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A 'Stem Cell' Breakthrough!

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:07:00 +0000

Stem cell windpipe op 'success'

A 10-year-old British boy has become the first child to undergo a windpipe transplant with an organ crafted from his own stem cells.

It is hoped that using the boy's own tissue in the nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital will cut the risk of rejection.

The world's first tissue-engineered windpipe transplant was done in Spain in 2008 but with a shorter graft.

Doctors say the boy is doing well and breathing normally.

He has a rare condition called Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis, in which patients are born with an extremely narrow airway.

“ It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway that has ever been replaced ”

Professor Martin Birchall, University College London

At birth his airway was just one millimetre across.

Doctors had previously operated to expand his airway but in November last year he suffered complications from erosion of a metal stent in his windpipe or trachea.

In order to build him a new airway, doctors took a donor trachea, stripped it down to the collagen scaffolding, and then injected stem cells taken from his bone marrow. The organ was then implanted in the boy and over the next month, doctors expect the stem cells to transform into specialised cells which form the inside and outside of the trachea.

Pioneering

Two years ago, Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two, became the first person to receive a transplant organ created from stem cells.

PERSONAL VIEWPOINT

Carley Bowman, mother of a son with the same condition

"I cannot tell you what hope this gives us as a family. My three-year-old son has Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis. He had surgery to widen his windpipe a year ago. Our son has had a relatively straight-forward recovery, but we live with the constant fear that his condition may deteriorate. Should he suffer complications in the future, there are a range of procedures already at his surgeon's disposal. These are designed to improve quality of life. But should the worst happen and our son's condition become life-threatening once again, knowing there is now the possibility of a tracheal transplant is a very liberating feeling."

She received a new section of trachea after her own had been damaged by tuberculosis.

The latest operation is a significant advance on that pioneering work, as it is the first time a whole tissue engineered windpipe has been transplanted.

Also in Ms Castillo's case, doctors grew the new tissue from her stem cells in the laboratory. But in the UK operation, the donor windpipe was treated with a cocktail of chemicals designed to prompt the stem cells to grow into new tissue once inside the body.

Professor Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, who was part of the team behind the operation, said it was a "real milestone".

"It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway

that has ever been replaced."

"I think the technique will allow not just highly specialised hospitals to carry out stem cell

organ transplants."

He said more clinical trials were needed to prove the technique worked but that the team was also thinking about transplanting other organs, such as the oesophagus.

Professor Anthony Hollander, ARC professor of rheumatology and tissue engineering at the University of Bristol, said: "The advantage of the new approach is that it can be performed quickly and cheaply and so if successful it could be made available to large numbers of patients at relatively low cost."

But he said the technique was more unpredictable than that done in the laboratory because there is less control of the type of stem cells being used and a very short time between seeding the cells onto the scaffold and implantation.

Stem cell pioneer Professor Paolo Macchiarini, from Careggi University Hospital in Florence was involved in both the Spanish and UK transplants. He had also carried out the stem cell procedure on a 53-year-old Italian woman.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8576493.stm

Published: 2010/03/19 13:42:20 GMT

Similar article in The Star Newspaper, 21 March 2010:

Stem Cell transplant hopes lifted

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:47:00 +0000

A technique which may eventually remove the need for matched bone marrow transplants has been used in humans for the first time.
It is hoped that "master cells" taken from umbilical cords could be used on any patient without rejection.

The latest advance, published in the journal Nature Medicine, greatly multiplies the tiny number of cells from the cord ready for a transplant.

UK charity Leukaemia Research said this could be the "holy grail" for doctors.

Aggressive treatment
The current system of bone marrow transplantation helps patients who have diseases, such as leukaemia, which affect the stem cells in their bone marrow where new blood cells are grown.

“ The holy grail is to have an "off the peg" source of unlimited numbers of "neutral" stem cells ”

Dr David Grant Leukaemia Research

Their own bone marrow cells are killed off by aggressive treatment and cells from a matched donor are introduced in their place.

However, a matching donor cannot always be found, despite extensive donor registries held by organisations such as the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust and, even with a carefully matched donor, there is still a risk that the patient's body will reject the new cells.

Cells extracted from umbilical cords could overcome these problems - they do not have the characteristics which would normally trigger immune rejection, so it is likely that cells from a single baby's cord could be used in any patient, without the need for matching.

However, there is one big disadvantage - there are not enough cells in a single cord to meet the needs of an adult patient.

Scientists have been looking for ways to either combine the cells from more than one baby, or to "expand" the cell numbers in the laboratory.

The second of these options is far from straightforward - simply allowing the stem cells to divide and increase in the laboratory means that many of the resulting extra cells will be simple blood cells, which do not have the ability to produce new cells themselves.

Quick to work
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle believe they may have found a way.

They manipulated a "signalling pathway" in the stem cells to trigger an increase in numbers without losing their stem cell status.

After success in laboratory animals, these cells were used in human patients, and the researchers found that they were accepted by the body more quickly and contributed more to the rebuilding of functioning bone marrow than "non-expanded" cord blood transplants.

Dr David Grant, Scientific Director of charity Leukaemia Research said: "The holy grail is to have an 'off the peg' source of unlimited numbers of 'neutral' stem cells which can be given to any patient safe in the knowledge that they will not cause the very difficult 'graft versus host' problems that lead to rejection and often the death of the patient.

"This is a promising development towards this because the concern has been that once stem cells start 'growing' they lose their stem cell properties and progress to ordinary blood cells with a very limited lifespan."

Henny Braund, chief executive of The Anthony Nolan Trust, said the potential for umbilical cord blood was "huge", and that the charity had already imported well over 250 units of umbilical cord blood.

"Sadly in the UK, despite our scientific expertise, umbilical cord blood is still very much an untapped resource and we are only able to collect and store a tiny amount of the cords we need.

"We really need a properly resourced UK cord blood collection programme.

"Further investment is crucial if we are to capitalise on this amazing resource and save more lives."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8462488.stm

Published: 2010/01/18 00:03:50 GMT

© BBC MMX

A successful stem cell transplant - Sin Chew Daily

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Sin Chiew Daily 19.04.09

Please click on image to enlarge

Stem cell hope for bowel cancer

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:30:00 +0000

Destroying abnormal stem cells could be a way to kill off bowel cancer in its very earliest stages, say UK experts.

Immature cells line the gut and normally replace and repair the tissue but malfunctions can lead to cancer.

Scientists believe detecting and obliterating these rogue cancer stem cells as soon as they appear could be a potent new anti-cancer strategy.

A UK National Stem Cell Network conference heard the same method might also work for other cancers.

