Peek, a 20-year-old American Black Bear living at the Topeka Zoo, is undergoing treatment, including a CT scan, for a back condition, zoo director Brendan Wiley said Monday.

Peek came out of her den two weeks ago and her keeper noticed the bears hind legs were wobbly. Peek was given pain medication. However, the condition quickly worsened, Wiley said in a news release.

Within the next seven days, Peek continued to lose control of her rear legs.

One of the unique things about this scenario is that Peek hasnt acted like anything is hurting her, said Shanna Simpson, animal care supervisor. It is like the front half of her body can no longer communicate with the back half.

Peeks illness required the use of a CT scan, which used equipment the zoo doesnt have, Wiley said.

Zoo veterinarian Shirley Llizo brought in Larry Snyder and Travis Gratton, of University Bird and Small Animal Hospital, to help harvest fat cells from Peek. This would allow the fat cells to be converted to stem cells to be injected.

Peek was tranquilized Jan. 22 and transported to the zoos hospital so the fat cells could be harvested. After the harvest, Peek was transported to St. Francis Health Center, where she was met by Brent Wilkins, director of imaging services, and his staff.

After confirming Peek would fit in the 72-centimeter CT scanner, Wilkins was able to do the scan, and radiologist James Owen found an area of Peeks spine was experiencing spinal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the spinal column that causes pressure on the spinal cord, according to zoo officials.

Our first priority is human patient safety and access, Wilkins said. We work with the Topeka Zoo to accommodate animals that need CT scans in off hours when one of our CT scanners is available. We made sure the bear was separated from any other patients and performed a high-level decontamination and cleaning of the area, called a terminal cleaning, after the bears visit. Were very happy to help our friends at the zoo in keeping the animals healthy.

After the CT scan, Peek went back to the zoo, where she received the stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy treatment in bears is new technology, Wiley said.

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LA JOLLA (CNS) - Two scientists with UC San Diego were awarded a combined $2.7 million in grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to pursue their studies on stem cell therapies, the school announced Monday.

Shyni Varghese, an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering and director of the Bio-Inspired Materials and Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory, received a $1.4 CIRM grant to improve the function of transplanted stem cells.

Shaochen Chen, a professor in the Department of Nanoengineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering and a member of UCSD's Institute of Engineering in Medicine, received $1.3 million to develop three-diminensional bioprinting techniques that use heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells to create new cardiac tissue.

The awards were part of almost $30 million in grants announced at CIRM's monthly meeting in San Francisco, according to UCSD.

"Sometimes even the most promising therapy can be derailed by a tiny problem," said Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the CIRM Board of Directors. "These awards are designed to help find ways to overcome those problems, to bridge the gaps in our knowledge and ensure that the best research is able to keep progressing and move out of the lab and into clinical trials in patients."

Varghese's lab focuses on the interactions of cells with their surrounding micro-environment, and how the conditions necessary to promote normal, healthy survival and growth occur, according to UCSD.

Chen's studies focus on using stem cells to create new heart tissue that would help patients when transplants aren't immediately available.

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UCSD scientists awarded $2.7M grants for stem cell research

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, January 29, 2015 6:49AM EST

TORONTO -- Gordie Howe's son says the hockey legend's stroke symptoms have improved since his treatment with stem cells at a Mexican clinic in early December and he wants him to repeat the procedure.

But regenerative medicine experts say there's no scientific evidence such therapies work, and in some cases they can be seriously harmful or even deadly.

The 86-year-old Howe suffered two disabling strokes late last year. In December, the family took him to a Tijuana clinic where he received stem cell injections as part of a clinical trial being run under a licensing agreement with Stemedica Cell Technologies of San Diego, Calif.

The experimental treatment involved injecting neural stem cells into Howe's spinal canal, along with intravenous infusions of mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow, fat and umbilical cord blood.

Marty Howe said his father can walk again, his speech is improving and he is regaining some of the weight he lost following the strokes.

"After his stem cell treatment, the doctor told us it was kind of an awakening of the body, and it was all that," he told The Canadian Press while in Calgary for a hockey promotion event Tuesday. "They call it the miracle of stem cells and it was nothing less than a miracle."

