SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- In the 1970's, researchers discovered that a newborn's umbilical cord blood contained special stem cells that could help fight certain diseases.

More than 30 years later doctors are still experimenting and learning more about the use of cord blood.

Amanda Canale doesn't take time with her daughter and niece for granted.

She's just happy to feel good.

"I've been in the hospital, and I've been sick my whole life," said Amanda.

Amanda was born with a rare blood disorder that required daily shots.

"Basically, I have no white blood cells. I have no immune system at all," said Amanda

At 23 she developed Leukemia and was given two weeks to live.

She desperately needed a Bone Marrow Transplant, but family members weren't matches.

Her doctor suggested an Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant.

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Umbilical cord blood helps to save lives

Originally published June 18, 2014 at 4:37 PM | Page modified June 19, 2014 at 8:32 PM

BELLINGHAM A decade ago, the San Juan Island owners of Comet brought their beloved golden retriever to Drs. Edmund Sullivan and Theresa Westfall at Bellingham Veterinary to see if Comets diagnosis of lymphoma could be treated as something other than a death sentence.

The odds werent good.

At the time, lymphoma was considered incurable, with chemotherapy treatment only a temporary solution because the cancer nearly always re-emerged and resulted in death within a year.

Sullivan and Westfall, who are married, were determined to help. After talking to Dr. Rainer Storb, an expert on human lymphoma at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, they decided to attempt a bone-marrow transplant on Comet. They spent six months visiting the center to learn how.

After removing and preserving bone-marrow stem cells in a painless procedure, the cells are stored for re-injection after radiation therapy. Through DNA analysis, the patients cells are checked for the presence of tumor cells. Sometimes, blood transfusions are needed to provide platelets and red blood cells during recovery.

Its a common procedure in humans but hadnt been tried with dogs.

It worked. Comet survived.

Since Comets recovery, more than 100 dogs have been cured with the treatment through Bellingham Veterinary, and three more veterinary hospitals around the country have been trained in the procedure. The 50 percent cure rate is considered extraordinary.

I didnt invent the procedure, Sullivan says. The knowledge was already out there and we just applied it to dogs.

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Lesson learned at Hutch helping dogs with lymphoma

MP calls for more donors in Pendle to register

11:43am Tuesday 17th June 2014 in News

THE Anthony Nolan charity is searching for more heroes in Pendle to join their bone marrow register in the fight against blood cancer.

Championed by Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson, this search is under way as the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register has been mapped across the UK by area for the first time.

In Pendle, there are more than 1,500 residents willing to donate their stem cells, or bone marrow, to save the life of a stranger.

Anthony Nolan, now in its 40th anniversary year, was the worlds first bone marrow register.

Mr Stephenson said: I am delighted that Pendle has one of the highest number of heroes on the register out of anywhere in Britain, but we could get even more.

Im hunting for more people to sign up today, so we can fight blood cancer together. It is something truly heroic to give a stranger a second chance at life. That is why Im proud of the huge number of Pendle residents already signed up and proud to champion this cause.

For details, visit www. anthonynolan.org/superhero.

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MP calls for more donors in Pendle to register

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) --

It's something Jon Galvan experienced five years ago after he almost died from a hemorrhagic stroke while atSubmit work.

"I was typing away and I felt a pop in my head," Galvan told Ivanhoe.

He was able to recover, but Abba Zubair, MD, PhD, Medical Director of Transfusion Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy at Mayo Clinic, Florida says not everyone is as fortunate.

"If it happens, you either recover completely or die," Dr. Zubair told Ivanhoe. "That's what killed my mother."

SubmitDr. Zubair wants to send bone marrow derived stem cells to the international space station.

"Based on our experience with bone marrow transplant you need about 200 to 500 million cells," Dr. Zubair said.

But conventionally grown stem cells take a month. Experiments on earth have shown that stem cells will grow faster in less gravity.

"Five to ten times faster, but it could be more," Dr. Zubair said.

Specifically he hopes to expand the number of stem cells that will help regeneration of neurons and blood vessels in hemorrhagic stroke patients.

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Growing Stem Cells in Space: Medicine's Next Big Thing?

When patients have to undergo a bone marrow transplant, the procedure weakens their immune system. Viruses that are usually kept in check in a healthy immune system may then cause potentially fatal infections. Scientists at Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM), together with colleagues from Frankfurt, Wrzburg and Gttingen, have now developed a method which could offer patients conservative protection against such infections after a transplant. The method has already been used to treat several patients successfully.