Professor Malcolm Alison, of Barts and The London School of Medicine, has been looking at how bowel cancers grow and spread in the body.

He said there was mounting evidence to show that faulty self-renewing stem cells are to blame.

And like the root of a weed, unless they are removed they will continue to propagate.

Scientists are still uncertain exactly which cells in the gut become cancer stem cells.

But they know definitively that they exist - and that they play a central role in the formation of cancer.

Once these are found, it would be possible to identify and treat these cells before life-threatening tumours develop, said Professor Alison.

Less invasive

Early detection would make treatment easier, less invasive and more effective.

Professor Alison said: "Drugs could be targeted to specifically work on cancer stem cells and so provide a more direct approach for treating bowel cancer.

"For instance, it may be possible to kill these abnormal stem cells by triggering them to self-destruct.

"I can see trials within the next three years in patients to knock out these cells."

A more targeted approach to treatment could avoid some of the unpleasant side-effects encountered with chemotherapy, which attacks healthy as well as cancerous cells.

Adeyinka Ebo, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Finding out more about the cells where cancer begins is crucial in helping scientists to detect cancer early, when treatment is simpler and more effective.

"If researchers can identify which cells in the gut will become cancer stem cells it would provide a vital step forward towards beating this type of cancer."

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK. More than 100 people every day are diagnosed with the disease.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7986089.stm

Malaysia Health Minister urges cord blood donation

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has urged parents to donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to help save the lives of patients suffering from blood disorders and diseases.

Liow assured that donating the cord would not affect a new-born baby’s health and hoped parents would give their consent to hospitals to collect it.

“We are trying to increase the cord blood bank’s supply so that there will be more options to be matched with patients seeking stem cell transplants,” Liow said.

He said the country’s first successful umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant was conducted on Feb 17 at the Kuala Lumpur Paediatric Institute.

In the operation, a year-old baby girl suffering from a blood disorder known as aplastic anemia successfully went through a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

“Our stem cell treatment will also help poor patients as it is cheaper compared to many other countries, which charge about US$20,000 (RM74,000) for an operation,” Liow said, adding that the operation costs about RM7,000 in Malaysia.

Extract from The Star, Monday 16 March 2009.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/16/nation/3488436&sec=nation

Obama ends stem cell funding ban

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:41:00 +0000

US President Barack Obama has lifted restrictions on federal funding for research on new stem cell lines.

Mr Obama signed an executive order in a major reversal of US policy, pledging to "vigorously support" new research.

Ex-President George W Bush blocked the use of any government money to fund research on human embryonic stem cell lines created after 9 August 2001.

Scientists say stem cell research will lead to medical breakthroughs, but many religious groups oppose the research.

Announcing the new policy, Mr Obama said he was authorising a change "so many scientists and researchers and doctors and innovators, patients and loved ones have hoped for and fought for these past eight years".

Opinion polls suggest most Americans support stem cell research, reports the BBC's Richard Lister, in Washington, but the National Right to Life Committee described the move as a "slippery slope". It has also been condemned by the Vatican.

"At this moment the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown and it should not be overstated," Mr Obama said.

“ We will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction ”
US President Barack Obama

"But scientists believe these tiny cells may have the potential to help us understand and possibly cure some of our most devastating diseases and conditions."

He invoked the example of the late Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who became a staunch advocate of stem cell research after being paralysed in a horse-riding accident.

Analysts say Mr Obama's decision could also lead Congress to overturn a ban on spending tax dollars to create embryos.

That ban, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, has been in place since 1996 and renewed every year by Congress.

But Democrat Congresswoman Diana DeGette told the New York Times newspaper that several anti-abortion colleagues were open to the possibility of reversing the ban if this was necessary to help research.

“ The repudiation is of a policy but also of a way of life, that puts faith above science ”

Before signing the executive order, Mr Obama said he hoped Congress would act on a bipartisan basis "to further support this research".

Stem cells are cells with the capacity to turn into any other type of human cell, be it bone, muscle or nerve cell.

One embryo can provide a limitless supply because the cell lines can be grown indefinitely.

But the use of human embryonic stem cells in research is controversial with some campaigners saying it is unethical.

The practice of creating embryos is routine in private clinics, but the ban put constraints on federal researchers even before the restrictions imposed by former President Bush, forcing them to use embryos left over from fertility treatments.

Correspondents say the policy change is part of President Obama's pledge to make clear that his administration wants scientific research to be free from political interference.

Announcing his development, he described himself as a man of faith who had carefully weighed the implications of the decision, and said moving forward required a "delicate balance".

Like Mr Bush, President Obama has profound Christian beliefs but he has defined the issue in terms of integrity.

To that end, he also signed a memorandum directing the White House's science and technology office to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government.

And he vowed that only research meeting strict ethical guidelines would be allowed, stressing that under no circumstances would stem cells be used for research into human cloning.

"It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society," Mr Obama said.

Researchers 'freed'

The move to lift the ban on federal funding was welcomed by stem cell researchers but criticised by opponents and social conservatives.

Peter Wilderotter, president of the Christopher and Dana Foundation, praised Mr Obama for "removing politics from science" and freeing researchers.

President Bush and other social conservatives argued that the embryos are human life and therefore should not be destroyed. Mr Bush twice vetoed congressional attempts to have the ban lifted.

Following Mr Obama's announcement, John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said the president had undermined "protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us".

MEDIA REACTION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PLAN

The dispute is not about whether stem cell science should proceed; it is about how it will proceed.

Ryan T Anderson, The Weekly Standard

The stem cell signing - like the economic stimulus bill - is an example of the two different tracks that Obama and Republicans are currently on. Obama, with his base solidly on his side, is making policy with broad support among independents. Republicans, on the other hand, remain in the wilderness and are looking to rebuild from core principles.

Chris Cillizza, Washington Post

Now, scientists say they can build on the work they've accomplished during the Bush-policy era, take it in different directions and learn from one another in whole new ways.

Claudia Kalb, Newsweek

Although President Bush limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to a few existing stem cell colonies, he did not make such research illegal... Nothing notable has occurred in embryonic stem cell research other than the scientific fraud committed by the infamous South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk.

Steven Milloy, Fox News

There is real hope that stem cells will soon be available to regenerate tissue for any part of the body. Throughout the past eight years, funding restrictions have forced researchers to develop workarounds... President Obama's executive order presents an excellent opportunity to renew America's commitment to this whole promising field.

William Haseltine, The Atlantic

This issue's controversial. But there's nowhere near the opposition to embryonic stem cell research as there is to abortion, where more than 60% of Americans favour more restrictions.

