Hip replacements for some patients could be a thing of the past after surgeons pioneered a new stem cell procedure to tackle a bone disease that leads to arthritis.

Doctors at Southampton General Hospital are extracting stem cells from the bone marrow of patients in need of hip repair due to osteonecrosis - a condition where poor blood supply causes significant bone damage leading to severe arthritis.

These cells are mixed with cleaned, crushed bone from another patient who has had their own hip replaced and used to fill the hole made by surgeons after dead and damaged tissue has been removed from the joint.

The procedure has been developed by Doug Dunlop, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Southampton General Hospital, and Professor Richard Oreffo, a specialist in musculoskeletal science at the University of Southampton.

"Although this work is still ongoing, several patients who have had the procedure have reacted very well and, if we get the results we are hoping for, these patients won't need to have their hip joints replaced - they should be fixed completely," said Mr Dunlop.

Professor Oreffo added: "By using stem cells to send out chemical signals to blood vessels, we hope the body will continue to create new vessels in the hip which supply enough nutrients to maintain bone strength."

Osteonecrosis is on the rise in the UK with around 4,000 cases a year but it is much more widespread in Asia where it is the most common form of arthritis of the hip, the hospital said.

It can also be treated with drugs to help avoid arthritis and usually strikes between 30 and 50 years of age.

Osteonecrosis is one of the three main causes of arthritis alongside osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Arthritis in general affects one in five people in the UK.

Read the original post:
Stem cell hope for hip replacement procedure

28 May 2012 Last updated at 09:14 ET

A 54m cutting-edge stem cell research centre in Edinburgh has been officially opened by the Princess Royal.

The Royal opened the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine as well as the 24m bio-incubator facility, Nine, in the Edinburgh BioQuarter.

Research into conditions such as multiple sclerosis and heart and liver disease will benefit from the new facilities in Little France.

The Princess Royal unveiled plaques at the centres.

Edinburgh University's Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine is the first large-scale, purpose-built facility of its kind and provides accommodation for up to 250 stem cell scientists.

The centre, funded by Edinburgh University, Scottish Enterprise, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the British Heart Foundation through its Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, is being opened by the Princess Royal in her role as Chancellor of Edinburgh University.

It includes the most up-to-date facilities in the UK, which meet the highest guidelines, to manufacture stem cell lines that could be used for patient therapies.

Nine, which has been jointly funded by Scottish Enterprise and the UK government's department for business, innovation and skills, has 85,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space for both established biotechnology companies and start-up ventures.

The Edinburgh BioQuarter is in the city's Little France area and includes the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Edinburgh University's Queen's Medical Research Institute and Chancellor's Building.

Read the original:
Princess opens stem cell centre

THE MAKATI Medical Centers Cancer Center celebrated its first year anniversary and marked the occasion with the launch of its Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory. Present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Dr. Eric Flores, head, Spine Clinic and Stem Cell Lab; Rosalie Montenegro, Makati Medical Center president and CEO; Dr. ManuelO. Fernandez Jr., executive vice president and director, Professional Services; Dr. Remedios G. Suntay, director and treasurer, MDI Board; Dr. Benjamin N. Alimurung, medical director; Dr. Francis Chung, scientific officer, Stem Cell Lab; and Augusto P. Palisoc Jr., executive director, president and CEO, MPIC Hospital Group.

MAKATIMEDS Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory is managed by experienced scientists with extensive training and is affiliated with the International Society for Cellular Therapy.

Stem cell therapy is now being offered at Makati Medical Center (MMC) as potential cure for a wide range of illnesses, from various types of cancer and heart ailments to incurable diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

Stem cell therapy is believed to be effective in bone marrow transplant for leukemia patients, and with early intervention, yields desirable results among renal and prostate cancer patients.

Launched in the first year anniversary of the hospitals cancer center, MMCs Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory is equipped with technology touted to be totally unmatched in our country, says Dr. Francis Chung, scientific officer of the lab. No system exists elsewhere.