The cells of the human immune system are created from special stem cells in the bone marrow. In diseases affecting the bone marrow, such as leukemia, the degenerate cells must be destroyed using radiation or chemotherapy. Subsequently, the hematopoietic system has to be replaced with stem cells from the blood of a healthy donor. Because of the resulting temporary weakening of the immune system, patients are more exposed to viruses that would normally be warded off.

The cytomegalovirus (CMV), which can cause serious damage to lungs or liver in persons with a weakened defense, poses a major clinical problem. In healthy human beings, a CMV infection will usually not produce any symptoms, since the virus is kept at bay by specific immune cells. In their work, the scientists were able to demonstrate that the transfer of just a few specific immune cells is sufficient to protect the recipient with the weakened immune system against infections. To do this, they used T cells that can recognize and kill specific pathogens.

Tested in an animal model

Dr. Christian Stemberger, first author of the study, and his colleagues, first isolated T cells from the blood of healthy donor mice. These immune cells were directed against molecular elements of a bacterial species which normally causes severe infections in animals. The T cells were then transferred to recipient mice that, due to a genetic modification, could no longer produce immune cells of their own -- similarly to patients suffering from leukemia.

Following the T cell transfer, the researchers infected the treated recipient mice with the bacteria. The results showed that the animals now have effective immune protection against the pathogens, preventing them from becoming ill. "The most astonishing result was that the offspring cells of just one transferred donor cell were enough to completely protect the animals," Christian Stemberger explains.

Successfully used in patients

Finally, the scientists used virus-specific T cells to treat two critically ill patients. Due to a congenital immunodeficiency and leukemia, respectively, stem cell transplants had to be performed on the two patients. Weakened by the procedure, both patients developed CMV infections.

Using a new method, the scientists therefore isolated T cells specifically programmed to target the CMV virus from the blood of the donor and transferred small numbers of these cells to the patients. After only a few weeks, the virus-specific cells proliferated. At the same time, the number of viruses in the blood dropped. "It is a great advantage that even just a few cells can provide protection. This means that the cells can be used for preventive treatment in low doses that are gentler on the organism," Dr. Michael Neuenhahn, last author of the study, explains.

The potential of the identified T cells will now be examined in a clinical study. In addition to an innovative method for cell purification, scientists also have at their disposal a new TUM facility for the sterile manufacture of cell products. In TUMCells, cells can be produced in highly-pure conditions, in so-called clean rooms. In the future, the scientists want to use recent results and TUMCells to develop innovative cell therapies.

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Promising T cell therapy to protect from infections after transplant

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Newswise DALLAS June 20, 2014 The Childrens Medical Center Research Institute at UTSouthwestern (CRI) has identified a biomarker that enables researchers to accurately characterize the properties and function of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the body. MSCs are the focus of nearly 200 active clinical trials registered with the National Institutes of Health, targeting conditions such as bone fractures, cartilage injury, degenerative disc disease, and osteoarthritis.

The finding, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell on June 19, significantly advances the field of MSC biology, and if the same biomarker identified in CRIs studies with mice works in humans, the outlook for clinical trials that use MSCs will be improved by the ability to better identify and characterize the relevant cells.

There has been an increasing amount of clinical interest in MSCs, but advances have been slow because researchers to date have been unable to identify MSCs and study their normal physiological function in the body, said Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of the Childrens Research Institute, Professor of Pediatrics at UTSouthwestern Medical Center, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. We found that a protein known as leptin receptor can serve as a biomarker to accurately identify MSCs in adult bone marrow in vivo, and that those MSCs are the primary source of new bone formation and bone repair after injury.

In the course of their investigation, the CRI researchers found that leptin receptor-positive MSCs are also the main source of factors that promote the maintenance of blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow.

Unfortunately, many clinical trials that are testing potential therapies using MSCs have been hampered by the use of poorly characterized and impure collections of cultured cells, said Dr. Morrison, senior author of the study and holder of the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UTSouthwestern. If this finding is duplicated in our studies with human MSCs, then it will improve the characterization of MSCs that are used clinically and could increase the probability of success for well-designed clinical trials using MSCs.

Dr. Bo Zhou, a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Morrisons laboratory, was first author of the paper. Other CRI researchers involved in the study were Drs. Rui Yue and Malea Murphy, both postdoctoral research fellows. The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, and donors to the Childrens Medical Center Foundation.