Dan Gilgoff, US News & World Report

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7929690.stm

Published: 2009/03/09 17:58:19 GMT

© BBC MMIX

HIV gene therapy trial promising

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:43:00 +0000

One of the first attempts to use gene therapy to treat HIV has produced promising results in clinical trials.

When the therapy was tested on 74 patients, it was shown to be safe and appeared to reduce the effect of the virus on the immune system.

In theory, one treatment should be enough to replace the need for a lifetime of antiretroviral therapy.

The study, by the University of California, Los Angeles, appears in the journal Nature Medicine.

“The researchers have shown enough of an effect for us to be hopeful that a gene therapy approach to HIV treatment might eventually deliver effective treatments for the disease”
Keith Alcorn HIV information service NAM

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has greatly improved the prognosis for people infected with HIV.

However, it must be taken on a daily basis, there is a risk of adverse reactions and the virus - which has an astonishing capacity to evolve rapidly - is starting to develop resistance to the drugs.

Therefore, new ways to combat the virus are badly needed.

Stem cells

The latest therapy involves giving patients blood stem cells modified to carry a molecule called OZ1, which is designed to stop HIV reproducing itself by targeting two key proteins.

The patients in the trial either received the therapy, or a dummy treatment.

After 48 weeks the researchers found there was no statistically significant difference in the amount of HIV circulating in the blood of the two groups of patients.

However, after 100 weeks the patients who received the gene therapy had higher levels of CD4+ cells - the key cells of the immune system which are specifically destroyed by HIV.

Lead researcher, Professor Ronald Mitsuyasu, said the research was the first to come through tightly controlled trials in which patients did not know whether they were getting the therapy or the placebo.

He said: "Gene therapy has the potential of needing only a one-time or infrequent administration of product and would allow the patients to control their own HIV internally without the need for continuous drug therapy.

"While this treatment is far from being perfected, it is not yet as effective or as complete as current antiretroviral therapy in controlling HIV, the study did show proof of concept that inserting and administering a single anti-HIV gene in the patients' own blood stem cells and giving it back to them could reduce viral replication to some degree when anti-HIV medications are stopped."

However, Professor Mitsuyasu said long-term follow up was needed to ensure the therapy was safe.

'Exciting' area

Jo Robinson, of the HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Gene therapy is an exciting area which aims to create a one off treatment for HIV, avoiding the need for people to take daily medication.

"However, it's a very complex area and early days in research terms so we're a long way from something like this being on the market.

"This particular trial proved safe and has shown some promising results which definitely warrant further investigation.

"Some people find their HIV becomes resistant to current treatments over time so it's essential that we invest in researching potential new approaches like this."

Keith Alcorn, of the HIV information service NAM, said: "The viral load responses in this study were very modest, and for any other sort of product would not justify going forward.

"However, the researchers have shown enough of an effect for us to be hopeful that a gene therapy approach to HIV treatment might eventually deliver effective treatments for the disease."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7883023.stm

Published: 2009/02/16 00:07:44 GMT

© BBC MMIX

MS stem-cell treatment 'success'

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Stem-cell transplants may control and even reverse multiple sclerosis symptoms if done early enough, a small study has suggested.

Not one of 21 adults with relapsing-remitting MS who had stem cells transplanted from their own bone marrow deteriorated over three years.

And 81% improved by at least one point on a scale of neurological disability, The Lancet Neurology reported.

Further tests are now planned, and a UK expert called the work "encouraging".

MS is an autoimmune disease which affects about 85,000 people in the UK.

It is caused by a defect in the body's immune system, which turns in on itself, causing damage to the nerves which can lead to symptoms including blurred vision, loss of balance and paralysis.

Stem cells are showing more and more potential in the treatment of MS and the challenge we now face is proving their effectiveness in trials involving large numbers of people

Dr Doug Brown, MS Society

At first, the condition mostly causes intermittent symptoms that are partly reversible.

Over a 10-15 year period after onset, most patients develop secondary-progressive MS, with gradual but irreversible neurological impairment.

It is not the first time this treatment - known as autologous non-myeloablative haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation - has been tried in people with MS, but there has not been a great deal of success.

The researchers at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago said most other studies had tried the transplants in people with secondary-progressive MS where the damage had already been done.

In the latest trial patients with earlier stage disease who, despite treatment had had two relapses in the past year, were offered the transplant.

Immune system

Stem cells were harvested from the patients and frozen while drugs were given to remove the immune cells or lymphocytes causing the damage.

The stem cells were then transplanted back to replenish the immune system - effectively resetting it.

Five patients in the study relapsed, but went into remission after receiving other therapy.

The researchers are now doing a randomised controlled trial in a larger number of patients to compare the treatment with standard therapy.

Study leader Professor Richard Burt said this was the first MS study of any treatment to show reversal of damage.

"You don't want to wait until the horse has left the barn before you close the barn door - you want to treat early.

"I think the reversal is the brain repairing itself.

"Once you're at the progressive stage you have exceeded the ability of the brain to repair itself," he said.

However, he cautioned that it was important to wait for the results of the larger trial.

And that he would not call it a cure but "changing the natural history of the disease".

Dr Doug Brown, research manager at the MS Society, said the results were very encouraging.

"It's exciting to see that in this trial not only is progression of disability halted, but damage appears to be reversed.

"Stem cells are showing more and more potential in the treatment of MS and the challenge we now face is proving their effectiveness in trials involving large numbers of people."

From BBC

Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:33:00 +0000

Expert: Trachea won’t be rejected because patient’s own marrow was used

November 18, 2008

Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

"This technique has great promise," said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.

The results were published online in the medical journal, The Lancet.

The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.

An important advance
Doctors initially thought the only solution was to remove the entire left lung. But Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, head of thoracic surgery at Barcelona’s Hospital Clinic, proposed a windpipe transplant instead.

Once doctors had a donor windpipe, scientists at Italy’s University of Padua stripped off all its cells, leaving only a tube of connective tissue.

Meanwhile, doctors at the University of Bristol took a sample of Castillo’s bone marrow from her hip. They used the bone marrow’s stem cells to create millions of cartilage and tissue cells to cover and line the windpipe.

Experts at the University of Milan then used a device to put the new cartilage and tissue onto the windpipe. The new windpipe was transplanted into Castillo in June.
They have created a functional, biological structure that can’t be rejected,” said Dr. Allan Kirk of the American Society of Transplantation. “It’s an important advance, but constructing an entire organ is still a long way off.”

So far, Castillo has shown no signs of rejection and is not taking any immune-suppressing drugs, which can cause side effects like high blood pressure, kidney failure and cancer.

