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Knee arthritis 7 months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. – Video

By Dr. Matthew Watson


Knee arthritis 7 months after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Carolyn describes her outcome seven months after bone marrow stem cell therapy for her arthritic knee pain http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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My stem cells could help save the life of man Ive never met

By Sykes24Tracey

A HEALTHCARE worker at Royal Bournemouth Hospital has donated stem cells in a bid to save the life of an unknown man.

Claire Waugh, pictured, who has always been a regular blood donor, decided to join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register after her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago.

The healthcare assistant co-ordinator was later identified as a possible match for a man needing life-saving treatment.

Following rigorous testing Claire was visited by nurses from the blood cancer charity, who gave her three injections every day for three days to stimulate her bone marrow to produce stem cells.

On the fourth day she travelled to Kings College Hospital in London to receive a final set of injections and undergo a stem cell collection in a simple five-hour outpatient procedure, which is similar to giving blood.

Claire said: I couldnt move or bend my arm due to the fairly heavy duty needle, but I was looked after really well so in the end the time went very quickly.

After donating, Claires stem cells were rushed to the recipient within the required 72 hours. A volunteer from Anthony Nolan told me that if he doesnt survive, there is nothing else on this earth that would have cured him, so this was this persons last chance, added Claire.

When my dad was poorly it made me think that if he needed this kind of help, I would be praying every night that someone would help him.

By doing this, it meant that I could give that chance to someone else and their family.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital granted special leave to Claire for the donation with the charity covering all of her and her husbands travel expenses.

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Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy – Video

By JoanneRUSSELL25


Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy
This video is about Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy.

By: John lore

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The politics of destruction: Short-lived RNA helps stem …

By daniellenierenberg

Many stem cells live a life of monotony, biding their time until theyre needed to repair tissue damage or propel the growth of a developing embryo. But when the time is right, they must spring into action without hesitation. Like Clark Kent in a phone booth, they fling aside their former identity to become the needed skin, muscle, bone or other cell types.

Now researchers at Stanford, Harvard and the University of California-Los Angeles have learned that embryonic stem cells in mice and humans chemically tag RNA messages encoding key stem-cell genes. The tags tell the cell not to let the messages linger, but to degrade them quickly. Getting rid of those messages allows the cells to respond more nimbly to their new marching orders. As dermatology professor Howard Chang, MD, PhD, explained to me in an email:

Until now, weve not fully understood how RNA messages within the cell dissipate. In many cases, it was thought to be somewhat random. This research shows that embryonic stem cells actively tag RNA messages that they may later need to forget. In the absence of this mechanism, the stem cells are never able to forget they are stem cells. They are stuck and cannot become brain, heart or gut, for example.

Chang, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute, is a co-senior author of a paper describing the research, which was published today in Cell Stem Cell. He shares senior authorship with Yi Xing, PhD, an associate professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at UCLA, and Cosmas Giallourakis, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard. Lead authorship is shared by postdoctoral scholars Pedro Batista, PhD, of Stanford, and Jinkai Wang, PhD, of UCLA; and by senior research fellow Benoit Molinie, PhD, of Harvard.

Messenger RNAs are used to convey information from the genes in a cells nucleus to protein-making factories in the cytoplasm. They carry the instructions necessary to assemble the hundreds of thousands of individual proteins that do the work of the cell. When, where and how long each protein is made is a carefully orchestrated process that controls the fate of the cell. For example, embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell in the body, maintain their stemness through the ongoing production of proteins known to confer pluripotency, a term used to describe how these cells can become any cell in the body.

The researchers, who knew that cells sometimes mark their RNA messages with chemical tags called methyl groups, were particularly interested in one type of methyl tag called m6A. Although the process of tagging the RNA is somewhat similar to how DNA is modified to control gene expression, it has not been clear exactly how these RNA tags function in development. On DNA, the chemical tags serve to help a cell remember which genes to express at particular times signaling a skin cell to preferentially make collagen and keratin, for example, rather than digestive enzymes or hormones. The study of these tags on DNA is called epigenetics.