About CRI

Childrens Medical Center Research Institute at UTSouthwestern (CRI) is a joint venture established in2011 to build upon the comprehensive clinical expertise of Childrens Medical Center of Dallas and the internationally recognized scientific excellence of UTSouthwestern Medical Center. CRIs mission is to perform transformative biomedical research to better understand the biological basis of disease, seeking breakthroughs that can change scientific fields and yield new strategies for treating disease. Located in Dallas, Texas, CRI is creating interdisciplinary groups of exceptional scientists and physicians to pursue research at the interface of regenerative medicine, cancer biology and metabolism, fields that hold uncommon potential for advancing science and medicine. More information about CRI is available on its website: cri.utsw.edu

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Children's Research Institute Finds Key to Identifying, Enriching Mesenchymal Stem Cells

June 17, 2014

Image Caption: ImStem Biotechnologys Xiaofang Wang, seated, and Ren-He Xu. Credit: Tina Encarnacion/UConn

University of Connecticut

Scientists in the University of Connecticuts Technology Incubation Program have identified a novel approach to treating multiple sclerosis (MS) using human embryonic stem cells, offering a promising new therapy for more than 2.3 million people suffering from the debilitating disease.

The researchers demonstrated that the embryonic stem cell therapy significantly reduced MS disease severity in animal models, and offered better treatment results than stem cells derived from human adult bone marrow.

The study was led by ImStem Biotechnology Inc. of Farmington, Conn., in conjunction with UConn Health Professor Joel Pachter, Assistant Professor Stephen Crocker, and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Inc. of Massachusetts. ImStem was founded in 2012 by UConn doctors Xiaofang Wang and Ren-He Xu, along with Yale University doctor Xinghua Pan and investor Michael Men.

The cutting-edge work by ImStem, our first spinoff company, demonstrates the success of Connecticuts Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine funding program in moving stem cells from bench to bedside, says Professor Marc Lalande, director of the UConns Stem Cell Institute.

The research was supported by a $1.13 million group grant from the state of Connecticuts Stem Cell Research Program that was awarded to ImStem and Professor Pachters lab.

Connecticuts investment in stem cells, especially human embryonic stem cells, continues to position our state as a leader in biomedical research, says Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. This new study moves us one step closer to a stem cell-based clinical product that could improve peoples lives.

The researchers compared eight lines of adult bone marrow stem cells to four lines of human embryonic stem cells. All of the bone marrow-related stem cells expressed high levels of a protein molecule called a cytokine that stimulates autoimmunity and can worsen the disease. All of the human embryonic stem cell-related lines expressed little of the inflammatory cytokine.

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Embryonic Stem Cells Offer Promising Treatment For Multiple Sclerosis

Scientists in the University of Connecticut's Technology Incubation Program have identified a novel approach to treating multiple sclerosis (MS) using human embryonic stem cells, offering a promising new therapy for more than 2.3 million people suffering from the debilitating disease.

The researchers demonstrated that the embryonic stem cell therapy significantly reduced MS disease severity in animal models, and offered better treatment results than stem cells derived from human adult bone marrow.

The study was led by ImStem Biotechnology Inc. of Farmington, Conn., in conjunction with UConn Health Professor Joel Pachter, Assistant Professor Stephen Crocker, and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Inc. of Massachusetts. ImStem was founded in 2012 by UConn doctors Xiaofang Wang and Ren-He Xu, along with Yale University doctor Xinghua Pan and investor Michael Men.

"The cutting-edge work by ImStem, our first spinoff company, demonstrates the success of Connecticut's Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine funding program in moving stem cells from bench to bedside," says Professor Marc Lalande, director of the UConn's Stem Cell Institute.

The research was supported by a $1.13 million group grant from the state of Connecticut's Stem Cell Research Program that was awarded to ImStem and Professor Pachter's lab.

"Connecticut's investment in stem cells, especially human embryonic stem cells, continues to position our state as a leader in biomedical research," says Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. "This new study moves us one step closer to a stem cell-based clinical product that could improve people's lives."

The researchers compared eight lines of adult bone marrow stem cells to four lines of human embryonic stem cells. All of the bone marrow-related stem cells expressed high levels of a protein molecule called a cytokine that stimulates autoimmunity and can worsen the disease. All of the human embryonic stem cell-related lines expressed little of the inflammatory cytokine.

