Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Director, Dr Ch. Mohan Rao today claimed that the heart disease can be treated without surgeries in future.

Addressing after inaugurating the 19th Annual conference of the Cardiological Society of India (CSI-AP Chapter) here, Dr Rao said that in the recent research in molecular biology found that 'heart' too have 'stem cells' which will help to automatically build the damaged part of any organ.

He said that further research also going with collaboration of other foreign institutions on how to bring the 'stem cells' out and repair.

Once the solution is found, the cardiac diseases can be healed with surgery, Dr Rao said.

''This development will make the stem cell based therapy replace the chemical based therapy in Cardiology,'' he added.

Irregular eating habits and busy lifestyle are among the major causes of the cordial illness, he said and advised to the youth to follow healthy lifestyle to avoid heart related problems.

While talking about the latest research, he said, ''To reduce the deaths due to cardiac illness the CCMB is working along with the scientists from Japan, the US and Italy to develop the an easier way to treatment.''

Dr Rao also given a clarion call to Cardiology experts to come forward for joint research on cardiac problems.

Encouraging the research in Cardiology, Dr Rao also invited the young medicos to visit the CCMB campus and work with the institute.

Discussing various kinds of heart diseases, he said, ''Dilated Cardiomyopathy is one of the most common heart disease among the children.''

Continue reading here:
Cardiac diseases to be treated without surgeries soon as stem cells found

Federal funding blocked mainly over opposition to use of blastocysts

PORTSMOUTH Dr. Amy Sievers, an oncologist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, does stem cell transplants with great success for her patients and is a firm advocate for stem cell research.

Sievers is allowed to do stem cell blood transplants because she does not use the source of controversy, embryonic stem cells. Instead, she can use stem cells from bone marrow, where blood is made. The cells can become new blood for transfusion into patients with blood-related cancers like leukemia.

"When we get past the chemo and radiation, the hope is we can replace blood and give the patient healthy blood and a chance to build a good immune system," Sievers said.

Parents saving cord blood when they give birth is an option, but Dr. Alexandra Bonesho of Core Physicians in Epping said it is very costly for the patient, is not covered by insurance and is not something pediatricians recommend widely unless there is a reason.

"It's not something we use as a practical course of events," Bonesho said. "Cord blood banking is very expensive, less so if the blood stem cells are donated to the National Cord Blood Bank. In most cases, the chance that you will need it for your own child is unlikely, unless there is already a known condition in the family."

For example, if there is a history of leukemia in another child, it may be worthwhile. Bonesho said in a case like that, having the baby's own blood stem cells can be the perfect answer.

"However, chances are good that if there is a sibling, they may also be a good match if a bone marrow transplant is needed," Bonesho said. "However, transplants are not the normal course of treatment in children with leukemia."

That being said, the cord blood could eventually be used for research in the future to find a cure for diseases like sickle cell anemia, Bonesho said.

Federal funding for much stem cell research is blocked mainly over the opposition to using embryonic stem cells. The cells come from blastocysts (fertilized eggs) from an in-vitro facility. The blastocysts are excess and are usually donated by people who have already been successfully treated for fertility problems.

More here:
The promise and hazards of stem cell research

A study which had claimed to have come up with a new fast, easy, inexpensive and uncontroversial method of produce stem cells has now been retracted.

According to CNN, scientists had taken a skin cell and coaxed it into acting like an embryo, producing embryonic-like stem cells that could theoretically be turned into any cell in the body. What was described as a 'breakthrough' is how these cells were coaxed, by placing them in an acidic bath.

But the researchers, who had announced the results in January 2014, have now stated in their retraction that their papers had "several critical errors" in their study data.

An investigation into the studies was started by the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan in February 2014, and the institution said its investigators had "categorized some of the errors as misconduct."

In fact, one of the co-authors of the study had also called for a retraction in March, because he questioned some of the data that were used in the experiments, which led to the creation of so-called STAP cells (or stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency cells).

In an editorial accompanying the retraction, it was written that the errors were found in the figures, parts of the methods descriptions were found to be plagiarized, and early attempts to replicate the work failed.

