Tampa Bay, FL (PRWEB) July 28, 2014

Nearly 53 million Americans today are suffering with arthritis, with the majority of them diagnosed with osteoarthritis. (1) Osteoarthritis is a degeneration of joint cartilage and its underlying bone, causing significant pain and stiffness. While osteoarthritis has no cure, stem cell therapy has been demonstrated to induce profound healing in many forms of arthritis, according to the Stem Cell Institute. (2) Dr. Cynthia Elliott of Skinspirations, a center for cosmetic enhancement devoted to non-surgical aesthetics and now also specializing in administering regenerative medicine by stem cell, has made use of these services in a recent case study, which resulted in improved health in one of their clients.

Stem cells are unique from other cells for the following reasons:

(a)They can renew themselves through cell division; and (b)Under certain conditions, they can become tissue or organ-specific cells.

Stem cells are revered for their ability to make replacement tissues, as it relates to regenerative therapy. (3) Medical scientists and researchers are discovering the seemingly endless possibilities of what stem cells can treat, including brain damage, bone repair, kidney disease, etc. (4) This treatment is starting to boom in the medical world as a viable procedure, but Skinspirations has already had these practices in place, establishing them as progressive practitioners in the field.

Skinspirations is specifically studying the Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF)another term for stem cell treatmentand how it affects knees with severe arthritis. According to Dr. Elliott, Stromal Vascular Fraction can help to repair, replace and restore any damaged cells within the bodyDr. Elliott performed the stem cell procedure on her uncle after first treating other patients during her training, and he experienced the following results:

Case in Point:

Joe Elliott, a 63-year-old male, had severe arthritis in one knee. Doctors advised him to get a knee replacement, but Joe was hoping to avoid surgery for as long as possible. After talking to Dr. Elliott about the treatment, he drove to Skinspirations from Missouri to go forward with the stem cell procedure.

Dr. Elliott performed the treatment with the following steps:

(1)Numbed his abdomen with anesthesia; (2)Removed about 100 cc of fat; (3)Processed the fat to isolate the SVF; (4)Numbed the arthritic knee; and (5)Injected the pellet of SVF into the joint of his arthritic knee.

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Skinspirations Study Supports Medical Findings: Stem Cell Treatment Triggers Tissue Regeneration

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Jul-2014

Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation

NEW YORK, NY (July 24, 2014) Scientists at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute are one step closer to creating a viable cell replacement therapy for multiple sclerosis from a patient's own cells.

For the first time, NYSCF scientists generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells lines from skin samples of patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and further, they developed an accelerated protocol to induce these stem cells into becoming oligodendrocytes, the myelin-forming cells of the central nervous system implicated in multiple sclerosis and many other diseases.

Existing protocols for producing oligodendrocytes had taken almost half a year to produce, limiting the ability of researchers to conduct their research. This study has cut that time approximately in half, making the ability to utilize these cells in research much more feasible.

Stem cell lines and oligodendrocytes allow researchers to "turn back the clock" and observe how multiple sclerosis develops and progresses, potentially revealing the onset of the disease at a cellular level long before any symptoms are displayed. The improved protocol for deriving oligodendrocyte cells will also provide a platform for disease modeling, drug screening, and for replacing the damaged cells in the brain with healthy cells generated using this method.

"We are so close to finding new treatments and even cures for MS. The enhanced ability to derive the cells implicated in the disease will undoubtedly accelerate research for MS and many other diseases," said Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF Chief Executive Officer.

"We believe that this protocol will help the MS field and the larger scientific community to better understand human oligodendrocyte biology and the process of myelination. This is the first step towards very exciting studies: the ability to generate human oligodendrocytes in large amounts will serve as an unprecedented tool for developing remyelinating strategies and the study of patient-specific cells may shed light on intrinsic pathogenic mechanisms that lead to progressive MS". said Dr. Valentina Fossati, NYSCF Helmsley Investigator and senior author on the paper.

In multiple sclerosis, the protective covering of axons, called myelin, becomes damaged and lost. In this study, the scientists not only improved the protocol for making the myelin-forming cells but they showed that the oligodendrocytes derived from the skin of primary progressive patients are functional, and therefore able to form their own myelin when put into a mouse model. This is an initial step towards developing future autologous cell transplantation therapies in multiple sclerosis patients

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NYSCF scientists one step closer to cell therapy for multiple sclerosis patients

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 23, 2014

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) and Beyond Batten Disease Foundation (BBDF) have partnered to develop stem cell resources to investigate and explore new treatments and ultimately find a cure for juvenile Batten disease, a fatal illness affecting children.

