Monday, October 11, 2010 - Noon

Stephen Ellis, MD Section Head of Invasive/Interventional Cardiology, Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine

Stem cells are natures own transformers. When the body is injured, stem cells travel to the scene of the accident and help heal damaged tissue. The cells do this by transforming into whatever type of cell has been injured- bone, skin and even heart tissue. Researchers at Cleveland Clinic believe that the efficiency of stem cells for treating heart tissue can be boosted and help the body recover faster and better from heart attacks. Join us in a free online chat with cardiologist Stephen Ellis, MD. Dr. Ellis is leading one of the clinical trials and will be answering your questions about stem cell therapy for heart disease.

Cleveland_Clinic_Host: Welcome to our "Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease" online health chat with Stephen Ellis, MD. Dr. Ellis is leading one of the research studies for stem cell therapy and heart disease so he will be answering a variety of questions on the topic. We are very excited to have him here today!

Thank for joining us Dr. Ellis, let's begin with the questions.

Dr__Ellis: Thank you for having me today.

Robert_B: I have a question on Stem Cell and stabilizing a two chamber heart condition.. Could donor adult stem cells help stabilize the heart and repair some of the damage? Patient also suffers from cardiac sclerosis of the liver.

Dr__Ellis: Stem cells are currently being evaluated to see if they may or may not strengthen hearts previously damaged by heart attacks or other conditions. They are considered experimental for this purpose. There are several ongoing clinical trials available in the U.S.

cabbagepatch: I have been going through other tests for heart transplant consideration, & with everything I have been going through would I be a candidate for heart stem cell repair? How would I find out? My cardiologist is Dr. Hsich in Cleveland.

Dr__Ellis: You may be a candidate for the NIH FOCUS trial at the Cleveland Clinic. Please ask Dr. Hsich - she would be able to help you.

Read more:
Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease Webchat - Dr. Ellis

Keeping in tradition with the Us commitment to advance the fields of medicine and surgery, our physicians are focusing on regenerative medicine as the next frontier in treating cardiovascular disease. Researchers within the Cardiovascular Center estimate cell therapy will be FDA-approved within three years. The goal of this therapy is to give cells back to the heart in order for it to grow stronger, work harder, and function more like a younger heart. Currently, studies include the potentiality of injecting cardiac repair cells into patients hearts to improve function.

This is the first trial of its kind in the United States, providing heart patients who have limited or no other options with a viable treatment. Using some of the best imaging technology, researchers have been able to see improvements in patients within six months after injecting their own cells directly into the left ventricle of the heart during minimally invasive surgery.

To contact us, please use the contact number provided.

The rest is here:
Heart Stem Cell Therapy - - - University of Utah Health Care ...

Clinical Policy Bulletin: Stem Cells for Bone Marrow Transplant

Aetna considers compatibility testing of prospective donors who are members of the immediate family (first-degree relatives, i.e., parents, siblings and children) and harvesting and short-term storage of peripheral stem cells or bone marrow from the identified donor medically necessary when an allogeneic bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplant is authorized by Aetna.

Aetna considers umbilical cord blood stem cells an acceptable alternative to conventional bone marrow or peripheral stem cells for allogeneic transplant.

Aetna considers medically necessary the short-term storage of umbilical cord blood for a member with a malignancy undergoing treatment when there is a match. Note: The harvesting, freezing and/or storing umbilical cord blood of non-diseased persons for possible future use is not considered treatment of disease or injury. Such use is not related to the persons current medical care.

Notes:

When a covered family member of a newborn infant has a medically necessary indication for an allogeneic bone marrow transplant and wishes to use umbilical cord blood stem cells as an alternative, Aetna covers the testing of umbilical cord blood for compatibility for transplant under the potential recipients plan.

Performance of HLA typing and identification of a suitable donor does not, in and of itself, guarantee coverage of allogeneic bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation. Medical necessity criteria and plan limitations and exclusions may apply.