The investigation found that data supposedly representing different cells and different embryos in the study were actually describing the same cells and the same embryos.

The study was published in the journal Nature, which is now accompanied by the retraction of all co-authors.

(Posted on 03-07-2014)

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Results for 'breakthrough' stem cell study taken back

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In 2010, MLB player, Bartolo Colon received stem cell injections from Dr. Purita after half a decade struggle with shoulder and elbow injuries. Dr. Purita treated him and in a comeback that was nothing short of miraculous, Colon went on to pitch his signature 95-mile-an-hour fastball the next season.

Stem MDs foundation is built on the combined knowledge of the most trusted and effective sources and practitioners in regenerative medicine today. Leveraging our vast resources and collective experience, Stem MD is able to offer a treatment plan tailored specifically to each patients needs.

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Stem Cell Therapy | Regenerative Medicine

Top 16 Safe Alzheimer Stem Cell Therapy Options Worldwide
The cure for Alzheimer #39;s has not yet been found, yet, the miraculous stem cells have been effective in treating the symptoms of the disease and re-establishing neural connections. Available...

By: placidways

Originally posted here:
Top 16 Safe Alzheimer Stem Cell Therapy Options Worldwide - Video

Stem Cell Therapy and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy

By: DR Kyle Kinmon

The rest is here:
Stem Cell Therapy and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy - Video

By Ben Spencer

Published: 09:48 EST, 4 July 2014 | Updated: 10:20 EST, 4 July 2014

Fat removed from a heart attack patient during cardiac surgery could be re-injected into their chest to lower the risk of repeat problems, research suggests.

Scientists think that stem cells in fatty tissue could be extracted and inserted directly into the heart, reducing the chance of future attacks.

The stem cells - blank cells capable of acting as a repair kit for the body by replacing worn-out tissue - can improve the functioning of the heart and strengthen crucial arteries and veins, the researchers found.

Usually most of the fat that is found during open heart surgery is removed and then discarded.

Scientists believe fat removed from a heart attack patient during cardiac surgery could be re-injected into their chest to lower the risk of repeat problems. Stock image

But the new study suggests that the fat could be retained and the useful stem cells isolated and injected back into the heart - all while the patient is still on the operating table.

Canadian cardiologist Dr Ganghong Tian, who will present his findings at a European Society of Cardiology conference in Barcelona tomorrow (Sunday), said: During cardiac surgery fat tissue may need to be removed from patients to expose the heart.

We were intrigued to find out whether this mediastinal fat, which would otherwise be discarded, contained stem cells that could be injected back into the heart before closing the chest.

Read more from the original source:
Fat cells removed from heart attack patients could be re-injected into their chest to help repair the organ ...

It sounds like something straight out of science fiction: stem cells from donated placentas are being injected into patients with hard-to-heal injuries. The results have been phenomenal, all by taking advantage of something that would be discarded as medical waste.

The stem cells inside a tiny vial will morph into something totally new once injected into the body. Dr. Brett Cascio is the Medical Director of Sports Medicine at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and he is using this cutting edge technology in some of his toughest cases. We've know the special nature of stem cells for years, decades, he said, but harvesting them and getting them to do what we want them to do is the difficult part.

Dr. Cascio has treated all sorts of injuries - some that just have a tough time healing. For some reason along the way, their healing either stopped or went haywire and they didn't heal correctly, he said, and they need help on the cellular level to heal their problem.

That is where stem cells come in: not from a live human being, but from a donated placenta. The cells are tested, prepared and frozen until needed. One placenta can help hundreds of patients. You don't reject these cells, said Dr. Cascio, your body recognizes them as a potential healing factor and helps it to heal itself.

That healing is something Chad Theriot was desperate to find after rupturing the longest ligament in his foot while playing basketball. I heard a loud pop, he said, and then instant pain. I knew immediately that something was wrong.

Months passed with Theriot on crutches, in a boot, in pain and unable to be the family man he wanted to be. My wife was having to pick up slack everywhere, he said, at home, at work, with the baby.. I wasn't able to help much.