NYSCF scientists will create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from skin samples of young people affected by juvenile Batten disease as well as unaffected family members. IPS cell lines are produced by artificially turning back the clock on skin cells to a time when they were embryonic-like and capable of becoming any cell in the body. Reprogramming juvenile Batten iPS cells to become brain and heart cells, will provide the infrastructure needed to investigate what is going wrong with the cells adversely affected by the disease. Thus far, efforts to study juvenile Batten disease have been done using rodent models or human skin cells; neither of which accurately mimic the disease in the brain, leaving researchers without proper tools to study the disease or a solid platform for testing drugs that prevent, halt, or reverse its progression. This will be the largest and first genetically diverse collection of human iPS cells for a pediatric brain disease.*

In addition to working with BBDF to actively recruit patients and families to donate skin samples, Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA) is providing resources and technical support, spreading awareness among academic scientists, and notifying its Pharmaceutical partners. Together, BBDF and BDSRA will ensure that juvenile Batten disease and other researchers are aware of and utilize the 48 stem cell lines resulting from this collaboration to further juvenile Batten disease research worldwide.

We know the genetic mutations associated with juvenile Batten disease. This partnership will result in stem cell models of juvenile Batten, giving researchers an unprecedented look at how the disease develops, speeding research towards a cure, said Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF Chief Executive Officer.

Working with NYSCF to generate functional neuronal subtypes from patients and families is a stellar example of one of our key strategies in the fight against juvenile Batten disease: creating resource technology with the potential to transform juvenile Batten disease research and accelerate our timeline to a cure, said Danielle M. Kerkovich, PhD, BBDF Principal Scientist.

Juvenile Batten disease begins in early childhood between the ages of five and ten. Initial symptoms typically begin with progressive vision loss, followed by personality changes, behavioral problems, and slowed learning. These symptoms are followed by a progressive loss of motor functions, eventually resulting in wheelchair use and premature death. Seizures and psychiatric symptoms can develop at any point in the disease.

Juvenile Batten disease is one disorder in a group of rare, fatal, inherited disorders known as Batten disease. Over 40 different errors (mutations) in the CLN3 segment of DNA (gene) have been attributed to juvenile Batten disease. The pathological hallmark of juvenile Batten is a buildup of lipopigment in the body's tissues. It is not known why lipopigment accumulates or why brain and eventually, heart cells are selectively damaged. It is, however, clear that we need disease-specific tools that reflect human disease in order to figure this out and to build therapy.

NYSCF is a world leader in stem cell research and production with a mission to find cures for the devastating diseases of our time, including juvenile Batten disease. NYSCF has developed the NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM, an automated robotic technology that standardizes and scales stem cell production and differentiation, enabling the manufacture and analysis of large numbers of identical cells from skin samples of patients. The Array technology allows for the production of large-scale iPS cells that have the potential to become any cell type in the body.

This collaboration brings together the expertise of these two leading non-profit organizations, the support of BDSRA, and the participation of affected families, to create and make available to researchers, juvenile Batten disease iPS cell lines. Building on the NYSCF Research Institutes leading stem cell expertise and unique automated technology and analytics, while taking advantage of the tremendous resources and expertise of BBDF, BDSRA and affected families, this collaboration will move research

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The New York Stem Cell Foundation Partners With Beyond Batten Disease Foundation to Fight Juvenile Batten Disease

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Jul-2014

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research

Dr. Ning Yuan, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, China and his colleagues, developed a novel neural stem cell scaffold that has two layers: the inner loose layer and the outer compact layer. The loose layer was infiltrated with a large amount of neural stem cells before it was transplanted in vivo. Thus a plenty of neural stem cells can be provided at the target spinal cord site. The loose layer was adhered to the injured side and the compact layer was placed against the lateral side. The compact layer has very small holes, so it can prevent ingrowth of adjacent scar tissue. It can also prevent the loss of inner neural stem cells and the neural growth factors secreted by the differentiated neural stem cells. Thus a good microenvironment forms to help spinal cord injury repair. Yuan Ning and colleagues found that transplantation of neural stem cells in a double-layer collagen membrane with unequal pore sizes is an effective therapeutic strategy to repair an injured spinal cord in rats. Related results were published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 10, 2014).

