Emerald baseball coach Stanley Moss called current College of Charleston infielder Bradley Dixon one of the better players and kids he's ever coached.

The former Emerald standout was a slick-fielding shortstop, according to Moss, who was a cornerstone to the Emerald program.

"He was one of my favorites of all time," Moss said. "He always did what he was asked to do and went above and beyond to try to represent our program."

Dixon shared the field with current Clemson commit Sheldon Reed, who was a year under him at Emerald. Having the two of them play together was a joy and pleasure to be a part of, Moss said.

"(Dixon) and Sheldon hit in the middle of our lineup the whole time," Moss said. "They were big producers for us offensively."

Dixon's dominant play at Emerald earned him an opportunity to play Division I baseball with the Cougars. Dixon's senior season at Emerald, College of Charleston made it to a Super Regional which was just the second appearance in the program's history.

"It's what you grow up dreaming to do, playing Division I baseball," Dixon said. "Whenever you get an opportunity to do it, you take it and make the best of it."

But dreams have sometimes been met with struggles for Dixon. His freshman year in 2015 a week before opening weekend he sprained his MCL, ACL and suffered a bone contusion, forcing him to redshirt.

The following season, though, Dixon's redshirt freshman campaign, everyone got a glimpse of what he could do on the ball field when he's healthy.

Dixon started 45 games and was fourth on the team in batting average hitting .273 with a homer. They weren't the most eye-popping stats, but they proved what he was worth when on the field.

His 2017 season, however, was met with more injuries. Dixon recently had to get stem cells taken from the bone marrow in his hip and injected into the sesamoid bones in both his feet.

All the cartilage had worn down, which meant Dixon didn't have any protection around his bones. He played through the injury the entire season, hitting just .251.

Moss believes he'll be a force again once healthy.

"Bradley's work ethic has always been where you would like to be," he said. "He's that kid in the offseason. Obviously if he can get himself completely healthy he's the kind of kid that can definitely go out and have a big year for College of Charleston."

The recovery time for his injury is 12 weeks, Dixon said, which means he'll be ready for the fall.

The team put together an underwhelming year last season, going just 13-11 in the Colonial Athletic Association, 28-31 overall and losing to Northeastern in the conference tournament.

On top of that, College of Charleston's coach, Matt Heath, was fired on Friday.

Despite the setbacks, Dixon is looking help right the ship.

"I really want to increase some of the numbers I had last year," Dixon said. "And just do better for my teammates, know my role and do whatever I can to help us win."

Contact staff writer Julian McWilliams at 864-223-1814 or on Twitter @JulianMack105

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Former Emerald standout eyes next season - Index-Journal

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Zhongju Shi,1,2 Hongyun Huang,3 Shiqing Feng1,2

1Department of Orthopaedics, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, 2Institute of Neurology, Key Laboratory of Post-Neuroinjury Neuro-Repair and Regeneration in Central Nervous System, Ministry of Education, Tianjin City, Tianjin, 3Institute of Neurorestoratology, General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China

Abstract: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition and major burden on society and individuals. Currently, neurorestorative strategies, including stem cell therapy products or mature/functionally differentiated cell-derived cell therapy products, can restore patients with chronic complete SCI to some degree of neurological functions. The stem cells for neurorestoration include neural stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, etc. A better understanding of the merits, demerits and precise function of different stem cells in the treatment of SCI may aid in the development of neurorestorative strategies. However, the efficacy, safety and ethical concerns of stem cell-based therapy continue to be challenged. Nonetheless, stem cell-based therapies hold promise of widespread applications, particularly in areas of SCI, and have the potential to be novel therapeutics, which contributes to the repair of SCI. This review mainly focused on recent advances regarding the stem cell-based therapies in the treatment of SCI and discussed future perspectives in this field.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, neural stem cells, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, adipose-derived stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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The arthritis in Maureen Munsies ankles was so intense until barely a year ago, she literally had to crawl on hands and knees to get upstairs.

The pain, she recalls now, took my breath away, and played havoc with the avid hikers favourite pastime.

In desperation, Munsie turned to a Toronto-area clinic that provides a treatment many experts consider still experimental, unproven and of questionable safety.

The 63-year-old says the stem cells she received at Regenervate Medical Injection Therapy 18 months ago were transformational, all but eliminating the debilitating soreness and even allowing her to hike Argentinas Patagonia mountains two months ago.

For me its been a life saver, Munsie says. Ive been able to do it all again I dont have any of that pain, at all.

Canadians drawn to the healing promise of stem cells have for years travelled outside the country to such places as Mexico, China or Arizona, taking part in a dubious form of medical tourism.

But Regenervate is one of a handful of clinics in Canada that have begun offering injections of stem cells, satisfying growing demand but raising questions about whether a medical idea with huge potential is ready for routine patient care.

Especially when those patients can pay thousands of dollars for the service.

Clinics in Ontario and Alberta are treating arthritis, joint injuries, disc problems and even skin conditions with stem cells typically taken from patients fat tissue or bone marrow.

The underlying idea is compelling: stem cells can differentiate or transform into many other types of cell, a unique quality that evidence suggests allows them to grow or regenerate tissue damaged by disease or injury.

Researchers including hundreds in Canada alone are examining stem-cell treatments for everything from ailing hearts to severed spinal cords.

With few exceptions, however, the concept is still being studied in the lab or in human trials; virtually none of the treatments have been definitively proven effective by science or approved by regulators like Health Canada.

The fact that Canadian clinics are now offering stem-cell treatments commercially is concerning on a number of levels, not least because of safety issues, says Ubaka Ogbogu, a health law professor at the University of Alberta.

Three U.S. women were blinded after receiving stem-cell injections in their eyes, while other American patients have developed bony masses or tumours at injection sites, Ogbogu said.

Stem cells have to be controlled to act exactly the way you want them to act, and thats why the research takes time, he said. It is simply wrong for these clinics to take a proof of concept and run with it.

Ogbogu says Health Canada must crack down on the burgeoning industry but says the regulator has so far been conspicuous by its inaction.

Other experts say the procedures provided here typically for joint pain are likely relatively safe, but still warn that care must be taken that the stem cells do not develop into the wrong type of tissue, or at the wrong place.

Alberta Health Services convened a workshop on the issue late last year, concluding there is an urgent need to develop a certification system for cell preparation and delivery to avoid spontaneous transformation of (stem cells) into unwanted tissue.

But one of the pioneers of the service in Canada says theres no empirical evidence that such growths can develop, and suggests the treatments only real risk as with an invasive procedure is infection.

Meanwhile, patients at Regenervate have enjoyed impressive outcomes after paying fees from $750 to $3,900, says Dr. Douglas Stoddard, the clinics medical director.

About 80 per cent report less pain, stiffness and weakness within a few months of getting their stem-cell injection, he said.

I believe medical progress is not just limited to the laboratory and randomized double-blind trials, Stoddard said. A lot of progress starts in the clinic, dealing with patients You see something works, you see something has merit, and then its usually the scientists that seem to catch up later.

The Orthopedic Sport Institute in Collingwood, Ont., the Central Alberta Pain and Rehabilitation Institute and Cleveland Clinic in Toronto all advertise similar stem-cell treatments for orthopedic problems.

Edmontons Regen Clinic says it plans to start doing so this fall.