See also the following CPBs related to bone marrow and peripheral stem cell transplantation:

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2007), cord blood transplantation has been shown to be curative in patients with a variety of serious diseases. Physicians should be familiar with the rationale for cord blood banking and with the types of cord blood banking programs available. Physicians consulted by prospective parents about cord blood banking can provide the following information:

Cord blood donation should be discouraged when cord blood stored in a bank is to be directed for later personal or family use, because most conditions that might be helped by cord blood stem cells already exist in the infant's cord blood (i.e., pre-malignant changes in stem cells). Physicians should be aware of the unsubstantiated claims of private cord blood banks made to future parents that promise to insure infants or family members against serious illnesses in the future by use of the stem cells contained in cord blood. Although not standard of care, directed cord blood banking should be encouraged when there is knowledge of a full sibling in the family with a medical condition (malignant or genetic) that could potentially benefit from cord blood transplantation.

Here is the original post:
Stem Cells for Bone Marrow Transplant

A Vietnamese girl adopted by a Swiss family underwent a stem cell transplant last Friday, months after she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Joon Gremillet, 18, is under special care at the Geneva General Hospital with visits restricted to protect her from infections, given that her immune system drops close to zero, according to a post on the blog site Help Joon, which was opened to look for a matching donor by her adoptive father Patrick Gremillet, a senior program coordinator at the United Nations Development Program.

Patrick received Joon from a maternity hospital in Hai Phong in northern Vietnam and she has grown up with the family, traveling through Laos, Thailand, US, Austria and France.

Joon, who started her university studies last year in Geneva, was diagnosed with leukemia last May.

She was hospitalized immediately and received chemotherapy before the search began for a bone marrow donor that considerably increases chances of survival.

The father said a donor was a stressful issue as Joon was adopted and there was little chance of finding a matching donor in her current community.

He said there are also few Asians, and Vietnamese in particular, who are enrolled in the international stem cell donor registry.

Fortunately, a compatible donor was found in November, although details are being kept confidential.

Patrick said the donors stem cells were infused into his daughter in a process that lasted nearly two hours.

He said Joon will have to wait for between ten to 30 days before the transplanted cells begin to circulate in her bones and gradually resume production of bone marrow and blood cells. If things go well, she can regain immunity after three months.

Read the original here:
A miracle and a clarion call for more

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

2-Jan-2014

Contact: Leah Ramsay lramsay@jhu.edu 202-642-9640 Johns Hopkins Medicine

In an early indication of lay opinions on research with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are stem cells made from skin or other tissues, a new study by bioethicists at Johns Hopkins University indicates that despite some ethical concerns, patients give the research "broad endorsement".

During focus group discussions patients were largely in favor of participating in iPSC research even if personal benefit was unlikely, though they raised concerns about consent, privacy and transparency when considering donating tissue for this research. The bioethicists report their findings in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

"Bioethicists, as well as stem cell researchers and policy-makers, have discussed the ethical issues of induced pluripotent stem cells at length, but we didn't have any systematic information about what patients think about these issues, and that is a huge part of the equation if the potential of this research is to be fully realized," says Jeremy Sugarman, the senior author of the report and the Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Unlike human embryonic stem cells, iPSCs are derived without destroying a human embryo. Research with human iPSCs is valuable for developing new drugs, studying disease, and perhaps developing medical treatments. Sugarman explains that, while far off, scientists are hopeful that iPSCs could someday be used to develop organs for transplantation that the body's immune system will not attack, because they can be created from the person's own cells.

The study reveals the importance of prior informed consent for those asked to participate in it. According to the report, consent was highly important for patients in all five of the focus groups that were convened. Some patients even suggested that proper informed consent could compensate for other concerns they had about privacy, the "immortalization" of cells, and the commercialization of stem cells.

There was a "strong desire among participants to have full disclosure of the anticipated uses," the report notes, with some participants wanting to be able to veto certain uses of their cells. The authors acknowledge the "practical difficulties" of this request but hope that their findings will "prompt investigation into creative approaches to meeting these desires."

The study also revealed another side to some patients' selfless motivations to participate in research as they might relate to eventual commercialization. The report quotes one participant as saying, "It won't be just taken to become a money maker and the very people who need it the most will no longer be able to benefit from it" and another, "it was a donation. It's a humanitarian effort."

View original post here:
Study finds patients give 'broad endorsement' to stem cell research

Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy - LouAnn Rest
Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy an interview with patient LouAnn Rest.

By: RegenocyteStemCells

Originally posted here:
Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy - LouAnn Rest - Video

(This is my blog post about the embryonic stem cell study. For my news article about the study, go here.)