A second opinion brought Theriot to Dr. Cascio. The plan was to inject stem cells into the bottom of Theriot's foot , having them grow into good, healthy tissue in the place of what was damaged. So if you put them in connective tissue or skin, they can grow into skin-type cells or in muscle, they can grow into muscle-type cells, said Dr. Cascio.

Patients are given twilight anesthesia and the injections are given under X-ray guidance. The actual injection only takes one minute. Two weeks later I was taking unassisted steps and my pain level on a scale from one to ten went from an eight to a two, said Theriot.

That was the first time Theriot walked without help in four months. That was a big day for me, he said, that was a big day for us.

This stem cell technology is still in its early stages, but Dr. Cascio says the future is exciting. These are not magical cells, it's not like pixie dust, but they help the body heal itself and you can get some really amazing results, he said.

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Stem cells from donated placentas healing stubborn injuries

July 5, 2014

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

According to a new study appearing in the July 3 edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have uncovered a new genetic variant that could result in certain people having a predisposition to schizophrenia.

While there are many genetic variants that could increase the risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, they are insufficient to cause these diseases, the researchers explained. Now, however, the Johns Hopkins researchers have described a new strategy that could reveal how these so-called subthreshold genetic risks could impact the development of a persons nervous system by interacting with other risk factors.

This is an important step toward understanding what physically happens in the developing brain that puts people at risk of schizophrenia, senior author Dr. Guo-li Ming explained in a statement Thursday. Dr. Ming is a professor of neurology and neuroscience in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicines Institute for Cell Engineering who worked on the study along with her husband, Dr. Hongjun Song.

In their study, Dr. Ming, Dr. Song and their colleagues explained that they used a multifaceted approach to find out why copy number variants in an area of the genome labeled 15q11.2 are prominent risk factors not just for schizophrenia, but for autism as well. Deletion of this part of a genome is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, but possessing extra copies results in an elevated risk of autism.

Their research focused on using a method which allows a patients skin cell to be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can in turn be coaxed into creating any other type of cell. Using this technology, the study authors obtained stem cells from people with schizophrenia who were missing part of 15q11.2 on one of their chromosomes, ultimately coaxing them into neural progenitor cells, which are found in the developing brain.

By observing the process, the researchers found deficiencies during nerve development that could be linked to the gene CYFIP1, which maintains the structure of a nerve cell. By blocking the expression of this gene in developing mouse embryos, they found defects in the formation of the brains cerebral cortex, which plays a key role in consciousness.

The next step was to determine how this gene could interact with other factors, and they discovered that mutations in a pair of genes within a particular cellular pathway linked to CYFIP1 resulted in a significant increase in schizophrenia risk. According to the study authors, their research supports the belief that multiple factors in a single pathway could interact with one another to impact a patients potential risk for psychiatric disorders.

The reason, the team found, is that CYFIP1 plays a role in building the skeleton that gives shape to each cell, and its loss affects spots called adherens junctions where the skeletons of two neighboring cells connect, the university explained. A lack of CYFIP1 protein also caused some of the mice neurons to wind up in the brains wrong layer.

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Johns Hopkins Researchers Locate Genetic Variant Associated With Schizophrenia

CHICAGO Bone marrow transplants can reverse severe sickle cell disease in adults, a small study by government scientists found, echoing results seen with a similar technique used in children.

The researchers and others say the findings show age need not be a barrier and that the technique may change practice for some adult patients when standard treatment fails. The transplant worked in 26 of 30 adults, and 15 of them were even able to stop taking drugs that prevent rejection one year later.

We're very pleased,'' said Dr. John Tisdale, the study's senior author and a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health. This is what we hoped for.''

The treatment is a modified version of bone marrow transplants that have worked in kids. Donors are a brother or sister whose stem cell-rich bone marrow is a good match for the patient.

Tisdale said doctors have avoided trying standard transplants in adults with severe sickle cell disease because the treatment is so toxic. Children can often tolerate it because the disease typically hasn't taken as big a toll on their bodies, he said.

