Miami (PRWEB) May 30, 2014

GlobalStemCellsGroup.com will host the First International Symposium on Stem Cell Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina Oct. 2, 3 and 4. The symposium will provide an opportunity to showcase advancements in stem cell research and therapies on a global level and establish a dialogue among the worlds leading stem cell experts. Pioneers and luminaries in stem cell medicine will be featured speakers as well as accomplished guests prepared to share their knowledge and experience in their individual medical specialties.

Regenerative medicine as a field is still in its infancy, and Global Stem Cells Group President and CEO Benito Novas believes it is time to clear up old misconceptions and change outdated attitudes by educating people on the wide range of illnesses and injuries stem cell therapies are already treating and curing. The first step, Novas says, is establishing a dialogue between researchers and practitioners in order to move stem cell therapies from the lab to the physicians office.

Our objective is to open a dialogue among the worlds medical and scientific communities in order to advance stem cell technologies and translate them into point-of-care medical practices, Novas says. Our mission is to bring the benefits of stem cell therapies to the physicians office for the benefit and convenience of the patient, safely and in full compliance with the highest standard of care the world has to offer.

An interdisciplinary team of leading international stem cell experts will provide a full day of high-level scientific lectures aimed at medical professionals.

Among the growing list of speakers are some of the worlds most prominent authorities on stem cell medicine including:

The objective of Global Stem Cell Groups international symposium is to educate the public and the medical community, and at the same time establish a dialog between physicians, scientists, biotech companies and regulatory agencies in order to advance stem cell technologies so they can be used to benefit people who need them.

Global Stem Cells Group is also joining forces with some of the most prestigious regenerative medicine conferences in South America including:

Stem cell therapies are revolutionizing the anti-aging aesthetics industry while offering new hope for sufferers of serious chronic debilitating diseases

For more information on the Global Stem Cell Group First International Symposium on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine and the events lineup of speakers, visit the Global Stem Cells Symposium website, email bnovas(at)regenestem(dot)com, or call 305-224-1858.

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Global Stem Cells Group to Host the First International Symposium on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine in Buenos ...

Patients do not have an automatic right to a compassionate therapy for which there is no scientific evidence of efficacy, according to a landmark ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The 28 May ruling referred to the case of Nivio Durisotto, whose daughter suffers a degenerative brain disease. He wished her to be treated with a controversial stem cell-based therapy offered by the Stamina Foundation, based in Brescia, Italy.

But more generally, it will guide any judge facing requests from desperate patients for access to unproved therapies promoted from outside the regulated medical sector.

The judgement is yet another blow for the Stamina Foundation, whose president, Davide Vannoni, is now facing charges of fraudulently obtaining public money to support his therapy.

The Italian Medicines Agency had closed down the Stamina operations in August 2012 on safety grounds (see Leaked files slam stem-cell therapy). In March 2013, the government issued a decree allowing patients to continue Stamina treatment if they had already begun.

Then on 11 September, 2013 an expert committee appointed by the health ministry to examine the Stamina method concluded that there was no evidence to indicate that it might be efficacious (see Advisers declare Italian stem-cell therapy unscientific). The committee further warned that it could be dangerous.

With encouragement from Vannoni, some patients appealed to courts for the right to treatment with the Stamina method. Some judges ruled that the treatment should be given on compassionate grounds, while others including the judge in the Durisotto case ruled that compassionate therapy was not justified because there was no scientific evidence of efficacy.

Durisotto brought his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights on 28 September, 2013 a month after losing his case in Italy.

The European Court dismissed Durisottos claim, saying that the Italian courts ruling had pursued the legitimate aim of protecting health and was proportionate to that aim. It further said that the Italian courts decision had been properly reasoned and was not arbitrary, and that the therapeutic value of the Stamina method had, to date, not yet been proven scientifically. Because the case had been appropriately reasoned, it said, Durisottos daughter had not been discriminated against even if some other national courts had allowed the therapy for similar medical conditions.