Genetically modified human embryonic stem cells can solve one of the toughest problems facing embryonic stem cell therapy, immune rejection of transplanted cells, may have been solved, according to a UC San Diego-led research team.

The cells can be made invisible to the immune system by genetically modifying them to make two immune-suppressing chemicals, according to a study performed in mice given a human immune system. Immune functioning in the rest of the animal remains active. The immune protection also applies to differentiated cells derived from the stem cells.

If the approach works in people, patients receiving transplanted tissue or organs made from embryonic stem cells wouldn't have to take harsh immune-suppressing drugs, said Yang Xu, a UCSD professor of biology. The method also may prevent immune rejection of tissues grown from other types of stem cells.

These arehumanized laboratory mice that contain a functional human immune system. Such mice have been used for years; a UCSD research team developed a model with a stronger immune response to test their immune-suppressing tissues. / Zhili Rong, UCSD

Researchers placed genes in the stem cells to produce the two chemicals, CTLA4-lg and PD-L1, naturally made in the body. The humanized immune systems of the mice accepted transplants of cells engineered to make the chemicals. The researchers transplanted cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts derived from the engineered stem cells. Transplants derived from regular embryonic stem cells were rejected.

The study was published online Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Its findings will have to be confirmed for safety and effectiveness in more animal studies before human trials can be considered, which will take years. The mouse model itself was "optimized" for the study to more faithfully reflect the human immune system than other immune models, the study said.

Xu said a further study is being considered in monkeys, a large animal model considered to better reflect human biology than mice.

Embryonic stem cells are being tested along with many other kinds of stem cells to replace diseased or destroyed body parts, such as spinal cord segments and insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. All of these cells have advantages and drawbacks. Immune rejection, along with a tendency to form tumors, are two big drawbacks to embryonic stem cells.

San Diego-based ViaCyte is preparing to test a therapy with beta cells within a year. The company encapsulates them in a permeable barrier that allows insulin to diffuse out but prevents the immune system from entering. However, that approach won't worth with transplants that must integrate into the body, such as spinal cord tissue. So a way of turning off the immune system just in those cells is an attractive idea.

Continued here:
Stem cell transplant problem solved, UCSD-led study says

Human embryonic stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into a variety of cell types, making them a valuable source of transplantable tissue for the treatment of numerous diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

But theres one major issue: Embryonic stem cells are often rejected by the human immune system.

Now, researchers from the University of California San Diego may have found an effective way to prevent this rejection in humans. Utilizing a novel humanized mouse model, the scientists have revealed a unique combination of immune suppressing molecules that stop the immune system from attacking the injected stem cells without shutting the system down completely.

This discovery could ultimately help resolve some of the major problems currently limiting the use of embryonic stem cells for certain conditions, paving the way for the development of more effective human stem cell therapies.

This is a generic way of immune suppression, so it could potentially be applied not just for stem cells therapies, but for organ transplants as well, Yang Xu, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and lead author of the study, told FoxNews.com. It can be very broad.

Embryonic stem cells are different from the other cells in a patients body, making them allogenic. This means the immune system will recognize them as foreign agents and attack them.

One way of overcoming this rejection problem is to give patients immunosuppressant drugs, which suppress the entire immune system. While short term use of immunosuppressants has been successful for many organ transplants, embryonic stem cell therapies for chronic diseases require long term use of these drugs which can often be very toxic and increase the risk of cancer.

In order for the patient to really use this therapy, they have to decide: Do they want a lifelong use of immunosuppressant drugs, or are they willing to live with the symptoms of their disease, Xu said.

To figure out a way of bypassing this issue, researchers needed a relevant model that could closely mimic the human immune systems response to embryonic stem cell transplantation. To do this, they took immune deficient lab mice and grafted them with human fetal thymus tissues and hematopoietic stem cells derived from the fetal liver.

Essentially, this created a highly specialized mouse model with very robust T cells capable of effectively rejecting foreign embryonic stem cells just like human T cells.

More:
Stem cell therapy breakthrough

One of the toughest problems facing embryonic stem cell therapy, immune rejection of transplanted cells, may have been solved, according to a UC San Diego-led research team.

The cells can be made invisible to the immune system by genetically engineering them to make two immune-suppressing molecules, according to the study. Researchers tested the approach in mice given a human immune system. Immune functioning in the rest of the animal remained active.