Another advantage of human embryonic stem cells is that they can be propagated indefinitely in lab cultures and provide an unlimited source of high quality mesenchymal stem cells -- the kind of stem cell needed for treatment of MS, the researchers say. This ability to reliably grow high quality mesenchymal stem cells from embryonic stem cells represents an advantage over adult bone marrow stem cells, which must be obtained from a limited supply of healthy donors and are of more variable quality.

"Groundbreaking research like this furthering opportunities for technology ventures demonstrates how the University acts as an economic engine for the state and regional economy," says Jeff Seemann, UConn's vice president for research.

The findings also offer potential therapy for other autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and type-1 diabetes, according to Xu, a corresponding author on the study and one of the few scientists in the world to have generated new human embryonic stem cell lines.

Excerpt from:
Embryonic stem cells offer new treatment for multiple sclerosis

By Ian Dipple Wednesday 18 June 2014 Updated: 18/06 11:28

REDDITCH residents have been urged to join the bone marrow register to help the fight against blood cancer.

Anthony Nolan and Redditch MP Karen Lumley have joined forces for the appeal. For the first time the charity has mapped the bone marrow register across the UK by local area.

In Redditch there are more than 562 people willing to donate their stem cells or bone marrow to save the life of a stranger.

However it is well below the average of 796 per Parliamentary constituency and is ranked 467th out of 650.

Two thirds of UK patients in need of a transplant will not find a matching donor from their family. Anthony Nolan helps them find an unrelated donor but can currently only match half of all requests.

Mrs Lumley said: "I want to see many more of my constituents join this fight. Im hunting for more crusaders to sign up today, so we can fight blood cancer together. It is something truly heroic to give a stranger a second chance at life. This is why Im proud to champion this cause to my constituents."

Ann OLeary, head of register development at Anthony Nolan, added: "Donating is an incredibly selfless thing to do and will give someone with blood cancer their best chance at survival."

Anyone aged 16 to 30 and in good health can join the bone marrow register. It involves filling out a simple online form and spitting into a tube.

Visit http://www.anthonynolan.org/superhero for more information.

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MP calls for bone marrow champions

It's possible to alter genetic material of stem cells to provide HIV resistance A DNA sequence can be removed from the cells and replaced with another The replacements can be taken from people with natural HIV resistance These altered stem cells can then be used to create HIV-resistant white blood cells

By Emma Innes

Published: 07:57 EST, 11 June 2014 | Updated: 12:03 EST, 11 June 2014

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HIV could be cured by genetically editing stem cells, researchers believe.

U.S. scientists say they have already demonstrated that it is possible to alter the genetic material of some stem cells.

This in turn provides HIV resistance, they report.

A new 'genome editing' technique could be the key to curing HIV. Image shows HIV in human tissue

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Could 'editing' genes be the key to curing HIV? Giving patients altered blood cells could make them resistant to the ...

16.06.2014 - (idw) Universitt Basel

T cells use a novel mechanism to fight leukemia. They may recognize unique lipids produced by cancer cells and kill tumor cells expressing these lipid molecules. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Basel shows that a tumor-associated lipid stimulates specific T cells, which efficiently kill leukemia cells both in vitro and in animal models. The results have been published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Leukemias are cancer diseases affecting blood cells . Acute leukemias prevent development of normal bold cells and thereby are severe life-threatening diseases. Current therapy for acute leukemias is based on chemotherapy that eradicates tumor cells followed by bone-marrow stem cell transplantation that reconstitutes the patient with healthy blood cells. In some cases, leukemia cells survive this treatment and start to re-grow. A major aim of many studies is finding novel and efficient ways to detect and eradicate leukemia cells before a second outbreak of the disease.

More punch against tumor cells

T lymphocytes are major contributors to fight against leukemias. T cells may recognize and become activated by tumor-specific protein antigens in some instances produced in large amounts only by tumor cells. These protein antigens are also called tumor-associated antigens (TAA) and stimulate specific T cells, which in turn kill leukemia cells. However, protein TAA accumulation can be drastically reduced by variant leukemia cells and some TAA may change their structure, thus preventing recognition by T cells and facilitating tumor immune evasion.

Prof. Gennaro De Libero and his team from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel has identified a new approach that might help to make the immune system more efficient in recognizing leukemia cells. His research team is studying T cells that specifically recognize lipid antigens since several years. Together with colleagues in Italy, China and Singapore, the Swiss team has identified a new lipid that accumulates in leukemia cells and that stimulates specific T cell responses. The new lipid methyl-lysophosphatidic acid (mLPA) is very abundant in several forms of human leukemias and is the first example of a lipid TAA.