###

Article: " Neural stem cell transplantation in a double-layer collagen membrane with unequal pore sizes for spinal cord injury repair," by Ning Yuan1, Wei Tian1, Lei Sun2, Runying Yuan2, Jianfeng Tao2, Dafu Chen2 (1 Department of Spine, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China; 2 Beijing Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Beijing, China) Yuan N, Tian W, Sun L, Yuan RY, Tao JF, Chen DF. Neural stem cell transplantation in a double-layer collagen membrane with unequal pore sizes for spinal cord injury repair. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(10):1014-1019.

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research http://www.nrronline.org/

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Using a novel scaffold to repair spinal cord injury

Melbourne: In a discovery that raises hope for a cure for AIDS, two Australian men have been found to be HIV-free after receiving stem cells to treat cancer. The two patients' virus levels became undetectable after bone-marrow therapy with stem cells.

They are still on antiretroviral therapy (ART) "as a precaution", but those drugs alone could not be responsible for bringing the virus to such low levels, said David Cooper, director of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who led the discovery.

Cooper began searching for patients who had been purged of the HIV virus after attending a presentation by a United States team last year at a conference of the International AIDS Society in Kuala Lumpur.

At that meeting, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, reported that two patients who had received stem-cell transplants were virus-free.

Cooper and his collaborators scanned the archives of St Vincent's hospital in Sydney, one of the largest bone-marrow centres in Australia.

"We went back and looked whether we had transplanted [on] any HIV-positive patients, and found these two," said Cooper. The first patient had received a bone-marrow transplant for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2011.

His replacement stem cells came from a donor who carried one copy of a gene thought to afford protection against the virus. The other had been treated for leukaemia in 2012.

Because of the risk of relapse, Cooper's team will not claim that their patients are cured, 'nature.com' reported. However, Cooper said the results show that "there is something about bone-marrow transplantation in people with HIV that has an anti-HIV reservoir effect, such that the reservoirs go down to very low levels. And if we can understand what that is and how that happens, it will really accelerate the field of cure search."

Stem-cell transplant in itself cannot be used as a routine HIV treatment, because of the high mortality (10 per cent) associated with the procedure, researchers said.

Earlier this month, the search for AIDS cure suffered a major setback when a child in the US, who was thought to have been cured of HIV after intensive drug therapy, was found with detectable levels of the virus.

Continue reading here:
Cancer Treatment Clears Two Australian Men of HIV

Patients's virus levels became undetectable after a bone-marrow therapy with stem cells

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a lymphocyte with HIV cluster. Credit: National Cancer Institute via Wikimedia Commons

Scientists have uncovered two new cases of HIV patients in whom the virus has become undetectable.

The two patients, both Australian men, became apparently HIV-free after receiving stem cells to treat cancer. They are still on antiretroviral therapy (ART) as a precaution, but those drugs alone could not be responsible for bringing the virus to such low levels, says David Cooper, director of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who led the discovery. A year ago, a different group of researchers had reported cases with a similar outcome.

Cooper presented details of the cases today at a press briefing in Melbourne, Australia, where delegates are convening for next week's 20th International AIDS Conference. The announcement came just a day after the news that at least six people heading to the conference died when aMalaysia Airlines flight was shot down in Ukraine.

Cooper began searching for patients who had been purged of the HIV virus after attending a presentation by a US team last year at a conference of the International AIDS Society in Kuala Lumpur. At that meeting, researchers from Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, reported that two patients who had received stem-cell transplants were virus-free.

Cooper and his collaborators scanned the archives of St Vincents hospital in Sydney, one of the largest bone-marrow centres in Australia. We went back and looked whether we had transplanted [on] any HIV-positive patients, and found these two, says Cooper.

The first patient had received a bone-marrow transplant for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2011. His replacement stem cells came from a donor who carried one copy of a gene thought to afford protection against the virus. The other had been treated for leukaemia in 2012.

Unfortunately, several months after the 'Boston' patients stopped taking ART,the virus returned. An infant born with HIV in Mississippi who received antiretroviral therapy soon after birth, then stopped it for more than three years,was thought to have been cured, buthas had the virus rebound, too.