When the researchers compared m6A patterns among thousands of RNA molecules in mouse and human embryonic stem cells, they found striking similarities between the organisms. Often key pluripotency genes were methylated at particular points along their length; these messages were degraded more quickly than unmethylated RNA molecules. Blocking the methylation mechanism in the embryonic stem cells, the researchers found, not only protected the pluripotency messages from degradation, but it also made it more difficult for the cells to respond appropriately to external cues and significantly slowed their ability to differentiate into other cell types.

The researchers concluded that its necessary for the cells to be able to quickly degrade those key RNA messages. If no differentiation is necessary, the cells simply replenish the messages by repeatedly copying them from the DNA. However, if a change in fate is needed, the cell can quickly shut down RNA production and any remaining messages will be rapidly destroyed. As Chang explained, This research is conceptually groundbreaking because it reveals an anti-epigenetic mechanism that works to keep genetic messages transient. In contrast to epigenetic mechanisms that provide cellular memory of gene expression states, m6A helps the cells to forget the past and embrace the future.

Previously: Epigenetics: the hoops genes jump through, Caught in the act! Fast, cheap, high-resolution, easy way to tell which genes a cell is using, and Red light, green light: Simultaneous stop and go signals on stem cells genes may enable fast activation, provide aging clock

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Scientists identify "nave-like" human stem cell

By Sykes24Tracey

22 hours ago by Vicky Just Naive-like stem cells could potentially be used to treat dementia or reduce organ transplants

Scientists from our university and Berlin have identified a type of human stem cell that appears to be "nave-like" able to develop into any type of cell. The discovery of this cell type could potentially have a large impact on our understanding of how humans develop and on the field of regenerative medicine.

The human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) that scientists currently study in the lab are able to develop into several different types of cell but are already pre-determined to some extent.

Published in the top scientific journal Nature, researchers from the Max Delbrck Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Berlin, Germany and our university have for the first time discovered human ESCs that appear to behave like "nave" cells able to develop into any type of cell.

These nave-like cells, only previously found in mice, are easy to grow in the lab and could have huge potential for regenerating damaged tissues in the body, potentially leading to treatments for diseases such as dementia or reducing the need for organ transplantation.

Professor Laurence Hurst from our Department of Biology & Biochemistry and a co-author of the study explained: "Most stem cells are primed to some extent to become a certain type of cell. If you use the analogy of a train network, these cells are like one of the main London stations. Trains from Paddington can go to Cardiff or Exeter, but not to Norwich. In the same way, these cells can develop into a fixed number of different cell types.

"However the nave-like cells we've identified are like a central terminus; they are present earlier in the embryo's development and so we think their fates can go in any direction and become any type of cell."

Co-investigator Dr Zsuzsanna Izsvk, (MDC, corresponding author) said: "We were very excited by this discovery it was one of those Eureka moments that rarely happens in science."

The Bath and Berlin team found the nave-like cells by looking at which genes were expressed in very early human embryos. They pinpointed a virus called human endogenous retrovirus H (HERVH) that has become integrated into human DNA and was very highly expressed at just the right time and place in human embryos, where they would expect to see nave-like cells if they existed.

They identified a protein called LBP9, which is essential for the activity of HERVH in early embryos. Using a reporter system that made cells expressing HERVH via LBP9 glow green, the Berlin and our team found that they had purified cells that showed all of the hallmarks of a mouse nave cell.

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Pitt/McGowan Institute team discovers stem cells in the esophagus

By Dr. Matthew Watson

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Oct-2014

Contact: Anita Srikameswaran SrikamAV@upmc.edu 412-578-9193 University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences @UPMCnews

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 16, 2014 Despite previous indications to the contrary, the esophagus does have its own pool of stem cells, said researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in an animal study published online today in Cell Reports. The findings could lead to new insights into the development and treatment of esophageal cancer and the precancerous condition known as Barrett's esophagus.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 18,000 people will be diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the U.S. in 2014 and almost 15,500 people will die from it. In Barrett's esophagus, the lining of the esophagus changes for unknown reasons to resemble that of the intestine, though gastro-esophageal reflux disease or GERD is a risk factor for its development.