Employing the strictest sterility standards at par with that of the US Food and Drug Administration, the lab has state-of-the-art facilities. The Clinimacs CD34 Reagent System is a machine that isolates specific cells needed for the procedure, while the Flow Cytomer ensures the purity of cultured cells.

Transplantation

Sourcing the stem cells, however, is what truly sets the Philippines premier health institution apart from chi-chi spas that also push stem cell therapy for beauty and anti-aging procedures.

At MMC, healthy stem cells are acquired from the patients themselves, a process known as autologous transplantation. For those suffering from an ailment, a parent, sibling or other close relative could be the donor. The hospital strives for utmost compatibility between patient and donor through a 10-point DNA matching system.

If a battery of tests finds a patient to be up to it, medication is given to prepare him for stem cell harvest.

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Makati Medical Center now offering stem cell therapy

For Jonathan Provost, choosing his Eagle Scout project was an easy choice. Jonathan's cousin, Matthew Zieman, passed away from Acute Lymphatic Leukemia in February at the age of 24. Because of this, Jonathan's Eagle Scout project is a bone marrow donor registry drive.

"Matt was at his apartment last year and noticed a few bumps on the back of his neck," Jonathan said. "He just ignored them for a few weeks and then he told one of his friends, and she said to get it checked out. So he went by the hospital, they did a few tests, and they found out it was leukemia."

Jonathan hopes the drive will find a number of donors who can help current cancer patients, due to the difficulty of finding donor matches. Immediate family members are generally the first place doctors look for bone marrow donors; Matthew's only sibling wasn't a match, however, which made finding a donor more difficult.

The drive will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, at Brad Duren Dentistry, located at 4030 Justin Road, Suite 102, in Flower Mound. The office is past the Chinn Chapel Soccer Complex and across from the Crossroads Bible Church. Jonathan chose the office partly because of its location and partly because of a familiarity.

"It's also off a popular road, and [Brad] told me he'd let me host the donor drive for free," he said. "He's my dentist and my mom works here, too."

The process of becoming a donor is easy. After having a cheek swab done, potential donors merely have to fill out a donor consent form, which will place them in the national bone marrow donor registry. Testing is then done to determine a genetic match between cancer patients and their potential donor. Patients see better results the closer a donor's genetics match his or her own.

If an individual is chosen as a blood donor, he or she will be called to Carter BloodCare to donate blood.

"A lot of people don't know it's really easy to do this -- it's not a complicated process at all," Jonathan said. "They generally don't put a needle in your hip anymore; they normally just take blood and that's it. The process is a lot simpler than it used to be."

Following a successful blood donation, known as peripheral blood stem cell donation, doctors will obtain stem cells from the blood of the donor. Those stem cells will then be given to a cancer patient that's a genetic and blood match in order to stimulate healthy red blood cell production.

If a donor is selected to give a bone marrow donation, he or she will have liquid marrow extracted from the back of the pelvic bone. This type of donation is far less likely, however.

The rest is here:
Flower Mound boy hopes to add bone marrow donors: Jonathan Provost's Eagle Scout project could help save lives

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Cell therapies for cardiovascular-related conditions is a closely watched, much studied, oft-discussed, and hotly contested segment of the cell therapy industry.


The data to-date are admittedly confusing.  From a clinical perspective, the studies for which we have data have been relatively small involving a mish-mash of indications, endpoints, eligibility criterion, methods and/or route of administration, as well as the time of administration relative to event or disease progression.


Further compounding any interpretation of the data, from a technical perspective, is the fact the products have been widely varied in terms of being autologous vs allogeneic, expanded and not, genetically modified and not, from a plethora of different sources, and utilizing a wide variety of cell types from skelatal myoblasts, cardiomyocytes, mesenchymal stromal cells, mononuclear cells, etc. 


All this makes it extremely difficult to draw any conclusions with respect to what's working and what's not.  We will not attempt to do so.