If the approach works in people, patients receiving transplanted tissue or organs made from embryonic stem cells wouldnt have to take harsh immune-suppressing drugs, said study leader Yang Xu, a UC San Diego professor of biology.

Human embryonic stem cells. The green markers indicate the presence of a protein expressed only in these cells. / Samantha Zeitlin, 2006 CIRM fellow

Researchers placed genes in the stem cells to produce the two molecules, called CTLA4-lg and PD-L1, naturally made in the body. The mice accepted transplants of heart and skin cells derived from the engineered stem cells. They rejected transplants derived from regular embryonic stem cells.

The study was published online Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Its findings will have to be confirmed for safety and effectiveness before human trials can be considered, which will take years.

Three scientists given the paper for comment had mixed reactions. While they praised the works scientific prowess, two said genetically engineering the transplanted cells could cause serious side effects that might preclude their use.

The researchers employed a clever strategy to use the immune systems natural regulatory systems, said Mitchell Kronenberg, president of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology.

This is an especially promising approach, because it avoids the toxic side effects of the drugs now used to suppress the rejection response, and therefore this is an important step forward in showing the feasibility of using human embryonic stem cells from unrelated donors, Kronenberg said.

More skeptical were Jeanne Loring, a stem cell researcher at The Scripps Research Institute, and Craig M. Walsh, associate director of the Institute for Immunology at UC Irvine.

See the original post here:
Embryonic stem cell rejection problem fixed, study says

stem cell therapy treatment for beckers muscular dystrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india
[gujarati] improvement seen in just 5 days after stem cell therapy treatment for beckers muscular dystrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india. Stem Cell Thera...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

See the rest here:
stem cell therapy treatment for beckers muscular dystrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy - Barbara McKean

By: RegenocyteStemCells

Go here to see the original:
Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy - Barbara McKean - Video

Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy -Howard Lindeman

By: RegenocyteStemCells

Original post:
Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell Therapy -Howard Lindeman - Video

Poway, CA (PRWEB) January 02, 2014

Phizer is a seven year old black lab belonging to Ohio Task Force 1 that recently had stem cell therapy by Vet-Stem, Inc. Phizer was brought to Cleveland Road Animal Hospital for a limp in his right hind. Dr. Chad Bailey recommended stem cell therapy. Both Vet-Stem and Cleveland Road Animal Hospital value the working dog and offered their services pro-bono in hopes that Phizers stem cell therapy would permit him to continue to provide search and rescue service.

Phizer is one of only five search and rescue canines owned by Ohio Task Force 1, one of 28 Task Forces across the US that make up the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue System. Phizer is trained to find living victims who may be trapped under collapsed buildings. He is unique because he is certified to work with more than one handler meaning that he can be used on more missions. If one of his handlers is not available the other may be. Phizer is trained to cover obstacles and treacherous terrain, climb metal ladders and investigate acres of terrain quickly and efficiently. These skills came in handy when Phizer was assigned to a mission recovering victims from hurricane Sandy.

Handlers Maureen May and Deana Hudgins noticed an intermittent limp in Phizers right rear leg when he first started moving, but got better with exercise. Although the limp was not preventing Phizer from his job, he was started on pain medicine, joint supplements and taken for exams to the local veterinarian. His radiology report showed signs consistent with mild degenerative joint disease in addition to another injury. Deana and Dr. Bailey started Phizer on injectable treatments, laser therapy, and discussed stem cells.

Since Phizers stem cell therapy used his own stem cells, a small portion of fat was collected and sent to Vet-Stems lab in California. Within 48 hrs the doses of stem cells were ready for injection by Dr. Bailey. Stem cells are regenerative cells that can differentiate into many tissue types and reduce pain and inflammation thus helping to restore range of motion and regenerate tendon, ligament and joint tissues (http://www.vet-stem.com/science). For Phizer this means that all of the issues identified in his exams may be helped with one therapy.

About Vet-Stem, Inc. Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. The company holds exclusive licenses to over 50 patents including world-wide veterinary rights for use of adipose derived stem cells. In the last decade over 10,000 animals have been treated using Vet-Stem, Inc.s services, and Vet-Stem is actively investigating stem cell therapy for immune-mediated and inflammatory disease, as well as organ disease and failure. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

Original post:
FEMA Search and Rescue Canine Receives Stem Cell Therapy So He Can Continue to Save Lives

C. Carreau/ATG Medialab/ESA

An artists impression of the European Space Agencys Rosetta probe, which aims to be the first to land on a comet.