However, experts in the field question whether stem cells are responsible for Howe's improvement and caution that most so-called stem cell therapies have not gone through rigorous scientific trials, nor have they been approved as treatments by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Mick Bhatia, director of McMaster University's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, said there are many unknowns in Howe's case, such as how many stem cells were administered, were tests done to see whether they migrated to the targeted area of the body, and did they take up residence where they might have some effect or simply disappear?

"Is this a transient effect, or is it really a perceived or somewhat of a placebo effect and is there something really happening? Scientifically and biologically that is important," Bhatia said Wednesday from Hamilton.

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Gordie Howe's stem cell therapy raises concerns among medical experts

Knee problems and stem cell therapy
Dr. Scott Greenberg discusses stem cell procedures for the knee and his experience with athletes, torn meniscus issues, and arthritis.

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Knee problems and stem cell therapy - Video

Cardiac Muscle Derived from Pluripotent Stem Cells

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Cardiac Muscle Derived from Pluripotent Stem Cells - Video

Professor Michael P. Lisanti, Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Unit, led the research. He was inspired to look at the effects of antibiotics on the mitochondria of cancer stem cells by a conversation with his daughter Camilla about his work at the University's Institute of Cancer Sciences.

His new paper, published in Oncotarget, opens up the possibility of a treatment for cancer, which is highly effective and repurposes drugs which have been safely used for decades.

Mitochondria are the 'engine' parts of the cells and are the source of energy for the stem cells as they mutate and divide to cause tumours. Cancer stem cells are strongly associated with the growth and recurrence of all cancers and are especially difficult to eradicate with normal treatment, which also leads to tumours developing resistance to other types of therapy.

Professor Lisanti said: "I was having a conversation with Camilla about how to cure cancer and she asked why don't we just use antibiotics like we do for other illnesses. I knew that antibiotics can affect mitochondria and I've been doing a lot of work recently on how important they are to the growth of tumours, but this conversation helped me to make a direct link."

Professor Lisanti worked with colleagues from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and the Kimmel Cancer Centre, Philadelphia. The team used five types of antibiotics - including one used to treat acne (doxycycline) - on cell lines of eight different types of tumour and found that four of them eradicated the cancer stem cells in every test. This included glioblastoma, the most aggressive of brain tumours, as well as lung, prostate, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and skin cancer.

Mitochondria are believed to be descended from bacteria which joined with cells early on in the evolution of life. This is why some of the antibiotics which are used to destroy bacteria also affect mitochondria, though not to an extent which is dangerous to people. When they are present in stem cells, mitochondria provide energy for growth and, crucially, for division, and it is this process going wrong which leads to cancer.

In the lab, the antibiotics had no harmful effect on normal cells, and since they are already approved for use in humans, trials of new treatments should be simpler than with new drugs - saving time and money.

Professor Lisanti said: "This research makes a strong case for opening new trials in humans for using antibiotics to fight cancer. Many of the drugs we used were extremely effective, there was little or no damage to normal cells and these antibiotics have been in use for decades and are already approved by the FDA for use in humans. However, of course, further studies are needed to validate their efficacy, especially in combination with more conventional therapies."

Dr Matthew Lam, Senior Research Officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "The conclusions that the researchers have drawn, whilst just hypotheses at this stage, are certainly interesting. Antibiotics are cheap and readily available and if in time the link between their use and the eradication of cancer stem cells can be proved, this work may be the first step towards a new avenue for cancer treatment.

"This is a perfect example of why it is so important to continue to invest in scientific research. Sometimes there are answers to some of the biggest questions right in front of us but without ongoing commitment to the search for these answers, we'd never find them."

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Schoolgirl comment points to antibiotics as new cancer treatments

Arthritic knees three months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Holly, three-time World Cup Downhill Gold Medalist and Olympian, discusses her outcome from bone marrow stem cells for her arthritic knees performed at Docere Clinics http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Arthritic knees three months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. - Video

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Newswise SEATTLE The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) was recently recognized for outperforming its anticipated one-year survival rate for allogeneic transplant patients. The new performance results were calculated by the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and published in the 2014 Transplant Center-Specific Survival Report. The annual report is designed to provide potential stem cell transplant recipients, their families, and the public with comparative survival rates among transplant centers. This is the second consecutive year the Fred Hutch Bone Marrow Transplant Program at SCCA has achieved higher than expected one-year survival rates, an accomplishment that only 12 other institutions have achieved.