"The esophageal lining must renew regularly as cells slough off into the gastrointestinal tract," said senior investigator Eric Lagasse, Pharm.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology, Pitt School of Medicine, and director of the Cancer Stem Cell Center at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "To do that, cells in the deeper layers of the esophagus divide about twice a week to produce daughter cells that become the specialized cells of the lining. Until now, we haven't been able to determine whether all the cells in the deeper layers are the same or if there is a subpopulation of stem cells there."

The research team grew pieces or "organoids" of esophageal tissue from mouse samples, and then conducted experiments to identify and track the different cells in the basal layer of the tissue. They found a small population of cells that divide more slowly, are more primitive, can generate specialized or differentiated cells, and have the ability to self-renew, which is a defining trait of stem cells.

"It was thought that there were no stem cells in the esophagus because all the cells were dividing rather than resting or quiescent, which is more typical of stem cells," Dr. Lagasse noted. "Our findings reveal that there indeed are esophageal stem cells, and rather than being quiescent, they divide slowly compared to the rest of the deeper layer cells."

In future work, the researchers will examine human esophageal tissues for evidence of stem cell dysfunction in Barrett's esophagus disease.

"Some scientists have speculated that abnormalities of esophageal stem cells could be the origin of the tissue changes that occur in Barrett's disease," Dr. Lagasse said. "Our current and future studies could make it possible to test this long-standing hypothesis."

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Shannon Layne, DVM and VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Now Offer Stem Cell Therapy to Pet Patients in Pain

By LizaAVILA

Dunmore, Pennsylvania (PRWEB) October 17, 2014

VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital is proud to announce the addition of Shannon Layne, DVM and her interest in stem cell therapy to their team. Credentialed in Regenerative Cell Therapy with Vet-Stem since January of 2011, Dr. Layne has proudly been treating pets with osteoarthritis and ligament injuries in north-east Pennsylvania with stem cell therapy for the last four years.

Dr. Layne graduated from North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 and has taken a special interest in Regenerative Veterinary Medicine and stem cell therapy since. In contrast to widely used drug therapies for pain management, cell-based therapies (like stem cell therapy) can promote healing, reduce inflammation, and decrease pain. Dr Layne also offers traditional Chinese veterinary medicine including acupuncture and Chinese herbs if clients are interested in a more holistic approach.

Stem cells are regenerative cells that can differentiate into many tissue types (reducing pain and inflammation) thus helping to restore range of motion and regenerate tendon, ligament and joint tissues (Vet-Stem.com/science). In a study using Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy on dogs with osteoarthritis of the hip joint it was found that regenerative cell therapy (adipose-derived stem cells) decreases patient discomfort and increases patient functional ability.

Once Dr. Layne has identified a patient as a good candidate for stem cell therapy the procedure begins with a fatty tissue collection from the patient. The tissue sample is sent overnight to Vet-Stems lab in California for processing. Once processed the stem cells are extracted and fresh, injectable doses of the patients stem cells are sent overnight, back to Dr. Layne at VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital. Within 48hrs of collecting a fat sample from a patient Dr. Layne is able to inject stem cells into (arthritic or injured) affected areas and regeneration and healing can begin.

At VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Dr. Layne will be practicing in an 8,800 square foot, state of the art facility that includes two extensive surgery suites. For more information on VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital please visit their website at http://www.vcahospitals.com/dunmore.

About Vet-Stem, Inc.

Since its formation in 2002, Vet-Stem, Inc. has endeavored to improve the lives of animals through regenerative medicine. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells for horses, dogs, cats, and some exotics. In 2004 the first horse was treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy for a tendon injury that would normally have been career ending. Ten years later Vet-Stem celebrated its 10,000th animal treated, and the success of establishing stem cell therapy as a regenerative medicine for certain inflammatory, degenerative, and arthritic diseases. As animal advocates, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and cell biologists, the team at Vet-Stem tasks themselves with the responsibility of discovering, refining, and bringing to market innovative medical therapies that utilize the bodys own healing and regenerative cells.

For more information about Vet-Stem and Regenerative Veterinary Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

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Retinal stem cell study shows promise for therapy

By LizaAVILA

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) - Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss for people over the age of 50. Scientists have discovered a new therapy that may actually restore sight in those affected.