The published study also shows that it is possible to isolate human T cells that specifically recognize and kill mLPA-expressing leukemia cells in in vitro tests. When these T cells were transplanted into mice, they also displayed great in vivo therapeutic efficacy against leukemia cells.

An important feature of mLPA is that differently from protein TAA, it does not change its structure, and remains abundant in leukemia cells. The Swiss team is now investigating, whether mLPA can be used to target leukemia cells in addition to protein TAA. This type of immunotherapy may be extremely beneficial in preventing relapses of the disease after chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. It opens new avenues to novel non-invasive cancer immunotherapies.

Original source Marco Lepore, Claudia de Lalla, S. Ramanjaneyulu Gundimeda, Heiko Gsellinger, Michela Consonni, Claudio Garavaglia, Sebastiano Sansano, Francesco Piccolo, Andrea Scelfo, Daniel Hussinger, Daniela Montagna, Franco Locatelli, Chiara Bonini, Attilio Bondanza, Alessandra Forcina, Zhiyuan Li, Guanghui Ni, Fabio Ciceri, Paul Jen, Chengfeng Xia, Lucia Mori, Paolo Dellabona, Giulia Casorati, and Gennaro De Libero

Further information Prof. Gennaro De Libero, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine, phone: +41 61 265 23 65, email: gennaro.delibero@unibas.ch Dr. Lucia Mori, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine, phone: +41 61 265 23 27, email: lucia.mori@unibas.ch Weitere Informationen:http://www.jem.org/cgi/doi/10.1084/jem.20140410 - Abstract

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Lipids Help to Fight Leukemia

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

Amanda Canale doesn't take time with her daughter and niece for granted. She's just happy to feel good.

"I've been in the hospital, and I've been sick my whole life," Amanda said.

Amanda was born with a rare blood disorder that required daily shots.

"Basically, I have no white blood cells," Amanda said. "I have no immune system at all."

At 23, she developed leukemia and was given two weeks to live. She desperately needed a bone marrow transplant, but family members weren't matches. Her doctor suggested an umbilical cord blood transplant.

"The cord was a perfect match and it was available, so it was the right solution for her," Edward Agura, MD, Medical Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, said.

Cord blood contains stem cells that regenerate. Mothers of newborns can save their child's own blood or donate it. More than 30,000 transplants have been performed worldwide. However, because the blood comes from a tiny newborn, there's not much of it.

"The cord blood is rare, precious and few, and yet is more potent in its ability to grow," Dr. Agura said.

Now, doctors at Baylor are treating patients by combining cord blood from multiple donors. They've found this increases the number of stem cells and provides faster recovery. Amanda's transfusion was from a baby whose mother donated six years earlier. The procedure completely cured her cancer and blood disorder.

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Cord blood infusion saves woman's life

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BOSTON (CBS) Behaylu Barry is on the mend at home in Stratham, New Hampshire, after 34 days at Boston Childrens Hospital.

Behaylu, 13, received a bone marrow transplant in an effort to rebuild his immune system, compromised by a rare blood disorder.

I didnt feel like I had anything at all until I started doing something, said Behaylu of his aplastic anemia, diagnosed in February.

The star athlete scored seven goals in a January soccer game but a week later, felt exhausted and out of breath. Nose bleeds and infected cuts led his parents to believe something was seriously wrong. When doctors told Midori and Aidan Barry that Behaylu would need a bone marrow transplant, it was terrifying to hear.

The reality is we havent had time to think about it. Youre a parent. You go into campaign mode, said Aidan. That campaign lead the Barrys back to a village in Ethiopia where they first met Behaylu in 2007. Then 6-years-old, his biological parents couldnt afford to care for Behaylu so they put him up for adoption. Though the Barrys had three grown children of their own, they brought Behaylu home and eventually began assisting his other siblings still in Africa.

We thought we were helping them. We never thought theyd help us, said Aidan of the familys quick response to the Barrys request for cheek swabs, in an attempt to find a bone marrow donor for Behaylu. Two of his five siblings were perfect matches. Rediat, 16, and Eden, 10, quickly came to the United States.

The trio had two weeks to reconnect, even attending a New England Revolution game when the team was gracious enough to donate box seats. Behaylus compromised immune system makes it dangerous for him to be exposed to crowds.