"I was scared at the beginning," Castillo said in a press statement. "I am now enjoying life and am very happy that my illness has been cured."

Her doctors say she is now able to take care of her children, and can walk reasonable distances without becoming out of breath. Castillo even reported dancing all night at a club in Barcelona recently.

"Key way forward"
Genden said that Castillo’s progress needed to be closely monitored. "Time will tell if this lasts," he said. Genden added that it can take up to three years to know if the windpipe's cartilage structure is solid and won't fall apart.

People who might benefit include children born with defective airways, people with scars or tumours in their windpipes, and those with collapsed windpipes.

The technique might even be adapted to other organs like the bowel, bladder, or reproductive tract, Birchall said.

“Patients engineering their own tissues is the key way forward,” said Dr. Patrick Warnke, a surgeon at the University of Kiel in Germany. Warnke is also growing patients’ tissues from stem cells for transplants.

Warnke predicted that doctors might one day be able to produce organs in the laboratory from patients’ own stem cells. “That is still years away, but we need pioneering approaches like this to solve the problem,” he said.

From MSNBC

Marrow transplant suppresses AIDS

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:31:00 +0000

November 13, 2008

A BONE marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has kept an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, researchers say.

The patient, an American living in Berlin, was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and also had leukemia.

The best treatment for the leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, which takes the stem cells from a healthy donor's immune system to replace the patient's cancer-ridden cells.

Dr Gero Hutter and Thomas Schneider of the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Infections and Rheumatology of the Berlin Charite hospital said yesterday that the team sought a bone marrow donor who had a genetic mutation known to help the body resist AIDS infection.

The mutation affects a receptor, a cellular doorway, called CCR5 that the AIDS virus uses to get into the cells it infects.

When they found a donor with the mutation, they used that bone marrow to treat the patient.
Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.

"As of today, more than 20 months after the successful transplant, no HIV can be detected in the patient," the clinic said.

"We performed all tests, not only with blood but also with other reservoirs," Schneider told a news conference.

"But we cannot exclude the possibility that it's still there."

The researchers stressed that this would never become a standard treatment for HIV.

Bone marrow stem cell transplants are rigorous and dangerous and require the patient to first have his or her own bone marrow destroyed.

Patients risk death from even the most minor infections because they have no immune system until the stem cells can grow and replace their own.

HIV has no cure and is always fatal. Cocktails of drugs can keep the virus suppressed, sometimes to undetectable levels.

But research shows the virus never disappears - it lurks in so-called reservoirs throughout the body.

Dr Hutter's team said they had been unable to find any trace of the virus in their 42-year-old patient, who remains unnamed, but that did not mean it was not there.

"The virus is tricky. It can always return," Dr Hutter said.

The CCR5 mutation was found in about 3 per cent of Europeans, the researchers said.

They said the study suggested that gene therapy, a highly experimental technology, might someday be used to help treat patients with HIV.

From correspondents in Berlin

Govt supports stem cell research, says Liow

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:39:00 +0000

May 27, 2008

The Health Ministry fully supports local stem cell research, its minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said today.

"We are very supportive of the efforts of the private sector to make Malaysia a leading centre in the field of stem cell therapy and research. The ministry is committed financially to support stem cell development in Malaysia," said Liow.

"Recently, RM32 million was approved by the Cabinet for the ministry to further develop and strengthen stem cell and blood bank activities," he said, adding that:
> RM5.86 million was allocated for the setting up of a stem cell transplantation laboratory in the Institute of Medical Research (IMR);
> RM18.87 million for the expansion of the public cord banking facility in the National Blood Bank and in Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital, Sungai Petani; and
> RM5.57 million to strengthen stem cell and bone marrow transplantation services in Ampang Hospital.

Currently, cord blood stem cells are stored in five blood banks nationwide - the National Blood Bank, Stemlife, Cryocord, Stemtech, and CellSafe International (CSI).

The cells are used mainly to treat heart disorders, acute or chronic leukemia and orthopaedic injuries.

Liow reminded researchers and doctors to conduct their research ethically and responsibly, stressing that "the ministry is supportive of the active involvement of local researchers, but the research must be within existing ethical guidelines".

Liow said: "We will monitor the research activities to safeguard the public in this very promising field of cell transplantation. Any new research or therapies will be subject to the approval of the ministry.

"The National Transplantation Council (NTC), chaired by the health director-general, is the main governing body of the transplantation programme. The council's responsibilities include recommending policies on organ, tissue and cell transplantation to ensure the highest ethical and professional standards in the practice of transplantation."

Liow, who delivered a keynote address in a briefing on the current status of stem cell research in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said the ministry has also formed a National Stem Cell Committee to assist NTC in developing leadership and governance for stem cell research and transplantation.

From The Sun

Govt supports stem cell research, says Liow

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Govt supports stem cell research, says Liow

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Cerebral palsy treatment by cord blood stem cells

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:36:00 +0000

Mar. 11, 2008

Dallas Hextell was already a miracle to parents Cynthia and Derak, after they spent three years trying to get pregnant.

But now he is looking like a medical miracle to the rest of the world.

The 2-year-old son of the Sacramento, Calif., couple was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but is now showing fewer signs of the disorder and marked improvement after an infusion of his own stem cells — made possible by the preservation of his own cord blood shortly before birth.

Derak Hextell now believes his son will be cured of the incurable malady.

“[Dallas’ doctors] said by the age of 7, there may be no signs of cerebral palsy at all,” Hextell told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira while holding a curious Dallas on his lap. “So he’s on his way, as far as we’re concerned.”

For Cynthia Hextell, the changes in Dallas just five days after the intravenous infusion of his cord blood cells are not coincidental.

“[He’s changed] almost in every way you can imagine, just from five days afterwards saying ‘mama’ and waving,” she said. “We just feel like right now he really connects with you.

“It just seemed like a fog was over him before, like he just really wasn’t there. There was kind of, like a glaze in his eyes. Now, as you can see, you can’t get anything past him.”

A difficult start
The joy of Dallas’ birth in 2006 was met with gradual heartbreak as he was unable to feed from his mother. He was constantly crying and rarely opened his eyes. At five months, Dallas had trouble balancing himself and his head was often cocked to one side.

The Hextells switched pediatricians when Dallas was eight months old and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy — a group of nonprogressive disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and to maintain balance and posture.

Various studies show that the damage to the motor-control centers of the young, developing brain that causes CP occurs during pregnancy, although there are smaller percentages of the disorder occurring during childbirth and after birth through the age of 3.

“I think it’s important to remind people that cerebral palsy has to do with the motor part of the brain and usually kids don’t deteriorate,” said Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC News’ chief medical editor. “But they have significant motor problems, which explains why he wasn’t a good sucker when he was breast-feeding as a baby and all of this colicky stuff that sort of confused the diagnosis.”