The disease is debilitating and often life-shortening; patients die on average in their 40s, Tisdale said. That's one reason why the researchers decided to try the transplants in adults, with hopes that the technique could extend their lives.

The treatment involves using chemotherapy and radiation to destroy bone marrow before replacing it with healthy donor marrow cells. In children, bone marrow is completely wiped out. In the adult study, the researchers only partially destroyed the bone marrow, requiring less donor marrow. That marrow's healthy blood cells outlast sickle cells and eventually replace them.

Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that damages oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in red blood cells, causing them to form abnormal, sickle shapes that can block blood flow through the veins. It can cause anemia, pain and organ damage. The disease affects about 100,000 Americans, mostly blacks, and millions worldwide.

Results from the adult study, involving patients aged 29 on average, were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The usual treatment hadn't worked, a drug called hydroxyurea, and they had transplants at an NIH research hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

The treatment failed to reverse sickle cell in four of the 30 patients and one died of a disease-related complication. Another patient died suddenly a few weeks ago an elderly man whose transplant four years ago had been a success. Tisdale said that man had lived longer than the normal lifespan for sickle cell patients but that his death was unexpected and an autopsy was to be performed.

More here:
Marrow transplants can reverse adult sickle cell

Following months of controversy, editors at the scientific journal Nature have retracted two high-profile studies that purported to demonstrate a quick and simple way of making flexible stem cells without destroying embryos or tinkering with DNA.

Several critical errors have been found in our Article and Letter, Nature wrote in a retraction statement issued Wednesday. We apologize for the mistakes.

------------

FOR THE RECORD

July 3, 7:53 a.m.: An article in the July 3 A section about two controversial stem cell studies that were retracted had stated that the decision was made by editors at the journal Nature. The retraction decision was made by the authors of the studies. Additionally, the comments in the retraction statement should have been attributed to the authors of the studies, not to the journal editors.

------------

The two reports described a new way of reprogramming blood cells so that they would revert to a developmentally primitive state and be capable of growing into any type of cell. Researchers from Japan and the United States said they accomplished this feat by soaking the cells in an acid bath for 30 minutes and then spinning them in a centrifuge for 5 minutes.

The resulting stem cells dubbed stimulus triggered acquisition of pluripotency, or STAP had the hallmarks of embryonic stem cells. When the researchers injected them into developing mice, the STAP stem cells grew into heart, bone and brain cells, among others, the research team reported in January.

Scientists in the field of regenerative medicine were giddy at the prospect of using the cells to grow new insulin-producing cells for people with Type 1 diabetes or central nervous system cells for people with spinal cord injuries, to name a few examples. Since these replacement tissues would be generated from a patients own cells, researchers believed they would not prompt the immune system to attack, eliminating the need for patients to take immune-suppressing drugs.

But it didnt take long for some researchers to suspect that STAP stem cells were too good to be true. Critiques posted online gained more currency when labs began reporting that they werent able to replicate the experiments. Then one of the senior researchers who worked on both of the studies called for the papers to be withdrawn until the results could be independently verified.

Originally posted here:
Nature retracts STAP stem cell studies after finding more errors

Following months of controversy, editors at the scientific journal Nature have retracted two high-profile studies that purported to demonstrate a quick and simple way of making flexible stem cells without destroying embryos or tinkering with DNA.

Several critical errors have been found in our Article and Letter, Nature wrote in a retraction statement issued Wednesday. We apologize for the mistakes.

------------

FOR THE RECORD

July 3, 7:53 a.m.: An article in the July 3 A section about two controversial stem cell studies that were retracted had stated that the decision was made by editors at the journal Nature. The retraction decision was made by the authors of the studies. Additionally, the comments in the retraction statement should have been attributed to the authors of the studies, not to the journal editors.

------------

The two reports described a new way of reprogramming blood cells so that they would revert to a developmentally primitive state and be capable of growing into any type of cell. Researchers from Japan and the United States said they accomplished this feat by soaking the cells in an acid bath for 30 minutes and then spinning them in a centrifuge for 5 minutes.