Munich-based patent lawyer Clara Sattler de Sousa e Brito, an expert in biomedical laws, says that this clear ruling that scientific proof is necessary will help avoid the use of unproven therapies for so-called compassionate purposes in the future.

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Human rights court rules that evidence must support compassionate therapy

30.05.2014 - (idw) Veterinrmedizinische Universitt Wien

Janus kinases (JAKs) are proteins that can promote the growth of cancer cells. The protein JAK2 is of special therapeutic significance: its inactivation is believed to destroy cancer cells. However, the effect of JAK2 inhibition on healthy blood stem cells is so far unknown. Scientists at the Vetmeduni Vienna show that the loss of JAK2 in the mouse causes healthy blood stem cells to disappear while cancer cells preserve their growth potential. Future studies will address the question as to whether these data can be passed on to treatment in humans. The results were published in the journal Leukemia. As a new therapeutic approach, Janus kinases are currently in the limelight of cancer research. The focus of interest is the protein JAK2. By inhibiting this protein one tries to cure chronic bone marrow diseases, such as myelofibrosis and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

Loss of JAK2 is advantageous for leukemia cells

Scientists working with Veronika Sexl at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology may initiate a transformation of thought in regard of JAK2 inhibition. To simulate the human disease as accurately as possible, the scientists used a mouse leukemia model. In an experiment, mice received blood cancer cells as well as healthy hematopoietic stem cells in which JAK2 had been removed. "In mice, the absence of JAK2 accelerated the course of leukemia drastically," the scientists concluded.

The loss of JAK2 caused healthy hematopoietic stem cells to disappear in mice. "Leukemic cells, on the other hand, remained entirely unaffected; they do not need JAK2. This led to an imbalance in which the number of leukemia cells was very predominant, and eventually caused the acceleration of leukemia," says Eva Grundschober, one of the lead authors.

"The oncogene BCR-ABL, which was present in mice with leukemia, does not appear to require JAK2 for its activity. However, JAK2 is essential for healthy cells," explains Andrea Hlbl-Kovacic, the other lead author.

A closer investigation of healthy stem cells supports this hypothesis. In the absence of JAK2, healthy stem cells cannot survive and reproduce blood cells. As the next step, the following question will be raised in Sexl's laboratory: how does JAK2 mediate its life-sustaining effect on healthy stem cells? What portions of the JAK2 protein are required for this purpose and are these affected by current therapies?

The article Acceleration of Bcr-Abl+ leukemia induced by deletion of JAK2, by Eva Grundschober, Andrea Hlb-Kovacic, Neha Bhagwat, Boris Kovacic, Ruth Scheicher, Eva Eckelhart, Karoline Kollmann, Matthew Keller, Florian Grebien, Kay-Uwe Wagner, Ross L. Levine and Veronika Sexl was published today in the journal Leukemia. doi:10.1038/leu.2014.152 http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/vaop/naam/abs/leu2014152a.html

About the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna in Austria is one of the leading academic and research institutions in the field of Veterinary Sciences in Europe. About 1,200 employees and 2,300 students work on the campus in the north of Vienna which also houses five university clinics and various research sites. Outside of Vienna the university operates Teaching and Research Farms. http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at

Scientific Contact: Prof. Veronika Sexl

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One cell's meat is another cell's poison

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30-May-2014

Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. For many scientists, the clinical promise of stem cells has been dampened by very real concerns that the immune system will reject the transplanted cells before they could render any long-term benefit. Previous research in mice has suggested that even stem cells produced from the subject's own tissue, called iPS cells, can trigger an immune attack.

Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that coaxing iPS cells in the laboratory to become more-specialized progeny cells (a cellular process called differentiation) before transplantation into mice allows them to be tolerated by the body's immune system.

"Induced pluripotent stem cells have tremendous potential as a source for personalized cellular therapeutics for organ repair," said Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. "This study shows that undifferentiated iPS cells are rejected by the immune system upon transplantation in the same recipient, but that fully differentiating these cells allows for acceptance and tolerance by the immune system without the need for immunosuppression."