There is no known cure for cerebral palsy, and the treatments to help manage its debilitating effects make it the second-most expensive developmental disability to manage over a person’s lifetime, behind mental disabilities.

At 18 months, Dallas had very limited motor skills. He could not crawl, clap or sit up and he communicated only through screaming brought on mostly by pain and frustration.

Life-changing decision
During her pregnancy, Cynthia Hextell had done thorough Web research on health issues relating to childbirth and came across a pop-up ad for Cord Blood Registry, the world’s largest family cord blood stem cell bank. The San Bruno, Calf.-based company has preserved cord blood stem cells for more than 200,000 newborns throughout the world.

Hextell said the cost of saving Dallas’ cord blood — about $2,000 and not covered by insurance — was off-putting. But she ultimately registered for CBR, thinking she would rather put up the money and not use it rather than have saved it and regretted it later.

(Cord Blood Registry spokesman David Zitlow said the procedure costs $2,000 for processing and $120 per year for storage.)

“We had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, but it did take us three years to get pregnant,” Cynthia Hextell told Vieira. “It was a good chance he was going to be our only child, so that was one thing that if we were going to do it, this was our only chance.

“Heart disease ran in [Derak Hextell’s] family. I was adopted, so I knew if we ever needed something, Dallas and I were the only ones [who could provide a genetic match]. So those were things [we considered], but nothing like I thought something was going to be wrong with my child. Literally, it took us until about two weeks before our due date to make the final decision because it is expensive.”

After Dallas was diagnosed, the Hextells traveled to Duke University, where doctors were using cord blood as part of a clinical trial to treat a small number of children who had cerebral palsy or brain damage. Mrs. Hextell called some of the parents of the children and all of them reported tangible improvement in their children following the transplant of stem cells, evidenced in better speech and motor skills.

So the Hextells agreed to infuse Dallas’ own stem cells back into his bloodstream last July, a procedure that took less than an hour.

Within five days, a different child emerged — laughing, clapping, waving and reacting.

“We think [the transfusion] has a real big part to do with it because it was such a drastic change within five days of the procedure taking place,” Derak Hextell said. “It had to be because he wasn’t reaching the milestones that he’s reaching now. He was falling further and further behind.”

“Before he went to Duke, we were trying to teach him to use a walker,” Cynthia Hextell said. “Now he walks with no assistance at all.”

Saving the cells
Although Dallas’ case was not part of a controlled case study, Snyderman said it should not be overlooked in the progressing studies of stem cell treatments.

“I think the thing that medicine has not done very well is we haven’t made a big enough deal about anecdotes,” she said. “This is not a controlled case study. It’s not a randomized clinical trial. But it is a child with a diagnosis who got a transfusion of stem cells and not only stopped the deterioration of his problems, [but] he’s doing better.

“So I take it very seriously. And I think it’s an extraordinary reminder that cord blood, that stuff that is thrown away with the placenta in the emergency room as sort of medical waste, can have extraordinary applications. We’re all offered it in the delivery room.”

Snyderman didn’t have to convince one person about the promise of those stem cells.

Said Cynthia Hextell: “They’re like gold.”

By Bob Considine

Cord Blood Stem Cells And Cardiovascular Disease

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Feb. 20, 2008

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. Approximately one million people die of cardiovascular disease annually despite medical intervention, with coronary artery disease claiming 50 percent of those lives.(1) Although heart disease impacts an older population whose heart muscle, arteries and pumping function have deteriorated over time, heart ailments also strike the very young. According to the National Institutes of Health, congenital heart disease is responsible for more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defect.(2)

To date, there is no proven "off-the-shelf" therapy to repair or regenerate the heart after acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) or congestive heart failure. Because heart cells have a limited capacity to regenerate, researchers are exploring potential therapies using various stem cell sources to repair or replace damaged tissue including vascular endothelial cells, which form the inner lining of new blood vessels, and cardiomyocytes, the heart muscle cells that contract to pump blood into and out of the heart.(3)

The stem cells found in a newborn's umbilical cord blood are one type of stem cell holding great promise in cardiovascular repair. Stem cells from cord blood may have an advantage over those found in bone marrow or peripheral blood because they are immunologically "younger" and appear to be more versatile. They also demonstrate an important characteristic with embryonic stem cells: they are able to differentiate into nearly all cell types in the body. However, cord blood stem cells offer important advantages: 1)they do this in a safe and controlled manner; 2)they have been used in clinical practice to treat humans for more than 20 years; and 3)there is no controversy involved in their collection.

Researchers are noting several positive observations in pre-clinical animal studies. Thus far, in animal models, cord blood stem cells have shown the ability to selectively migrate to injured cardiac tissue, improve vascular function and blood flow at the site of injury, and improve overall heart function.(1)

Repairing Blood Vessels and Improving Ventricular Function
The heart demands a large volume of blood flow in order to bring nutrients and oxygen to the muscle tissue after it has been damaged. Research demonstrates that cord blood stem cells are capable of giving rise to vascular endothelial-like cells, which are believed to aid in the repair of heart tissue damage due to myocardial infarction. Several pre-clinical studies of induced myocardial infarction in rats have shown that cord blood stem cells have the ability to:
# Migrate and engraft to damaged heart muscle (4,5)
# Contribute to the formation and proliferation of new blood vessels (4,6)
# Improve left ventricular remodeling, structural damage and function (7)
# Decrease the size of infarction (8)

These animal studies may lay the foundation for future human clinical trials testing cord blood stem cell treatment for patients with heart damage due to myocardial infarction.

Cardiomyocytes and Cord Blood: In Vitro Studies Show Promise
Permanent loss of cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) and the formation of scar tissue following a heart attack result in irreversible damage to cardiac function. Human cord blood contains several different types of stem cells including hematopoietic, endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells. Although still in early stages, four in vitro studies have shown that under certain treatment conditions, cord blood mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells (9,10,11,12) and were able to induce regeneration of healthy cells from damaged cardiomyocytes (12). This suggests that cord blood stem cells have a high potential to differentiate into cardiomyocytes and aid the regeneration of cardiomyocytes lost due to heart damage.

Cord Blood and Congenital Heart Defects
Although more research needs to be done, scientists believe cord blood stem cells may have the most immediate benefit for children born with congenital heart defects - or problems with the heart's structure that are present at birth.
According to one in vitro study, cord blood endothelial stem cells demonstrated excellent growth potential for tissue-engineered vascular grafts that could replace human heart defects. These findings offer a compelling reason why parents with a child diagnosed intrauterinely with congenital defects should consider preserving their child's cord blood, since it may offer a treatment option in the future.(13)

Advances in Peripheral Vascular Disease
The ability of cord blood stem cells to become vascular endothelial-like cells and thus, blood vessels, indicates they will likely have potential applications beyond the heart.

Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is a restriction of blood flow outside of the heart usually occurring in the legs and arms. Restricted blood flow is caused by blood vessel narrowing from fatty plaque formation on vessel walls (atherosclerosis) or blockage due to blood clots. If the blockage is severe enough, tissue death can occur. If left untreated, the limb may need to be amputated.(14)

In animal models, cord blood stem cells have been able to significantly reverse the effects of ischemia, or loss of blood flow in the blood vessels. In models of hind limb ischemia, transplantation of cord blood stem cells appeared to reverse surgery-induced ischemia resulting in limb salvage.(15-16) These observations may lead to future human clinical trials using cord blood stem cells to treat patients with peripheral vascular disease.

The Future of Cord Blood Stem Cell Therapy
As science advances, so do the number of preserved cord blood units being used in regenerative medicine applications. If expectant parents store their baby's cord blood in a family bank, the stem cells are immediately available for use in medical treatments, including future therapies to repair or replace damaged heart tissues. As a result, an infant's cord blood could prove to be a life-saving treatment option if that child is born with a congenital heart defect, or later in life following a sudden and serious heart attack. In regenerative medicine, the latest scientific evidence suggests that using one's own stem cells likely delivers more favorable outcomes.

References
1. Harris DT, Badowski M, Ahmad N, Gaballa MA. The potential of cord blood stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 2007;7(9):1311-1322.
2. U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Medline Plus. Congenital Heart Disease page. Accessed January 2008.
3. National Institutes of Health. Stem Cell Information Page. Accessed January 2008.
4. Ma N, Stamm C, Kaminski A, Li W, et al. Human cord blood cells induce angiogenesis following myocardial infarction in NOD/scid-mice.Cardiovascular Research. 2005;66(1):45-54.
5. Hu CH, Wu GF, Wang XO et al. Transplanted human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells improve left ventricular function through angiogenesis in myocardial infarction. Chin Med J (Engl). 2006;119(18):1499-506.
6. Ma N. Ladilov Y, Kaminski A, Piechaczek C. Stamm C. Umbilical cord blood cell transplantation for myocardial regeneration. Transplant proc. 2005;38(3):771-3.
7. Leor J, Guetta E, Feinberg MS et al. Human umbilical cord blood-derived CD133+ cells enhance function and repair of the infarcted myocardium. Stem Cells. 2006;24(3):772-80.
8. Henning RJ, Abu-Ali H, Balis JU, Morgan MB, Willing AE, Sanberg PR. Human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Cell Transplant. 2004;13(7-8):729-39.
9. Cheng F, Zou P, Handong Y. Induced differentiation of human cord blood mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro. J Huazong Univ Sci and Tech. 2003;23(2):154-157.
10. Nishiyama N, Miyoshi S, Hida N, et al. The significant cardiomyogenic potential of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. Stem Cells. 2007;25(8):2017-24.
11. Bonanno G, Mariotti A, Procoli A, et al. Human cord blood CD133+ cells immunoselected by a clinical-grade apparatus differentiate in vitro into endothelial- and cardiomyocyte-like cells. Transfusion. 2007;47(2):280-9.
12. Yamada Y, Yokoyama S, Fukuda N, et al. A novel approach for myocardial regeneration with educated cord blood cells cocultured with cells from brown adipose tissue. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007;353(1):182-8.
13. Schmidt D, Breymann C, Weber A, Guenter CI, Neuenschwander S, Zund G, Turina M, Hoerstrup SP. Umbilical cord blood derived endothelial progenitor cells for tissue engineering of vascular grafts. Ann Thorac Surg. 2004 Dec;78(6):2094-8.
14. U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Medline Plus. Peripheral Vascular Disease page. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/peripheralvasculardiseases.html. Accessed January 2008.
15. Ikeda Y, Noboru F, Wada M, Matsumoto T, Satomi A, Yokoyama SI, Saito S, Masumoto K, Katsuo K, Mugishima H. Development of angiogenic cell and gene therapy by transplantation of umbilical cord blood with vascular endothelial growth factor gene. Hypertens Res. 2004;27(2):119-128.
16 Cho S-W, Gwak S-J, Kang S-W, et al. Enhancement of angiogenic efficacy of human cord blood cell transplantation. Tissue Eng. 2006;12(6):1651-1661.

Stem cell hope for bone fractures

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:30:00 +0000

BBC News, Feb. 12, 2008

UK scientists hope to mend shattered bones and damaged cartilage using a patient's own stem cells.

They are developing a "bioactive scaffold" to protect the stem cells and encourage them to grow into bone or cartilage when placed in the body.

The Edinburgh University team hope the technique, which uses stem cells from blood and bone marrow, will be tested in patients within two years.

Surgeons said it could help repair trauma injuries too severe to heal.

The £1.4m project could also eventually have an impact on treating conditions such as osteoarthritis.

Dr Brendon Noble, who works in the University of Edinburgh's MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine said initially they would look at mending cartilage injuries which do not tend to heal well or bone fractures caused by severe trauma such as motorbike accidents.

Elderly patients with fractures also tend to heal less well, he said.

'Recipe'
The key to success would be to get the "recipe" right for encouraging the stem cells to grow in what are effectively harsh environments, he explained.

"A lot of research that has gone before is working out what will drive them down the route to become a specific cell type.

"The next stage is trying to think of innovative ways to encourage them to do that in the body - often we can do things in the laboratory and that's easy but we tend to forget that the cells in the patient were not happy in the first place."

The scaffold consists of a fairly rigid mesh structure, coated or impregnated with a drug that helps the stem cells take hold.

As well as using stem cells from bone marrow, Dr Noble's team is working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to culture bone forming cells from blood.

This would mean the patient does not have to undergo surgery to harvest the cells.

Dr Noble added: "Half of us will have orthopaedic surgery in our lifetime.

"We are also living longer and want to remain more active in later life so such problems are going to become more prominent and more expensive."

Professor Chris Moran, member of the British Orthopaedic Association and expert in trauma surgery at the University of Nottingham, said this kind of research meant in the future surgeons might be able to repair trauma injuries too severe to heal by current techniques and even replace bone lost to cancer.

But he added: "In order to move this technology from the laboratory to the operating theatre, the scaffold will need to be compatible with the human body and resist rejection."

