastly accelerated.

While a skin graft treatment can take weeks or even months, and leave scarring, these patients were able to grow healthy skin in as little as four days.

In one case, a man who had suffered electrical burns to over a third of his body after touching a live wire had 24 million adult stem cells harvested and then sprayed back onto his body.

The process itself lasted only 90 minutes, and within four days, he had regrown a thin layer of skin over his arms and chest, where the burns were least severe.

After 20 days, all of the areas treated by the stem cell grafting process were described as completely healed.

RenovaCare is applying for a licence to use the technology in routine practice in Europe.

In January, it was revealed that a new technique allowed adult stem cells to be used in the treatment of heart problems.

The technique involves implanting synthetic cardiac stem cells which repair heart muscle. It has been praised as both an ethical and less risky alternative to other treatments.

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renovacareinc.com - The Christian Institute

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From hopeless to a miracle: How he got his life back after a crash left him paralyzed fox6now.com "We came to know he would be a good candidate for this regenerative treatment that we offer, meaning the stem cell injection into the spinal cord. ... "He was only the second to receive the stem cells -- at least that dose he received," added Dr. Kurpad.

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From hopeless to a miracle: How he got his life back after a crash left him paralyzed - fox6now.com

In 2004 California ballot measure Proposition 71 was passed, granting $3 billion ($6 billion including interest) in state funds to support politically controversial embryonic stem cell research in California at a time when the federal government was restricting this research. A public agency was established, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, to dole out this money across California universities, medical research institutions and biotech companies. During the election campaign, California voters were assured of breakthroughs and cures for conditions like Parkinsons and spinal cord paralysis through celebrity endorsements featuring actors, Nobel prize winners and other notables. Prop. 71 money is dwindling and there is talk about putting a $5 billion renewal initiative on the ballot. So its reasonable to ask what California taxpayers got out of this deal over the past 13 years. Sadly, CIRM hasnt generated a single approved medical treatment. Through September 2016, CIRM has funded only three stem cell research projects that have reached Phase 3 clinical trials (the final step before FDA marketing approval). One of these trials was terminated and the other two are still recruiting patients and are not expected to report out for several years. During the same time, despite embryonic stem cell research restrictions, the federal National Institutes of Health has funded 50 stem cell research projects in Phase 3 trials. The NIH cost per Phase 3 research trial has been five times lower than the state program. Nearly half of the state funding has gone to research infrastructure rather than to actual research.

There also appears to have been blatant conflicts of interest in CIRM research awards. Around 80 percent of CIRM grants have gone to institutions represented on its board of directors. One out of seven CIRM research dollars has gone to Stanford University. One awardee, StemCells Inc., was co-founded by Irving Weissman, Stanfords stem cell program director. StemCells received at least $40 million from CIRM before going belly up. The CIRM board initially turned down a $20 million funding proposal to StemCells, until Bob Klein, the Northern California real estate investor who drafted Prop. 71 and was the first chairman of CIRMs governing board, was reported to have pressured the board to reverse that decision. CIRMs President Alan Trounson abruptly resigned in October 2013, joined the board of StemCells one week later, and then received $435,000 in cash and stocks from them before the company folded last year.

Does it make sense for California taxpayers to fund biotechnology research? Perhaps. A good case can be made that public investments in basic biotechnology infrastructure can have enormous benefits to Californias economy and job growth while generating significant improvements in human health. But public funding should have broader scope and flexibility to go after all promising new technological advances, not just current scientific fads or political controversies. Public funds should be awarded with rigorous oversight and accountability. There should be a sharp line between basic research, which requires public funding and is unlikely to yield short-term tangible cures, despite what celebrity actors say, and getting new medicines to market. Promising new treatments are already well-funded through private venture capital funds and biotech companies, who are much better at picking winners and losers than California taxpayers.

By not providing adequate oversight over potential conflicts of interest and not holding CIRM funding recipients to the same rigorous standards as NIH grant recipients, CIRMs 13 year record of zero new medicines for $6 billion in taxpayer funds is not an experiment that the voters should regenerate at the ballot box.

Joel W. Hay is a professor of Health Economics and Policy at the University of Southern California.

