Arkansas State University-Newport will host a Bone Marrow Donor Drive on campus Thursday, March 29 from 10am until 7pm and Saturday, March 31 from 9am until 1pm in the Student/Community Center, Merchants & Planters Insurance and Investments room. A bone marrow transplant is a lifesaving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases. First, patients undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor's healthy blood-forming stem cells are transfused directly into the patient's bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply. For a patient's body to accept these healthy cells, the patient needs a donor who is a close match. Seventy percent of patients cannot find a matching donor within their family and depend on the national registry to find an unrelated bone marrow donor. Even with a registry of millions, 6 out of 10 patients NEVER receive the lifesaving transplant they need. Donors of all ethnicities are needed to change this. To see if you can be a bone marrow donor and to read about the process of testing and donating, go to http://www.dkmsamericas.org and click on Get Educated.

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ASUN to host Bone Marrow Donor Drive

Displaying rare unanimity on an issue, the full U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected a request by the federal government thatit reconsidera rulingthat most bone marrow donors can be compensated for providing life-saving marrow stem cells from their blood.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled on Dec. 1 that the process of harvesting marrow cells by filtering a donor's blood wasn't covered by the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act's prohibitionof payment for organs or organ parts.The statute was enacted by Congress before the blood-filtering process was developed and donors were subjected to painful and medically risky surgical extraction of marrow by insertion of a siphoning needle into the hip bone. Compensation for that form of donation remains illegal.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., on behalf of the federal government, petitioned the court in Januaryfor a new hearing by an 11-judge panel. Department of Justice lawyers argued that the December ruling ignored the clear intent of Congress to prevent money from influencing donation decisions.

The 9th Circuit panel said in its latest ruling thatall 25 active judges on the court were informed of the government's request and none called for a vote on it, signaling their agreement with the December decision. That unusualaccord among the judges who span a broad ideological spectrum might also indicate that the U.S. Supreme Court will be unlikely to take the case for review.

The lawsuit challenging the ban on bone marrow compensation was brought by a group of cancer patients and their families, as well as a marrow transplant specialist and a California nonprofit organization, MoreMarrowDonors.org, aiming to expand the registry of available donors by offering up to $3,000 in housing assistance or scholarships for promising genetic matches.

Violation of the organ transplant act's prohibition on sales of organs or parts thereofcarries heavy fines and up to five years in prison.The 1984 act defined bone marrow as an organ part, while the 9th Circuit's ruling said it was a blood part and not subject to theban on compensation.

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Appeals court stands united on compensation for bone marrow donors

ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2012) A research network led by a Mayo Clinic physician found that stem cells derived from heart failure patients' own bone marrow and injected into their hearts improved the function of the left ventricle, the heart's pumping chamber. Researchers also found that certain types of the stem cells were associated with the largest improvement and warrant further study.

The results were presented March 26 at the 2012 American College of Cardiology Meeting in Chicago. They will also be published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This Phase II clinical trial, designed to test this strategy to improve cardiac function, is an extension of earlier efforts in Brazil in which a smaller number of patients received fewer stem cells. For this new network study, 92 patients received a placebo or 100 million stem cells derived from the bone marrow in their hips in a one-time injection. This was the first study in humans to deliver that many bone marrow stem cells.

"We found that the bone marrow cells did not have a significant impact on the original end points that we chose, which involved reversibility of a lack of blood supply to the heart, the volume of the left ventricle of the heart at the end of a contraction, and maximal oxygen consumption derived through a treadmill test," says Robert Simari, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is chairman of the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), the network of five academic centers and associated satellite sites that conducted the study. The CCTRN is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which also funded the study.

"But interestingly, we did find that the very simple measure of ejection fraction was improved in the group that received the cells compared to the placebo group by 2.7 percent," Dr. Simari says. Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood pumped out of the left ventricle during each contraction.

Study principal investigators Emerson Perin, M.D., Ph.D., and James Willerson, M.D., of the Texas Heart Institute, explain that even though 2.7 percent does not seem like a large number, it is statistically significant and means an improvement in heart function for chronic heart failure patients who have no other options.

"This was a pretty sick population," Dr. Perin says. "They had already had heart attacks, undergone bypass surgery, and had stents placed. However, they weren't at the level of needing a heart transplant yet. In some patients, particularly those who were younger or whose bone marrows were enriched in certain stem cell populations, had even greater improvements in their ejection fractions."