Credited with pioneering the clinical use of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation more than 40 years ago, the Fred Hutch Bone Marrow Transplant Program at SCCA has performed over 14,000 bone marrow transplants more than any other institution in the world. Dr. E. Donnall Thomas groundbreaking work in transplantation won the Nobel Prize in 1990 and many current SCCA and Fred Hutch transplant experts have trained alongside Dr. Thomas.

To arrive at its findings, CIBMTR independently examined the survival rates of 20,875 transplants performed to treat blood cancers at U.S. centers in the NMDP network between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012. During this three-year period, 757 allogeneic transplants were performed at SCCA.

Although centers are required to report their data, the process of comparing transplant centers is complex and must address a number of variables, such as cancer type and stage, patients age, and preexisting medical issues. The intensive findings allow researchers to compare themselves to other centers, leading to improved outcomes. The report also provides patients and their families with valuable information necessary when evaluating where to undergo treatment.

The information provided in the report is invaluable to patients faced with making difficult treatment decisions, explains Dr. Marco Mielcarek, medical director of the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Fred Hutch and SCCA. While we are happy our patients outcomes exceeded expectations over a three-year period, we are always working to further improve the transplantation process.

Allogenic transplants use stem cells from a donor who may or may not be related to the patient. Stem cell transplants, including bone marrow transplants, are used to treat a wide range of leukemias and lymphomas, as well as other diseases including severe aplastic anemia and sickle cell disease.

These findings reflect our teams continued efforts to improve patients outcomes by investigating every aspect of the transplant process, said Dr. Fred Appelbaum, Deputy Director at Fred Hutch. Im pleased that our transplant patients continue to have high survival rates, but there is still more work to do.

SCCAs success in helping patients survive a wide range of cancers continues to be recognized by National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) rankings. SCCA has ranked at the top of NCDB patient survival rankings since 2002.

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MIAMI (PRWEB) January 22, 2015

Regenestem, a division of the Global Stem Cells Group, Inc., has announced the launch of a new stem cell treatment center in Veracruz, Mexico. The new facility offers the most advanced protocols and techniques in cellular medicine to patients from around the world.

The opening of Regenestem Veracruz is in partnership with Eleuterio Arrieta, M.D., Director of Santa Teresita Hospital in Veracruz. Dr. Arrieta has extensive experience in management of chronic degenerative diseases with autologous stem cell therapies, expertise he will use to deliver cutting edge therapies and follow-up treatment under the Regenestem brand in Veracruz.

Under the direction of Global Stem Cells Group, Regenestem is expanding its clinical presence worldwide by partnering with qualified physicians experienced in stem cell therapies to open new clinics, licensed and developed under the Regenestem banner.

In 2014, Global Stem Cells Group expanded the Regenestem Networks presence to 20 countries, adding new state-of-the-art regenerative medicine facilities to the company's growing global presence.

Regenestem offers stem cell treatments to help with a variety of diseases and conditions including arthritis, autism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and pain due to injuries at various facilities worldwide. Regenestem Veracruz will have an international staff experienced in administering the leading cellular therapies available.

Regenestem is certified for the medical tourism market, and staff physicians are board-certified or board-eligible. Regenestem clinics provide services in more than 10 specialties, attracting patients from the United States and around the world.

The Global Stem Cells Group and Regenestem are committed to the highest of standards in service and technology, expert and compassionate care, and a philosophy of exceeding the expectations of their international patients.

For more information, visit the Regenestem Network website, email info(at)regenstem(dot)com, or call 305-224-1858.

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The New Stem Cell Therapy 2015
Regener8 Hair.

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Multiple myeloma is a malignant disease characterised by proliferation of clonal plasma cells in the bone marrow and typically accompanied by the secretion of monoclonal immunoglobulins that are detectable in the serum or urine. Increased understanding of the microenvironmental interactions between malignant plasma cells and the bone marrow niche, and their role in disease progression and acquisition of therapy resistance, has helped the development of novel therapeutic drugs for use in combination with cytostatic therapy.