Ottawas Innovo says it also treats a range of back conditions with injections between the vertebrae, and uses stem cells to alleviate nerve damage.

Orthopedic Sport says its doctor focuses on FDA and Health Canada approved stem-cell injection therapy for patient care.

In fact, no treatment of the sort the clinics here provide has ever been authorized.

Health Canada says the vast majority of stem-cell therapies would constitute a drug and therefore need to be authorized after a clinical trial or new drug submission.

A number of stem-cell trials are underway, but only one treatment Prochymal has been approved, said department spokesman Eric Morrissette. Designed to combat graft-versus-host disease where bone marrow transplants for treating cancer essentially attack the patients body its unlike any of the services the stem-cell providers here offer.

But as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aggressively pursues the hundreds of clinics in America, Health Canada says only that its committed to addressing complaints it receives.

It will take action based on the risk posed to the general public, said Morrissette, who encouraged people to pass on to the department information about possible non-compliant products.

Stoddard said the injections his clinics provide are made up of minimally manipulated tissue from patients own bodies and any attempt to crack down would be regulation for the sake of regulation.

But academic experts remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the treatments.

Scientific evidence suggests the injections may help alleviate joint pain temporarily, but probably just because of anti-inflammatory secretions from the cells not regeneration, said Dr. David Hart, an orthopedic surgery professor at the University of Calgary who headed the Alberta workshop.

Theres a need for understanding whats going on here and theres a need for regulation, he said.

Most of the clinics say they use a centrifuge to concentrate the stem cells after removing them from patients fat tissue or bone marrow. But its unclear if the clinics even know how many cells they are eventually injecting into patients, says Jeff Biernaskie, a stem-cell scientist at the University of Calgary.

Munsie, on the other hand, has no doubts about the value of her own treatment, even with a $3,000 price tag.

The procedure from extraction of fat tissue in her behind to the injection of cells into her ankles took barely over an hour.

Within three months, the retired massage therapist from north of Toronto says she could walk her dogs again. Last week, she was hiking near Banff.

Im a real believer in it, and the possibility of stem cells, says Munsie. I just think Wow, if we can heal with our own body, its pretty amazing.

tblackwell@nationalpost.com

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BAREILLY: Dog owners from across the country, including Delhi and Gujarat, are turning up with their paralytic pets at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) here for stem cell therapy. Scientists treat a paralyzed dog by transplanting stem cells from healthy dogs. IVRI is the second institute in the country to offer this treatment, after Madras Veterinary College, Chennai.

According to scientists, no research has been conducted to determine the number of dogs who suffer from paralysis every year in India. However, the institute receives at least four cases every week of spinal trauma which causes paralysis in dogs. IVRI recorded 143 cases of posterior paralysis in 2016. These were treated with stem cell therapy and medicines.

"If dogs are treated only with medicines, recovery is witnessed only in a few cases," said Amarpal (who goes by his first name), head and principal scientist, division of surgery, IVRI. On an average, 17% recovery rate was noted among dogs administered only medicines.

However, the best response was recorded among severely affected dogs when they were treated using stem cells, where almost all the patients responded to treatment to variable extent, said the scientist. "Though we have cases where recovery was 100%, the average recovery rate is about 50%. The experiment proved the efficacy of stem cell therapy in cases of paralysis due to spinal trauma," said Amarpal. After seven years of research, stem cell therapy was started at IVRI five years ago for clinical purposes on a nominal registration fee of Rs 30.

Due to its success, pet owners from various parts of the country have started visiting the institute.

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Dog owners flock IVRI for pets' cure | Bareilly News - Times of India - Times of India

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NASA says astronaut Jack Fischer shot this photo of the SpaceX Dragon capsule reentering Earths atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California on at 5:12 a.m. Pacific time Monday July 3, 2017.

Heres more from NASAs statement:

Fischer commented, Beautiful expanse of stars-but the long orange one is SpaceX-11 reentering! Congrats team for a successful splashdown & great mission!

A variety of technological and biological studies conducted on the International Space Station are returning in Dragon. The Fruit Fly Lab-02 experiment seeks to better understand the effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity on the heart. Samples from the Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for osteoporosis will return as part of an investigation using rodents as models to test a new drug that can both rebuild bone and block further bone loss, improving crew health. The Cardiac Stem Cells experiment investigated how microgravity affects stem cells and the factors that govern stem cell activity.

The Dragon spacecraft launched June 3 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and arrived at the station June 5.

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Are you suffering from chronicjoint pain? If so, you may want to ask your doctor whetherstem cellinjections are right for you. If you want to avoid the surgical route of repairing a damaged knee or treating an arthritic shoulder, a stem cell injection may give you the relief you need.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

Stem cells are specialtypes of cells with the ability to self-renew or multiply. They have the potential to replicate any cell in your body. In other words, they canbecome a cartilage cell, a muscle cell or a nerve cell, says orthopedic surgeonAnthony Miniaci, MD.

They have a tremendous capacity to differentiate and form different tissues, so thats the thought behind regenerating cartilage, regenerating nerve cells and healing any injured tissues, he says.

The source of stem cells isfound in your own bone marrow orfat or you can also receive stem cells from donor sources, particularlyamniotic sourcessuch as the placenta or the amniotic fluid and lining surrounding a fetus. These cells are not part of the embryo, Dr. Miniaci says.

The number of stem cells that you have and theirquality and activity diminish as you get older, he says. Amniotic stem cells, on the other hand, are from young tissue, so theoretically these are younger, more active cells.

Thetreatment team harvests stem cells from your bone marrow or fat or uses donor cells . Later on, your treatment team injects the cells preciselyinto your joint, ligament or tendon.

Theoretically, the cells will then divide and duplicate themselves and develop into different types of cells depending on the location into which they have been injected. For example, if you have damagedknee cartilage, stem cells placed near the damaged cartilage can develop into new cartilage tissue.

However, for patients with asevere loss of cartilageor no cartilage at all, a stem cell injection is unlikely to createa new joint, Dr. Miniaci says.

Severe loss of cartilage typically leads to bone erosion or bone deformity, so a stem cell injection is highly unlikely to work in terms of reversing those changes, he says.

It can, however, improve your symptoms of pain and swelling.

The earlier you can treat someones joint pain, the better chance this has of working, making it less painful for thepatient, less inflamed, and improve their function, he says.

The main risk from a stem cell injection is in harvesting the stem cells. When taking the cells from your bone marrow, the treatment team inserts a large needle into your pelvis and removes some blood and the cells.

Any time you make incisions or insert sharp instrument into somebodys pelvis, they can have problems such as acquiring an infection, Dr. Miniaci says.

If youre taking the stem cells from fat, you you can remove some out from under the skin, he says. Again, you have a risk for an infection because were making little nicks into the skin to get to the fat.

While the use of stem cell injections to treatjoint painholds much promise, Dr. Miniaci cautions that this treatment option is still very new. Researchers needto study its effectiveness further.

We dont have a lot of data or proof indicating that stem cell injections actually repair the joint, he says.

He explains that if you have cartilage orbone damage, stem cells candifferentiate and produce bone and cartilage and tissues. So, theoretically, they could heal damaged tissue within a muscle, tendon, bone or cartilage.