The average age of study participants was 63. The researchers found that patients younger than 62 improved more. Their ejection fraction improved by 4.7 percent. The researchers looked at the makeup of these patients' stem cells from a supply stored at a biorepository established by the CCTRN. They found these patients had more CD34+ and CD133+ type of stem cells in their mixture.

"This tells us that the approach we used to deliver the stems cells was safe," Dr. Simari says. "It also suggests new directions for the next series of clinical trials, including the type of patients, endpoints to study and types of cells to deliver."

Other co-authors of the study are Guilherme Silva, M.D., Deirdre Smith, Lynette Westbrook; and James Chen, all of the Texas Heart Institute, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston; Carl Pepine, M.D., R. David Anderson, M.D., Christopher Cogle, M.D., and Eileen Handberg, Ph.D., all of the University of Florida School of Medicine, Gainesville; Timothy Henry, M.D., Jay Traverse, M.D., and Rachel Olson, all of the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital; Doris Taylor, Ph.D., and Claudia Zierold, Ph.D., both of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis; Stephen Ellis, M.D., James Thomas, M.D., and Carrie Geither, all of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio; David Zhao, M.D., Marvin Kornenberg, M.D., Antonis Hatzopoulos, Ph.D., Sherry Bowman, and Judy Francescon, all of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Tennessee; Dejian Lai, Ph.D., Sarah Baraniuk, Ph.D., Linda Piller, M.D., Lara Simpson, Ph.D., Judy Bettencourt, Shelly Sayre, Rachel Vojvodic, and Lemuel Moye, M.D., Ph.D., all of The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston; A. Daniel Martin, Ph.D., of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, Gainesville; Marc Penn, M.D., Ph.D., of Northeast Ohio Medical University, Akron; Saif Anwaruddin, M.D., of Penn Heart and Vascular Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Adrian Gee, Ph.D., and David Aguilar, M.D., of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; Catalin Loghin, M.D., of The University of Texas Medical School, Houston; and Sonia Skarlatos, Ph.D., David Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., Ray Ebert, Ph.D., and Minjung Kwak, Ph.D., all of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD.

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Bone marrow stem cells can improve heart function, study suggests

Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Traci Klein newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic

CHICAGO -- A research network led by a Mayo Clinic physician found that stem cells derived from heart failure patients' own bone marrow and injected into their hearts improved the function of the left ventricle, the heart's pumping chamber. Researchers also found that certain types of the stem cells were associated with the largest improvement and warrant further study.

The results were presented today at the 2012 American College of Cardiology Meeting in Chicago. They will also be published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This Phase II clinical trial, designed to test this strategy to improve cardiac function, is an extension of earlier efforts in Brazil in which a smaller number of patients received fewer stem cells. For this new network study, 92 patients received a placebo or 100 million stem cells derived from the bone marrow in their hips in a one-time injection. This was the first study in humans to deliver that many bone marrow stem cells.

"We found that the bone marrow cells did not have a significant impact on the original end points that we chose, which involved reversibility of a lack of blood supply to the heart, the volume of the left ventricle of the heart at the end of a contraction, and maximal oxygen consumption derived through a treadmill test," says Robert Simari, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is chairman of the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), the network of five academic centers and associated satellite sites that conducted the study. The CCTRN is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which also funded the study.

"But interestingly, we did find that the very simple measure of ejection fraction was improved in the group that received the cells compared to the placebo group by 2.7 percent," Dr. Simari says. Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood pumped out of the left ventricle during each contraction.

Study principal investigators Emerson Perin, M.D., Ph.D., and James Willerson, M.D., of the Texas Heart Institute, explain that even though 2.7 percent does not seem like a large number, it is statistically significant and means an improvement in heart function for chronic heart failure patients who have no other options.

"This was a pretty sick population," Dr. Perin says. "They had already had heart attacks, undergone bypass surgery, and had stents placed. However, they weren't at the level of needing a heart transplant yet. In some patients, particularly those who were younger or whose bone marrows were enriched in certain stem cell populations, had even greater improvements in their ejection fractions."

The average age of study participants was 63. The researchers found that patients younger than 62 improved more. Their ejection fraction improved by 4.7 percent. The researchers looked at the makeup of these patients' stem cells from a supply stored at a biorepository established by the CCTRN. They found these patients had more CD34+ and CD133+ type of stem cells in their mixture.

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Bone marrow stem cells improve heart function, study finds

HOUSTON -

Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital have found that patients with heart failure may be able to repair the damaged areas of the heart with stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow.