The resulting stem cells dubbed stimulus triggered acquisition of pluripotency, or STAP had the hallmarks of embryonic stem cells. When the researchers injected them into developing mice, the STAP stem cells grew into heart, bone and brain cells, among others, the research team reported in January.

Scientists in the field of regenerative medicine were giddy at the prospect of using the cells to grow new insulin-producing cells for people with Type 1 diabetes or central nervous system cells for people with spinal cord injuries, to name a few examples. Since these replacement tissues would be generated from a patients own cells, researchers believed they would not prompt the immune system to attack, eliminating the need for patients to take immune-suppressing drugs.

But it didnt take long for some researchers to suspect that STAP stem cells were too good to be true. Critiques posted online gained more currency when labs began reporting that they werent able to replicate the experiments. Then one of the senior researchers who worked on both of the studies called for the papers to be withdrawn until the results could be independently verified.

Read the original:
Nature STAP stem cell studies retracted after more errors found

TAMPA

Twice a week, Gabriela Camargo and her husband, Romulo, get up before dawn to get him dressed, settled in his wheelchair and ready for the two-hour trip to Longwood, near Orlando, for the kind of intense, long-term physical therapy they hope will one day get him walking again.

After Romulo undergoes three hours of guided workouts on advanced exercise machines at Project Walk a therapy center unlike any in the Tampa Bay area, they say they fight the traffic back.

"I-4 is crazy!'' says Gabriela, adding that the couple usually arrives back home in New Tampa about 3:30 p.m.

After about a year of the routine, Gaby, as she's called, decided that she and "Romy'' should open a nonprofit intensive therapy center in Tampa.

"I thought it was a crazy idea,'' said Romy, an Army Special Forces officer who was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the shoulders down during an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008.

But the more he thought about it, the more he liked the plan.

They seem to be on their way, having collected about $216,000 in corporate and individual donations toward the $750,000 they figure they'll need for two years of operating expenses. They hope to open the StayInStep spinal cord injury therapy center in north Tampa in the fall.

Romy, a chief warrant officer 3, remains on active duty until his retirement next spring after 20 years in the service.

In 2011, Dr. Carlos Lima of Portugal, a pioneer in the use of stem cell surgery to stimulate nerve regeneration in spinal cord injury patients, operated on Romy, taking stem cells from tissue inside Romy's nose and transferring them to site of the injury.

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Paralyzed veteran raises money for therapy center in Tampa

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July 4th Marks 75th Anniversary of Lou Gehrigs Farewell Speech

ROCHESTER, Minn. Seventy-five years ago, on July 4th 1939, baseball legend Lou Gehrig delivered the famous speech bidding farewell to the ballpark and his fans. Two weeks before Gehrig had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)at Mayo Clinicin Rochester, Minnesota. Accompanied by his wife, Eleanor, Lou left Mayo Clinic with the devastating diagnosis on June 20th 1939, a day after his 36th birthday. He died in June two years later, not quite 38 years old, of the rare neurological disease that would come to bear his name.

MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Journalists, the video package and addition b-roll are available in the downloads. To read the video script click here.

ALS is a type of progressive motor neuron disease that typically strikes at middle to later life and causes nerve cells in spinal cord, brain stem and brain to gradually break down and die. These nerve cells are responsible for muscle function so eventually, ALS can affect the ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe.

While ALS still evades cure and effective treatment, researchers at Mayo Clinic are conducting Phase I clinical trial in the hope that they can guide newly grown stem cells to become protective of neuromuscular function.

We use fat-derived mesenchymal stem cells from the patient's own body. These cells are modified in the laboratory and delivered through a spinal tap into the fluid around the patient's nervous system to promote neuron survival, explains neurologist Anthony Windebank, M.D, deputy director for discovery in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. We hope that the growth factors that they are producing will help protect and promote the survival of nerve cells and therefore slow down or arrest the progression of ALS. If we can halt an ALS patient's loss of cells at 20 to 30 percent, that persons function would be well-preserved," says Dr. Windebank.