Scientists are excited not only because it worked, and helped some people see clearly again, but also because this study puts a focus on an new kind of stem cell therapy, using skin cells.

Macular degeneration causes a blurry or black area in the middle of your field of vision that grows over time, causing more sight loss.

There is no cure, but a new study published this week in the journal The Lancet, is giving patients hope.

Embryonic stem cells were turned into retinal cells and implanted into the eyes of 18 patients.

Vision improved for about half of them.

Dr. Andreas said, "This study was primarily to see if these cells would be safe, and the bonus was that some people started to see better."

Dr. Andreas Bratyy-Layal and Dr. Suzanne Peterson are stem cell scientists with the Scripps Research Institute.

They see this as a major breakthrough.

Although this sight study did do that, Dr. Peterson says labs around the country, including here in San Diego, are moving away from the practice.

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Stem cells from human embryos prove safe, improve vision, study says

By Sykes24Tracey

Published October 15, 2014

For the first time, researchers have created functioning human lung cells from stem cells.

The longest-running trial of stem cells derived from a human embryo found that the cells caused patients none of the problems scientists feared, such as forming tumors, and reversed partial blindness in about half the eyes receiving transplants, researchers reported on Tuesday.

The results, published in The Lancet, could help re-invigorate the controversial quest to harness stem cells, which have the ability to turn into any of the 200 kinds of human cells, to treat diseases.

In an accompanying commentary, Dr. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine called the work "a major accomplishment."

After intense excitement among scientists and the public about the promise of stem cells and ethical debates about destroying human embryos to obtain them, the field stumbled when a high-profile trial for spinal cord injury was halted by Geron Corp in 2011 and the interest of other companies waned.

The small study's main goal was assessing the safety of the transplanted cells. Called retinal pigment epithelial cells, they were created by taking stem cells from a days-old embryo created in a fertility clinic and inducing them to differentiate into the specialized cells.

The study "provides the first evidence, in humans with any disease, of the long-term safety and possible biologic activity" of cells derived from embryos, said co-author Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, which produced the cells and funded the study.

Nine patients with Stargardt's disease (which causes macular degeneration in childhood) and nine with dry age-related macular degeneration (a leading cause of adult blindness) received implants of the retinal cells in one eye. The other eye served as a control.

Four eyes developed cataracts and two became inflamed, probably due to the patients' age (median: 77) or the use of immune-supressing transplant drugs.

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Vision Quest: Stem Cells Treat Blinding Disease

By LizaAVILA

Powerful stem cells injected into the eyes of 18 patients with diseases causing progressive blindness have proven safe and dramatically improved the vision of some of the patients, scientists report.

Three years of follow up show that vision improved measurably in seven of the patients, the team at Advanced Cell Technology report in the Lancet medical journal. In some cases, the improvement was dramatic.

For instance, we treated a 75-year-old horse rancher who lives in Kansas, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief medical officer for the Massachusetts-based company. The rancher had poor vision 20/400 in one eye.

Once month after treatment his vision had improved 10 lines (20/40) and he can even ride his horses again. Other patients report similarly dramatic improvements in their lives, Lanza added. For instance, they can use their computers or read their watch. Little things like that which we all take for granted have made a huge difference in the quality of their life.

Not all the patients improved and one even got worse. But overall, Lanzas team reported, the patients vision improved by three lines on a standard vision chart.

"They can use their computers or read their watch. Little things like that which we all take for granted have made a huge difference in the quality of their life.

The researchers treated only one eye in each patient. There was no improvement in vision in the untreated eyes.

The patients had either Stargardts disease, a common type of macular degeneration, or dry macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. There are no treatments for either condition, and patients gradually lose vision over the years until they are, often, blind.

Lanzas team used human embryonic stem cells, made using human embryos. They are powerful cells, each one capable of giving rise to all the cells and tissues in the body. The ACT team took one cell from embryos at the eight-cell stage to make batches of these cells.

They reprogrammed them to make immature retinal cells, which they injected into the eyes of the patients. The hope is that the immature cells would take up the places of the degenerated cells and restore vision.

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Stem cells offer hope to vision impaired

By LizaAVILA

Health officials hit back at e-cig claims

Health professionals say more research is needed to prove using e-cigarettes is a good way to quit smoking.