Doctors presented the findings at the American College of Cardiologys 61st Annual Scientific Session Saturday.

The results are from a multi-center clinical study that measured the possible benefits of using a patients own bone marrow cells to repair damaged areas of the heart suffering from severe heart failure, a condition that affects millions of Americans.

The study, which was the largest such investigation to date, found that the hearts of the patients receiving bone marrow derived stem cells showed a small but significant increase in the ability to pump oxygenated blood from the left ventricle, the hearts main pumping chamber, to the body.

The expectation is that the study will pave the way for potential new treatment options and will be important to designing and evaluating future clinical trials.

This is exactly the kind of information we need to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy, said Emerson Perin, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Research for Cardiovascular Medicine at THI, and one of the studys lead investigators.

The bone-marrow derived stem cells are helpful to the injured heart when they are themselves biologically active, added Dr. James T. Willerson, the studys principal investigator and President and Medical Director of THI.

This study moves us one step closer to being able to help patients with severe heart failure who have no other alternatives.

The study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, the national consortium to conduct such research funded by the National Institutes of Healths National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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Stem cell, heart heath study

By Prue Salasky

3:48 p.m. EDT, March 23, 2012

UVA recently performed the first two stem cell transplants in Virginia, using non-embryonic stem cells from umbilical cord blood. The Stem Cell Transplant Program offers both bone marrow and stem cell transplants, with a focus on cord blood, to treat leukemia, lymphoma, Hodkin's disease and other blood diseases.

The outcome isn't known yet, but in both patients the stem cells began producing new cells 14 days after the transplant instead of the 24 to 28 days it usually takes.

The cord blood comes from placentas that otherwise would be discarded following childbirth; its benefits include sidestepping ethical issues of embryonic stem cells; they're easier and faster to collect than stem cells from other sources; and they are immune tolerant (this means that they won't attack other cells in the body and match doesn't have to be exact).

Speed is important because there is a narrow window of opportunity to perform a transplant when a patient's disease is in remission.

The program is led by Mary Laughlin, who heads up a team of 29, including 4 other transplant physicians who started seeing patients in September. The program had anticipated doing 15 transplants in first year; now expects to do 100.

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Health Notes: UVA performs first stem cell transplants in Virginia

Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jade Waddy Jade.Waddy@uth.tmc.edu 713-500-3030 JAMA and Archives Journals

Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions.

Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from the same individual] bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMCs) has demonstrated safety and has suggested efficacy. None of the clinical trials performed to date, however, have been powered to evaluate specific efficacy measures," according to background information in the article.

Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston and colleagues conducted a study to examine the effect of transendocardial administration (use of a special catheter and injection procedure to deliver stem cells to the heart muscle) of BMCs to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with heart failure and/or angina. The patients in the phase 2 randomized trial were receiving maximal medical therapy at 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutesponsored Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN) sites between April 2009 and April 2011. Patients were randomized to receive transendocardial injection of BMCs or placebo. The primary outcomes measured for the study, assessed at 6 months, were changes in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) assessed by echocardiography, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversibility of perfusion (blood flow) defect on single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Of 153 patients who provided consent, a total of 92 (82 men; average age: 63 years) were randomized (n = 61 in BMC group and n = 31 in placebo group).

Analysis of data indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups for the primary end points of changes in LVESV index, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversible defect. There were also no differences in any of the secondary outcomes, including percent myocardial defect, total defect size, fixed defect size, regional wall motion (the movement of the wall of the heart during contraction), and clinical improvement.

In an exploratory analysis, the researchers did find that when LVEF was assessed, patients age 62 years or younger showed a statistically significant effect of therapy. Patients in the BMC group demonstrated an average increase in LVEF of 3.1 percent from baseline to 6 months, whereas patients in the placebo group showed a decrease of 1.6 percent.

"In the largest study to date of autologous BMC therapy in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and LV dysfunction, we found no effect of therapy on prespecified end points. Further exploratory analysis showed a significant improvement in LVEF associated with treatment. Our findings provide evidence for further studies to determine the relationship between the composition and function of bone marrow product and clinical end points. Understanding these relationships will improve the design and interpretation of future studies of cardiac cell therapy," the authors write.

###

(JAMA. 2012;307(16):doi:10.1001/jama.2012.418. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)

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Study examines treatment of heart failure with bone marrow cells

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2012) Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions.

Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from the same individual] bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMCs) has demonstrated safety and has suggested efficacy. None of the clinical trials performed to date, however, have been powered to evaluate specific efficacy measures," according to background information in the article.

Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston and colleagues conducted a study to examine the effect of transendocardial administration (use of a special catheter and injection procedure to deliver stem cells to the heart muscle) of BMCs to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with heart failure and/or angina. The patients in the phase 2 randomized trial were receiving maximal medical therapy at 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN) sites between April 2009 and April 2011. Patients were randomized to receive transendocardial injection of BMCs or placebo. The primary outcomes measured for the study, assessed at 6 months, were changes in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) assessed by echocardiography, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversibility of perfusion (blood flow) defect on single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Of 153 patients who provided consent, a total of 92 (82 men; average age: 63 years) were randomized (n = 61 in BMC group and n = 31 in placebo group).

Analysis of data indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups for the primary end points of changes in LVESV index, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversible defect. There were also no differences in any of the secondary outcomes, including percent myocardial defect, total defect size, fixed defect size, regional wall motion (the movement of the wall of the heart during contraction), and clinical improvement.

In an exploratory analysis, the researchers did find that when LVEF was assessed, patients age 62 years or younger showed a statistically significant effect of therapy. Patients in the BMC group demonstrated an average increase in LVEF of 3.1 percent from baseline to 6 months, whereas patients in the placebo group showed a decrease of -1.6 percent.

"In the largest study to date of autologous BMC therapy in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and LV dysfunction, we found no effect of therapy on prespecified end points. Further exploratory analysis showed a significant improvement in LVEF associated with treatment. Our findings provide evidence for further studies to determine the relationship between the composition and function of bone marrow product and clinical end points. Understanding these relationships will improve the design and interpretation of future studies of cardiac cell therapy," the authors write.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

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Treatment of ischemic heart failure with bone marrow cells does not show improvement for certain heart function measures

By Uduak Grace Thomas

Users of ChimerMarker, a short tandem repeat chimerism analysis software solution marketed by SoftGenetics, are reporting a significant reduction in the time required to analyze STRs in blood samples of patients who have undergone bone marrow transplants.

The tool automates the process of assessing the chimerism ratio the proportion of donor cells relative to the host patients own cells in post-transplant cases based on the presence of STRs that are unique to both the patient and the donor, Don Kristt, head of molecular pathology at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel, explained to BioInform this week.

According to SoftGenetics, the software can be used to monitor chimerism levels in allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplants or hematopoietic stem cell transplants; bone marrow transplants; and cord and peripheral blood stem cell transplant samples.

SoftGenetics partnered with Kristt to develop the software, which it released last March (BI 3/18/2011). The company later added a module for testing fetal samples for maternal cell contamination prior to performing genetic testing for cystic fibrosis or other diseases (BI 9/2/2011).

The software provides capabilities for genotyping and chimerism analysis and tools to automatically identify donor and recipient peaks in samples following bone marrow transplants. It also calculates percent chimerism and quality metrics for single donor or double donor cases.

Dawn Wagenknecht, who supervises the HLA-Vascular Biology Laboratory at Franciscan St. Francis Health, told BioInform this week that her team was able to reduce the time required to calculate the ratio of donor to recipient cells in blood samples by as much as 85 percent.

She explained that the team ran parallel analyses of 10 blood samples using both ChimerMarker and a manual approach that the lab had used prior to purchasing the software, which involved manually sorting data generated by capillary sequencing in Excel spreadsheets, and then calculating the ratios either on the sheet or using a hand calculator.

In addition to the time savings, ChimerMarker also simplifies the analysis process because all the steps of the workflow are in a single package, she said.

The software also maintains records of the donor sample and the patients blood before transplantation so that the results from subsequent tests after transplant can be compared to the initial samples, she said.

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Labs Report 85 Percent Reduction in STR Analysis Time with SoftGenetics' ChimerMaker Software

What used to be medical trash is now treating cancer. The University of Virginia's Medical Center is the first place in Virginia to take advantage of stem cells from umbilical cords and they are pleased with the results.

Dr. Mary Laughlin, the director of stem cell transplantation at UVA,said, "These are cells that are routinely thrown away, these cells save lives."

A lab within the UVA Medical Center contains numerous tubes where non-embryonic stem cells reside. They come from umbilical cord blood and give hope topatients suffering leukemia, multiple myeloma and lymphoma.

Dr. Laughlin added, "They can completely replace a patient's bone marrow in the immune system. Oneof 10 cancer patients are able to find those cells through existing adult registries."