Several research groups, including a team led by geneticist Erika Sasaki and stem-cell biologist Hideyuki Okano at Keio University in Tokyo, hope to create transgenic primates with immune-system deficiencies or brain disorders. This could raise ethical concerns, but might bring us closer to therapies that are relevant to humans (mice can be poor models for such disorders). The work will probably make use of a gene-editing method called CRISPR, which saw rapid take-up last year.

The European Space Agencys Rosetta spacecraft could become the first mission to land a probe on a comet. If all goes well, it will land on comet ChuryumovGerasimenko in November. Mars will also be a busy place: Indias orbiter mission should arrive at the planet in September, about the same time as NASAs MAVEN probe. And NASAs Curiosity rover should finally make it to its mission goal, the slopes of the 5.5-kilometre-high Aeolis Mons, where it will look for evidence of water. Back on Earth, NASA hopes to launch an orbiter to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has developed a brain-controlled exoskeleton that he expects will enable a person with a spinal-cord injury to kick the first ball at the 2014 football World Cup in Brazil. Meanwhile, attempts are being made in people with paralysis to reconnect their brains directly to paralysed areas, rather than to robotic arms or exoskeletons. In basic research, neuroscientists are excited about money from big US and European brain initiatives, such as Europes Human Brain Project.

In the pharmaceutical industry, all eyes are on trial results from two competing antibody treatments that harness patients immune systems to fight cancer. The drugs, nivolumab and lambrolizumab, work by blocking proteins that prevent a persons Tcells from attacking tumours. In early tests, the drugs evoked a better level of response in patients than ipilimumab, a similar therapy that was launched in 2011 to treat advanced melanoma.

Semiconductors known as perovskites convert light energy into electricity. They are cheap to build and have already shown conversion rates of more than 15% (a leap from 4% when the feat was first reported in 2009). Expect to see still-higher efficiencies this year, perhaps reaching 20% the same as the lower end of existing commercial silicon-based photo-voltaics. A team at the University of Oxford, UK, also hopes to make lead-free perovskites.

In 2013, two research teams showed that broadly neutralizing antibodies that target an array of HIV types quickly cleared an HIV-related virus in monkeys. The therapy will be tested in people who carry HIV, with results expected in the autumn. Meanwhile, last years curing of a baby born with the virus might lead to wider trials of the technique used: high doses of antiretroviral drugs given at birth.

Technology that rapidly sequences DNA as it is fed through a ring of proteins, known as a biological nanopore, will hit the market this year after decades of development. Oxford Nano-pore Technologies in Oxford, UK, aims to release the first data from a disposable sequencer the size of a memory stick, which it is sending to scientists for testing. It promises to read longer strands of DNA than other techniques (potentially useful in sequencing mixed samples of bacterial DNA, for example), and to show results in real time.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will complete its fifth assessment report by November. The findings of working groups II and III will focus on the impacts of climate change, and on how societies can adapt to or mitigate those effects (working groupI published its findings last year). Away from formal negotiations, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is hoping for bold pledges on emissions at a summit in New York in September. In research, a large carbon capture and storage project in Canada the Can$1.24-billion (US$1.17-billion) Boundary Dam coal power-plant in Saskatchewan begins commercial operation in April.

See original here:
What to expect in 2014

Four year old Hannah Day has spent most of her young life in and out of hospital.

She has Leukemia and its the second time in as many years that she is battling cancer.

She underwent 15 months of chemotherapy for a tumour in her stomach, but weeks later was diagnosed with Leukemia. Hannahs family says her only hope for survival is a stem-cell transplant, but neither her sister nor her parents are a perfect match, so theyre hoping a donor will be found. They set up a web page called Angels for Hannah to try and find a donor.

A stem-cell transplant is her last chance.

To become a stem-cell donor you can fill out a questionnaire online if youre between the ages of 17 and 35, and youll be sent a kit in the mail. A swab of your cheeks will reveal if youre a suitable donor. Once identified as a match, donors will undergo one of two procedures. Stem cells can be harvested from bone marrow under general anesthetic, or throughperipheral blood stem cell donation.

The donor does not experience pain during either procedure.