Natural resistance At the moment, there is only one person in the world who is still considered cured of HIV:Timothy Ray Brown, the 'Berlin patient', who received a bone-marrow transplant and has had no signs of the virus in his blood for six years without ART. The bone marrow received by the Berlin patient came from a donor who happened to have a natural genetic resistance to his strain of HIV.

Read more:
HIV Cleared in Two Patients via Cancer Treatment

Leukemia patient Mai Duong is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant -- something doctors say the Montreal resident requires within a matter of weeks.

While finding a well-matched stem cell donor is already a difficult task, the 34-year-old mother of one faces an added challenge: shes Vietnamese.

Duong was first diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2013, when she was 15 weeks pregnant with her second child. She was forced to terminate the pregnancy as she underwent seven months of chemotherapy, putting her cancer into remission for seven months.

But it returned in May, and doctors gave her two months to find a stem cell match.

"The only option for me to get cured is with the generosity of people," she says.

Duongs case is raising the alarm about a need for stem cell donors among Canada's minority groups, as those in need of transplants are more likely to find a donor from the same ethnic background.

Canadian Blood Services says less than 25 per cent of individuals in need of a stem cell transplant will be able to find a match within their own families and will have to turn to the public inthe hopes of finding a suitable donor.

But ethnic minorities are under-represented on donor lists in North America.

Less than one per cent of registered stem cell donors in Quebec are of South Asian descent, according to Hema-Quebec, the provinces blood services agency. The statistics are similar across Canada and in the international donor database.

"There is a cultural effect and religious effect," spokesperson Susie Joron told CTV News. "The other issue is that the biggest registries are in America and Germany, which has a big Caucasian population."

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Montreal woman desperately seeks Vietnamese stem cell donors

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Jul-2014

Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (July 18th 2014) The long-term, positive benefits of transplanted allogenic (other-donated) smooth muscle cells (SMCs) to repair cardiac tissues after myocardial infarction (MI) have been enhanced by the addition of interleukin 10 (IL-10) to the transplanted cells, report researchers in Canada. Their study with rats modeled with MI has shown that SMCs modified with IL-10 - a small, anti-inflammatory protein - benefitted cell survival, improved heart function, and also provided protection against the host's rejection of the allogenic SMCs.

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT1170Dhingra.

Three groups of rats modeled with MI were treated with SMC injections into the MI-damaged area of the heart. One group received unmodified autologous (self-donated) SMCs; a second group received unmodified allogenic (other-donated) SMCs; the third group received allogenic SMCs modified with IL-10. After three weeks, the unmodified autologous cells had engrafted while the unmodified allogenic cells had been rejected by the hosts. However, the IL-10-modified allogenic cells were found to greatly improve cell survival, improve ventricular function, increase myocardial wall thickness, and also prevent host immune response and rejection of the foreign cells.

"While the most appropriate cell type for cardiac repair remains controversial, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that have been differentiated toward myogenic cells restore ventricular function better, as previous studies have shown," said study co-author Ren-Ke Li of the MaRS Centre in Toronto, Canada. "This study demonstrated that IL-10 gene-enhanced cell therapy prevented immune response, increased survival of SMCs in the heart, and improved cardiac function when compared to the results with the control groups."

The researchers noted that while the use of autologous SMCs donated by patients may be optimal for cell therapy, SMCs self-donated by older, debilitated patients who likely have other serious health problems, have limited regenerative capability. Thus, allogenic SMCs from young, healthy donors are the most beneficial cells, but rejection of foreign cells by the host has been a problem in allogenic cell transplantation. This study suggests that the use of allogenic SMCs modified with IL-10 can prevent host rejection.

"Future studies will be required to determine the long-term effects of IL-10 transduced SMCs to evaluate cell survival and cardiac function at six months and one year," concluded the researchers.

"The use of IL-10 overexpression to reduce rejection of allogenic SMCs is an interesting idea" said Dr. Amit N. Patel, director of cardiovascular regenerative medicine at the University of Utah and section editor for Cell Transplantation. "Further studies will help to determine if this manipulation could prove useful for translation of allogenic SMC therapies to humans".

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Interleukin-10 aids survival of cells transplanted to repair cardiac tissues after MI

WASHINGTON --

The study, published Wednesday, is one step toward developing an alternative to electronic pacemakers that are implanted into 300,000 Americans a year.

"There are people who desperately need a pacemaker but can't get one safely," said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the work. "This development heralds a new era of gene therapy" that one day might offer them an option.