Thefive million babies that are born each year will soon solve that problem. The cells that are normally tossed out attack cancer cells.

Denise Mariconda, a nurse within the stem cell transplant program, stated, "It looks like a blood transfusion." Dr. Laughlin added, "It is in many ways like a cancer vaccine."

The first transplants were made in January and the transplant program at the UVA Medical Center admits it takes getting used to.

Mariconda said, "It is a process that's not like having your heart fixed in a one-day setting and you know that it's better."

These cells are not cause for controversy. Dr. Laughlin said, "Use of cord-blood is approved by all religious groups including the Vatican."

Babies' immune systems are not fully educated at the time of birth, making these cells effective. Dr. Laughlin, added, "That allows us to cross transplant barriers."

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Stem Cell Transplant Program Offered at UVA Medical Center

Debbi Margosian Chapmans family hopes you will and is offering $10,000 to the person who is a bone marrow match for her to treat her leukemia. Because Debbi is Armenian, her doctors believe her best chances of finding a match is with the Armenian community.

Please join Dr. Frieda Jordan, president of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR), on Saturday, March 24, at 7 p.m., at the Armenian Cultural and Educational Center, 47 Nichols Avenue, Watertown, Massachusetts, for a presentation and bone marrow drive and become a hero for Debbi or the many other Armenians with blood cancers. If youre between 18-50 years old, you just need to give a quick swab of your cheeks so you can be entered into the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. If you are a match, in the majority of cases, your stem cells will be harvested in a manner similar to giving bloodthere is no anesthesia or surgery.

If you cant make it to the drive but want to be tested, please visit http://debbichapman.wordpress.com for more information.

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Armenians can help save a life

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2012) Powerful new cells created by Cardiff scientists from cheek lining tissue could offer the answer to disorders of the immune system. While the body's immune system protects against many diseases, it can also be harmful. Using white blood cells (lymphocytes), the system can attack insulin-producing cells, causing diabetes, or cause the body to reject transplanted organs.

A team from the School of Dentistry led by Professor Phil Stephens, with colleagues from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, have found a new group of cells with a powerful ability to suppress the immune system's action.

The team took oral lining cells from the insides of patients' cheeks and cloned them. Laboratory tests showed that even small doses of the cells could completely inhibit the lymphocytes.

The breakthrough suggests that the cheek cells have wide-ranging potential for future therapies for immune system-related diseases. Existing immune system research has focused on adult stem cells, particularly those derived from bone marrow. The cheek tissue cells are much stronger in their action.

Dr Lindsay Davies, a member of the Cardiff team, said: "At this stage, these are only laboratory results. We have yet to recreate the effect outside the laboratory and any treatments will be many years away. However, these cells are extremely powerful and offer promise for combating a number of diseases. They are also easy to collect -- bone marrow stem cells require an invasive biopsy, whereas we just harvest a small biopsy from inside the mouth."

The findings have just been published online in Stem Cells and Development. The team has now been funded by the Medical Research Council to investigate the cloned cells further.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cardiff University.

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Powerful new cells cloned: Key to immune system disease could lie inside the cheek

The Stem Cell Transplant Program at the University of Virginia Health System recently performed the first two stem cell transplants in Virginia, using non-embryonic stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

The program offers both bone marrow and stem cell transplants, with a focus on cord blood, to treat leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkins disease and other blood diseases.

While it will take several months to know how effective the cord blood transplants were, the initial results are promising, says Mary Laughlin, MD, an internationally known stem cell expert recruited to UVA to head the program. In both patients, the stem cells began engrafting producing new cells 14 days after the transplant instead of the 24 to 28 days it normally takes.

Why cord blood stem cells? As an obstetrician once told Laughlin: Something thrown away in my OB suite saves a life in your cancer suite.

The cord blood used for these stem cell transplants comes from placentas that otherwise would be discarded following childbirth, Laughlin says. The cord blood is used with the permission of the new parents, she says. By using cord blood stem cells instead of embryonic stem cells, UVAs program sidesteps the ethical, religious and political concerns commonly associated with stem cells, she says.

Other benefits: Cord blood stem cells are also faster and easier to collect than stem cells from other sources; they are also immune tolerant.

Speed is important because there is a narrow window of opportunity to perform a transplant when a patients disease is in remission. And because the cord blood stem cells are immune tolerant meaning they will not attack other cells in the body the chances of a successful transplant are higher and the donor match doesnt have to be as exact, giving more patients the opportunity to receive a transplant.