Our age criteria is 17 to 35 to register, saysMary Lynn Pride from Canadian Blood Services. So were really looking to those young people to step forward to provide an opportunity to help patients like Hannah who are in need. Were also asking young men to step forward because we do have a particular need for young men to register as they have been deemed as the optimal donor patients in need of transplant.

Pride says generally men produce a higher volume of stem cells for donation but also post-transplant there is better recovery for patients with a male donor over a female donor.

We do know that younger donors provide better post-transplant recovery for patients as well as the longevity of ensuring that they are on the registry longer to support patients in need, she says.

Canada currently has 326,000 people who are already registered as potential stem-cell donors. Hannah is one of 750 Canadians who are currently awaiting a stem-cell transplant.

See the article here:
Stem-cell transplant needed for 4-year-old Hannah Day: How to help

Q: I have been hearing a lot about stem cell injections and was wondering if this would help my painful, arthritic knee?

There is a lot of exciting research and great interest in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, there is also a lot of hype and misinformation out there. Tissue engineering is defined as the application of biological, chemical and engineering principles toward the repair, restoration, or regeneration of living tissues using biomaterials, cells, and factors, alone or in combination.1

The goal of tissue engineering is to regenerate damaged tissue. Tissue Engineering has three primary goals: Harvesting and isolating mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), providing a scaffold onto which these cells are seeded so that their growth is organized and structured in an effort to duplicate a given tissue that is damaged, and assisting and promoting the growth of these MSCs with growth factors that cause the MSCs to ultimately become the tissue of interest.

There are two types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are derived from fetuses and postnatal stem cells derived from adults. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to proliferate indefinitely in a test tube and the ability to produce all tissue types such as bone, cartilage or muscle. However, in the clinical setting they can cause an immune response in the recipient and can also cause tumors to grow. Furthermore, there are significant ethical concerns with harvesting embryonic stem cells as they are derived from human embryos. Currently in the U.S., the only research that can be performed on embryonic stem cells is that using stem cell lines that were in existence before 2009.

Adult stem cells have the advantage of not having these ethical concerns as they are harvested from the patient. Moreover, there is no immunogenic response as they come from you and also do not cause tumors to develop. However, they do not develop into various tissues as easily as embryonic stem cells do. Adult stem cells can be harvested from a variety of tissues: fat, blood, bone marrow, muscle and other tissue types. The number of stem cells seems to correlate with how much blood flow there is to a given tissue.

MSCs derived from fat or adipose tissue have been primarily used by proponents of regenerative medicine as adipose tissue is easily harvested and has a reasonable concentration of MSCs compared to other sources. Bone cells actually have more potential to differentiate into multiple cell types than fat cells, but harvesting cells from bone is more painful and invasive than harvesting fatty tissue, which most of us would be happy to donate. Anyone who has had a bone marrow biopsy can attest to the pain involved.

Patients who see me in the office with knee pain or knee arthritis often ask me if they would benefit from a stem cell injection. Currently, there is no good evidence in the orthopedic literature to recommend this. Insurance companies do not pay for this procedure, as again, there is no good evidence showing it to be efficacious. Thus, patients have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for this procedure. Given the lack of evidence to support it and the cost and possible risks, I do not recommend it. When injecting stem cells harvested from fatty tissue into an arthritic knee for example, these cells are not directed to grow cartilage nor are they directed to grow cartilage in the areas where your knee lacks it. Instead, these stem cells could equally differentiate into fat, bone, scar tissue or cartilage. In turn, you could grown bone on your own remaining cartilage, you could grow scar tissue on your ligaments, etc.

Tissue engineering is an evolving field with many possible exciting applications whose day will come, but unfortunately its clinical applications continue to be quite limited at the current time.

1 Laurencin CT, Ambrosio AM, Borden MD, Cooper JA Jr.: Tissue engineering: Orthopedic applications. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 1999; 1:19-46.

Dr. Rick Cunningham is a Knee and Shoulder Sports Medicine Specialist with Vail-Summit Orthopaedics. He is a Physician for the US Ski Team and Chief of Surgery at Vail Valley Medical Center. Do you have a sports medicine question youd like him to answer in this column? Visit his website at http://www.vailknee.com to submit your topic idea. For more information about Vail-Summit Orthopaedics, visit http://www.vsortho.com.