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Regenerating medical research payouts? - OCRegister

May 17, 2017 Images of heart muscle cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. Credit: Q. Duan et al., Science Translational Medicine (2017)

A team of researchers at the Gladstone Institutes uncovered a new strategy to treat heart failure, a leading contributor to mortality and healthcare costs in the United States. Despite widespread use of currently-approved drugs, approximately 40% of patients with heart failure die within 5 years of their initial diagnosis.

"The current standard of care is clearly not sufficient, which highlights the urgent need for new therapeutic approaches," said Saptarsi Haldar, MD, an associate investigator at Gladstone and senior author of a new study featured on the cover of the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine. "In our previous work, we found that a drug-like small molecule called JQ1 can prevent the development of heart failure in mouse models when administered at the very onset of the disease. However, as the majority of patients requiring treatment already have longstanding cardiac dysfunction, we needed to determine if our strategy could also treat established heart failure."

As part of an emerging treatment strategy, drugs derived from JQ1 are currently under study in early-phase human cancer trials. These drugs act by inhibiting a protein called BRD4, a member of a family of proteins called BET bromodomains, which directly influences heart failure. With this study, the scientists found that JQ1 can effectively treat severe, pre-established heart failure in both small animal and human cell models by blocking inflammation and fibrosis (scarring of the heart tissue).

"It has long been known that inflammation and fibrosis are key conspirators in the development of heart failure, but targeting these processes with drugs has remained a significant challenge," added Haldar, who is also a practicing cardiologist and an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "By inhibiting the function of the protein BRD4, an approach that simultaneously blocks both of these processes, we are using a new and different strategy altogether to tackle the problem."

Currently available drugs used for heart failure work at the surface of heart cells. In contrast, Haldar's approach goes to the root of the problem and blocks destructive processes in the cell's command center, or nucleus.

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"We treated mouse models of heart failure with JQ1, similarly to how patients would be treated in a clinic," said Qiming Duan, MD, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in Haldar's lab and co-first author of the study. "We showed that this approach effectively treats pre-established heart failure that occurs both after a massive heart attack or in response to persistent high blood pressure (mechanical overload), suggesting it could be used to treat a wide array of patients."

Using Gladstone's unique expertise, the scientists then used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), generated from adult human skin cells, to create a type of beating heart cell known as cardiomyocytes.

"After testing the drug in mice, we wanted to check whether JQ1 would have the same effect in humans," explained co-first author Sarah McMahon, a UCSF graduate student in Haldar's lab. "We tested the drug on human cardiomyocytes, as they are cells that not only beat, but can also trigger the processes of inflammation and fibrosis, which in turn make heart failure progressively worse. Similar to our animal studies, we found that JQ1 was also effective in human heart cells, reaffirming the clinical relevance of our results."

The study also showed that, in contrast to several cancer drugs that have been documented to cause cardiac toxicity, BRD4 inhibitors may be a class of anti-cancer therapeutics that has protective effects in the human heart.

"Our study demonstrates a new therapeutic approach to successfully target inflammation and fibrosis, representing a major advance in the field," concluded Haldar. "We also believe our current work has important near-term translational impact in human heart failure. Given that drugs derived from JQ1 are already being tested in cancer clinical trials, their safety and efficacy in humans are already being defined. This key information could accelerate the development of a new heart failure drug and make it available to patients more quickly."

Explore further: Heart failure is as 'malignant' as some common cancers

More information: Q. Duan el al., "BET bromodomain inhibition suppresses innate inflammatory and profibrotic transcriptional networks in heart failure," Science Translational Medicine (2017). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aah5084

A new analysis finds that, despite advances in care, men and women with a diagnosis of heart failure continue to have worse survival rates than patients with certain common cancers.

Patching a damaged heart with a patient's own muscle stem cells improves symptoms of heart failure, according to a Phase I clinical trial reported in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the ...

Researchers have completed a randomized clinical trial in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which currently has no effective treatment for reducing morbidity and mortality.

A new analysis describes different classifications of patients who are hospitalized with acute heart failure based on various characteristics, which may help guide early decisions regarding triage and treatment.