Thats the theory behind it, but this type of treatment and research is just in its infancy, he says.

We really dont know whats effective, whats not effective, how many cells are necessary, how many actual injections you need and how often, he says. Nobody knows how well it works yet. But we will eventually.

Anecdotally, Dr. Miniaci finds that some patients can have significant improvement in their symptoms with stem cellinjections. But he has not seen any proof yet that they are regrowing or regenerating a joint.

Many people think that theyre going to come in with their arthritic joint and leave with a newer version of their knee joint. That doesnt happen, he says.

What does occur is a biological reaction which makes the environment in their joints a little healthier, which probably makes it less inflamed, and as result, gives them less pain.

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Stem Cell Injections: Emerging Option for Joint Pain Relief - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic (blog)

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Cells destined to become nerve cells in developing mouse embryos use two different signals spreading from opposite sides of the spinal cord the back and belly side to measure their position accurately. Based on this map, they turn into the appropriate nerve cell type.

These are the findings from a new a study by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the Institute of Science and Technology and Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne. The results could give insight into regenerative medicine.

As embryos grow and develop they need the right cell types to end up in the right places inside forming organs. This is particularly important in the spinal cord where different nerve cell types must be accurately positioned so that circuits can assemble properly to control muscle movement.

But until now the mechanism underlying nerve cell organization in the spinal cord has remained poorly understood.

The team of biologists, physicists and engineers found that the amounts of the two signals originating from the back and belly sides of the body affect gene activity in developing nerve cells. Based on this gene activity in early development, the cells turn into the appropriate nerve cell type for that position in the spinal cord.

Weve made an important step in understanding how the diverse cell types in the spinal cord of a developing embryo are organised in a precise spatial pattern. The quantitative measurements and new experimental techniques we used, as well as the combined effort of biologists, physicists and engineers were key. This allowed us to gain new insight into the exquisite accuracy of embryonic development and revealed that cells have remarkable ability of to orchestrate precise tissue development,

says Anna Kicheva, Group Leader at IST Austria.

We have shed light on the long-standing question of how developing tissues produce the right cells in the right place in the right numbers. Its likely that similar strategies are used in other developing tissues and our findings might be relevant to these cases. In the long run this will help inform the use of stem cells in approaches such as tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, there is still much more to learn and we need to continue developing these interdisciplinary collaborations to further our biological understanding,

says James Briscoe, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute.

Image: normal developing spinal cord (left) showing precise patterns of gene activity (red, blue, green demarcating different types of cells). In a spinal cord in which one of the signals is disrupted (right) the accuracy of gene activity has been lost. Credit: Anna Kicheva

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Spinal Cord Nerve Cells Positional Decoding In Development - ReliaWire

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| Newsline

UCI-led study to advance understanding of the role of micoglia in Alzheimers disease

Using human skin cells, University of California, Irvine neurobiologists and their colleagues have created a method to generate one of the principle cell types of the brain called microglia, which play a key role in preserving the function of neural networks and responding to injury and disease. The finding marks an important step in the use of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for targeted approaches to better understand and potentially treat neurological diseases such as Alzheimers. These iPS cells are derived from existing adult skin cells and show increasing utility as a promising approach for studying human disease and developing new therapies. Skin cells were donated from patients at the UCI Alzheimers Disease Research Center. The study, led by Edsel Abud, Wayne Poon and Mathew Blurton Jones of UCI, used a genetic process to reprogram these cells into a pluripotent state capable of developing into any type of cell or tissue of the body.

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Says most American procreation will begin by selecting from a range of embryos created with the parents DNA in a lab

This computer reconstruction of an embryo developing in the womb shows the foetus at eight weeks. PHOTO: File

It doesnt take long for seemingly outlandish ideas to become normalized. Today, Stanford University professor Hank Greelys assertion that Americans will stop having sex to procreate sounds absurd. But in a couple of decades, he predicts, that will be the accepted reality.

Greely, director of Stanford Law Schools Center for Law and the Biosciences, believes that were 20 to 30 years away from a time when most American procreation will begin by selecting from a range of embryos created with the parents DNA in a lab.

This already happens on a limited basis for disease prevention and occasionally sex selection, but he argues it will become far cheaper and widely available thanks to stem cell technology that will allow couples to make eggs and sperm out of stem cells from their skin.

Scientists create first artificial mouse embryo from stem cells

Prospective parents will start by screening those embryos for genetic diseases such as Huntingtons, but quickly expand to other traits, he predicts. Perhaps theyll weed out the BRAC1 gene for breast cancer, predispositions for Alzheimers, or theyll be able to select cosmetic features such as hair and eye color, and even more complex traits such as intelligence.

I dont think were going to be able to say this embryo will get a 1550 on its two-part SAT, Greely said this week at Aspen Ideas Festival. But, this embryo has a 60 per cent chance of being in the top half, this embryo has a 13 per centchance of being in the top 10 per cent I think thats really possible.

And, though he recognises that there are ethical issues, Greely views this scenario as far from dystopian. People say, How can we let this happen? I think we will, he said.

At times, he sounded flippant about the prospect. I think one of the hardest things about this will be all the divorces that come about when she wants embryo number 15 and he wants embryo number 64, he said. I think the decision making will be a real challenge for people. How do you weigh a slightly higher chance of diabetes with slightly lower risk of schizophrenia against better musical ability and a much lower risk of colon cancer? Good luck.

Indias RSS promises couples customised, fair super babies

Greely brushed aside the concern that what hes describing meddles too much with nature. This is not designer babies or super babies, he said. This is selecting embryos. You take two people, all you can get out of a baby is what those two people have.

There are already concerns that CRISPR, the tool that scientists use to edit DNA, will be put to use to create perfect embryos. But Greely dismisses this as unlikely. He argues that the embryo selection process will simply begin as an infertility treatment before expanding. People, particularly where I live in Silicon Valley, will want to do it to get their perfect egg, he added.

Greely acknowledges that ethical issues will likely arise around safety, coercion, fairness, and family structure, but does not see any of these as obstacles that will halt the development of this practice.

And what of a world where the elites have perfectly selected children while those less well off are left to deal with the diseases and imperfections that no longer affect the wealthy? Greely has the answer: The whole thing will be free. The parents wont be charged.

The key is the health care cost savings, he said, pointing out that, should it cost $10,000 to make a baby this way, then 100 babies would cost $1 million dollars. Meanwhile, the cost of caring for a truly sick baby is so great, Greely said the births of just 0.3 sick babies would need to be avoided to save $1 million.

Scientists achieve milestone in quest to produce blood cells

Greelys scenario could well prove overly optimistic in the US, and it certainly doesnt apply internationally. I think different cultures will pick it up at different rates. I think the US will be relatively accepting, Germany with its history is very anti any genetic interventions and I think theyre going to be slow, said Greely.

Should his vision come to pass, wealthy nations such as the US and China could begin this practice long before Somalia, for example. And so it seems almost inevitable that the world would become genetically divided between those who can breed out the flaws, and those who cannot.

Greely foresees a scenario where future generations will be much healthier, and possibly a little taller and smarter. From his telling, this unnerving prophesy sounds almost normal which is the most terrifying prospect of all.

This article originally appeared on Quartz.