Read more from the original source:
Ask a Sports Medicine Doc: Fact and fiction of stem cells

stem cell therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india
improvement seen in just 3 months after stem cell therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india. Stem Cell Therapy done date...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

See the article here:
stem cell therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

Back to basicsCaveman workout is the choice for functional training.

Swim, bike and runtriathlon became even more popular in 2013.

It was the year stem cell therapy became a household name.

Although the science has been around for half a century in Europe, it was not until the Asian Institute of Longevity Medicine (AILM) opened its doors to Filipinos in 2009 that stem cell therapy took off in the country.

Today, AILMs German-based partner, Tissue and Cell Banking (Ticeba), headed by its founder and managing director Dr. Christoph Ganss, is one of the countrys most sought-after stem cell therapy consultants.

If you think that, because of its exceedingly high price tag, stem cell therapy would catch on only among the well-heeled, think again. Entrepreneurial Pinoys saw the potential moneymaker in the name, and soon peddlers began brandishing everything from stem cell water to stem cell fertility kits.

Another top hit of 2013 is juicing/detox. Now a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States, juicingwhile it has been practiced by many vegans and vegetarians in the Philippines since the early 2000sbecame big this year when the Australian documentary filmmaker and juicing advocate Joe Cross visited the country.

Today, there are three major competing organic juice brands on the market.

Organic produce

Vegan food the five-star way

Continue reading here:
Stem cells, juicing, Piloxing, triathlon, workout apps–health and wellness on overdrive

Plantar fasciitis, a chronic pain condition involving the sole of the foot, is now being treated using regenerative medicine like stem cell therapy, and offering the first form of real relief for many sufferers.

Plantar fasciitis affects millions of Americans, and is a condition in which the plantar fascia the thick tissue covering the sole of the foot is inflamed, causing severe pain on the bottom of the foot, and impeding activities such as running and walking.

The plantar fascia tissue is what connects the heel bone to the toes, thus creating the arch of the foot.

Traditional treatments for the debilitating injury have offered some relief in recent years through the use of physical therapy, NSAIDS, and steroid injections. However, these types of pain relief develop slowly over time, and are not an effective way to truly treat the problem. Stem cell therapy is going beyond these typical treatments, treating the root cause of the issue, and are often able to alleviate pain more quickly and with longer-lasting results.

Clinics in Arizona and California are just two examples of offices now offering stem cell injections of adult bone marrow and both fat- and amniotic-derived materials. Board certified pain management doctors at the Arizona Pain Stem Cell Institute, in Phoenix, and TeleHealth, in southern California, are giving patients suffering from the condition a low risk, outpatient alternative to corrective surgery.

Many other U.S. states now have pain treatment centers offering the plantar fasciitis stem cell therapy, as well.

Main image courtesy Nevit Dilmen via Wikimedia Commons.

Here is the original post:
Plantar Fasciitis Now Being Treated With Stem Cells

A release from the University of California-Los Angleles written by Shaun Mason reports that researchers at UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have discovered a mechanism by which certain adult stem cells suppress their ability to initiate skin cancer during their dormant phase an understanding that could be exploited for better cancer-prevention strategies. The study, led by Andrew White and William Lowry, was published online Decemeber 15th 2013 in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

The release notes that hfollicle stem cells, the tissue-specific adult stem cells that generate the hair follicles, are also the cells of origin for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer. These stem cells cycle between periods of activation during which they can grow and quiescence (when they remain dormant).

White and Lowry applied known cancer-causing genes to hair follicle stem cells of laboratory mice and found that during the cells dormant phase, they could not initiate skin cancer. Once the cells were in their active period, however, they began growing cancer.

The release quotes White as saying, "We found that this tumor suppression via adult stem cell quiescence was mediated by PTEN, a gene important in regulating the cell's response to signaling pathways. Therefore, stem cell quiescence is a novel form of tumor suppression in hair follicle stem cells, and PTEN must be present for the suppression to work."

The team believes that understanding cancer suppression through quiescence could better inform preventative strategies for certain patients, such as organ transplant recipients, who are particularly susceptible to squamous cell carcinoma, and for those taking the drug vemurafenib for melanoma, another type of skin cancer. The study also may reveal parallels between squamous cell carcinoma and other cancers in which stem cells have a quiescent phase.

Read the rest here:
Dormant Adult Stem Cells Suppress Cancer