Together with autologous stem cell transplantation and advances in supportive care, the use of novel drugs such as proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs has increased response rates and survival substantially in the past several years. Present clinical research focuses on the balance between treatment efficacy and quality of life, the optimum sequencing of treatment options, the question of long-term remission and potential cure by multimodal treatment, the pre-emptive treatment of high-risk smouldering myeloma, and the role of maintenance. Upcoming results of ongoing clinical trials, together with a pipeline of promising new treatments, raise the hope for continuous improvements in the prognosis of patients with myeloma in the future.

Professor Martin Bornhuser and Doctor Christoph Rllig, both experts in the field of blood cancer at the Carl Gustav Carus Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden, have now turned their long-term clinical and research experience in treatment of multiple myeloma into an instructive review for other physicians. The review has just been electronically published ahead of print in the medical journal The Lancet. After a short introduction into the current understanding of myeloma disease biology, the authors then describe the standard diagnostic work-up and provide a clear overview on the best available treatment options. These include established drugs such as melphalan or steroids, novel substances such as bortezomib and lenalidomide and also therapies using stem cell transplantation.

Multiple Myeloma is one of the most common blood cancers, mainly diagnosed in elderly patients. As life expectancy increases, the frequency of the disease has therefore increased during the last decades. Both deeper insights into disease biology including interactions between malignant plasma cells and their bone marrow environment, and the design and clinical testing of new drugs have led to a considerable improvement in the prognosis of this mostly incurable disease during the last years. The right timing and the choice of the best treatment match for the particular myeloma stage and the needs of the individual patient are essential for optimal disease control.

Bornhuser and Rllig present a structured guidance when and how which treatment should be used and introduce new ways to paralyze the cell cycle of cancer cells or to attack malignant cells by transfusing specific immune bodies. These new therapy approaches will help to further increase the prognosis of myeloma patients in the near future.

Myeloma patients can get individual treatment advice and information on participation in clinical trials in the myeloma outpatient clinic at the Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I of the university hospital Dresden.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Technische Universitaet Dresden. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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How to attack and paralyze myeloma cells: Comprehensive review on multiple myeloma

Turning 10 years old may not quite mark adolescence for a human child, but for a major government research effort such as California's stem cell program, it's well past middle age.

So it's a little strange to hear C. Randal Mills, the new president and chief executive of the program known formally as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, say it's time to instill in CIRM "a clear sense of mission."

But that's what Mills is planning for the coming year, as he launches CIRM 2.0, a comprehensive reboot of the program.

Mills, a former biotech company chief executive, took over as CIRM's president last May. His first task, he told me, was to "take a step back and look broadly at how we do our business." He reached the conclusion that "there was a lot of room for improvement."

That's a striking admission for a program that already has allocated roughly two-thirds of its original $3-billion endowment.

Biomedical researchers are sure to find a lot to like about CIRM 2.0, especially Mills' commitment to streamline the program's grant and loan approval process for projects aimed at clinical trials of potential therapies. Reviews of applications take about 22 months on average; Mills hopes to cut that to about three months. The process can be made more efficient without sacrificing science: "We need to do it quickly and also focus on quality," he says in a videotaped presentation on the CIRM website. The CIRM board last month approved a six-month, $50-million round of funding under the new system, all to be aimed at testing new therapies.

Yet the focus on drug development shows that CIRM remains a prisoner of the politics that brought it into existence. The Proposition 71 campaign in 2004 employed inflated promises of cures for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes and other therapy-resistant conditions to goad California voters into approving the $3-billion bond issue ($6 billion with interest) for stem cell research.

CIRM says it has funded clinical trials of 10 therapies and has backed an additional 87 projects "in the later stages of moving toward clinical trials." In scientific terms that's progress, but it may fall short of the public expectations of "cures" stoked by the initiative's promoters 10 years ago.

And that poses a political problem. At its current rate of grant and loan approvals of about $190 million a year, CIRM has enough funding to last until 2020. What happens after that is an open question, but any campaign to seek new public funding may depend on CIRM's having a successful therapy to show off to voters.