In the current phase of the FDA-controlled trial, Dr. Windebank and his team are studying the safety and efficacy of the treatment. If injecting ALS patients with stem cells grown from samples of their own fat tissue is found to be safe, the research would move to a Phase II, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial to allow further study of safety and efficacy on a greater number of patients.

The FDA just approved another clinical trial in which Mayo Clinic will take part. The BrainStorm Phase II trial will look into whether stem cells can be used to actually replace the neurons that have been destroyed by ALS.

###

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July 4th Marks 75th Anniversary of Lou Gehrigs Farewell Speech

A new study shows that adipose-derived human stem cells, which can become vital tissues such as bone, may be highly resistant to the common chemotherapy drug methotrexate (MTX). The preliminary finding from lab testing may prove significant because MTX causes bone tissue damage in many patients.

MTX is used to treat cancers including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. A major side effect of the therapy, however, is a loss of bone mineral density. Other bone building stem cells, such as bone marrow derived stem cells, have not withstood MTX doses well.

"Kids undergo chemotherapy at such an important time when they should be growing, but instead they are introduced to this very harsh environment where bone cells are damaged with these drugs," said Olivia Beane, a Brown University graduate student in the Center for Biomedical Engineering and lead author of the study. "That leads to major long-term side effects including osteoporosis and bone defects. If we found a stem cell that was resistant to the chemotherapeutic agent and could promote bone growth by becoming bone itself, then maybe they wouldn't have these issues."

Stem cell survivors

Originally Beane was doing much more basic research. She was looking for chemicals that could help purify adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) from mixed cell cultures to encourage their proliferation. Among other things, she she tried chemotherapy drugs, figuring that maybe the ASCs would withstand a drug that other cells could not. The idea that this could help cancer patients did not come until later.

In the study published online in the journal Experimental Cell Research, Beane exposed pure human ASC cultures, "stromal vascular fraction" (SVF) tissue samples (which include several cell types including ASCs), and cultures of human fibroblast cells, to medically relevant concentrations of chemotherapy drugs for 24 hours. Then she measured how those cell populations fared over the next 10 days. She also measured the ability of MTX-exposed ASCs, both alone and in SVF, to proliferate and turn into other tissues.

Beane worked with co-authors fellow center member Eric Darling, the Manning Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology, and research assistant Vera Fonseca.

They observed that three chemotherapy drugs -- cytarabine, etoposide, and vincristine -- decimated all three groups of cells, but in contrast to the fibroblast controls, the ASCs withstood a variety of doses of MTX exceptionally well (they resisted vincristine somewhat, too). MTX had little or no effect on ASC viability, cell division, senescence, or their ability to become bone, fat, or cartilage tissue when induced to do so.

The SVF tissue samples also withstood MTX doses well. That turns out to be significant, Darling said, because that's the kind of tissue that would actually be clinically useful if an ASC-based therapy were ever developed for cancer patients. Hypothetically, fresh SVF could be harvested from the fat of a donor, as it was for the study, and injected into bone tissue, delivering ASCs to the site.

To understand why the ASCs resist MTX, the researchers conducted further tests. MTX shuts down DNA biosynthesis by binding the protein dihydrofolate reductase so that it is unavailable to assist in that essential task. The testing showed that ASCs ramped up dihydrofolate reductase levels upon exposure to the drug, meaning they produced enough to overcome a clinically relevant dose of MTX.

Link:
Stem cell type resists chemotherapy drug

July 2, 2014

News Review From Harvard Medical School -- Transplant May Help Adults with Sickle Cell

A partial transplant of bone-marrow stem cells may reverse sickle cell disease in adults, a new study finds. People with sickle cell disease have abnormally shaped red blood cells. They get stuck in blood vessels. This causes organ damage, pain and other medical problems. The new study included 30 adults with severe sickle cell disease. Each of them had a brother or sister who was a suitable match for a bone-marrow stem cell transplant. The sibling donor's cells were mixed with some of the patient's own cells. During 3.4 years of follow-up, the partial transplant reversed sickle cell disease in 26 out of 30 people, researchers said. In these patients, the bone marrow began making normal red blood cells. Fifteen people also were able to stop taking drugs to prevent rejection of the transplant. Overall, people were much less likely than before to need hospital treatment for the disease. Use of narcotic drugs for pain also was greatly reduced. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the study. HealthDay News wrote about it July 1.