According to new health figures, Australian women are far less likely to survive a heart attack than men.

Research says high factor sunscreen can't be relied on to protect against the deadliest skin cancer form.

A British study using skin electrodes has found men experience greater levels of emotion than women.

High protein diets may protect against stroke, especially if they contain a lot of fish, scientists say.

Driving too much is bad for your health, according to a study of 40-thousand middle-aged Australians.

Researchers say the financial crisis may have led to thousands of suicides in Europe and North America.

Biologists have devised a new weapon against malaria by genetically engineering mosquitoes.

Stomach-shrinking bariatric surgery beats other forms of treatment in bringing about remission of diabetes.

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Stem cells offer hope to vision impaired

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Stem Cell Eye Treatment May Restore Vision

By raymumme

Antonio Regalado for MIT Technology Review 2014-10-15 19:15:44 UTC

When stem cells were first culled from human embryos sixteen years ago, scientists imagined they would soon be treating diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many other diseases with cells manufactured in the lab.

It's all taken longer than they thought. But now, a Massachusetts biotech firm has reported results from the largest, and longest, human test of a treatment based on embryonic stem cells, saying it appears safe and may have partly restored vision to patients going blind from degenerative diseases.

Results of three-year study were described Tuesday in the Lancet by Advanced Cell Technology and collaborating eye specialists at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles who transplanted lab-grown cells into the eyes of nine people with macular degeneration and nine with Stargardt's macular dystrophy.

The idea behind Advanced Cell's treatment is to replace retinal pigment epithelium cells, known as RPE cells, a type of caretaker tissue without which a person's photoreceptors also die, with supplies grown in laboratory. It uses embryonic stem cells as a starting point, coaxing them to generate millions of specialized retina cells. In the study, each patient received a transplant of between 50,000 and 150,000 of those cells into one eye.

The main objective of the study was to prove the cells were safe. Beyond seeing no worrisome side effects, the researchers also noted some improvements in the patients. According to the researchers half of them improved enough to read two to three extra lines on an eye exam chart, results Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell, called remarkable.

"We have people saying things no one would make up, like 'Oh I can see the pattern on my furniture, or now I drive to the airport," he says. "Clearly there is something going on here."

Lanza stressed the need for a larger study, which he said the company hoped to launch later this year in Stargardt's patients. But if the vision results seen so far continue, Lanza says "this would be a therapy."

Some eye specialists said it's too soon to say whether the vision improvements were real. The patients weren't examined by independent specialists, they said, and eyesight in patients with low vision is notoriously difficult to measure. That leaves plenty of room for placebo effects or unconscious bias on the part of doctors.

"When someone gets a treatment, they try really hard to read the eye chart," says Stephen Tsang, a doctor at Columbia University who sees patients losing their vision to both diseases. It's common for patients to show quick improvements, he says, although typically not as large as what Advanced Cell is reporting.

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Stem cell, regenerative medicine policies to be discussed at Rice's Baker Institute

By LizaAVILA

Dr. Deepak Srivastava, a leading biomedical research policy expert, will discuss "Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine and Policy Impediments to the New Future" at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy Oct. 21. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Who: Dr. Deepak Srivastava, the Baker Institute's nonresident scholar for biomedical research policy and the Younger Family Director and senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease.

Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy and a professor of physics and astronomy, will give introductory remarks.

Stem cells and regenerative medicine are exciting and emerging fields of biomedical research, according to event organizers. Proposed applications include treating conditions such as blindness, diabetes and heart disease. Regenerative medicine could also help heal failing organ systems and replace damaged tissue. While these fields hold great promise for medicine, external factors limit and, in some cases, stall research, organizers said. Ethical controversies surrounding human embryonic stem cells, policy issues affecting federal and state funding and regulation, and economic pressures all play a role in determining the future of research.

In his presentation, Srivastava will explore the current and future potential of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Following the presentation, he will discuss policy challenges and opportunities with Lane.

The event is sponsored by the Baker Institute's Science and Technology Policy Program and the Health Policy Forum.