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Visakhapatnam: Lack of awareness on the importance of becoming a blood stem cell donor is hindering the treatment of people suffering from blood cancer and other fatal blood disorders like thalassemia and aplastic anaemia.

Since the only cure is a blood stem cell transplant, the need of the hour is to sensitise people of the city on the necessity of becoming a potential blood stem cell donor to save lives, experts say.

According to oncologists based in Vizag, the cases of blood cancer are increasing and the treatment options are very few. Moreover, patients with blood cancer are sent to Hyderabad and other centres for treatment as neither there are donors nor equipment for stem cell transplant in the port city.

For a successful transplant, patients suffering from fatal blood disorders need blood stem cells from a healthy and genetically matched donor. Unfortunately, the probability of finding a genetically matched donor is one in 10,000 to one in over a million.

Only about 25 per cent of the patients find a donor from within their family. Rest need to wait for a life-saving donor.

"The chances of finding a match for patients suffering from these fatal blood disorders could only widen if there are more number of donors registered," says Ravindranath Chava, co-ordinator of a Chennai-based blood stem cell donors registry- DATRI.

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Lack of stem cell donations plagues patients - Times of India

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Bareilly: Dog owners from across the country, including Delhi and Gujarat, are turning up with their paralytic pets at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) here for stem cell therapy. Scientists treat a paralyzed dog by transplanting stem cells from healthy dogs. IVRI is the second institute in the country to offer this treatment, after Madras Veterinary College, Chennai.

According to scientists, no research has been conducted to determine the number of dogs who suffer from paralysis every year in India. However, the institute receives at least four cases every week of spinal trauma which causes paralysis in dogs. IVRI recorded 143 cases of posterior paralysis in 2016. These were treated with stem cell therapy and medicines.

If dogs are treated only with medicines, recovery is witnessed only in a few cases, said Amarpal (who goes by his first name), head and principal scientist, division of surgery, IVRI. On an average, 17% recovery rate was noted among dogs administered only medicines.

However, the best response was recorded among severely affected dogs when they were treated using stem cells, where almost all the patients responded to treatment to variable extent, said the scientist. Though we have cases where recovery was 100%, the average recovery rate is about 50%. The experiment proved the efficacy of stem cell therapy in cases of paralysis due to spinal trauma, said Amarpal.

The paralytic dog is first administered anesthesia before the stem cells are injected into its spinal cord. It takes only one session for a dog to undergo the therapy and it is discharged the same day.. After this, the owner has to bring his pet for check-ups for two or more times so that vets can monitor how the animal is responding to the treatment and if it is suffering from any reaction, said Amarpal.

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Stem cell therapy to treat paralytic dogs draws pet owners from across country to IVRI - Times of India

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For over 20 years autologous hematopoietic stem cell treatment (AHSCT) has been a therapy for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus; however, the exact mechanism of action remains unclear. Recent clinical research has also been exploring the use of stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes, another autoimmune disease which affects over 422 million individuals globally.

Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition where little or no insulin is produced by the pancreas. Immune cells attack pancreatic beta cells which produce insulin, leading to inflammation. Insulin is an essential hormone for energy production as it enables the breakdown of sugars to enter the cells and produce energy. The onset of type 1 diabetes occurs when significant inflammation damages beta cells and results in insufficient maintenance of glucose haemostasis (balance of insulin and glucagon to maintain blood glucose levels).

Therapies currently used in type 1 diabetes treatment include insulin administration, blood glucose monitoring and screening for common comorbidities and diabetes-related complications. However, these treatments fail to reduce the damage on a patients immune system. The use of autologous hematopoietic stem cells as a potential type 1 diabetes therapy is based upon the ability of the stem cells to reset the immune system. Autologous hematopoietic stems cells are retrieved from a patients own bone marrow or peripheral blood (blood which circulates the body and contains red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) and after conditioning are injected intravenously.

A recent study by Ye and colleagues published in Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2017) investigated the effects AHSCT had on the immune response in recently diagnosed diabetes type 1 patients. The study included 18 patients (12-35 years old) with type 1 diabetes who had been diagnosed within less than 6 months. Of these 18 participants, 10 received a traditional insulin injection as treatment and eight received AHSCT. An additional 15 patients who matched in age, gender and BMI of these two groups were enrolled as a control group.

To test the effects of the treatment on immune response, patients peripheral blood cells were assessed. Samples were taken before they started treatment and then again 12 months after either the AHSCT or insulin-only therapies were administered.

Before treatment, peripheral blood cell distribution was almost equivalent in the two groups; however, after 12 months a significant difference was observed. The results of this clinical trial showed that patients receiving AHSCT exhibited significantly reduced development and function of Th1 and Th17 cells (types of T cells which cause inflammation in autoimmune diseases), compared to those only receiving the insulin treatment.

The inhibition of T-cell proliferation and function, along with decreased production of cytokines (pivotal chemical messengers which aid an immune response) observed in patients receiving AHSCT treatment suggests there is a strong link between the therapy and effects on the patients immune response. This may explain why AHSCT results in better therapeutic effects when compared with insulin-only traditional therapy.

The authors note that the small number of participants and length of the study are the two main limitations. Future clinical studies should include a larger number of patients and long-term follow up, especially since AHSCT can cause damage to the bone marrow and lead to potentially serious infections.

Progression of type 1 diabetes, as mentioned above, results in unavoidable immune damage from inflammation. This study suggests the combination of therapies including AHSCT treatment and high-dose immunosuppressive drugs may be a potential new therapeutic approach to type 1 diabetes. It is hypothesized that this combination has the ability reset the immune system and increase the recovery capacity of beta cells. Further clinical studies are essential though, to shed more light on the mechanism and use of stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes.

Written By:Lacey Hizartzidis, PhD

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Stem Cell Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes - Medical News Bulletin

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Stem Cell Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes – Medical News Bulletin | July 2nd, 2017

The calls had been coming for a few years, and Bill Holowaty couldn't say yes. His baseball spirit was willing. His body wasn't.

Holowaty won four national championships and 1,404 games before he stepped down in 2013 after 45 years as coach at Eastern Connecticut. Becoming president of the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League seemed perfect for a septuagenarian with baseball in his DNA, baseball in his blood.

The problem was this: Holowaty's DNA isn't the same. His blood type isn't the same.

That's what happens with Myelodysplastic Syndrome. That's what happens when your body that had carried you through the third most victories in Division III history no longer could make enough healthy blood cells. In short, Holowaty had bone marrow failure and needed a stem cell transplant last June 23 that changed his DNA and blood type from O to A. Otherwise, he wasn't going to be around for long.

"I'm celebrating my first birthday," Holowaty said recently. "June 23, my new birthday."

Fortunately, Type A loves baseball, too.

So Holowaty said yes this past winter to becoming president of the GHTBL, the amateur wood-bat league now in its 88th year. Over the decades, it is a league that has produced a large number of major leaguers, including 2017 Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Bagwell. It also is a league that has had to fight softball, other baseball leagues and the evolution of modern sports interest to keep its place on the map.

The first thing Holowaty did was bring together the managers for a couple of meetings at his house.

"I was extremely impressed with their enthusiasm and their desire to make the league better," Holowaty said. "I needed that. They motivated me. Look, I'm not going to change the world and make it the best league in the United States, etc. I told them I'll try to help. I just love to watch baseball and see it played the right way."