During the visit, doctors decided Rediat should be the bone marrow donor. The two brothers underwent the painful procedure in May. Behaylu also received chemotherapy. Now his body is building a new immune system with the help of stem cells from Rediat.

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NH Teen In Recovery After International Search For Bone Marrow Donor

Cambridge News Follow us on

Friday 13 Jun 2014 3:52 AM

Written byJORDAN DAY

Leukaemia survivor, Bill Evans, pictured with his family.

2 Images

A grandfather whose life was saved by an anonymous bone marrow donor is urging others to consider donating theirs.

It was in January 2008 that Bill Evans was diagnosed with Leukaemia, aged 62, at Addenbrookes Hospital.

But thanks to the blood cancer charity, Anthony Nolan, and a generous man who still to this day Bill does not know, the father-of-two and grandfather-of-four was able to fight the cancer.

Bill, now aged 69 and who lives in Ely, said: Last weekend I celebrated my five years post transplant. There are no words to express my gratitude.

Because of Anthony Nolan and the wonderful man who donated his stem cells to me, Ive been able to see my four lovely grandchildren growing up, my wife and I have celebrated our Ruby wedding anniversary and next year I will be 70.

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Leukaemia survivor Bill Evans urges more people to donate bone marrow

A deep dive analysis of erythropoietin market
Erythropoietin is a glycoprotein hormone produced in the kidney that stimulates the production of red blood cells by bone marrow stem cells. http://www.bigma...

By: Big Market Research

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A deep dive analysis of erythropoietin market - Video

More people in the capital have signed up to donate their stem cells than residents in any other part of Britain - d espite Londoners having an unfriendly reputation .

Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan has mapped its bone marrow register for the first time, showing the proportion of people in each region who are signed up to the bone marrow register.

The charity said that more than 80,000 people in the capital are now signed up to the register - 0.97% of London's population.

A spokeswoman said that other "selfless hotspots" are the East Midlands, where 0.91% of the population has signed up, Scotland where 0.89% of people are on the register and in the south east where 0.87% of people have pledged to donate their stem cells.

Places with the lowest rates of sign-ups are the West Midlands and the south west, where just 0.66% and 0.65% of people, respectively, have signed up to the register.

The register was set up 40 years ago to help find lifesaving matches for people with blood cancer who desperately need a stem cell, or bone marrow, transplant.

Ann O'Leary, head of register development at Anthony Nolan, said: "Donating stem cells to save the life of a stranger is a remarkably selfless act so it's great to see so many Londoners challenging the city's stereotype and signing up to our register.

"Two thirds of patients will not find a matching donor from within their families; instead they turn to Anthony Nolan to find them an unrelated donor.

"Even though London has the highest proportion of donors of any region, it's still less than one per cent of the overall population of London, which shows us that we urgently need to recruit donors from all over the UK so we can give people with blood cancer the best possible hope of a cure."

Ms O'Leary added: "Mapping the register in this way will help us to target our efforts in order to grow the register and save more lives.

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UK & World

Ryan White, CTV Calgary Published Saturday, June 7, 2014 4:38PM MDT Last Updated Saturday, June 7, 2014 6:30PM MDT

Dozens of men stepped forward to offer their cheek cells for testing in the hope of assisting patients in need of stem cell or bone marrow transplants.

On Saturday, the Village Brewery offered beer tastings and tours to those who took part in the swab-a-thon.

The event was created by Steve Carpenter, the operator of a local micro-brewery, whose brother Al was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in November. Al, married and the father of two, was in desperate need of stem cell treatment and Canadian Blood Services was unable to locate a suitable match through its stem cell and bone marrow donor program.

Steve and his friends organized a swab-a-thon in the hopes of locating a suitable donor, and Jim Button, a childhood friend of Als and the owner of Village Brewery, offered the use of his brewery.

Miraculously, in the days before the swab-a-thon was to be held, a suitable stem cell match was located for Al and he underwent treatment in an Ottawa hospital. Doctors say Al is responding well to the treatment.

Despite the fact a donor had been located for his brother, Steve made the decision to continue with his plans for Saturdays event.

We are here to tell people it is a very easy program, said Steve. We really appreciate anybody coming out to sign up on registry, be it for my brother or any other people in need.

Mike Carron was the first volunteer to step up to register and offer up a saliva sample. He says he wanted to help the cause after stem cell treatment extended the life of a close family member.