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Knee arthritis 2.5 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. – Video

By LizaAVILA


Knee arthritis 2.5 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Janet discusses her outcome three and a half years after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson for her arthritic knees http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Shows Long-Term Effectiveness, Safety

By daniellenierenberg

Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 7:00 PM

TUESDAY, Oct. 14, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A new study is the first to show the long-term safety of embryonic stem cell transplants to treat human disease.

The research involved 18 people who received the transplants to treat forms of macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss.

The transplants, which restored some sight in more than half of the patients, appeared safe up to three years after the procedure.

The study, funded by a U.S.-based company called Advanced Cell Technology, was published Oct. 14 in The Lancet.

"Embryonic stem cells have the potential to become any cell type in the body, but transplantation has been complicated by problems," lead author Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, said in a journal news release. Those problems include the rejection of the transplanted cells by the patient's immune system, as well as the danger that the cells might spur certain types of cancers called teratomas.

A teratoma is a type of cancer that occurs when stem cells develop into multiple types of cells and form incompatible tissues that can include teeth and hair.

As Lanza explained, because of these issues, scientists interested in embryonic stem cell therapy have tended to focused on sites in the body that typically do not produce a strong immune response. The eye is one such spot.

In the new study, human embryonic stem cells were first prompted to develop into eye cells called retinal pigment epithelial cells. They were then transplanted into nine people with Stargardt's macular dystrophy, and another nine with dry atrophic age-related macular degeneration.

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Stem Cells Allow Nearly Blind Patients to See

By Sykes24Tracey

TIME Health medicine Stem Cells Allow Nearly Blind Patients to See Stem cells could lead to new treatments for eye disorders Photography by Peter A. KemmerGetty Images/Flickr RF Embryonic stem cells can be turned into a therapy to help the sight of the nearly blind

In a report published in the journal Lancet, scientists led by Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, provide the first evidence that stem cells from human embryos can be a safe and effective source of therapies for two types of eye diseasesage-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of vision loss in people over age 60, and Stargardts macular dystrophy, a rarer, inherited condition that can leave patients legally blind and only able to sense hand motions.

In the study, 18 patients with either disorder received transplants of retinal epithelial cells (RPE) made from stem cells that came from human embryos. The embryos were from IVF procedures and donated for research. Lanza and his team devised a process of treating the stem cells so they could turn into the RPE cells. In patients with macular degeneration, these are the cells responsible for their vision loss; normally they help to keep the nerve cells that sense light in the retina healthy and functioning properly, but in those with macular degeneration or Stargardts, they start to deteriorate. Without RPE cells, the nerves then start to die, leading to gradual vision loss.

MORE: Stem Cell Miracle? New Therapies May Cure Chronic Conditions Like Alzheimers

The transplants of RPE cells were injected directly into the space in front of the retina of each patients most damaged eye. The new RPE cells cant force the formation of new nerve cells, but they can help the ones that are still there to keep functioning and doing their job to process light and help the patient to see. Only one RPE can maintain the health of a thousand photoreceptors, says Lanza.

The trial is the only one approved by the Food and Drug Administration involving human embryonic stem cells as a treatment. (Another, the first to gain the agencys approval, involved using human embryonic stem cells to treat spinal cord injury, but was stopped by the company.) Because the stem cells come from unrelated donors, and because they can grow into any of the bodys many cells types, experts have been concerned about their risks, including the possibility of tumors and immune rejection.

MORE: Early Success in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial to Treat Blindness

But Lanza says the retinal space in the eye is the ideal place to test such cells, since the bodys immune cells dont enter this space. Even so, just to be safe, the patients were all given drugs to suppress their immune system for one week before the transplant and for 12 weeks following the surgery.

While the trial was only supposed to evaluate the safety of the therapy, it also provided valuable information about the technologys potential effectiveness. The patients have been followed for more than three years, and half of the 18 were able to read three more lines on the eye chart. That translated to critical improvements in their daily lives as wellsome were able to read their watch and use computers again.

Our goal was to prevent further progression of the disease, not reverse it and see visual improvement, says Lanza. But seeing the improvement in vision was frosting on the cake.

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Stem Cells Allow Nearly Blind Patients to See

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Stem Cells Seem Safe in Treating Eye Disease

By LizaAVILA

A treatment based on embryonic stem cells clears a key safety hurdle, and might help restore vision.