Stem cell transplants: Part of a fast-growing program Laughlin heads up a team of 29 staff members, including four additional transplant physicians, who began seeing patients in September. The demand for transplants has already been greater than Laughlin and her team expected. The program had initially planned to do 15 transplants in its first year. Instead, it expects to do 100.

Its reflective of this unmet need, Laughlin says. Patients who otherwise would have to travel many states away to have these same procedures, now they can do a fairly short drive from Roanoke, or down from Winchester. Because of our central location, its ideal for them.

What are stem cells? Learn more about how they work.

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First Stem Cell Transplants in Virginia Performed at UVA

Public release date: 20-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Omar Montejo omontejo@miami.edu 305-243-5654 JAMA and Archives Journals

CHICAGO Among patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing living-related kidney transplants, the use of bone-marrow derived mesenchymal (cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types) stem cells instead of antibody induction therapy resulted in a lower incidence of acute rejection, decreased risk of opportunistic infection, and better estimated kidney function at 1 year, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA.

Induction therapy, routinely implemented in organ transplant procedures, consists of use of biologic agents to block early immune activation. New induction immunosuppressive protocols with increased efficacy and minimal adverse effects are desirable. "Antibody-based induction therapy plus calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) reduce acute rejection rates in kidney recipients; however, opportunistic infections and toxic CNI effects remain challenging. Reportedly, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have successfully treated graft-vs.-host disease," according to background information in the article.

Jianming Tan, M.D., Ph.D., of Xiamen University, Fuzhou, China and colleagues examined the effect of autologous (derived from the same individual) MSC infusion as an alternative to anti-IL-2 receptor antibody for induction therapy in adults undergoing living-related donor kidney transplants. The randomized study included 159 patients. Patients were inoculated with marrow-derived autologous MSC at kidney reperfusion and two weeks later. Fifty-three patients received standard-dose and 52 patients received low-dose CNIs (80 percent of standard); 51 patients in the control group received anti-IL-2 receptor antibody plus standard-dose CNIs.

Patient and graft survival at 13 to 30 months was similar in all groups. The researchers found that after 6 months, 4 of 53 patients (7.5 percent) in the autologous MSC plus standard-dose CNI group and 4 of 52 patients (7.7 percent) in the low-dose group compared with 11 of 51 controls (21.6 percent) had biopsy-confirmed acute rejection. Renal function recovered faster among both MSC groups showing increased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; a measure of kidney function) levels during the first month after surgery than the control group.

The authors also found that during the 1-year follow-up, combined analysis of MSC-treated groups revealed significantly decreased risk of opportunistic infections than the control group.

"In our prospective randomized trial on a large patient population, autologous MSCs could replace anti-IL-2 receptor-induction therapy in living-related donor kidney transplants. Recipients of autologous MSCs showed lower frequency of biopsy-confirmed acute rejection in the first 6 months than the control group," the researchers write.

"Extended monitoring of study participants will allow assessment of the long-term effects of autologous MSCs on renal allograft function, survival, and safety."

###

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Use of stem cells for adults receiving related donor kidney transplants appears to improve outcomes

By Ron Winslow

Doctors at Yale University have successfully implanted a biodegradablescaffold seeded with a four-year-old girls own bone-marrowcells to help treat a serious heart defect, as WSJs Heartbeat column describes.

The tube about three inches long is made of polyester material similar to that used in the manufacture of dissolvable sutures. Six months after Angela Irizarrys surgery, it had disappeared, replaced by a bioengineered conduit that acts like a normal blood vessel.

The vanishing act for the scaffold was expected, but what happens to the cells, including stem cells, that spawned the new vessel?

Much to the researchers surprise, says Chris Breuer, the Yale pediatric surgeon leading the experimental tissue-engineering project, the cells go away too.

Stem cells and certain other bone-marrow cells have building-block properties that make them the foundation for more specialized cells that grow into the bodys various tissues and structures. Researchers have long believed that stem cells transplanted into heart tissue, for instance, would be a primary component of whatever new tissue that grew as a result.

A lot of people think that when you put cells in, they turn into whatever cells you want them to turn into, Breuer tells the Health Blog. Weve clearly shown that doesnt happen in our graft.

Indeed, in experiments performed to learn how the tubes morphed into blood vessels, Breuer and his colleagues transplanted their scaffold seeded with human cells into mice bred with deficient immune systems to prevent rejection of the cells. Within a few days, the human cellswere gone, replaced within the scaffold by mouse cells, including cells characteristic of those that line the inner wall of blood vessels.