All we do below is attempt to give a snapshot of the industry-sponsored cell therapy trials currently ongoing for cardiovascular-related conditions.  So here it is:


Commercial:
Pharmicell's Heartcelligram is the only cell therapy to have received regulatory approval for commercial distribution for the treatment of a cardiac-related indication.  Heartcelligram is an autologous cell therapy approved in 2011 by the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) for the treatment of Acute Mycardial Infarction (AMI).  The price is reportedly $19,000 and the trial data behind the approval has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.


Phase III or II/III:
There are currently only 3 active and recruiting cardiac-related, industry-sponsored cell therapy trials.  Interestingly they all involve autologous products, two involve devices, two involve centralized manufacturing, two involve bone marrow cells as a source, two are only in European clinical sites, and two are targeting ischemic-related conditions.

• Baxter Therapeutics' Auto-CD34+ cells
• phase III trial actively recruiting
• Indication:  refractory angina and chronic myocardial ischemia
• Estimated enrollment:  444
• Estimated primary completion: June 2016 
• Cytori
• phase II/III trial actively recruiting
• Indication: ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction
• Estimated enrollment: 360
• Estimated primary completion: July 2014

• Miltenyi Biotec
• phase III trial actively recruiting
• Indication: myocardial ischemia or coronary artery disease
• Estimated enrollment: 142
• Estimated primary completion: July 2012

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Editor's Note: Read our blog series on psychiatry's new rulebook, the DSM-5.

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In the last couple of weeks, two
well-respected Los Angeles Times columnists have visited what
might be called the "Son of CIRM" initiative on the
June ballot in California. It is aimed at fighting cancer by spending
$800 million or so annually on research with the money coming from a
$1-a-pack tax on cigarettes.

"Prop. 29 would increase cancer
research. Reduce smoking. Save lives. Hurt the lying tobacco
companies. Good plan."

"Proposition 71, you may recall, was sold to a gullible
public via candy-coated images of Christopher Reeve walking
again and Michael J. Fox cured of Parkinson's.
The implication was that these miracles would happen if voters
approved a $3-billion bond issue for stem cell research. Who could be
against that? 

 "As it turned out, the stem cell
measure created an unwieldy bureaucracy and etched conflicts of
interest into the state Constitution. By last count about 85% of the
$1.3 billion in grants handed out by the program, or some $1.1
billion, has gone to institutions with representatives on the stem
cell board. The program is virtually immune to oversight by the
Legislature or other elected officials. For these reasons and others,
it has grappled with only mixed success with changes in stem cell
science and politics that have called its original rationale into
question."

"Proposition
29, similarly, places most spending from the tobacco tax in the hands
of a nine-member board that must comprise one cardiovascular
physician affiliated with a California academic medical center; the
chancellors of UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC
Santa Cruz; two representatives of lobbying groups devoted to
tobacco-related illness (including one who has been treated for such
a disease); and three representatives from National Cancer
Institute-designated cancer centers in the state. There are
10 of the latter, including five UC campuses and the City of Hope.
Plainly, every member of the board will represent an employer that
thinks it's in line for some of the money."

"The anti-29 side is hitting this
hard: that the research money generated in California could be spent
out of state. And the politest thing possible to say about that claim
is that it's disingenuous. It's stretching something that's
conceivable into a virtual certainty."

"The anti-29 camp charges that
(the structure of the board) would allow a conflict of interest in
awarding contracts. But there are state laws that protect against
such conflicts.

"Anyway, the tobacco crowd can't have it
both ways: complaining that the money could be spent outside
California and also griping when the system is set up to practically
guarantee that it will be spent in California."

"Gov. Brown's latest budget
proposal calls for cuts of $1.2 billion in Medi-Cal and
$900 million in CalWorks (a relief program for families with
children) and steep cuts in financial aid for college students and in
court budgets. The University of California and Cal State systems are
becoming crippled by 20 years of cutbacks in state funding,
leading to soaring tuition charges. Tobacco-related illnesses create
some of the burden on Medi-Cal and other public healthcare programs,
yet a minimal portion of Proposition 29 revenue, if any, would go to
helping taxpayers carry that burden. 