Mills says winning approval for more public funding isn't the goal of CIRM 2.0. "It's not our job at CIRM to extend the life of CIRM," he told me. Instead, he couches the need for urgency in terms of serving patients. As chief executive of Maryland-based Osiris Therapeutics, where he worked before joining CIRM, he says, he had "a firsthand view into the significance of stem cell treatment, and of how important urgency is in this game." Osiris received approval from the Food and Drug Administration and Canadian regulators for a stem cell drug to treat children with severe complications from bone marrow and other blood transplants.

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Released: 30-Dec-2014 1:50 PM EST Embargo expired: 1-Jan-2015 2:00 PM EST Source Newsroom: Johns Hopkins Medicine Contact Information

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Newswise Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have created a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence, across many tissue types, caused mainly by random mutations that occur when stem cells divide. By their measure, two-thirds of adult cancer incidence across tissues can be explained primarily by bad luck, when these random mutations occur in genes that can drive cancer growth, while the remaining third are due to environmental factors and inherited genes.

All cancers are caused by a combination of bad luck, the environment and heredity, and weve created a model that may help quantify how much of these three factors contribute to cancer development, says Bert Vogelstein, M.D., the Clayton Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Cancer-free longevity in people exposed to cancer-causing agents, such as tobacco, is often attributed to their good genes, but the truth is that most of them simply had good luck, adds Vogelstein, who cautions that poor lifestyles can add to the bad luck factor in the development of cancer.

The implications of their model range from altering public perception about cancer risk factors to the funding of cancer research, they say. If two-thirds of cancer incidence across tissues is explained by random DNA mutations that occur when stem cells divide, then changing our lifestyle and habits will be a huge help in preventing certain cancers, but this may not be as effective for a variety of others, says biomathematician Cristian Tomasetti, Ph.D., an assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. We should focus more resources on finding ways to detect such cancers at early, curable stages, he adds.

In a report on the statistical findings, published Jan. 2 in Science, Tomasetti and Vogelstein say they came to their conclusions by searching the scientific literature for information on the cumulative total number of divisions of stem cells among 31 tissue types during an average individuals lifetime. Stem cells self-renew, thus repopulating cells that die off in a specific organ.

It was well-known, Vogelstein notes, that cancer arises when tissue-specific stem cells make random mistakes, or mutations, when one chemical letter in DNA is incorrectly swapped for another during the replication process in cell division. The more these mutations accumulate, the higher the risk that cells will grow unchecked, a hallmark of cancer. The actual contribution of these random mistakes to cancer incidence, in comparison to the contribution of hereditary or environmental factors, was not previously known, says Vogelstein.

To sort out the role of such random mutations in cancer risk, the Johns Hopkins scientists charted the number of stem cell divisions in 31 tissues and compared these rates with the lifetime risks of cancer in the same tissues among Americans. From this so-called data scatterplot, Tomasetti and Vogelstein determined the correlation between the total number of stem cell divisions and cancer risk to be 0.804. Mathematically, the closer this value is to one, the more stem cell divisions and cancer risk are correlated.

Our study shows, in general, that a change in the number of stem cell divisions in a tissue type is highly correlated with a change in the incidence of cancer in that same tissue, says Vogelstein. One example, he says, is in colon tissue, which undergoes four times more stem cell divisions than small intestine tissue in humans. Likewise, colon cancer is much more prevalent than small intestinal cancer.

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'Bad Luck' of Random Mutations Plays Predominant Role in Cancer, Study Shows

Spinal cord injuries are devastating, leaving the person injured facing a life time of challenges, and placing a huge strain on their family and loved ones who help care for them.

The numbers affected are not small. More than a quarter of a million Americans are living with spinal cord injuries and there are more than 11,000 new cases each year.

Its not just a devastating injury, its also an expensive one. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center it can cost more than $775,000 to care for a patient in the first year after injury, and the estimated lifetime costs due to spinal cord injury can be as high as $3 million.