(HealthDay)Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have increased risk of heart failure, according to a study published in the March 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In the largest German survey on heart failure to date, investigators found that the overall awareness of heart failure has not increased over the past decade and is not at a satisfactory level.

Shortness of breath is the No.1 complaint of people suffering from heart failure. Now a University of Guelph researcher has discovered its surprising cause - and an effective treatment - in a groundbreaking new study.

A team of researchers at the Gladstone Institutes uncovered a new strategy to treat heart failure, a leading contributor to mortality and healthcare costs in the United States. Despite widespread use of currently-approved ...

Although the absolute difference in U.S. county-level cardiovascular disease mortality rates have declined substantially over the past 35 years for both ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, large differences ...

Waist-to-hip ratio may be a stronger indicator of some cardiovascular illnesses than the commonly-used measure BMI, according to a new UCL-led study.

New research has found that genetic differences in antibody genes alter individuals' susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease, a forgotten inflammatory heart condition known as 'RHD' that is rife in developing countries.

People who use commonly prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat pain and inflammation could be raising their risk of having a heart attack, as early as in the first week of use and especially within ...

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Cancer-cardiac connection illuminates promising new drug for heart ... - Medical Xpress

"Creative Medical Technology Holdings will develop this patent through the same process that we are using for our clinical-stage Caverstem procedure for erectile dysfunction," stated Timothy Warbington, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "We plan to identify and engage key opinion leaders who will lead clinical trials, which will serve as the basis for accelerated commercialization."

The Company is currently running a clinical trial using autologous non-manipulated bone marrow stem cells for patients suffering from erectile dysfunction that are non-responsive to standard approaches such as Viagra.Once the trial is completed, the results will serve as the basis for marketing of disposables utilized in administration of stem cells.

"Although numerous companies are injecting stem cells directly into the disc, direct injection may only cause temporary benefit because the root cause of the pathology, in our opinion, is the reduced blood supply," stated Dr. Amit Patel, Director of Thoracic Surgery at University of Miami and co-founder of Creative Medical Technology Holdings. "By recreating in the microenvironment of the lower back the same thing that we do in atherosclerotic heart patients, we believe we have a novel way to treat this terrible condition that wreaks havoc on our health care system."

Several studies have shown that administration of stem cells possesses a therapeutic effect in cardiac conditions associated with poor circulation by stimulation of new blood vessel production, a process termed "angiogenesis".The current patent covers stimulation of angiogenesis in the lower back using mesenchymal stem cells.These cells can be used from the same patient, which is considered an "autologous therapy" as well as using stem cells in a universal donor manner, which is termed "allogeneic".

"The acquisition of this patent not only positions the company to expand into the disc degenerative space, but also provides a powerful platform for collaboration with other companies that are administering regenerative cells directly into the nucleus pulposus of the disc," commented Thomas Ichim, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of the Company and inventor of the technology. "Stem cells are like seeds, they need to be planted into fertile soil. We feel that in certain patients it is essential to treat the lumbar ischemia, which is present in some patients suffering from disc degenerative disease, which will then allow the stem cells administered directly in the disc to perform their regenerative effects."

About US

Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company with two focus areas; 1) personalized stem cell procedures for sexual dysfunction and infertility, and 2) universal, off-the-shelf amniotic fluid-based stem cells that possess superior healing potential without negative medical or ethical issues. Through our own research and collaborations with leading academic institutions, we have developed proprietary protocols, built an extensive intellectual property portfolio, developed complete treatment offerings for erectile dysfunction and are performing ground-breaking research with our amniotic fluid-based stem cell.

For additional information visit http://www.CREATIVEMEDICALTECHNOLOGY.com

Forward-Looking StatementsThis release may contain "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are identified by certain words or phrases such as "may", "aim", "will likely result", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future", "objective", "goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar expressions or variations of such expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectations about its future plans and performance. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates which could be inaccurate and which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking statement made by the Company. Please refer to the Company's most recent Forms 10-Q and 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC for a further discussion of these risks and uncertainties. The Company disclaims any obligation or intent to update the forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/creative-medical-technology-holdings-to-expand-into-10-billion-dollar-per-year-lower-back-pain-market-with-acquisition-of-issued-us-stem-cell-patent-300459902.html

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Heavy increases in obesity have led to an epidemic of various heart diseases, including cardiac arrests and even strokes. These dangers have compelled doctors and research specialists to seek out new ways of managing these problems. One method that has been getting a lot of attention is regenerative medicine.