Treatment for cancer of the nervous system

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:28:00 +0000

Feb. 12, 2008

Caden Ledbetter's stem cell transplant in December was a test of modern medicine.

The six weeks of blood transfusions, fevers and fits that followed, all in an isolated hospital room, was a test of the Coppell toddler's spirit. In the latter battle, Caden came out a winner Monday. Doctors released the 2-year-old from Medical City Dallas Hospital, where he spent nearly two months in treatment for neuroblastoma, which is a fast-growing cancer of the nervous system.

The centerpiece of Caden's care was an unusual transplant, in which stem cells taken from his own umbilical cord at birth were pumped back into his body Dec. 28.

It's unclear whether Caden will get his health back, but his freedom returned Monday.

Wearing a surgical mask and a look of trepidation, Caden walked through the hospital lobby Monday afternoon with a teddy bear in his hand. Caden's parents and doctor cheered as the boy broke through a set of streamers that nurses had taped up at the hospital doors.

"He's been here for so long," said Robin McCune, a pediatric nurse. Without Caden, "it will be an adjustment. Everybody just adores him."

Caden's transplant appears to have been a success. Doctors wiped out his cancerous cells with chemotherapy and replaced them with his prenatal stem cells, which grew and rebuilt most of Caden's immune system.

The question is whether Caden's new cells will develop cancer, as his old ones did. An answer could take years.

"It's just the uncertainty of the future that gets a little bit scary," said Caden's mother, Lexie Ledbetter. "You've got to stay with today and say, 'Yay, we're going home' and see what happens then."

Neuroblastoma had spread to Caden's bones, liver and bone marrow by the time his mother discovered a lump on his head last summer.

Donors usually supply cord blood for stem-cell transplants, but Caden's parents paid to save his own on a whim.

The stem-cell transplant using one's own cord blood is so unheard of that experts disagree on the long-term benefits of using it to treat cancer.

Dr. Joel Weinthal, a Texas Oncology physician who is treating Caden, says it's the boy's best shot against a deadly disease that comes back about half the time.

"We're not talking about his being cured of his neuroblastoma right now," said Dr. Weinthal. "It's certainly a very positive thing that he gets to go home from the hospital, but he has a long road ahead of him."

The first stop Monday was the family home in Coppell, which looked ready for a new baby more than a recovering hospital patient.

Balloons and welcome-home signs waited in the front yard, and Caden's beaming grandparents stood at the door.

"I went to work today, but I couldn't do much of anything," said Mary Collins, Caden's maternal grandmother. "I couldn't even eat lunch."

Caden's 5-year-old twin brothers, Joshua and Zachary, raced out the front door when they saw the family's black sport utility vehicle pull up.

"Part of it is they miss him, and part is they really want his toys," Mrs. Ledbetter said, laughing.
It was business as usual when the three boys got inside – singing karaoke, playing with their trucks and watching a video of Caden's favorite singing group, the Wiggles.

Mrs. Ledbetter and her husband, John, equipped the family home with air purifiers, a new heating and air-conditioning system and dust-free air ducts – all to protect Caden's fragile immune system.

There will be almost daily doctor visits, as Caden continues special radiation treatments for cancer.

His parents are as realistic as the doctors about Caden's health. On Monday, they were reassured by his renewed spirits.

At the hospital, "he didn't talk and everything was 'No, don't touch me,' " Mrs. Ledbetter said. "Now we're almost back to the Caden that we know."

By STACI HUPP / The Dallas Morning News

Patient grows new jaw from own stem cells

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Reuters Feb. 1, 2008

HELSINKI - Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

Researchers said on Friday the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spare parts for humans a step closer to reality.

"There have been a couple of similar-sounding procedures before, but these didn't use the patient's own stem cells that were first cultured and expanded in laboratory and differentiated into bone tissue," said Riitta Suuronen of the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine, part of the University of Tampere.

She told a news conference the patient was recovering more quickly than he would have if he had received a bone graft from his leg.

"From the outside, nobody would be able to tell he has been through such a procedure," she said.

The team used no materials from animals, she added, preventing the risk of transmitting viruses than can be hidden in an animal's DNA, and followed European Union guidelines.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, and they can be found throughout the blood and tissues. Researchers recently have found that fat contains stem cells, which can be directed to form a variety of different tissues.

Using a patient's own stem cells provides a tailor-made transplant that the body should not reject.

Suuronen and her colleagues — the project was run jointly with the Helsinki University Central Hospital — isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum.

In this case, they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells — immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels.

When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said.

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The block was later transplanted into the patient's head and connected to the skull bone using screws and microsurgery. Then doctors connected arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.

The patient's upper jaw had previously been removed due to a benign tumor. He was unable to eat or speak without the use of a removable prosthesis.

Suuronen said her team had submitted a report on the procedure to a medical journal to be reviewed.

Scientists grow artificial liver

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:24:00 +0000

Telegraph.co.uk

1st November, 2006- British scientists have grown a miniature liver from stem cells in a world breakthrough. The tiny organ, about the size of a 1p coin, will be used for drug testing and reduce the need for animal experiments.

Scientists said it was the first stage to creating sections which can be used to repair damaged livers and even a full-size functioning version. The creation of the mini-liver by scientists at Newcastle University involved taking stem cells - blank cells capable of developing into different types of tissue - from the umbilical cords of newborn babies.

The cells were then placed in a “bioreactor” developed by NASA that mimics the effects of weightlessness and allows them to multiply rapidly. Using hormones and chemicals, the stem cells are then coaxed into turning into liver tissue.

The Newcastle University team is the first to have done it using cord blood stem cells.
In its current form, use of the mini organ for trialing new medicines could avert disasters such as the recent Elephant Man case where human volunteers suffered horrendous physical damage testing new drugs.

Within a few years it is hoped that liver damage caused by injury, disease and alcohol and drug abuse will be rectified using sections of an artificially grown organ.

There could come a time when umbilical cord blood from millions of newborns every year is banked creating a worldwide donor register for liver dialysis and transplant.

Alison Rogers of the British Liver Trust said: “Stem cell technology represents a huge leap forward in treating many diseases. With liver disease in particular it has the potential for tremendous advances.”

Research develops stem cells into tissues

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:23:00 +0000

NEW YORK, June 29 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers are developing a process that would allow scientists to use a patient's own stem cells to develop new skin tissue.

Columbia University Medical Center said the tissue could be used for facial reconstruction following disfiguring injuries from war, cancer surgery or accidents. The research, which is being funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, is being led by Jeremy Mao, an associate professor of dental medicine at Columbia.