Initially, I refused to believe it, Breuer says. I redid the experiment three different ways and saw the same thing every time.

The upshot: Transplanted cells that have a quality of stem cells dont buildnew parts themselves, he says.They cause the body to induce regeneration.

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In Treatment of Child’s Heart Defect, Doctors Find a Stem-Cell Surprise

Public release date: 21-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Stephen Rouse RouseS@cardiff.ac.uk 44-292-087-5596 Cardiff University

Powerful new cells created by Cardiff University scientists from cheek lining tissue could offer the answer to disorders of the immune system.

While the body's immune system protects against many diseases, it can also be harmful. Using white blood cells (lymphocytes), the system can attack insulin-producing cells, causing diabetes, or cause the body to reject transplanted organs.

A team from Cardiff's School of Dentistry led by Professor Phil Stephens, with colleagues from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, have found a new group of cells with a powerful ability to suppress the immune system's action.

The team took oral lining cells from the insides of patients' cheeks and cloned them. Laboratory tests showed that even small doses of the cells could completely inhibit the lymphocytes.

The breakthrough suggests that the cheek cells have wide-ranging potential for future therapies for immune system-related diseases. Existing immune system research has focussed on adult stem cells, particularly those derived from bone marrow. The cheek tissue cells are much stronger in their action.

Dr Lindsay Davies, a member of the Cardiff team, said: "At this stage, these are only laboratory results. We have yet to recreate the effect outside the laboratory and any treatments will be many years away. However, these cells are extremely powerful and offer promise for combating a number of diseases. They are also easy to collect bone marrow stem cells require an invasive biopsy, whereas we just harvest a small biopsy from inside the mouth."

The findings have just been published online in Stem Cells and Development. The team has now been funded by the Medical Research Council to investigate the cloned cells further.

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Read more:
Key to immune system disease could lie inside the cheek

Nigeria launches its first ever bone marrow registry, which should make it easier to find matches for black people around the world.

By Jef Akst | March 19, 2012

Bone marrow transplants, or hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCT), treat more than 70 different diseases, including some types of leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anaemia. But such treatment often requires the matching of strangers for their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. And while 70 percent of Caucasian patients are successfully matched, only 17 percent of black people in the United States are as lucky, according to The New York Stem Cell Foundation, likely because only 8 percent of donors in US registries are black.

The Bone Marrow Registry in Nigeria (BMRN), the countrys first ever bone marrow registry and the continents second (South Africa having the only other accredited registry), aims to change all that. The registry follows the excitement surrounding Nigerias first bone marrow transplant last October, in which a young sickle cell anaemia patient received bone marrow from a sibling. In addition to providing an invaluable service to the people of Nigeria, the registry, launched by Seun Adebiyi of Yale University, should help black patients around the world find matched donors. The launch of the registry was discussed at the NCD Child Conference currently being held in San Francisco.

Adebiyi also plans to establish another Nigerian source for stem cell transplantsan umbilical cord blood bank. With as little as $75,000, we could build [a cord blood bank] in Nigeria by the end of this year instead of discarding this valuable source of stem cells, he said in a Lancet press release. There are almost 400 distinct ethnic groups and over 154 million people in Nigeria alone, and there is a huge population of umbilical stem cells just waiting to be banked in the maternity wards of hospitals around the country.

By Cristina Luiggi

An Italian university is investigating whether a professor was right to teach a course denying a causal link between HIV and AIDS.

By Hannah Waters

Replacing immune cells in a mouse model of Rett syndrome, a developmental brain disorder, improved symptoms, suggesting a new target for treatment.

By Megan Scudellari

See the original post here:
New African Bone Marrow Registry

For about three days in January, Matt Ladd said he didnt know whether it was day or night, what was top or bottom.

I was probably as sick as Ive ever been, said Ladd, a Billings game warden, in a telephone interview from Seattle. As things got progressively worse and worse, I was really concerned about what was going on right then.

Ladd was headed to Seattle for stem cell bone marrow transplant surgery when an infection he was being treated for worsened. The infection started around a catheter inserted into his chest to deliver chemotherapy drugs. The chemo was battling Ladds acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, which was diagnosed in September. His bone marrow wasnt producing enough red blood cells.

The chemo worked. He was in remission and on his way to Seattle for a bone marrow transplant when the infection sent him into a rapid downward spiral. Because of the location of the catheter, the infection attacked his heart valves. During the struggle with the infection, his kidneys failed, his body retained water and he swelled up.