By Howard LeWine, M.D.Harvard Medical School

What Is the Doctor's Reaction?

In the United States, more than 90,000 people are affected by sickle cell disease. Most of them are African-American. Worldwide, the number is much higher. About 300,000 babies are born with this genetic disease every year.

In sickle cell disease, the red blood cells made in the bone marrow are abnormal. Instead of having a normal round shape, the cells are curved and stiff. This causes the red blood cells to get stuck inside blood vessels before they reach the tissues. The result:

Read this article:
News Review From Harvard Medical School -- Transplant May Help Adults with Sickle Cell

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 1, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A new bone marrow transplant technique for adults with sickle cell disease may "cure" many patients. And it avoids the toxic effects associated with long-term use of anti-rejection drugs, a new study suggests.

This experimental technique mixes stem cells from a sibling with the patient's own cells. Of 30 patients treated this way, many stopped using anti-rejection drugs within a year, and avoided serious side effects of transplants -- rejection and graft-versus-host disease, in which donor cells attack the recipient cells, the researchers said.

"We can successfully reverse sickle cell disease with a partial bone marrow transplant in very sick adult patients without the need for long-term medications," said researcher Dr. John Tisdale, a senior investigator at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

In the United States, more than 90,000 people have sickle cell disease, a painful genetic disorder found mainly among blacks. Worldwide, millions of people have the disease.

Many adults with sickle cell disease have organ damage. This makes them ineligible for traditional transplants, which destroy all their bone marrow cells and use unmatched donor cells, he said. "Doing it this way would allow them access to a potential cure," Tisdale said.

"Adult patients, in whom symptoms are very severe, should consider whether a transplant could be right for them," he said. "A simple blood test for their siblings could tell them whether this approach is an option."

One expert was enthusiastic about the report, published July 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The outcomes look every bit as good, if not better, than anything reported so far," said Dr. John DiPersio, chief of the division of oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"The issue is whether this can be extended to unrelated donors and to mismatched donors," said DiPersio, also the author of an accompanying journal editorial.

Continued here:
Less Toxic Transplant Treatment Offers Hope for Sickle Cell Patients

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Newswise INDIANAPOLIS -- Like a line of falling dominos, a cascade of molecular events in the bone marrow produces high levels of inflammation that disrupt normal blood formation and lead to potentially deadly disorders including leukemia, an Indiana University-led research team has reported.

The discovery, published by the journal Cell Stem Cell, points the way to potential new strategies to treat the blood disorders and further illuminates the relationship between inflammation and cancer, said lead investigator Nadia Carlesso, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Bone marrow includes the cells that produce the body's red and white blood system cells in a process called hematopoiesis. The marrow also provides a support system and "home" for the blood-producing cells called the hematopoietic microenvironment. The new research demonstrates the importance of the hematopoietic microenvironment in the development of a group of potentially deadly diseases called myeloproliferative disorders.

"It has been known for years that there are links between inflammation and cancer, but these studies have been challenged by the lack of genetic models, especially for blood-based malignancies," said Dr. Carlesso, a member of the hematologic malignancy and stem cell biology program within the Wells Center of Pediatric Research at IU.

The researchers focused on what happens when there are abnormally low levels of a molecule called Notch, which plays an important role in the process of blood cell production. Using a genetically modified mouse, they found that the loss of Notch function in the microenvironment causes a chain of molecular events that result in excess production of inflammatory factors.

The high levels of inflammation in the bone marrow were associated with the development of a myeloproliferative disorder in the mice. Myeloproliferative diseases in humans can result in several illnesses caused by overproduction of myeloid cells, which are normally are used to fight infections. These diseases can put patients at risk for heart attack or stroke, and frequently progress into acute leukemia and bone marrow failure, which have fatal outcomes. Unfortunately, there are no effective therapies for the majority of myeloproliferative diseases.