Your heartbeat depends on a natural pacemaker, a small cluster of cells - it's about the size of a peppercorn, Marban says - that generates electrical activity. Called the sinoatrial node, it acts like a metronome to keep the heart pulsing at 60 to 100 beats a minute or so, more when you're active. If that node quits working correctly, hooking the heart to an electronic pacemaker works very well for most people.

But about 2 percent of recipients develop an infection that requires the pacemaker to be removed for weeks until antibiotics wipe out the germs, Marban said. And some fetuses are at risk of stillbirth when their heartbeat falters, a condition called congenital heart block.

For over a decade, teams of researchers have worked to create a biological alternative that might help those kinds of patients, trying such approaches as using stem cells to spur the growth of a new sinoatrial node.

Marban's newest attempt uses gene therapy to reprogram a small number of existing heart muscle cells so that they start looking and acting like natural pacemaker cells instead.

Because pigs' hearts are so similar to human hearts, Marban's team studied the approach in 12 laboratory pigs with a defective heart rhythm.

They used a gene named TBX18 that plays a role in the embryonic development of the sinoatrial node. Working through a vein, they injected the gene into some of the pigs' hearts - in a spot that doesn't normally initiate heartbeats - and tracked them for two weeks.

Two days later, treated pigs had faster heartbeats than control pigs who didn't receive the gene, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. That heart rate automatically fluctuated, faster during the day. The treated animals also became more active, without signs of side effects.

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Scientists using gene therapy to create biological pacemaker

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Jul-2014

Contact: Tom Oswald tom.oswald@cabs.msu.edu 517-432-0920 Michigan State University

Not unlike looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, a team of Michigan State University researchers have found a gene that could be key to the development of stem cells cells that can potentially save millions of lives by morphing into practically any cell in the body.

The gene, known as ASF1A, was not discovered by the team. However, it is at least one of the genes responsible for the mechanism of cellular reprogramming, a phenomenon that can turn one cell type into another, which is key to the making of stem cells.

In a paper published in the journal Science, the researchers describe how they analyzed more than 5,000 genes from a human egg, or oocyte, before determining that the ASF1A, along with another gene known as OCT4 and a helper soluble molecule, were the ones responsible for the reprogramming.

"This has the potential to be a major breakthrough in the way we look at how stem cells are developed," said Elena Gonzalez-Munoz, a former MSU post-doctoral researcher and first author of the paper. "Researchers are just now figuring out how adult somatic cells such as skin cells can be turned into embryonic stem cells. Hopefully this will be the way to understand more about how that mechanism works."

In 2006, an MSU team identified the thousands of genes that reside in the oocyte. It was from those, they concluded, that they could identify the genes responsible for cellular reprogramming.

In 2007, a team of Japanese researchers found that by introducing four other genes into cells, stem cells could be created without the use of a human egg. These cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs.

"This is important because the iPSCs are derived directly from adult tissue and can be a perfect genetic match for a patient," said Jose Cibelli, an MSU professor of animal science and a member of the team.

Continued here:
Discovery may make it easier to develop life-saving stem cells

Washington No batteries required: Scientists are creating a biological pacemaker by injecting a gene into the hearts of sick pigs that changed ordinary cardiac cells into a special kind that induces a steady heartbeat.

The study, published Wednesday, is one step toward developing an alternative to electronic pacemakers that are implanted into 300,000 Americans a year.

There are people who desperately need a pacemaker but cant get one safely, said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the work. This development heralds a new era of gene therapy that one day might offer them an option.

Your heartbeat depends on a natural pacemaker, a small cluster of cells its about the size of a peppercorn, Marban says that generates electrical activity. Called the sinoatrial node, it acts like a metronome to keep the heart pulsing at 60 to 100 beats a minute or so, more when youre active. If that node quits working correctly, hooking the heart to an electronic pacemaker works very well for most people.

But about 2 percent of recipients develop an infection that requires the pacemaker to be removed for weeks until antibiotics wipe out the germs, Marban said. And some fetuses are at risk of stillbirth when their heartbeat falters, a condition called congenital heart block.

For over a decade, teams of researchers have worked to create a biological alternative that might help those kinds of patients, trying such approaches as using stem cells to spur the growth of a new sinoatrial node.

Marbans newest attempt uses gene therapy to reprogram a small number of existing heart muscle cells so that they start looking and acting like natural pacemaker cells instead.