Holowaty, who played basketball at UConn, played for Wally Widholm on the playoff champion Hamilton Standard team in the summer of 1966. His sons played in the GHTBL, too.

"Wally taught me how to win, how to play the game of baseball," Holowaty said. "Later on, my son came to me and he said, 'Dad, I played in wood-bat leagues and played all over the place. I had my best experience playing for Gene Johnson this past summer.' Winning was important, not showing off. I loved that."

There was no way Holowaty could do this by himself. He surrounded himself with a strong executive committee that includes vice presidents Bill DePascale, Ed Slegeski and former UConn coach Andy Baylock.

"I've known Billy forever, since the '60s," said Baylock, who played two summers in the GHTBL. "He has had a lot health problems, but this is something he can put his heart into. He called and asked me to be a vice president. I said, 'Billy, will this make you happy if I join?' He said yes. I told him, 'I'll be with you.' Gene Johnson, who was such a mainstay in the league, died [in November 2014] and I felt this would be a good way to give back to the league and Gene."

The two state baseball legends obviously add recognition to the league. Yet it had to be more than that.

There is nothing worse, Holowaty said, than playing on a lousy field. Trinity College has a beautiful new facility. The league secured it for the playoffs. The teams are going to play throughout July 9 at Dunkin' Donuts Park. Holowaty, convinced the job of running a team is too big for one guy, wants each team to have a general manager. There were a couple of new teams added this year. There were sponsorships found. Holowaty also wants each team to have a mentor or two. On opening day, Holowaty and Baylock talked to the players about playing the game smart, aggressively, hustling, showing up on time. Little things that can become big things, like coaches wearing protective helmets at first and third base.

They've gone to games at various sites.

"Not to be a cop," Baylock said, "but to try to make sure things look good."

"We're not out there second-guessing managers," Holowaty said. "But a lot of great players have played in the league over nearly 90 years. I don't want a beer league. Baseball is one of the hardest games to teach and play. We've got a good league and want to make it better, a nice, competitive league where the guys enjoy themselves and learn the right way to play."

Those words came over the phone from Omaha a couple of weekends ago. He was out there for the College World Series. Holowaty is on the board of the American Baseball Coaches Association, its past president. This was a big trip for Holowaty.

"I couldn't go on an airplane for a year, or go out to eat," he said. "I had to wear a mask and gloves on the plane. The doctor told me I could go but have to be careful. My daughter [Jennifer] came with me to give my wife [Jan] four days' vacation.

"My wife has been taking care of me. Thank God for her."

In 2015, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. It was in August of that year that Holowaty, after undergoing knee surgery, was told his blood cell counts had been dropping. He consulted a hematologist. He would have a bone marrow test late in 2015. Holowaty would need a stem cell transplant or else to use his words "I wasn't going to be around long, maybe a year." With plans to spend the winter in Florida, he would go to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. There he began his treatment before returning to Connecticut.

A match in Germany, a young man, was found for Holowaty. On June 17, 2016, he went to the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center in Boston. For nearly a week he underwent chemotherapy for six hours a day to kill his old blood cells. The stem cells were flown overnight from Germany and the next day, June 23, Holowaty was receiving a transplant.

There would be more chemo. The fight has been hard. His immune system had to start from scratch. He must be ultra-careful to avoid germs, mold, etc., thus the gloves and the mask.

Holowaty went through his problems like he was reading a lineup card. He had pneumonia. A blood vessel broke when he had a lung biopsy. He had some blood clots in his legs and lung that took months to be rid of. His heart went out of rhythm. He had an aneurysm in his stomach. The man always was a tough coach and now, physically, mentally, spiritually, he has been called on to be even tougher.

Jan drives Bill up to Boston once or twice a week.

"They take my blood and see where I am with red and white blood cells," Holowaty said. "You get new blood. The remaining old blood tries to fight off the new blood.

"You feel good. You want to feel good. You just can't feel good. You go to bed, get a night's sleep and wake up tired. I'll feel great and then last week I had a hard time walking across the room. It's exhausting. It's not painful. I'm fighting it. I could never do this alone."

He has found a source of inspiration in his former ECSU assistant coach Ron Jones.

"Ron has had the same thing," Holowaty said. "He started calling me up and telling me how to prepare myself, helping me get through this. Here's the thing he has called me every day since last June. We just talked today. He has had a tough time. Last October, he had pacemaker put in, and he's doing well now.

"Think about that. He calls me every single day."

That's what great baseball guys do. They take care of each other.

Holwaty paused for a second on the phone.

"The Twilight League," he said softly, "this is my way of giving back to the game I love."

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Jeff Jacobs: Hall Of Fame Coach Holowaty Fights Illness And Gives Back - Hartford Courant

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Jeff Jacobs: Hall Of Fame Coach Holowaty Fights Illness And Gives Back – Hartford Courant | July 2nd, 2017

Logan Van Dyk hopes stem cell operation in Central America will open doors for him ones that shut abruptly on Aug. 3, 2008.

It took seconds for the now 26-year-old Fort Langley residents life to change.

On that day nearly nine years ago, just after he graduated from R.E. Mountain Secondary, Van Dyk suffered a life-altering spinal cord injury in a mountain biking incident.

I was fooling around on a construction site with some friends and I accidentally fell off a dirt pile on my bike, recalled Van Dyk, who was born and raised in Langley. I fell 25 feet and landed on my face.

Van Dyk suffered a spinal cord injury that left him bound to a wheelchair, as a partial quadriplegic.

I got a C56 spinal cord injury, but its incomplete which means theres always a possibility for recovery, Van Dyk said.

Its that hope that has Van Dyk looking to travel to Panama for therapy.

He started doing some research on stem cells and found an institute in Panama City that offers treatments.

Van Dyk sent in an application and on March 8 received an email saying he will make an excellent candidate for stem cell therapy.

Of course there is no guarantee that I will gain anything back but at this point Im willing to try anything to improve the quality of my life, said Van Dyk, who hopes to get into broadcasting.

He has created a GoFundMe page to raise what he believes is the $45,000 necessary to pay for flights, treatments, accommodations, and a personal nurse in Panama City. Visit http://www.gofundme.com/anw8ce-stem-cell-research.

The therapy itself will cost roughly $37,400 US. As well, there are no nurses at the institute who would assist Van Dyk directly.

I receive care twice a day in order to get in and out of my wheelchair and in and out of bed, Van Dyke explained. So I need to get a bit of extra money so I can hire a nurse to come down with me. Im not sure how much that is going to cost.

A friend who works as a nurse guided Van Dyk towards the possibility of travelling to Panama.

She couldnt believe there was nothing that could be done given the circumstances of my injury, Van Dyke said, because Ive got feeling all the way down to my toes. She looked into it and she found this down in Panama City. We looked at it and found some testimonials from some people who have gone down. They say they have about a 75 per cent success rate.

Van Dyk said he always does his best to remain positive and happy in everything he does.

Even the most basic of things take all my effort to achieve, Van Dyk said on his GoFundMe page. There just had to be something out there that could make things easier.

However, time is running out.

Unfortunately, the cutoff is 10 years, Van Dyk said. They wont do this treatment on anybody whose injury is over 10 years old. Im at my deadline.