The findings are described in a paper to be published online May 30 in Nature Communications. Wu is senior author of the paper. Postdoctoral scholars Patricia Almeida, PhD, and Nigel Kooreman, MD, and assistant professor of medicine Everett Meyer, MD, PhD, share lead authorship.

In a world teeming with microbial threats, the immune system is a necessary watchdog. Immune cells patrol the body looking not just for foreign invaders, but also for diseased or cancerous cells to eradicate. The researchers speculate that the act of reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency may induce the expression of cell-surface molecules the immune system has not seen since the animal (or person) was an early embryo. These molecules, or antigens, could look foreign to the immune system of a mature organism.

Previous studies have suggested that differentiation of iPS cells could reduce their tendency to inflame the immune system after transplantation, but this study is the first to closely examine, at the molecular and cellular level, why that might be the case.

"We've demonstrated definitively that, once the cells are differentiated, the immune response to iPS-derived cells is indistinguishable from its response to unmodified tissue derived from elsewhere in the body," said Kooreman.

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Coaxing iPS cells to become more specialized prior to transplantation cuts rejection risk

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-May-2014

Contact: Liz Ahlberg eahlberg@illinois.edu 217-244-1073 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The gap between stem cell research and regenerative medicine just became a lot narrower, thanks to a new technique that coaxes stem cells, with potential to become any tissue type, to take the first step to specialization. It is the first time this critical step has been demonstrated in a laboratory.

University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Notre Dame University and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, published their results in the journal Nature Communications.

"Everybody knows that for an embryo to form, somehow a single cell has a way to self-organize into multiple cells, but the in vivo microenvironment is not well understood," said study leader Ning Wang, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at the U. of I. "We want to know how they develop into organized structures and organs. It doesn't happen by random chance. There are biological rules that we don't yet understand."

During fetal development, all the specialized tissues and organs of the body form out of a small ball of stem cells. First, the ball of generalized cells separates into three different cell lines, called germ layers, which will become different systems of the body. This crucial first step has eluded researchers in the lab. No one has yet been able to induce the cells to form the three distinct germ layers, in the correct order endoderm on the inside, mesoderm in the middle and ectoderm on the outside. This represents a major hurdle in the application of stem cells to regenerative medicine, since researchers need to understand how tissues develop before they can reliably recreate the process.

"It's very hard to generate tissues or organs, and the reason is that we don't know how they form in vivo," Wang said. "The problem, fundamentally, is that the biological process is not clear. What is the biological environment that controls this, so they can become more organized and specialized?"

Wang's team demonstrated that not only is it possible for mouse embryonic stem cells to form three distinct germ layers in the lab, but also that achieving the separation requires a careful combination of correct timing, chemical factors and mechanical environment. The team uses cell lines that fluoresce in different colors when they become part of a germ layer, which allows the researchers to monitor the process dynamically.

The researchers deposited the stem cells in a very soft gel matrix, attempting to recreate the properties of the womb. They found that several mechanical forces played a role in how the cells organized and differentiated the stiffness of the gel, the forces each cell exerts on its neighbors, and the matrix of proteins that the cells themselves deposit as a scaffolding to give the developing embryo structure.

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For the first time in the lab, researchers see stem cells take key step toward development

Phil Reyes, one of the Parkinson's patients in Summit 4 Stem Cell, urges California's stem cell agency to support its research.

A potentially groundbreaking trial to treat spinal cord injuries with tissue grown from human embryonic stem cells will resume, after being funded by the California's stem cell agency.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's governing committee approved without opposition a $14.3 million award to Asterias Biotherapeutics of Menlo Park. Asterias is taking over from Geron, which stopped clinical trials in November, 2011. Geron, also of Menlo Park, said it discontinued the trials for business reasons. Asterias is a subsidiary of Alameda-based BioTime.

Patients will be given transplants of neural tissue grown from the embryonic stem cells. The hope is that the cells will repair the severed connections, restoring movement and sensation below the injury site.