Right now there is no cure, and treatment options are very limited. We have heard for several years now about stem cell research aimed at helping people with spinal cord injuries, but where is that research and how close are we to testing the most promising approaches in people?

Thats going to be the focus of a Google Hangout on Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Research that we are hosting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18 from noon till 1pm PST.

Well be looking at the latest stem cell-based treatments for spinal cord injury including work being done by Asterias Biotherapeutics, which was recently given approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to start a clinical trial for spinal cord injury. We are giving Asterias $14.3 million to carry out that trial and you can read more about that work here.

Were fortunate in having three great guests for the Hangout: Jane Lebkowski, Ph.D., the President of research and development at Asterias; Roman Reed, a patient advocate and tireless champion of stem cell research and the founder of the Roman Reed Foundation; and Kevin Whittlesey, Ph.D., a CIRM science officer, who will discuss other CIRM-funded research that aims to better understand spinal cord injury and to bring stem cell-based therapies to clinic trials.

You can find out how to join the Hangout by clicking on the event page link: http://bit.ly/1sh1Dsm

The event is free and interactive, so youll be able to ask questions of our experts. You dont need a Google+ account to watch the Hangout just visit the event page at the specified time. If you do have a G+ account, please RSVP at the event page (link shown above). Also, with the G+ account you can ask questions in the comment box on this event page. Otherwise, you can tweet questions using #AskCIRMSCI or email us at info@cirm.ca.gov.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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First it was stem cells from rare apples touted as a revolution in anti-aging skin care. Then every other plant (seller) decided to get into the game. So is it true, or is it a con? Can stem cells from plants benefit your skin, and if so how? Is stem cell just a buzz word that unscrupulous marketers use to dupe you into thinking they are scientifically on the leading edge?

Plant Stem Cell Basics

A fertilized ovum (egg) is the ultimate stem cell. Every animal and plant that reproduces sexually begins as a fertilized ovum, with half of its genetic material contributed by the male parent and half from the female parent. In the case of flowering plants, structures within the flower play both roles. Pollen from the stamen is the equivalent of animal sperm and the pistol is the female receptive organ. A stem cell with the ability to repeatedly sub-divide and eventually differentiate into all types of cells found within an individual animal or plant is termed totipotential.

In the animal kingdom, a fertilized ovum divides, creating daughter totipotential stem cells, for only about four days. Daughter cells subsequently differentiate into pluripotential stem cells, which can differentiate into different various types of cells, but not all types. Plants, on the other hand, have totipotential stem cells throughout their life. These cells can develop into a complete adult plant.

Totipotential plant stem cells exist in very small numbers and are found in highly specialized tissues, structures called meristems. Meristems exist in root and shoot sprouts and are the cells from which all other plant cells and structures originate. Every root and stem shoot tip contains a very small number of these extraordinarily important cells. Meristems in shoot sprouts are called apical meristems, and those on the tips of roots are called root meristems. Remove the meristem and all growth in that part of the plant ceases.

Meristem stem cells are under external control and respond to local humoral factors from adjacent cells (quiescent cells) as well as more systemic plant hormones called cytokinin and auxin. Apical and root meristems have different specific, but complementary, controlling mechanisms. Generally speaking, hormonal influences that make an apical meristem grow may be inhibitory to root meristems, and vice versa. It is an intricately coordinated process in which stem cell activity is very tightly controlled and the number of totipotential stem cells is maintained at a very sparse population in comparison to the total plant cellular number.

Of paramount interest for this discussion is the fact that both apical and root meristems have control systems that act upon them, which are controlled by the needs of the entire plant. Without these outside influences, the cells in the meristem do not divide to produce daughter cells. While indispensable for plant growth, meristem stem cells are incapable of function without external influences dictating their response. These cells are followers, not leaders.

The photos show the relative size of structures within the meristem regions of a growing plant.

In the first photo (at right), the stem cells within the root meristem and adjacent quiescent cells are colored blue. The root meristem is also extremely tiny, consisting of only a few, albeit very important cells.

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Botanical Stem Cells in Skin Care | BareFacedTruth.com

Primordial germ cells could be produced using adult skin cells.

Using human embryonic stem cells, scientists have produced primordial germ cells that will become sperm and egg in a major breakthrough from the University of Cambridge.