I thought it would be good to pay it forward, explains Carron. I had an uncle who needed stem cell treatment three years ago and it gave him an extra three years.

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It takes a Village; local brewery hosts swab-a-thon

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Doug Schmid in the lab at Utah Cord Bank, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Utah Cord Bank is pushing to expand operations, giving parents more options for banking their babies' cord blood

In 2007, the University of Utah began collecting umbilical cord blood donations for the National Cord Blood Stem Cell bank.

Two years later, it expanded, adding Utahs major labor wards to its public banking effort giving more women in this most fertile of states the opportunity to save a life or contribute to research.

Treating disease with stem cells

Cell therapy

Cell therapies involve transplanting human cells to replace or repair damaged or diseased blood, tissue or organs. Bone marrow transplants of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells are the most common.

How does it work?

Hematopoietic stem cells can form mature blood cells, such as red blood cells (which carry oxygen), platelets (to stop bleeding) and white blood cells (to fight infection). In addition to treating cancer and other blood diseases, they are being tested for use with autoimmune, genetic and a host of other disorders.

Why cord blood?

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Cord blood donations a rarity in fertile, charitable Utah

Human embryonic stem cells the bodys powerful master cells might be useful for treating multiple sclerosis, researchers reported Thursday.

A team has used cells taken from frozen human embryos and transformed them into a type of cell that scientists have hoped might help treat patients with MS, a debilitating nerve disease.

Mice with an induced version of MS that paralyzed them were able to walk freely after the treatment, the teams at Advanced Cell Technology and ImStem Biotechnology in Farmington, Connecticut, reported.

The cells appeared to travel to the damaged tissues in the mice, toning down the mistaken immune system response that strips the fatty protective layer off of nerve calls. Its that damage that causes symptoms ranging from tremors and loss of balance to blurry vision and paralysis.

These embryonic stem cells were carefully nurtured to make them form a type of immature cell called a mesenchymal stem cell. These cells worked better to treat the mice than naturally developed mesenchymal stem cells taken directly from bone marrow, the team wrote in the journal Stem Cell Reports, published by the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

The top mouse is paralyzed, while the mouse on the bottom was treated with human embryonic stem cells and is able to run around.

The company released a video to show the benefits. Untreated mice were suffering. They are paralyzed. They on their backs. They are dragging their limbs. They are in really sad shape, ACTs chief scientific officer, Dr. Bob Lanza, told NBC News.

Treated animals, they are walking and jumping around just like normal mice.

Lanza says human trials are many months away, but he thinks it will not be necessary to use controversial cloning technology to make perfectly matched human embryonic stem cells to treat patients.

We can use an off-the-shelf source and itll work for everyone, he said. So you can use them and not worry about rejection.

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Stem cells work on MS in mice

Human embryonic stem cells the bodys powerful master cells might be useful for treating multiple sclerosis, researchers reported Thursday.

A team has used cells taken from frozen human embryos and transformed them into a type of cell that scientists have hoped might help treat patients with MS, a debilitating nerve disease.

Mice with an induced version of MS that paralyzed them were able to walk freely after the treatment, the teams at Advanced Cell Technology and ImStem Biotechnology in Farmington, Connecticut, reported.

The cells appeared to travel to the damaged tissues in the mice, toning down the mistaken immune system response that strips the fatty protective layer off of nerve calls. Its that damage that causes symptoms ranging from tremors and loss of balance to blurry vision and paralysis.

These embryonic stem cells were carefully nurtured to make them form a type of immature cell called a mesenchymal stem cell. These cells worked better to treat the mice than naturally developed mesenchymal stem cells taken directly from bone marrow, the team wrote in the journal Stem Cell Reports, published by the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

The top mouse is paralyzed, while the mouse on the bottom was treated with human embryonic stem cells and is able to run around.

The company released a video to show the benefits. Untreated mice were suffering. They are paralyzed. They on their backs. They are dragging their limbs. They are in really sad shape, ACTs chief scientific officer, Dr. Bob Lanza, told NBC News.

Treated animals, they are walking and jumping around just like normal mice.

Lanza says human trials are many months away, but he thinks it will not be necessary to use controversial cloning technology to make perfectly matched human embryonic stem cells to treat patients.

We can use an off-the-shelf source and itll work for everyone, he said. So you can use them and not worry about rejection.

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Stem Cells Treat Multiple Sclerosis in Mice