CIRM also unanimously approved a $5.6 million grant for another potential breakthrough: a clinical trial by Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, Calif, to cure HIV infection with gene therapy. The trial is now in Phase II. Immune cells are taken from the patient and given a mutant form of a gene that HIV uses to get inside the cells. The mutated gene resists infection. The genetically altered cells are then given back to the patient.

Approval of both grants had been expected, as staff reports had recommended their approval. The agency met in San Diego.

In addition CIRM's Independent Citizens Oversight Committee funded $16.2 million in grants to bring three stem cell researchers to California. That vote was more contentious, with some committee members arguing that it made no sense to bring more scientists to California without a specific need. In addition, they argued that CIRM's main emphasis needs to be on funding clinical trials.

Member Jeff Sheehy said that bringing the scientists to California doesn't create more scientific capacity. However, a vote to deny funding failed, and a subsequent vote to approve funding passed.

CIRM is projected to run out of its $3 billion in bond funding by 2017, and supporters of the public agency are considering asking California voters for more money.

Also appearing at the CIRM meeting were advocates of funding a stem cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease. The therapy, which may be approved in 2015 for a clinical trial, uses artificial embryonic stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells grown from the patient's own skin cells. The group, Summit 4 Stem Cell, plans to ask for funding to help with the trial in the near future.

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Spinal cord, HIV stem cell treatments funded

Beverly Hills, California (PRWEB) May 29, 2014

The Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute is now providing several types of stem cell procedures for healing ligament injuries and meniscal tears of the knee. The stem cell therapies are often able to repair the injuries, provide pain relief and help patients avoid the need for surgery. For more information and scheduling, call (310) 438-5343.

Injuries to the knee may occur from sports injuries, auto accidents or result from degenerative arthritis. Conventional treatments typically work well for pain relief, however, they do not repair the damaged soft tissue. Therefore, conventional treatments result in healing that is incomplete and may still lead to the need for the surgery.

At Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute, Double Board Certified Los Angeles Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Raj has been a pioneer in stem cell procedures for the knee. He is an expert in several types of stem cell therapies for knee injuries including amniotic derived or bone marrow derived stem cell injections.

The regenerative medicine procedures are performed as an outpatient and maintain exceptionally low risk. The amniotic-derived stem cell material is processed at an FDA regulated lab, while the bone marrow-derived stem cell therapy involves a short harvesting procedure from the patient himself. Both types of procedures have been shown in small studies to have excellent clinical results for knee conditions.

Along with treating all types of knee injuries with stem cell therapy, Beverly Hills orthopedic surgeon Dr. Raj also treats shoulder, hip ankle and spinal conditions with regenerative medicine as well. Treatments are provided for amateur and professional athletes, weekend warriors, executives, grandparents, students and more.

For those who desire to explore stem cell procedures for helping repair knee injuries and avoiding surgery, call the Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute at (310) 438-5343.

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Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute Now Offering Stem Cell Procedures for Meniscal Tears and Ligament Injuries of the ...

Ranking among the X-Men probably isn't all that it's cracked up to be, but who wouldn't want their uncanny ability to regenerate lost bone or tissue? New research into tooth repair and stem cell biology, from a cross-institution team led by David Mooney of Harvard's Wyss Institute, may bring such regeneration one step closer to reality or at the very least, give us hope that we can throw away those nasty dentures.

The researchers employed a low-power laser to trigger human dental stem cells to form dentin, a hard bone-like tissue that is one of four major components of teeth (the others being enamel, pulp, and cementum). This kind of low-level light therapy has previously been used to remove or stimulate hair growth and to rejuvenate skin cells, but the mechanisms were not well understood, results varied, and evidence of its efficacy was largely anecdotal.

The new work is the first to document the molecular mechanism involved, thus laying the foundations for controlled treatment protocols in not only restorative dentistry but also avenues like bone regeneration and wound healing. "The scientific community is actively exploring a host of approaches to using stem cells for tissue regeneration efforts," said Wyss Institute Founding Director Don Ingber. "Dave [Mooney] and his team have added an innovative, noninvasive, and remarkably simple but powerful tool to the toolbox."