In nature, primordial germ cells are created just after fertilization, during the pre-embryonic phase when cells divide and become a ball of cells called a blastocyst.

Although it doesnt have arms and legs yet, these primordial germ cells know how the being will develop and are already equipped to pass forward its genetic information to the offspring it will produce in the future.

Germ cells are immortal in the sense that they provide an enduring link between all generations, carrying genetic information from one generation to the next, adds Professor Asim Surani of the Gurdon Institute.

Professor Surani and his team also demonstrated that primordial germ cells could be produced using adult skin cells.

Although scientists have, in the past, created primordial germ cells of rodents using their embryonic stem cells, the current study marks the first time they managed to do so for humans.

The findings not only have implications in the field of infertility, they will be useful in the study of whats called epigenetic inheritance, which could lead to treatments for age-related diseases.

Epigenetic inheritance refers to the effects on our genes produced by the environment, examples of which include the effects of smoking or our diets that can be passed down to offspring.

Professor Surani and his colleagues demonstrated that during the specification stage, the environmental consequences on our genes are mostly neutralized except for a small part that is not yet fully understood.

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Science takes a step towards new treatment for infertility

At Stem Cell Treatment Institute advanced stem cell procedures are performed at some of the most scientifically advanced hospitals in the world. Our Heart Disease treatment differs from standard methods by attacking the root cause inside the heart. Stem cell therapy is focused on affecting physical changes in the heart that can improve a patient's quality of life.

Most Heart Failure patients are treated by IV; injecting the stem cells into the blood which transports them up the heart.

Another procedure, by which the stem cells are surgically implanted directly into the heart, with angiography is also available.

Treatment using Bone Marrow Stem Cells First bone marrow is collected from the patient's iliac crest (hip bone) using thin-needle puncture under local anesthesia. Once the bone marrow collection is complete, patients may return to their hotel and go about normal activities.

The stem cells are then processed in a state-of-the-art laboratory. In the lab, both the quantity and quality of the stem cells are measured.

The stem cells are then implanted back into the patient by IV or surgical implantation.

Cost: Stem cell treatments begin around $13,500 (adults).

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As we age our stem cells become less prolific and less effective. For this reason younger cells are often preferred. We do not need to go all the way back to an early stage embryo to get young cells. Young cells can be used from The Placenta, or Umbilical Cord (cord blood cells), and other young sources. These young cells are more likely than stem cells found in adult sources like bone marrow and adipose tissue (fat) to have proliferative properties. This means that stem cells found in placenta and cord blood have a greater ability to regenerate. In some counrties (US and Europe) requlations limit access to these advanced stem cell sources. Fortunately our International Health Department Permit, a COFEPRIS, is on a Presidential level, insuring access to the highest level of quality stem cells.

Begin the evaluation and scheduling process now! Click Here >>>

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Stem Cell Treatment for Heart Disease

IMAGE:This is a skin whole mount section showing hair follicles (blue) surrounded by clusters of skin resident macrophages (red). The molecular communication between macrophages and hair follicle stem cells regulates... view more

Credit: Donatello Castellana, CNIO

How to restore hair loss is a task not undertaken exclusively by beauty practitioners. The discovery, now published by a group from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), reveals a novel angle to spur hair follicle growth. This also adds new knowledge to a broader problem: how to regenerate tissues in an adult organism, especially the skin.

The group has discovered an unexpected connection--a link between the body's defense system and skin regeneration. According to the authors of the study published today in PLOS Biology, cells from the immune system called macrophages-- those in charge of devouring invading pathogens, for example--are also responsible for activating skin stem cells and induce hair growth.

The regenerative ability of stem cells allows skin replenishment during a lifetime. But different factors can reduce their regenerative properties or promote their uncontrolled growth. When things go wrong, this can lead to aging and disease, including skin carcinomas. The discovery that macrophages activate skin stem cells may also have further implications beyond the possibility to develop therapeutic approaches for hair loss, but may also be relevant for cancer research.

The authors of the study are Mirna Perez-Moreno and Donatello Castellana, from the Epithelial Cell Biology Group of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme, along with Ralf Paus, a hair immunobiology expert from the University of Manchester and Mnster.