"With the overall state budget gap
approaching $16 billion, how can anyone make the case for diverting a
huge chunk of $800 million a year in new revenue to long-term
scientific research, whether in California or not? Even if you
believe that case can be made, the proper place to make it is in the
Legislature, where all these demands on the budget can be weighed and
balanced against one another — not at the ballot box, where the
only choice is to spend it the way the initiative's drafters choose
or not to raise it at all."

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

 "The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine
(CIRM) voted on 24 May to accept a new strategic planwhich
shrinks or eliminates support for basic research, facilities and
training, while funneling more of its funds toward clinical
development."

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

"The sun now never sets on the
CIRM collaborative projects..."

 "The
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology has committed roughly
$850,000 in collaboration with a team at UCSF to study liver failure.
This is the stem cell agency’s first joint effort with scientists
in China, which is home to a fast-growing stem cell research
community."

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

The governing board of the $3 billion
California stem cell agency today rejected a proposal that would have
restricted transparency surrounding the financial interests of its
directors and top executives.

"I personally feel strongly that
because of CIRM's unique mission and the agency's incredibly
long-standing commitment to transparency, i believe that we should
continue to set an example by requiring the broadest disclosure for
members of the board and high level staff."

"When people have to fill a void
in information, they assume the worst."

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

The $3 billion California stem cell
today officially embarked on a course that will mean closer ties to
the biotech industry in hopes of fulfilling the campaign promises to voters to
turn stem cells into cures.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

The $3 billion California stem cell
agency received a "very favorable" performance audit report
compared to other government agencies, CIRM directors were told
today.

 "Comparatively we
have done very well."

"CIRM board members and senior
management do not receive regularly updated, enterprise-level
performance information. The ability to evaluate performance against
strategic goals is critical to effective leadership and program
monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. CIRM does not currently have a
formal performance reporting program."

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

The California Stem Cell Report will
provide live coverage of tomorrow's meeting of the governing board of
the $3 billion California stem cell agency. Directors are expected to
make major decisions about the agency's future direction, hear the results
of the first-ever performance audit and award about $95 million in
grants or loans.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

It was not exactly a case of "Back
to the Future," the hit movie starring Michael J. Fox,
but it did offer a reflection on the past.

Fox's 2004 Ad

 "It could save the life of someone you love."

“It’s not so much that [stem cell
research has] diminished in its prospects for breakthroughs as much
as it’s the other avenues of research have grown and multiplied and
become as much or more promising. So, an answer may come from stem
cell research but it’s more than likely to come from another area.”

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

The director of robotics and biosurgery
at UC Davis is appealing rejection of his application for a
$4.9 million grant from the California stem cell agency.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

In a move that was long overdue, the $3
billion California stem cell agency last week hired a director of
information technology to straighten out key problems ranging from
its grants management system to how it handles its website.

Bill Gimbel

 "Integration
of website content management has not been an integral part of the
GMS (grants management system) development process, which could
result in suboptimal operational efficiency and effectiveness.

"Grants management system
development is effectively managed at a tactical level, but it lacks
dedicated, strategic governance and oversight, which has resulted in
an elongated development process and requirements conflicts."

"The new grants management system
intellectual property module, currently under development, does not
include provisions to address commercialization activity."

"CIRM board members and senior
management do not receive regularly updated, enterprise-level
performance information. The ability to evaluate performance against
strategic goals is critical to effective leadership and program
monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. CIRM does not currently have a
formal performance reporting program."

"Data and document access are
inefficient as a result of CIRM operating without a document
management system.....In most cases, CIRM staff cannot access
information without human interface. Information is stored in
multiple locations, which are not linked or indexed."