Because pigs hearts are so similar to human hearts, Marbans team studied the approach in 12 laboratory pigs with a defective heart rhythm.

They used a gene named TBX18 that plays a role in the embryonic development of the sinoatrial node. Working through a vein, they injected the gene into some of the pigs hearts in a spot that doesnt normally initiate heartbeats and tracked them for two weeks.

Two days later, treated pigs had faster heartbeats than control pigs who didnt receive the gene, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. That heart rate automatically fluctuated, faster during the day. The treated animals also became more active, without signs of side effects.

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Scientists use gene therapy to create biological pacemaker

........................................................................................................................................................................................

WASHINGTON No batteries required: Scientists are creating a biological pacemaker by injecting a gene into the hearts of sick pigs that changed ordinary cardiac cells into a special kind that induces a steady heartbeat.

The study, published Wednesday, is one step toward developing an alternative to electronic pacemakers that are implanted into 300,000 Americans a year.

There are people who desperately need a pacemaker but cant get one safely, said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the work. This development heralds a new era of gene therapy that one day might offer them an option.

Your heartbeat depends on a natural pacemaker, a small cluster of cells its about the size of a peppercorn, Marban says that generates electrical activity. Called the sinoatrial node, it acts like a metronome to keep the heart pulsing at 60 to 100 beats a minute or so, more when youre active. If that node quits working correctly, hooking the heart to an electronic pacemaker works very well for most people.

But about 2 percent of recipients develop an infection that requires the pacemaker to be removed for weeks until antibiotics wipe out the germs, Marban said. And some fetuses are at risk of stillbirth when their heartbeat falters, a condition called congenital heart block.

For over a decade, teams of researchers have worked to create a biological alternative that might help those kinds of patients, trying such approaches as using stem cells to spur the growth of a new sinoatrial node.

Marbans newest attempt uses gene therapy to reprogram a small number of existing heart muscle cells so that they start looking and acting like natural pacemaker cells instead.

Because pigs hearts are so similar to human hearts, Marbans team studied the approach in 12 laboratory pigs with a defective heart rhythm.

They used a gene named TBX18 that plays a role in the embryonic development of the sinoatrial node. Working through a vein, they injected the gene into some of the pigs hearts in a spot that doesnt normally initiate heartbeats and tracked them for two weeks.

Read more:
Scientists creating a biological pacemaker

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Newswise Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have developed a technique that will speed up the production of stem-cell derived tissues. The method simultaneously measures the expression of multiple genes, allowing scientists to quickly characterize cells according to their function and stage of development. The technique will help the researchers in their efforts to use patients skin cells to regenerate retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)a tissue in the back of the eye that is affected in several blinding eye diseases. It will also help the scientists search for drugs for personalized treatments.

Progress in stem cell-based therapies has been limited by our capacity to authenticate cells and tissues, said Kapil Bharti, Ph.D., a Stadtman Investigator in the Unit on Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research at the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of NIH. This assay expands that capacity and streamlines the process.

The assay was described in a recent issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

The RPE is a single layer of cells that lies adjacent to the retina, where the light-sensitive photoreceptors commonly called rods and cones are located. The RPE supports photoreceptor function. Several diseases cause the RPE to break down, which in turn leads to the loss of photoreceptors and vision.

The stem cells Dr. Bharti is using to make RPE are induced pluripotent (iPS) stem cells, which are produced by reverting mature cells to an immature state, akin to embryonic stem cells. iPS cells can be derived from a patients skin or blood cells, coaxed into other cell types (such as neurons or muscle), and in theory, re-implanted without causing immune rejection.

To verify the identity of RPE made from iPS cells, scientists use microscopy to ensure the tissue looks like RPE and physiological assays to ensure the tissue behaves like RPE. They also use a technique called quantitative RT-PCR to measure the expression of genes that indicate ongoing cell development and function. For example, expression of the gene SOX2 is much higher in iPS cells than mature RPE.

But quantitative RT-PCR only permits the simultaneous measurement of a few genes per sample. Dr. Bharti teamed up with Marc Ferrer, Ph.D., of NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to develop a multiplex assaya method for simultaneously measuring multiple genes per RPE sample in a highly automated fashion. The assay is based on a commercially available platform from the biotech company Affymetrix. In the assay, tiny snippets of DNA tethered to beads are used to capture RNA moleculescreated when genes are expressed by cells in the RPE sample. Once captured, the RNA from distinct genes is labeled with a fluorescent tag.