"We have discovered that macrophages, cells whose main function is traditionally attributed to fight infections and wound repair, are also involved in the activation of hair follicle stem cells in non inflamed skin," says Perez-Moreno.

FIRST PROOF

The researchers did not investigate the relationship between macrophages and hair for fun. This work emerged more than four years ago from an observation made by Perez-Moreno while working on another research project. The mice she had been working with at that time received anti-inflammatory drugs, a treatment that also reactivated hair growth. Convinced that the explanation could reside in the existence of close communication between stem cells and immune cells --the Perez-Moreno's lab began to experiment with the different types of cells involved in the bodys defense system.

After years of investigation, they discovered that when stem cells are dormant, a fraction of macrophages die, due to a process known as apoptosis. This stimulated the secretion of factors from dying and living macrophages, which in turn activated stem cells, and that is when hairs began to grow again.

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CNIO researchers activate hair growth by modifying immune cells

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) December 22, 2014

Stemiotics, Inc., a supplier of stem cell generation services, today announced it has licensed key intellectual property pertaining to the application of modified RNA from CELLSCRIPT, LLC of Madison, WI. CELLSCRIPT holds an exclusive license to a portfolio of issued and pending patents based on discoveries made at the University of Pennsylvania covering the use of synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) containing modified nucleotides to evade antiviral responses in mammalian cells. This breakthrough technology has opened new vistas for the application of mRNA as a gene expression vector in human therapeutics and cell fate manipulation. The license to Stemiotics is for use of modified RNA in the production of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for research applications such as disease modeling and drug discovery.

Stemiotics is already using CELLSCRIPT's ultra-low immunogenicity mRNA to reprogram human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells with the potential to become any cell type in the body. In addition to the incorporation of modified nucleotides, CELLSCRIPT's advanced synthetic mRNA is subject to novel purification techniques that virtually eliminate residual innate immune responses to the mRNA on delivery into human or animal cells in vivo or in culture. Stemiotics is committed to applying clinically relevant, state-of-the-art technology in its iPSC derivation pipeline. The company uses only xeno-free reagents at all steps of the process, from the initial expansion of the donor skin cells to the cryogenic preservation of the artificially-induced pluripotent stem cells. Stemiotics employs the most potent cocktail of cellular reprogramming factors currently available, including engineered transcription factors based on IP which has been exclusively licensed to CELLSCRIPT. This sophisticated technology allows Stemiotics to convert human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells in just over a week in feeder-free conditions and without the need for drug-like small molecule accelerants.

Stemiotics believes that the mRNA-based reprogramming system it has developed is the fastest, most productive and safest approach to converting human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells yet devised. The company offers high-throughput iPSC derivation on a fee-for-service basis with fast turnaround times and at a cost of only $1000 per line, an order of magnitude below prevailing industry norms. The licensing relationship with CELLSCRIPT will further enhance Stemiotics position as an emerging leader in the field of cellular reprogramming, with all its great promise for advancing the understanding of disease, the development of new drugs and, ultimately, for cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine.

http://www.stemiotics.com

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Stemiotics Licenses Modified RNA for Cell Reprogramming

Cardiovascular diseases remain the biggest cause of deaths worldwide, though over the last two decades, cardiovascular mortality rates have declined in many high-income countries but have increased at an astonishingly fast rate in low- and middle-income countries. The percentage of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease range from 4% in high-income countries to 42% in low-income countries. More than 17 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2008. Each year, heart disease kills more Americans than cancer. In recent years, cardiovascular risk in women has been increasing and has killed more women than breast cancer.

Measures to prevent cardiovascular disease may include:

A fairly recent emphasis is on the link between low-grade inflammation that hallmarks atherosclerosis and its possible interventions. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a common inflammatory marker that has been found to be present in increased levels in patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. Also osteoprotegerin which is involved with regulation of a key inflammatory transcription factor called NF-B has been found to be a risk factor of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Studies have shown that Stem Cells have shown the ability to reduce inflammation.

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Stem Cell Treatment Heart Disease - ASCI - Asian Stem Cell ...