 "CIRM’s
information system needs have been met by a variety of tools,
including in-house developed applications, off-the-shelf
applications, databases, and spreadsheets, most of which are not
integrated," the audit stated.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

San Diego scientists will receive about $18.1 million in the latest round of funding from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the agency that's distributing $3 billion in stem cell research money made available through Proposition 71.

Since funding began, San Diego County researchers have been awarded at least $258 million, making the region one of the largest stem cell research clusters in the country.

Extended U-T science coverage on Facebook

Here's a sample of the latest grants:

Mark Tuszynski, UC San Diego, $4.7 million for research on novel stem cell therapies to treat spinal cord injuries.

Peter Schutlz, The Scripps Research Institute, $4.3 million for research to treat multiple sclerosis.

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Salk Institute, $2.3 million for research that would help repair damaged blood vessels.

Yang Xu, UC San Diego, $1.8 million for research that would help treat heart failure.

Eric Adler, UC San Diego, $1.7 million for research to help treat Danon disease, which causes major abnormalities in heart and skeletal muscles.

David Schubert, Salk Institute, $1.7 million for research aimed at treating Alzheimer's disease

See the article here:
SD scientists get $18 million in stem cell funds

Photo by Rachel Denny Clow, Corpus Christi Caller-Times // Buy this photo

Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Cristina Rodriguez sits with her dogs Coby (left) and Flower at her home Thursday. Rodriguez, who has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is having a Zumba benefit on Sunday and inviting people to register to donate bone marrow. Rodriguez is a former Zumba instructor.

CORPUS CHRISTI Had Cristina Rodriguez's cancer been more aggressive, had it penetrated her bones, things might have been different.

And while she has had chemotherapy, she has lost her hair and needs a stem cell treatment, but she doesn't need a bone-marrow transplant.

And for that, she's lucky.

Hispanics needing bone marrow have a harder time finding matching donors than do other ethnicities because few Hispanics have registered to donate.

"That could've easily been me," Rodriguez said.

That's why Rodriguez, 31, is trying to raise awareness about the importance for Hispanics to give bone marrow. The former Zumba instructor is hosting a Zumba event Sunday afternoon that partly is a fundraiser for her ongoing cancer treatments and partly a campaign to encourage more people to become donors.

Among the 8 million people signed up as bone marrow donors, 800,000 or 10 percent, identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino. Though Hispanics comprise more than one-third of Texas' population, only 17 percent of registered bone marrow donors in the state are Hispanic.

Overall, Hispanics have a 72 percent chance of finding a bone marrow donor, compared with whites, who have a 93 percent chance, according to the donor program. Only blacks fare worse, with a 63 percent likelihood of finding a donor.

Go here to see the original:
Former Zumba instructor with cancer encourages Hispanics to donate bone marrow

Scientists turn skin cells into healthy heart tissue

Kate Kelland (Reuters) / 26 May 2012

The researchers said there were still many years of testing and refining ahead. But the results meant they might eventually be able to reprogramme patients cells to repair their own damaged hearts.

We have shown that its possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born, said Lior Gepstein, who led the work.

The researchers, whose study was published in the European Heart Journal on Wednesday, said clinical trials of the technique could begin within 10 years.

Heart failure is a debilitating condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood around the body. It has become more prevalent in recent decades as advances in medical science mean many more people survive heart attacks. At the moment, people with severe heart failure have to rely on mechanical devices or hope for a transplant.

Researchers have been studying stem cells from various sources for more than a decade, hoping to capitalise on their ability to transform into a wide variety of other kinds of cell to treat a range of health conditions.

There are two main forms of stem cells - embryonic stem cells, which are harvested from embryos, and reprogrammed human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), often originally from skin or blood.

Gepsteins team took skin cells from two men with heart failure aged 51 and 61 and transformed them by adding three genes and then a small molecule called valproic acid to the cell nucleus.

They found that the resulting hiPSCs were able to differentiate to become heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, just as effectively as hiPSCs that had been developed from healthy, young volunteers who acted as controls for the study.

Originally posted here:
Scientists turn skin cells into healthy heart tissue