Positive attitude

After the accident, Van Dyk was told by doctors that it was very unlikely he would ever walk again and would need to be in a power wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Van Dyk said much to their surprise, he wasnt able to accept that and he worked as hard as possible to overcome the barriers the medical world presented him with, and within a few months started using a manual wheelchair every day.

Mobility however, did not return and life has been a constant struggle ever since.

Keeping Van Dyk moving forward has been a positive attitude, and he quickly adapted to his new life in a wheelchair. It was pretty easy to get over it. I never had trouble finding the positives in life. I kind of adapted. A lot of people would say that I am the most positive person that theyve ever met. I get compliments a lot on how well I actually dealt with the injury. It was difficult but it was easy at the same time.

Van Dyk is now turning to the public to help him regain some freedom.

I miss the active lifestyle I led prior to injury, and am getting really tired of sitting all day long with a limited amount of things I can do to entertain myself, Van Dyk said. Im as independent as a I can be and I still rely on a lot of help. If I can get anything back, even just a bit more upper body Im just looking for anything at this point.

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Wheelchair-bound Langley man raising funds for stem cell therapy in Central America - Surrey Now-Leader

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Wheelchair-bound Langley man raising funds for stem cell therapy in Central America – Surrey Now-Leader | July 1st, 2017

References

1. F.T. Moutos et al., Anatomically shaped tissue-engineered cartilage with tunable and inducible anticytokine delivery for biological joint resurfacing, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113 (31) E4513E4522, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1601639113.

2. B. Zhang et al., Biodegradable scaffold with built-in vasculature for organ-on-a-chip engineering and direct surgical anastomosis, Nat. Materials 15, 669678 (2016), doi:10.1038/nmat4570.

3. S. Shukla et al., Progenitor T-cell differentiation from hematopoietic stem cells using Delta-like-4 and VCAM-1, Nat. Methods 14(5), 531-538 (May 2017),doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4258. Epub Apr 10, 2017.

4. M.M. Pakulska, S. Miersch, and M.S. Shoichet, Designer protein delivery: from natural occurring to engineered affinity controlled release systems, Science 351(6279):aac4750, doi: 10.1126/science.aac4750.

5. M.M. Pakulska, C.H. Tator, and M.S. Shoichet, Local delivery of chondroitinase ABC with or without stromal cell-derived factor 1 promotes functional repair in the injured rat spinal cord, Biomaterials (accepted April 2017).

6. TissueGene, TissueGene to Highlight Invossa, the Worlds First Cell-Mediated Gene Therapy for Degenerative Osteoarthritis, at JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Press Release,accessed June 12, 2017.

7. O.J.L. Rackham et al., A predictive computational framework for direct reprogramming between human cell types, Nat. Genetics 48, 331335 (2016), doi:10.1038/ng.3487.

8. D.B. Kolesky et al., Three-dimensional bioprinting of thick vascularized tissue, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113 (12), 31793184, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1521342113.

9. M.M. Laronda et al., A Bioprosthetic Ovary Created Using 3D Printed Microporous Scaffolds Restores Ovarian Function in Sterilized Mice, Nat. Commun. 8, 15261 (May 16, 2017).

10. I. Sagi et al., Derivation and differentiation of haploid human embryonic stem cells, Nature 532, 107111 (April 7, 2016), doi:10.1038/nature17408.

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GEN Roundup: Top Trends in Tissue Engineering - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on GEN Roundup: Top Trends in Tissue Engineering – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | July 1st, 2017

When 14-year-old Aarav Gulati (name changed on request) met with an accident a couple of years ago while playing football, he injured his knee. A portion of the cartilage was damaged, and doctors used turned to a radical new procedure for a solution. They took Gulatis own cells, grew them in a lab and used them to replace the cartilage and repair the damage in a natural way.

He was an ideal case for the use of regenerative cell therapy that was a fairly new phenomenon in orthopaedic treatment in India, says Dr Yash Gulati, senior joint replacement and spine surgeon, New Delhis Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

The regenerative cell therapy got US FDA approval this year, and the Apollo group partnered with RMS REGROW, a company that specialises in cell therapy technology, to exclusively offer the treatment to patients in India.

Instead of using artificial implants, the technique helps in healing the bone or cartilage damage in a natural way using a persons own cells to regain normal function. Cultured cells (grown in a lab) are injected into a patient to replace diseased or dysfunctional cells.

Instead of using artificial implants, the technique helps in healing the bone or cartilage damage in a natural way using a persons own cells to regain normal function. Cultured cells (grown in a lab) are injected into a patient to replace diseased or dysfunctional cells. (Illustration: Siddhant Jumde)

A small part of the joint cartilage is taken through a keyhole procedure, and is grown in a special manner to convert it into stem cells in the laboratory, says Dr Gulati. This is then applied on the area showing loss of joint cartilage.

Dr Gulati has so far treated 10 people using this therapy in Apollo, Delhi.

Stem cells lead to growth of joint cartilage in defective areas, and normal new cartilage re-grows. In bone damage, bone marrow cells are harvested, cultured and implanted in the area to be able to re-grow in a healthy way, Dr Gulati says.

In Mumbai, those in need of joint replacement because of injury, wear and tear or other lifestyle and ageing, are also realising that new cartilage can be grown in a lab from ones own cells and used instead of artificial materials.

Chondron or cartilage cell therapy is a patient-specific regenerative medical treatment which naturally regrows original cartilage. The therapy is used for repairing articular cartilage of the knee, ankle and shoulder joints and to help replace missing areas of cartilage.

This is a process where a biopsy of cartilage cells (chondrocytes) is taken from the patients knee, ankle or shoulder, says Satyen Sanghavi, chief scientific officer of Regenerative Medical Services Regrow, a biotechnology company in Mumbai.

Causes of bone or cartilage damage

They are then cultured to grow and multiply in a lab for 3-4 weeks into a surplus population of several million. The cultured cells are then re-implanted in the damaged area in a minimally invasive surgical procedure.

The process comes from eight years of work in cell and tissue therapy research. Chondron ACI is the countrys first cell therapy product.

These cells grow and repair tissue with properties similar to that of normal cartilage present in other joints, says Sanghavi. But replacement alone doesnt solve problems. Patients are expected to follow a rehabilitation program, to help the body adjust to new cells and them get back to day-to-day physical.

Its easy to see the advantages of a process like this. Experts say it may avoid the need for future prosthetic joints replacement (especially partial joint replacement) and allows patients the freedom to continue physical activities as before.

It also poses less risk of disease transmission or infection since it comes from the patients own tissue (no foreign material or metal goes inside the body). It may also halt further progression to osteoarthritis, a common problem with those in need of joint replacement.

The procedure costs Rs.3 to 3.5 lakhs.

In India, more than 500 patients have been treated with both bone and cartilage cell therapy procedures, says Sanghavi.

There is a success rate of more than 95%. During our clinical trials and research, we have treated working professionals, housewives, athletes, army men and mountaineers. Almost all of them have successfully recovered and got back to their active life.

However, this new technique has a flip side, too.

The price could be a bit steep for some because stem cell treatment is expensive; and the treatment gets prolonged as a patient has to wait for some time as cell culture takes time and one cannot bear weight on the affected area while the healing is on. Also, not all patients are suitable for it because it can correct only if damage isnt extensive, says Dr Ankit Goyal, associate professor, Safdarjung Sports Injury Centre (SIC) in Delhi.