This treatment method, while occasionally controversial, shows an incredible potential that could solve many serious health problems. Specialists like Dr. Cameron Clokie, a health expert with decades of experience, are currently trying to find ways to make this treatment method more accepted by those who oppose it.

The Potential for Serious Health Benefits is Huge

Regenerative medicine is the use of stem cells and other regeneration items to promote more efficient healing. Dr. Cameron Clokie has preached about the effectiveness of this treatment method for years. And it seems like the rest of the world is finally catching up with him and others like him. For example, a recent study found that stem cells could help manage cardiac and nervous system diseases.

The careful use of stem cells could regenerate damaged heart tissues and help a person avoid heart attacks and other serious problems. Even more promising, stem cells could be used to help repair nerve damage that would otherwise leave a person paralyzed for life.

Stem Cell Research Could Save Lives

Think of the stem cells in your body as building blocks that will take whatever shape is necessary. They can become heart cells and patch a hole in this vital organ. However, they could also become spinal cells and repair severe damage to this crucial part of the body.

The possibilities associated with stem cells could be potentially limitless. As they can be manipulated to take the form of any cell, they could be used to treat a variety of serious health problems. For example, they could become white blood cells and fight serious viral problems. In fact, they could even be used to treat life-threatening diseases like AIDS.

One of the understated benefits of regenerative medicine is the way that it uses actual cells from your body. Think of the problems the medical world has had with artificial hearts. While they can be beneficial to many people, they are often rejected by the fickle body as an intruder. However, creating a working heart with your body's stem cells would eliminate that problem.

Why? Your body would recognize the heart's cells as coming from you and would accept it more readily. As a result, you could get a new (and real) heart to replace a severely damaged one.

Profit Levels Could Also Be High

One thing that has interested many people about regenerative health and stem cell research is the potential for huge profits. Many health experts have tried to stress the ways that regenerative health could help boost the world's economy. For example, a recent study on the financial state of this market found that it had an $18.9 billion global impact.

Even more shocking, it was projected to hit $53 billion by 2021. The major focus of this market would be in bone and joint reconstruction. The United States was expected to potentially make the largest profits in this area, which is something Dr. Cameron Clokie has emphasized in the past.

However, the European market is projected to be even bigger if the currently somewhat stagnant American regenerative market is held back by restrictive regulations or laws. In this way, well-meaning politicians could deny their constituents access to lifesaving treatments and severely impact the market at the same time.

Final Thoughts

Regenerative medicine of the type proposed by Dr. Cameron Clokie and others like him could transform the medical world. While the protests of people who find stem cells wrong are understandable, the major benefits of using them cannot be ignored.

This fact is why it is so important to help specialists like Dr. Cameron Clokie get the help they need to promote regenerative medicine breakthroughs. In this way, it is possible to solve serious health dangers.

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Canadian Doctors Like Cameron Clokie Are The Innovators Behind The New Era of Regenerative Medicine - French Tribune

Potential for a new supply line

Burger/Phanie/REX/Shutterstock

By Jessica Hamzelou

The stem cells that produce our blood have been created in the lab for the first time. These could one day be used to treat people who have blood diseases and leukaemia with their own cells, rather than bone marrow transplants from a donor. They could also be used to create blood for transfusions.

This is a very big deal, says Carolina Guibentif at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the research. If you can develop [these cells] in the lab in a safe way and in high enough numbers, you wouldnt be dependent on donors.

In a healthy adult, blood stem cells are found in bone marrow, where they replenish the supply of red and white blood cells and platelets. They are sort of master cells, says George Daley at Harvard Medical School.

When these cells dont work properly, they fail to maintain an adequate supply of blood cells. As a result, not enough oxygen reaches the bodys tissues. This can cause serious disease if organs such as the heart are affected. Blood stem cells can also be wiped out by chemotherapy for leukaemia and other cancers.