Starting with cells from a skin biopsy, the researchers generated iPS-derived RPE and then measured the expression of eight genes that are markers of development, function, and disease. They measured RNA levels of each gene one at a time using quantitative RT-PCR and then all genes simultaneously using the multiplex assay. When compared, the results correlated.

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Gene Profiling Technique to Accelerate Stem Cell Therapies for Eye Diseases

Is there Scientific Evidence of How Stem Cell Therapy work in Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Dr. Hemangi Sane from Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute show Scientific Evidence of How Stem Cell Therapy work in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Published Paper ...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

Continued here:
Is there Scientific Evidence of How Stem Cell Therapy work in Autism Spectrum Disorder? - Video

Alan Trounson, then president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, poses for a portrait at his offices in San Francisco, Monday, March 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The former head of California's stem cell agency, which is handing out $3 billion of voter-approved funds for research, has joined the board of a major grant recipient one week after leaving his post.

Alan Trounson, the former president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has joined the board of StemCells Inc., the recipient of $19.4 million from the agency.

The agency has been grappling with potential conflicts of interest, some of which are built into its governance under Proposition 71, approved by voters in 2004. CIRM paid $700,000 for a report last year making recommendations on how to mitigate conflicts.

Trounson's move has reignited debate over the issue.

"The announcement raises serious and obvious concerns on a number of fronts," Chairman Jonathan Thomas wrote to his colleagues on the CIRM board. "Under state law, however, it is permissible for Dr. Trounson to accept employment with a CIRM-funded company. Nonetheless, state law does impose some restrictions on Dr. Trounsons post-CIRM employment activities.

Board members will be forbidden to discuss the company with Trounson for one year after his departure, Thomas wrote.

Randy Mills, Trounson's successor as agency president, said in a statement Wednesday that "in the interests of transparency and good governance we will be conducting a full review of all CIRM activities relating to StemCells Inc.

"We take even the appearance of conflicts of interest very seriously," Mills said in the statement.

Not only board members, but CIRM employees are being reminded of the conflict of interest rules.

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Stem cell boss joins board he funded

Sarasota Stem Cell Specialist Inject Knees for Bone on Bone as alliterative
http//:Geckojoiontandspine.com Using adipose and bone marrow stem cells combined as well as PRP or the growth factors from the blood she was able to avoid a ...

By: AskDoctorJL

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Sarasota Stem Cell Specialist Inject Knees for Bone on Bone as alliterative - Video

NEW YORK, July 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCQB: ACTC) is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing human pluripotent stem cell technology in the field of regenerative medicine. The company is currently conducting clinical trials for treating dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Stargardt's macular degeneration (SMD), as well as several clinical and preclinical programs for other ocular therapies. Outside of ophthalmology, ACTC also has a preclinical development pipeline focused on autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and wound healing. The company's intellectual property portfolio includes pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and other cell therapy research programs.

As the worldwide population has continued to age, so too has the need for regenerative medicine. In fact, by 2050, the number of people in the world over the age of 65 is expected to rise to 1.5 billion nearly triple the amount today. Unsurprisingly, as this demographic shift occurs over the next 35 years, health care expenditures are projected to increase rapidly as well. For example, in the US, the share of GDP devoted to healthcare is estimated to reach 34% by 2040 from about 18% just a few years ago. Considering the majority of treatments for chronic and/or life-threatening diseases that are available today only treat symptoms rather than offer a cure for the underlying cause, regenerative medicine such as the stem cell therapies being developed by ACTC are aimed at addressing this unmet and growing need.

Macular degeneration (i.e. age-related macular degeneration, or AMD) is a medical condition that results in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field (the macula) because of damage to the retina. This indication is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment in adults over fifty years of age. Currently, it is estimated that there are approximately 30 million people worldwide who suffer from AMD ranging from early-stage to late-stage (i.e. legal blindness), with an estimated market size of around $30 billion. Further, in an article in the journal, Lancet projected that the number of people globally with AMD will be 196 million in 2020, growing to 288 million by 2040.

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Advanced Cell Technology Analyst Report; Shareholder Value Likely to Continue to Erode for the Foreseeable Future by ...

Federal funding blocked mainly over opposition to use of blastocysts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More here:
The promise and hazards of stem cell research

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

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

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FOR THE RECORD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOR THE RECORD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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