Safdarjung Hospital had also treated about 35 patients, who had damaged their cartilage, with the technique a few years ago.

We would send cartilage for culture but only in cases where damage was limited. This is definitely not a substitute for knee or hip replacement procedure where the entire joint is extensively damaged. However, it may prevent the need for replacement later on in life, especially in young patients, he says.

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Damaged bone or cartilage? Now, grow your own cells in a lab - Hindustan Times

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Damaged bone or cartilage? Now, grow your own cells in a lab – Hindustan Times | July 1st, 2017

LUCY Clarke was facing a downhill spiral when she flew to Russia to undergo a cutting edge stem cell transplant.

Two years on she says the procedure not only halted her illness in its tracks, but reversed much of the damage inflicted by multiple sclerosis.

The 41-year-old from Inverness is now backing crowdfunding efforts so that her friend and neighbour, Rona Tynan, can receive the same life-changing operation in Mexico before she becomes too ill to qualify.

Mrs Tynan, 50, has until the end of August to raise the 60,000 needed.

However, both are angry at a cross-border divide which means that a small number of MS patients in England can undergo the treatment for free on the NHS, while in Scotland despite having some of the highest rates of MS in the world the health service has refused patients' funding and no clinical trials are planned.

Mrs Clarke, a chemistry graduate and acupuncturist, began investigating AHSCT (autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation) in 2014 after her condition progressed from relapsing-remitting to secondary progressive MS. At the time her son was three and she feared ending up in a wheelchair.

Although the treatment has been available overseas for decades, it has never been routinely available on the NHS and is considered unproven by many neurologists.

It is also a highly aggressive therapy, using intensive chemotherapy to strip out sufferers faulty immune systems before replenishing it with stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow or donor tissue. Despite the risks, many patients including Mrs Clarke credit it with transforming their lives.

She underwent the procedure in Moscow over a period of four weeks in April and May 2015. She said: From when my son was three to when I had the transplant, my walking had deteriorated, I needed to use a walking stick all the time, I had very poor balance, debilitating fatigue, I had brain fog, I used to slur my words.

"Im left-handed and my left hand was really weak so my writing was bad. Other things would come and go numbness in my legs, tingling, cramps in my calves, sore and painful legs. The majority of them have gone since the transplant.

I noticed quite quick improvements in things like balance. The biggest thing is not really having fatigue, and the brain fog completely went. I stopped slurring my words quite quickly after treatment. I was more alert. I had more concentration, more focus. Within six months the shaking in my left arm had gone. Ive still got drop foot in my right leg and I still use a walking stick, but once youve got to the stage of secondary progressive it all gets a bit scary. Things are going downhill and youre told theres nothing that can be done, so really my goal from treatment was just to halt the progression to know I wasnt getting any worse. Thankfully, and luckily, I have seen lots of benefits.

Eighteen months on, MRI brain scans show no signs of disease progression and while Mrs Clarke stresses that the treatment is neither a magic bullet nor a walk in the park, she is supporting Rona Tynans bid to undergo the same surgery in October.

Mrs Tynan, a retired Metropolitan police sergeant and mother-of-two from Inverness, also has secondary progressive MS. She is already in a wheelchair and fears that unless she undergoes the treatment soon she will become too ill. She said: Im a 7.5 out of 10 on the disease progression scale, where 10 is death. Most clinics stop taking you at seven, but Mexico just raised it to 8.5. Thats brilliant for people like myself, but I cant afford to get any more ill.

So far, Mrs Tynans fundraising page on JustGiving has raised nearly 4000, but she is frustrated that more is not being done to help Scottish patients. In England, clinical trials are ongoing in London and Sheffield but a small number of patients with relapsing-remitting MS can be referred for the treatment off-trial, for free, on the NHS. In Scotland, however, eligible patients have been turned down for NHS funding.

Mrs Tynan said: It seems crazy to me that Brits are going to Chicago and Mexico and Russia for a treatment that in the long-run could save the NHS loads of money. Scotland is one of the worst places in the world for MS yet in England you can get this treatment for free. Why arent we fighting in Scotland to get this?

Mrs Clarke added: Its very unfair. It just seems a no brainer to me why they wouldnt make it available not for all patients but for some. The Scottish Government said referral decisions were "for clinicians".

A spokesman said: "Whilst the vast majority of healthcare provided by NHS Scotland is delivered in Scotland, NHS boards can commission treatment in other countries on an ad hoc basis, particularly where highly specialised treatment is involved. Decisions to refer patients are for clinicians, based on agreed guidelines, which ensure best practice, equity of access and consistency of treatment for all patients.

"HSCT is not currently widely available anywhere on the NHS, but people from Scotland can participate in trials held in other centres across the UK, where clinically determined appropriate and beneficial."

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Anger as Scots patients miss out on 'breakthrough' stem cell therapy offered by NHS England - Herald Scotland

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Anger as Scots patients miss out on ‘breakthrough’ stem cell therapy offered by NHS England – Herald Scotland | July 1st, 2017

Updated: Jul 1, 2017 - 6:08 AM

BOSTON - Its been nearly four years since a bone marrow donation saved Mandy Manocchios life, but the anticipation of the last few hours before she met the donor seemed like they took forever.

"When you hear that you have less than a year to live and your life's basically laying on the line and if I didn't find a donor it would've been catastrophic, but she's my angel, she said.

At Brigham and Women's Hospital in November 2013, Mandy had a bone marrow transplant to treat acute myeloid leukemia - on Friday night at The Harp in Boston she finally got to meet Magdelena Kruger, the woman who saved her life.

"She allowed me to watch my children grow up and have another, Mandy said.

Kruger had just landed after an 11-hour flight from Germany. When the two women saw each other there was no need for words.

Stem cells from Kruger were carried 4,000 miles from Germany. Through a translator, she said it was the first time shed ever donated.

I just wanted to help somebody who's sick and needs help, she said.

Now both women are advocates for bone marrow donations. They say the process is relatively simple and life-changing on both ends.

"It's so rewarding to see that immediate result of how you can help somebody, Kruger said.

To learn more about bone marrow donation or to register as a bone marrow donor, please visit dkms.org.

2017 Cox Media Group.

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Embrace expresses more than words for marrow donor who saved woman's life - My Fox Boston

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Embrace expresses more than words for marrow donor who saved woman’s life – My Fox Boston | July 1st, 2017

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - June 29, 2017) - VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.(NASDAQ: VTGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today reported its financial results for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

The Company also provided an update on its corporate progress, clinical status and anticipated milestones for AV-101, its orally available CNS prodrug candidate in Phase 2 development, initially as a new generation treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD).

"With a team of industry experts and a focused strategy in place, we have established a strong foundation and embarked on paths to achieve several key catalysts within the next 18 months. We anticipate our first catalyst within the next 9 months as the NIMH completes its AV-101 Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD, a study being conducted and fully funded by the NIH. Additionally, we are working closely with the FDA and our Principal Investigator, Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University Medical School, on our AV-101 Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study in MDD, which we anticipate will begin enrollment in the first quarter of 2018 and be completed by the end of 2018, with topline results available in the first quarter of 2019," commented Shawn Singh, Chief Executive Officer of VistaGen.