The infection scuttled plans for the bone marrow transplant surgery. With his kidneys failing, he had to undergo dialysis. As a final insult to his immune system, he had to take more chemotherapy since the surgery had been delayed and doctors feared the MDS might return.

My body and kidneys didnt respond well to the chemo, he said.

More than a month after he was scheduled to undergo surgery, Ladd is living in an apartment north of Seattle as family members rotate caretaking duties. His wife, Maureen, a math teacher at Billings West High, is holding down the fort at home, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for their sons, Dylan, Logan and Jack.

What was going to be a short process has become a very long process, Maureen said.

Now the Ladds are waiting to hear whether Matt and his sister, Jessica Cook, will take part in a Seattle Cancer Center Alliance study of a new method of bone marrow transplantation. Since Ladds kidneys have been injured, he would normally have to have a reduced-intensity transplant used for the elderly and those with health issues, Maureen explained.

The experimental method would treat Cook, Ladds only sibling and a bone marrow transplant match, with Lipitor prior to the surgery. The cholesterol-lowering drug has shown promise in preventing reactions to transplants. If they are accepted for the study, it would mean a further delay of surgery, since Cook would have to be on the drug for a couple of weeks prior to the operation.

Read more from the original source:
Billings game warden fights cancer complications

The same species that submitted itself to experimentation for treatments to human cancers is now getting a cure with N.C. State's first canine bone marrow transplant.

In 2008, Dr. Steven Suter, assistant professor of oncology, began performing bone marrow transplants, BMT, on dogs. N.C. State is the only university in the world that offers this treatment. While private practices do exist, mainly on the west coast, they have treated few dogs. People have traveled from across the country to utilize these services.

Once I became an oncologist, I realized that this could probably be done now in a clinical setting if the appropriate machines could be found, apheresis machines. Once I got a hold of some of these machines, I started collecting peripheral blood progenitor cells from a few research colony dogs. After I showed we could do that, we moved on to start transplanting client-owned dogs. We opened our canine BMT unit in October 2008, Suter said.

Until recently, the transplants used stem cells from the dogs' own blood, so only those who had a disease in remission could be treated. The treatment was typically used on dogs with lymphoma.

The cure rate of dogs with lymphoma treated with chemotherapy is less than 5 percent, so I felt we could do better on that front with BMT, Suter said. We have modified the protocol extensively since the first 24 dogs, so we are hoping it will now be better.

However this all changed with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Chip and Zeke, earlier this year. Zeke was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in December 2011. This disease could only be treated by use of donor bone marrow. Chip, a littermate, was the prime choice.

We do require a donor, since we can not harvest progenitor cells from the patient. Leukemia patients have too many cancer cells floating around in their blood, so the machine would harvest them also. So, we find a matched donor who does not have cancer obviously, and harvest the cells from them, Suter said. We don't use this procedure regularly to treat dogs with leukemia ... we've treated two dogs with leukemia. We use it mainly to treat dogs with lymphoma, which is a very different disease."

The owners of the dogs met for the first time at N.C. State for the procedure to take place.

Jason Hefner, a fourth year in veterinary medicine, worked with Zeke while he was here.

To our knowledge, only one previous case has been treated with a donor. Zeke had a great disposition, and I looked forward to visiting him each morning for his treatments. Zeke is now in New York and looking forward to a happy and healthy life, Hefner said.

Read the original post:
University gives dog a bone marrow transplant

Edited by M. A. Hayat 384 pp, $209 New York, NY, Springer, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-9-4007-2015-2

Stem cells and cancer stem cells are 2 distinct, evolving, and promising areas of research. Hematopoietic stem cells are already used in the treatment of bone marrow failure and hematologic malignancies, and there is now great interest in isolating stem cells from other organs for use in replenishing damaged tissue in the heart, brain, bones, and other organs and structures. In contrast, cancer stem cells, a newly recognized component of some cancers, have some properties of pluripotent stem cells in that they replicate without normal cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Moreover, they are naturally resistant to chemotherapy because of drug-exuding pumps, DNA repair proteins, and dormancy; thus, these cells are now suspected to be the root cause of relapse and metastasis after conventional therapies in some malignancies, especially leukemia. Targeting cancer stem cells in addition to cancer cells may therefore lead to better eradication of cancer than is presently possible.

Read more from the original source:
Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells: Therapeutic Applications in Disease and Injury, Volume 2 [Book and Media Reviews]