When stem cells were first culled from human embryos sixteen years ago, scientists imagined they would soon be treating diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many other diseases with cells manufactured in the lab.

Its all taken longer than they thought. But today, a Massachusetts biotech firm reported results from the largest, and longest, human test of a treatment based on embryonic stem cells, saying it appears safe and may have partly restored vision to patients going blind from degenerative diseases.

Results of three-year study were described today in the Lancet by Advanced Cell Technology and collaborating eye specialists at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles who transplanted lab-grown cells into the eyes of nine people with macular degeneration and nine with Stargardts macular dystrophy.

The idea behind Advanced Cells treatment is to replace retinal pigment epithelium cells, known as RPE cells, a type of caretaker tissue without which a persons photoreceptors also die, with supplies grown in laboratory. It uses embryonic stem cells as a starting point, coaxing them to generate millions of specialized retina cells. In the study, each patient received a transplant of between 50,000 and 150,000 of those cells into one eye.

The main objective of the study was to prove the cells were safe. Beyond seeing no worrisome side effects, the researchers also noted some improvements in the patients. According to the researchers half of them improved enough to read two to three extra lines on an eye exam chart, results Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell, called remarkable.

We have people saying things no one would make up, like Oh I can see the pattern on my furniture, or now I drive to the airport, he says. Clearly there is something going on here.

Lanza stressed the need for a larger study, which he said the company hoped to launch later this year in Stargardts patients. But if the vision results seen so far continue, Lanza says this would be a therapy.

Some eye specialists said its too soon to say whether the vision improvements were real. The patients werent examined by independent specialists, they said, and eyesight in patients with low vision is notoriously difficult to measure. That leaves plenty of room for placebo effects or unconscious bias on the part of doctors.

When someone gets a treatment, they try really hard to read the eye chart, says Stephen Tsang, a doctor at Columbia University who sees patients losing their vision to both diseases. Its common for patients to show quick improvements, he says, although typically not as large as what Advanced Cell is reporting.

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Stem Cells Seem Safe in Treating Eye Disease

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Stem cell discovery challenges dogma on how fetus develops; holds insights for liver cancer and reg

By LizaAVILA

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Oct-2014

Contact: Greg Williams newsmedia@mssm.edu 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine @mountsinainyc

A Mount Sinai-led research team has discovered a new kind of stem cell that can become either a liver cell or a cell that lines liver blood vessels, according to a study published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports. The existence of such a cell type contradicts current theory on how organs arise from cell layers in the embryo, and may hold clues to origins of, and future treatment for, liver cancer.

Thanks to stem cells, humans develop from a single cell into a complex being made up of more than 200 cell types. The original, single human stem cell, the fertilized embryo, has the potential to develop into every kind of human cell. Stem cells multiply (proliferate) and specialize (differentiate) until millions of functional cells result, including liver cells (hepatocytes), blood vessel cells (endothelial cells), muscle cells, bone cells, etc.

In the womb, the human embryo early on becomes three "germ" layers of stem cells the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. The long-held consensus was that the endoderm goes on to form the liver and other gut organs; the mesoderm the heart, muscles and blood cells; and the ectoderm the brain and skin. Researchers have sought to determine the germ layer that yields each organ because these origins hold clues to healthy function and disease mechanisms in adults.

"We found a stem cell that can become either a liver cell, which is thought to originate in the endoderm, or an endothelial cell that helps to from a blood vessel, which was thought to derive from the mesoderm," said Valerie Gouon-Evans, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology and Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and lead author for the study. "Our results go against traditional germ layer theory, which holds that a stem cell can only go on to become cell types in line with the germ layer that stem cell came from. Endothelial cells may arise from both the endoderm and mesoderm."

Cell Growth Plusses and Minuses

Beyond the womb, many human organs contain pools of partially differentiated stem cells, which are ready to differentiate into specific replacement cells as needed. Among these are stem cells that "know" they are liver cells, but have enough "stemness" to become more than one cell type.

By advancing the understanding of stem cell processes in the liver, the study offers insights into mechanisms that drive liver cancer. The rapid growth seen in cells as the fetal liver develops is similar in some ways to the growth seen in tumors. Among the factors that make both possible is the building of blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen.