In addition to MDD, AV-101 may have therapeutic potential in several other CNS indications where modulation of NMDA receptors, activation of AMPA pathways and/or active metabolites of AV-101 play a key role, including for treatment of epilepsy, as a non-opioid alternative for management of neuropathic pain, and to address certain symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

Mr. Singh continued, "Our MDD clinical program is our top priority, and will remain so. Additionally, however, recent peer-reviewed publications suggest that AV-101 may have significant therapeutic potential as a non-opioid treatment alternative for pain management. We are also excited about AV-101's potential to reduce dyskinesia associated with standard levodopa, or L-DOPA, therapy for Parkinson's disease, based on results from previous non-clinical studies. Without diverting our priority focus on MDD, we plan to expand our AV-101 Phase 2 clinical program during the next year to include these important CNS indications with significant unmet need."

"We are also pleased to have advanced our cardiac stem cell program during fiscal 2017, through both our participation in the FDA's CiPA initiative focused on using novel human stem cell models to predict cardiac toxicity of new drug candidates long before animal and human studies, as well as our exclusive sublicense agreement with BlueRock Therapeutics, an emerging force in cardiac regenerative medicine, founded and funded by Bayer AG and Versant Ventures. Our initial revenue-generating milestone with BlueRock Therapeutics was completed during fiscal 2017. We are optimistic about this relationship's potential and the future of cardiac regenerative medicine. We believe these significant events over the past year have positioned us to create substantial value for our stakeholders in fiscal 2018 and beyond."

Potential Near-Term Milestones:

Operational Highlights During Fiscal 2017:Achievements Related to Stem Cell Technologies

Advancement of AV-101 as a Potential, Non-Opioid Treatment Alternative for Chronic Pain

Bolstered Team with Industry Experts

Intellectual Property Accomplishments

Capital Market Highlights

Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2017:

Revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017 totaled $1.25 million and was attributable to a sublicense agreement with BlueRock Therapeutics, for certain rights to the Company's proprietary technologies relating to the production of cardiac stem cells for the treatment of heart disease.

Research and development expense totaled $5.2 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, an increase of approximately 33% compared with the $3.9 million incurred for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. The increase in year-over-year research and development expense was attributable to increased focus on development of AV-101, including preparations to launch the Phase 2 Adjunctive Treatment Study in MDD.

General and administrative expense decreased to $6.3 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, from $13.9 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, primarily as a result of the decrease in non-cash stock compensation expense, partially offset by an increase in non-cash expense related to grants of equity securities in payment of certain professional services during fiscal 2017. Of the amounts reported, non-cash expenses, related primarily to grants or modifications of equity securities, totaled approximately $3.1 million in fiscal 2017 and $11.9 million in fiscal 2016.

Net loss for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 was approximately $10.3 million and $47.2 million, respectively, the latter amount including a non-recurring, non-cash expense of approximately $26.7 million attributable to the extinguishment of approximately $15.9 million carrying value of prior indebtedness, including then-outstanding Senior Secured Convertible Notes, and conversion of such indebtedness into equity securities between May and September 2015 at a conversion price (stated value of the equity received) of $7.00 per share.

At March 31, 2017, the Company had a cash and cash equivalents balance of $2.9 million. Since late-March 2017, the Company sold units consisting of unregistered common stock and common stock warrants to accredited investors in a self-placed private placement, yielding approximately $1 million in cash proceeds to the Company.

About VistaGen

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VTGN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders. VistaGen's lead CNS product candidate, AV-101, is in Phase 2 development, initially as a new generation oral antidepressant drug candidate for major depressive disorder (MDD). AV-101's mechanism of action is fundamentally differentiated from all FDA-approved antidepressants and atypical antipsychotics used adjunctively to treat MDD, with potential to drive a paradigm shift towards a new generation of safer and faster-acting antidepressants. AV-101 is currently being evaluated by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in a Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD being fully funded by the NIMH and conducted by Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., Chief, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and Chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the NIMH. VistaGen is preparing to launch a 180-patient Phase 2 study of AV-101 as an adjunctive treatment for MDD patients with inadequate response to standard, FDA-approved antidepressants. Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University will be the Principal Investigator of the Company's Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study. AV-101 may also have the potential to treat multiple CNS disorders and neurodegenerative diseases in addition to MDD, including neuropathic pain, epilepsy, Huntington's disease, L-Dopa-induced dyskinesia associated with Parkinson's disease and other disorders where modulation of the NMDA receptors, activation of AMPA pathways and/or key active metabolites of AV-101 may achieve therapeutic benefit.

VistaStem Therapeutics is VistaGen's wholly owned subsidiary focused on applying human pluripotent stem cell technology, internally and with collaborators, to discover, rescue, develop and commercialize proprietary new chemical entities (NCEs), including small molecule NCEs with regenerative potential, for CNS and other diseases, and cellular therapies involving stem cell-derived blood, cartilage, heart and liver cells.

For more information, please visit http://www.vistagen.com and connect with VistaGen on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

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June 29, 2017 A normal developing spinal cord (left) showing precise patterns of gene activity (red, blue, green demarcating different types of cells). In a spinal cord in which one of the signals is disrupted (right) the accuracy of gene activity has been lost. Credit: Anna Kicheva

Scientists have uncovered how nerve cells in the spinal cord are organised in precise patterns during embryo development - a finding that could give insight into regenerative medicine.

As embryos grow and develop they need the right cell types to end up in the right places inside forming organs. This is particularly important in the spinal cord where different nerve cell types must be accurately positioned so that circuits can assemble properly to control muscle movement. But until now the mechanism underlying nerve cell organisation in the spinal cord has remained poorly understood.

In a study published in Science, researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the Institute of Science and Technology (Austria) and Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (Switzerland) report that cells destined to become nerve cells in developing mouse embryos use two different signals spreading from opposite sides of the spinal cord - the back and belly side - to measure their position accurately. Based on this map, they turn into the appropriate nerve cell type. The research was funded by the European Research Council and Wellcome.

The team of biologists, physicists and engineers found that the amounts of the two signals originating from the back and belly sides of the body affect gene activity in developing nerve cells. Based on this gene activity in early development, the cells turn into the appropriate nerve cell type for that position in the spinal cord.

"We've made an important step in understanding how the diverse cell types in the spinal cord of a developing embryo are organised in a precise spatial pattern. The quantitative measurements and new experimental techniques we used, as well as the combined effort of biologists, physicists and engineers were key. This allowed us to gain new insight into the exquisite accuracy of embryonic development and revealed that cells have remarkable ability of to orchestrate precise tissue development," says Anna Kicheva, Group Leader at IST Austria.

"We have shed light on the long-standing question of how developing tissues produce the right cells in the right place in the right numbers," says James Briscoe, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. "It's likely that similar strategies are used in other developing tissues and our findings might be relevant to these cases. In the long run this will help inform the use of stem cells in approaches such as tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, there is still much more to learn and we need to continue developing these interdisciplinary collaborations to further our biological understanding."

The paper 'Decoding of position in the developing neural tube from antiparallel morphogen gradients' is published in Science.

Explore further: New study reveals how embryonic cells make spinal cord, muscle and bone

More information: "Decoding of position in the developing neural tube from antiparallel morphogen gradients" Science (2017). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aam5887

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