To test the team's hypothesis, Praveen Arany, an assistant clinical investigator at the National Institutes of Health, drilled holes in the molars of rats and mice, then treated them with low-dose lasers and temporary caps. Around 12 weeks later, tests confirmed that the laser treatments triggered enhanced dentin formation.

Performing dentistry on rat teeth takes extreme precision and is actually harder than the same procedure on human teeth (Image: ames Weaver, Harvard's Wyss Institute)

Further experiments were conducted on microbial cultures in the laboratory, where they found that a regulatory cell protein called transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-1) was activated in a chemical domino effect that in turn caused the stem cells to form dentin. The good news there is that TGF-1 is more or less ubiquitous, with key roles in many biological processes such as immune response, wound healing, development, and malignancies.

This means we could one day see the technique used to do far more than help repair teeth. But first it needs to clear planned human clinical trials, so for now you'll have to make do with dentures, canes and all manner of other prosthetics while the likes of Wolverine prance around with self-healing bodies.

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Source: Wyss Institute at Harvard

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Low-power laser triggers stem cells to repair teeth

A Harvard-led team is the first to demonstrate the ability to use low-power light to trigger stem cells inside the body to regenerate tissue, an advance they reported in Science Translational Medicine. The research, led by Wyss Institute Core Faculty member David Mooney, Ph.D., lays the foundation for a host of clinical applications in restorative dentistry and regenerative medicine more broadly, such as wound healing, bone regeneration, and more.

The team used a low-power laser to trigger human dental stem cells to form dentin, the hard tissue that is similar to bone and makes up the bulk of teeth. What's more, they outlined the precise molecular mechanism involved, and demonstrated its prowess using multiple laboratory and animal models.

A number of biologically active molecules, such as regulatory proteins called growth factors, can trigger stem cells to differentiate into different cell types. Current regeneration efforts require scientists to isolate stem cells from the body, manipulate them in a laboratory, and return them to the bodyefforts that face a host of regulatory and technical hurdles to their clinical translation. But Mooney's approach is different and, he hopes, easier to get into the hands of practicing clinicians.

"Our treatment modality does not introduce anything new to the body, and lasers are routinely used in medicine and dentistry, so the barriers to clinical translation are low," said Mooney, who is also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "It would be a substantial advance in the field if we can regenerate teeth rather than replace them."

The team first turned to lead author and dentist Praveen Arany, D.D.S., Ph.D., who is now an Assistant Clinical Investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At the time of the research, he was a Harvard graduate student and then postdoctoral fellow affiliated with SEAS and the Wyss Institute.

Arany took rodents to the laboratory version of a dentist's office to drill holes in their molars, treat the tooth pulp that contains adult dental stem cells with low-dose laser treatments, applied temporary caps, and kept the animals comfortable and healthy. After about 12 weeks, high-resolution x-ray imaging and microscopy confirmed that the laser treatments triggered the enhanced dentin formation.

"It was definitely my first time doing rodent dentistry," said Arany, who faced several technical challenges in performing oral surgery on such a small scale. The dentin was strikingly similar in composition to normal dentin, but did have slightly different morphological organization. Moreover, the typical reparative dentin bridge seen in human teeth was not as readily apparent in the minute rodent teeth, owing to the technical challenges with the procedure.

"This is one of those rare cases where it would be easier to do this work on a human," Mooney said.

Next the team performed a series of culture-based experiments to unveil the precise molecular mechanism responsible for the regenerative effects of the laser treatment. It turns out that a ubiquitous regulatory cell protein called transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-1) played a pivotal role in triggering the dental stem cells to grow into dentin. TGF-1 exists in latent form until activated by any number of molecules.

Here is the chemical domino effect the team confirmed: In a dose-dependent manner, the laser first induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are chemically active molecules containing oxygen that play an important role in cellular function. The ROS activated the latent TGF-1complex which, in turn, differentiated the stem cells into dentin.