People with these disorders tend to be treated with bone marrow complete with blood stem cells from a healthy donor. The difficulty is finding a match. There is a one in four chance of achieving this from a healthy sibling, but the odds are slashed to one in a million if a stranger needs to be found, says Daley.

In an attempt to create blood stem cells in the lab, Daley and his colleagues started with human pluripotent stem cells which have the potential to form almost any other type of body cell.

The team then searched for chemicals that might encourage these to become blood stem cells.

After studying the genes involved in blood production, the researchers identified proteins that control these genes and applied them to their stem cells.

They tested many combinations of the proteins, and found five that worked together to encourage their stem cells to become blood stem cells. When they put these into mice, they went on to produce new red and white blood cells and platelets. Its very cool, says Daley. Were very excited about the results.

A separate team has achieved the same feat with stem cells taken from adult mice. Raphael Lis at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and his colleagues started with cells taken from the walls of the animals lungs, based on the idea that similar cells in an embryo eventually form the bodys first blood stem cells. The team identified a set of four factors that could encourage these lung stem cells to make them.

Both sets of results represent a breakthrough, says Guibentif. This is something people have been trying to achieve for a long time, she says. By working with adult mouse epithelial cells, Lis and his team show that the feat could potentially be achieved with cells taken from an adult person. Daleys team used human stem cells that could in theory be made from skin cells, bolstering the prospect that lab-made human blood could be next.

The lab-made stem cells are not quite ready to be used in people just yet, says Daley. Although all of his mice were healthy throughout the experiments, there is a risk that the cells could mutate and cause cancer. And the cells are not quite as efficient at making blood as those found in the body.

But once Daley and his team have honed their procedure, they might be able to make platelets and red blood cells for hospital use. These cell types dont have a nucleus, so are unable to divide and potentially cause cancer. He hopes this procedure could be used within the next couple of years.

Eventually, Daley hopes his cells could be used to create whole blood suitable for transfusions. Not only would such a supply be more reliable than that from donors, but it would also be free of disease. When new pathogens like Zika pop up, you have to make sure that blood is safe, says Daley. Wed be able to have more quality control.

Journal references: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature22326; Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature22370

Read more: Synthetic bone implant can make blood cells in its marrow; Lab-grown blood given to volunteer for the first time

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Human blood stem cells grown in the lab for the first time - New Scientist

Science Daily

Another reason to exercise: Burning bone fat a key to better bone health Science Daily It could be that when fat cells are burned during exercise, the marrow uses the released energy to make more bone. Or, because both fat and bone cells come from parent cells known as mesenchymal stem cells, it could be that exercise somehow stimulates ... and more »

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Another reason to exercise: Burning bone fat a key to better bone health - Science Daily

Islamabad

The Ministry of National Health Services signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Armed Forces Bone Marrow Transplant Centre here Thursday for provision of bone marrow transplant facility to the general public and federal government employees and their families, along with Armed Forces personnel and their families and defence paid employees.

Under the MOU, the National Institute of Blood and Marrow Transplant shall be established at the Armed Forces Bone Marrow Transplant Centre and will be designated as the National Institute of Blood and Marrow Transplant (NIBMT). This new facility will broaden the scope of the hospital, so that bone marrow/stem cell transplant can be extended to federal government employees and the general public. It will also serve to extend training facilities in the field of Bone Marrow Transplant and Clinical Haematology.

The MOU was signed on behalf of National Health Services by Director General Health Dr. Assad Hafeez whereas Major General Tariq Mehmood Satti Commandant Armed Forces Bone Marrow Transplant Centre, Rawalpindi, signed on behalf of his organization. Commandant of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Maj. Gen. Parvez Ahmed was also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary of the Ministry of Health Services Muhammad Ayub Shaikh expressed gratitude to the Commandant of AFIP and AFBMPC for their efforts in making the MOU possible. This noble initiative will benefit a large number of patients, he projected. Major General Parvez Ahmed elaborated the efforts and initiatives taken to make the MOU possible.

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Bone marrow transplant facility to be available to public, government employees - The News International