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Stem cell discovery challenges dogma on how fetus develops; holds insights for liver cancer and reg

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Marius Wernig receives New York Stem Cell Foundation's Robertson Stem Cell Prize

By raymumme

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Oct-2014

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

NEW YORK, NY (October 14, 2014) The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced today that Marius Wernig, PhD, Associate Professor in the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the 2014 recipient of the NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize, which has been awarded since 2011 for extraordinary achievements in translational stem cell research by a young scientist.

Dr. Wernig and his team discovered that human skin cells can be converted directly into functional neurons, termed induced neuronal (iN) cells, in a period of four to five weeks with the addition of just four proteins.

"Dr. Wernig's groundbreaking research has the potential to accelerate all research on devastating neurodegenerative diseases," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and Co-founder of NYSCF. "His work can impact and accelerate research on multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and autism among many other conditions."

At Stanford, Dr. Wernig focuses on using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and iN cells for disease modeling and as potential cellular therapy. This new technique transformed the field of cellular reprogramming by eliminating the need to first create iPS cells, making it easier to generate patient or disease-specific neurons. These cell types hold tremendous therapeutic and translational relevance for patients around the world. Potential applications range from replacing damaged brain tissue to repairing the myelinating nerves lost in multiple sclerosis to identifying novel drugs and treatments for a range of neurological diseases.

In addition to his recent scientific achievements, Dr. Wernig was part of the inaugural class of NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigators in 2010, and is the first NYSCF Robertson Investigator to receive the NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize.

"I am delighted that Dr. Wernig is being recognized with this year's NYSCF Robertson Prize for his important research that has opened entirely new avenues for studying brain diseases. The NYSCF Robertson Prize was created to acknowledge the most important work being down by young stem cell scientists and I am thrilled to see a NYSCF Robertson Investigator go on to receive NYSCF Robertson Prize," said Julian Robertson, whose foundation underwrites the $200,000 prize. The terms of the prize require that the $200,000 stipend be used, at the recipients' discretion, to further support their research.

The NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize will be presented to Dr. Wernig at a ceremony in New York City by Susan L. Solomon on October 14th.

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Marius Wernig receives New York Stem Cell Foundation's Robertson Stem Cell Prize

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Spinal cord injury victims may benefit from stem cell transplantation studies

By raymumme

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

13-Oct-2014

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

Putnam Valley, NY. (Oct. 13, 2014) Two studies recently published in Cell Transplantation reveal that cell transplantation may be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI), a major cause of disability and paralysis with no current restorative therapies.

Using laboratory rats modeled with SCI, researchers in Spain found in laboratory tests on cells harvested from rats - specifically ependymal progenitor cells (epSPCs), multipotent stem cells found in adult tissues surrounding the ependymal canal of the spinal cord - responded to a variety of compounds through the activation of purinergic receptors P2X4, P2X7, P2Y1 and P2Y4. In addition, the epSPCs responded to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through this activation. ATP, a chemical produced by a wide variety of enzymes that works to transport energy within cells, is known to accumulate at the sites of spinal cord injury and cooperate with growth factors that induce remodeling and repair.

"The aim of our study was to analyze the expression profile of receptors in ependymal-derived neurospheres and to determine which receptors were functional by analysis of intercellular Ca2+ concentration," said study co-author Dr. Rosa Gomez-Villafuertes of the Department of Biochemistry at the Veterinary School at the University of Complutense in Madrid, Spain. "We demonstrated for the first time that epSPCs express functional ionotropic P2X4 and P2X7 and metabotropic P2Y1 and P2Y4 receptors that are able to respond to ATP, ADP and other nucleotide compounds."

When they compared the epSPCs from healthy rats to epSPCs from rats modeled with SCI, they found that a downregulation of P2Y1 and an upregulation of P2Y4 had occurred in the epSPCs in the SCI group.

"This finding opens an important avenue for potential therapeutic alternatives in SCI treatments based on purinergic receptor modulation," the researchers concluded.

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The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1257_Gomez_Villafuertes.

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Spinal cord injury victims may benefit from stem cell transplantation studies

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