The researchers are trying to create long-lasting soft tissue implants from mesenchymal stem cells harvested from the patient's own bone marrow or adipose tissue, the university said Friday in a release.

"Our research has shown that mesenchymal stem cells can create tissue that is biocompatible with the host and that the continuous generation of these cells can replenished the implant to reduce shrinkage," Mao said.

Cord blood stem cells successful in turning to insulin

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:22:00 +0000

May. 25, 2007

In a fundamental discovery that someday may help cure type 1 diabetes by allowing people to grow their own insulin-producing cells for a damaged or defective pancreas, medical researchers here have reported that they have engineered adult stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood to produce insulin.

The researchers announced their laboratory finding, which caps nearly four years of research, in the June 2007 issue of the medical journal Cell Proliferation, posted online this week. Their paper calls it "the first demonstration that human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells can be engineered" to synthesize insulin.

"This discovery tells us that we have the potential to produce insulin from adult stem cells to help people with diabetes," said Dr. Randall J. Urban, senior author of the paper, professor and chair of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and director of UTMB’s Nelda C. and Lutcher H. J. Stark Diabetes Center. Stressing that the reported discovery is extremely basic research, Urban cautioned: "It doesn’t prove that we’re going to be able to do this in people — it’s just the first step up the rung of the ladder."

The lead author of the paper, UTMB professor of internal medicine/endocrinology Larry Denner, said that by working with adult stem cells rather than embryonic stem cells, doctors practicing so-called regenerative medicine eventually might be able to extract stem cells from an individual’s blood, then grow them in the laboratory to large numbers and tweak them so that they are directed to create a needed organ. In this way, he said, physicians might avoid the usual pitfall involved in transplanting cells or organs from other people — organ rejection, which requires organ recipients to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives.

Huge numbers of stem cells are thought to be required to create new organs. Researchers might remove thousands of donor cells from an individual and grow them in the laboratory into billions of cells, Denner explained. Then, for a person with type 1 diabetes, researchers might engineer these cells to become islets of Langerhans, the cellular masses that produce the hormone insulin, which allows the body to utilize sugar, synthesize proteins and store neutral fats, or lipids. "But we’re a long way from that," Denner warned.

Denner said this research, which reflects a fruitful collaboration with co-authors Drs. Colin McGuckin and Nico Forraz at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom, used human umbilical cord blood because it is an especially rich source of fresh adult stem cells and is easily available from donors undergoing Caesarian section deliveries in UTMB hospitals. "However," he added, "embryonic stem cell research was absolutely necessary to teach us how to do this."

Embryonic stem cells have been engineered to produce cardiac, neural, blood, lung and liver progenitor cells that perform many of the functions needed to help replace cells and tissues injured by many diseases, the paper notes. Among the insights into cell and tissue engineering gained from work with embryonic stem cells, it adds, are those "relevant to the engineering of functional equivalents of pancreatic, islet-like, glucose-responsive, insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes."

The researchers said they tested adult stem cells in the laboratory to ensure that they were predisposed to divide. Then they used a previously successful method in which complex signals produced by the embryonic mouse pancreas were used to direct adult stem cells to begin developing, or "differentiating," into islet-like cells.

As they grew these adult stem cells in the laboratory, the researchers conducted other tests in which the cells to be engineered showed evidence of a characteristic, or marker, known as SSEA-4 that was previously thought to exist only in embryonic cells. They also found that, just as embryonic cells have been shown to do, these adult stem cells produced both C-peptide, a part of the insulin precursor protein, and insulin itself. Confirming the presence of the C-peptide was especially crucial, the researchers suggested, because although insulin is often found in the growth media with which the cells are nurtured and is often taken up by such cells, the presence of the C-peptide proves that at least some of the insulin was produced, or synthesized, by the engineered cells.

Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabs

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:20:00 +0000

Daily Mail

15th April 2007-Hopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections.

Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.
A new scientific breakthrough could spell the end of insulin injections. The researchers say it could herald the start of a revolution in treating type one diabetes, which affects 300,000 patients in Britain. Type one diabetics have to regularly inject themselves with the hormone insulin to control their blood sugar levels.

The new research has emerged a month after it was revealed that the number of British children under the age of five who had developed type one diabetes had risen fivefold in the past 20 years.

A team of US and Brazilian scientists gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by injections of stem cells drawn from their own blood. After treatment, 14 of the 15 were able to put away their injection pens after losing their insulin dependence. And so far, one patient has been free of insulin dependency for 35 months.

Study leader Dr Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paolo said: "Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease.

"Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin dependence and treatment-related toxicity was low, with no mortality."

In the latest trial, patients' immune systems were suppressed using powerful drugs - to eliminate the white blood cells that were attacking the pancreas. The patient was then injected with a chemical which loosened stem cells from their bone marrow. These were filtered out, collected and later injected back into the patient's bloodstream.

The study only included a small number of patients between 14 and 31, and did not monitor their progress for very long.

Malcolm Alison, professor of stem cell biology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said: "In principle this is a cure because these people developed long-term control of their glucose levels.

"But these patients haven't been followed up long enough, so we cannot yet be sure."

By DANIEL MARTIN

Stem Cell Research; Researchers turn cord blood into lung cells

noreply@blogger.com (CellSafe International) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 03:14:00 +0000

Stem Cell Week

2006 NOV 20 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers at the University of Minnesota have, for the first time, coaxed umbilical cord blood stem cells to differentiate into a type of lung cell.

The cord blood stem cells differentiated into a type of lung cell called type II alveolar cells. These cells are responsible for secreting surfactant, a substance which allows the air sacs in the lungs to remain open, allowing air to move in and out of the sacs. The cells are also responsible for helping to repair the airway after injury.

"In the future, we may be able to examine cord blood from babies who have lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, to do more research to understand how these diseases evolve as well as to develop better medical treatments," said David McKenna, MD, assistant professor of lab medicine and pathology and medical director of the Clinical Cell Therapy Lab at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

Now the researchers will try to better characterize the alveolar cells, so that in the future, these alveolar cells could be used as a research tool to better understand lung development and disease. The cells may also be useful as a way to test potential new drugs.

To differentiate the lung cells from the cord blood, McKenna and his team first derived the Multi-Lineage Progenitor Cell (MLPC) from umbilical cord blood. This stem cell, which was first isolated and characterized by BioE, Inc., St. Paul, is a precursor cell that can be expanded in culture, then differentiated into different types of tissue representative of all three embryonic lineages, endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm.

In this series of experiments, McKenna and his group cultured the MLPC and differentiated it into the lung cells, an endoderm-type cell. By testing the cells that grew with various methods, they were able to find cells that exhibited key markers present in type II alveolar cells.