When Dr. Carlessos team blocked the activity of one of the molecules in this biochemical cascade, the myeloproliferative disorder in the mice was reversed. In addition, elevated levels of the blocked molecule were found in samples from human patients with myeloproliferative disease. These findings suggest that developing drugs that target this inflammatory reaction at different key points could be a promising strategy to limit the development of myeloproliferative disease in humans.

The molecular cascade leading to inflammation was not occurring directly in the bone marrow cells that produce blood cells, but in cells of the bone marrow microenvironment, especially in endothelial cells that line the capillaries -- tiny blood vessels -- inside the bone marrow. This was a key discovery, Dr. Carlesso said.

Continued here:
Biochemical Cascade Causes Bone Marrow Inflammation, Leading to Serious Blood Disorders

Last reviewed and revised on May 20, 2013

By Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D. Brigham and Women's Hospital

Both adult and umbilical cord stem cells already are used to treat disease.

Adult stem cells:

For many years, doctors have used adult stem cells successfully to treat human disease, through bone marrow transplantation (also known as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation). Most often, this treatment is used to treat cancers of the bloodlymphomas and leukemias. When all other treatments have failed, the only hope for a cure is to wipe out all of the patients blood cellsthe cancerous ones and the healthy onesand to give a patient an entirely new blood system. The only way to do this is to transplant blood stem cellscells that can reproduce themselves indefinitely and turn into all types of specialized blood cells.

Here's how it's done. First, the doctors need to collect blood stem cells from a patient's bone marrow, and let them multiply.

Second, the patient is given a dose of chemotherapy that kills all of the cancer cells a dose that, unfortunately, also kills the cells in the patient's bone marrow.

Third, the blood stem cellsthe cells designed to give the patient a whole new blood systemare given to the patient through an intravenous catheter. Hopefully, the blood stem cells then travel through the blood to the bone marrow, where they take up residence and start to make a new blood system.

Where do the blood stem cells come from? Most of the time, they come from the patient himself. They are sucked out of the patients bone marrow through a needle, or taken from the patients blood (some blood stem cells travel in the blood). So the blood stem cells are outside the patients body, growing in a laboratory dish, when the patient is given the chemotherapy that kills all the blood cells still inside the body.

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Special Harvard Commentary: How Stem Cells Help Treat Human Disease

hide captionThe heart beats in a mouse embryo grown with stem cells made from blood. Now the research that claimed a simple acid solution could be used to create those cells has been retracted.

The heart beats in a mouse embryo grown with stem cells made from blood. Now the research that claimed a simple acid solution could be used to create those cells has been retracted.

A prestigious scientific journal Wednesday took the unusual step of retracting some high-profile research that had generated international excitement about stem cell research.

The British scientific journal Nature retracted two papers published in January by scientists at the Riken research institute in Japan and at Harvard Medical School that claimed that they could create stem cells simply by dipping skin and blood cells into acid.

The claim raised the possibility of being able to use the cells to easily make any kind of cell in the body to treat many diseases and generated international media coverage, including some on Shots.

But other scientists almost immediately raised questions about the papers, and investigators eventually found that the research papers contained many errors. In April, Riken even concluded that Haruko Obokata, the main Japanese scientist, was guilty of scientific misconduct.

The scientists involved in the work, including Charles Vacanti at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, issued statements regretting the problems with the papers and agreeing that they should be retracted.

"I am deeply saddened by all that has transpired, and after thoughtful consideration of the errors presented in the Riken report and other concerns that have been raised, I have agreed to retract the papers," Vacanti wrote in a statement.

But Vacanti and Obokata said they still believed their techniques could work. In fact, Riken recently agreed to allow Obokata to participate in an experiment aimed at attempting to reproduce the original results.

For its part, the journal Nature said it was reviewing its policies to try to prevent future flawed papers from being published and published retractions of the two original papers as well as the editorial that accompanied them.

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Easy Method For Making Stem Cells Was Too Good To Be True