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Researchers Use Light To Coax Stem Cells To Repair Teeth

Open wide, this won't hurt a bit. That might actually be true if the dentist's drill is replaced by a promising low-powered laser that can prompt stem cells to make damaged hard tissue in teeth grow back. Such minimally invasive treatment could one day offer an easy way to repair or regrow our pearly whites.

When a tooth is chipped or damaged, dentists replace it with ceramic or some other inert material, but these deteriorate over time.

To find something better, researchers have begun to look to regenerative medicine and in particular to stem cells to promote tissue repair. Most potential stem cell therapies require the addition of growth factors or chemicals to coax dormant stem cells to differentiate into the required cell type. These chemicals would be applied either directly to the recipient's body, or to stem cells that have been removed from the body and cultured in a dish for implantation.

But such treatments have yet to make it into the doctor's clinic because the approach needs to be precisely controlled so that the stem cells don't differentiate uncontrollably.

Praveen Arany at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues wondered whether they could use stem cells to heal teeth, but bypass the addition of chemicals by harnessing the body's existing mechanisms.

"Everything we need is in the existing tooth structure the adult stem cells, the growth factors, and exactly the right conditions," says Arany.

So they tried laser light, because it can promote regeneration in heart, skin, lung, and nerve tissues.

To mimic an injury, Arany's team used a drill to remove a piece of dentin the hard, calcified tissue beneath a tooth's enamel that doesn't normally regrow from the tooth of a rat. They then shone a non-ionising, low-power laser on the exposed tooth structure and the soft tissue underneath it. This allowed the light to reach the dental stem cells deep inside the pulp of the tooth.

Twelve weeks after a single 5-minute treatment, new dentin had formed in the cavity. Similar dentin production was seen in mice and in cultured human dental stem cells.

It not quite the end of the dentist's intervention though, they would still need to cap the tooth to protect it, because the stem cells that produce enamel are not present in adults.

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Forget the dentist's drill, use lasers to heal teeth

Disabled mice regained the ability to walk less than two weeks after receiving human neural stem cells (Photo: Shutterstock)

When scientists at the University of Utah injected human stem cells into mice disabled by a condition similar to multiple sclerosis, they expected the cells to be rejected by the animals' bodies. It turned out that the cells were indeed rejected, but not before they got the mice walking again. The unexpected finding could have major implications for human MS sufferers.

In multiple sclerosis, the body's immune system attacks the myelin sheath that covers and insulates nerve fibers in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve. With that insulation gone, the nerves short-circuit and malfunction, often compromising the patient's ability to walk among other things.

In the U Utah study (which was begun at the University of California, Irvine) human neural stem cells were grown in a Petri dish, then injected into the afflicted mice. The cells were grown under less crowded conditions than is usual, which reportedly resulted in their being "extremely potent."

As early as one week after being injected, there was no sign of the cells in the animals' bodies evidence that they had been rejected, as was assumed would happen. Within 10 to 14 days, however, the mice were walking and running. After six months, they still hadn't regressed.

This was reportedly due to the fact that the stem cells emitted chemical signals that instructed the rodents' own cells to repair the damaged myelin. Stem cells grown under the same conditions have since been shown to produce similar results, in tests performed by different laboratories.

Additional mouse trials are now planned to assess the safety and durability of the treatment, with hopes for human clinical trials down the road. "We want to try to move as quickly and carefully as possible," said Dr. Tom Lane, who led the study along with Dr. Jeanne Loring from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. "I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Source: University of Utah

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Human stem cell treatment gets mice with MS-like condition walking again

Littleton, MA (PRWEB) May 28, 2014

Provia Labs StoreATooth, a leader in dental stem cell preservation, today announced the appointment of Jill Rubin as a new territory sales manager covering all of Manhattan and Westchester County. Jill brings over 20 years of experience in the field of Oral and Reconstructive Dentistry and will be a strong advocate in educating the New York dental professional community about the benefits of stem cell banking. Jill will be responsible for providing education, training and staff support to dental practices who offer Store-ATooth to patients. She will also be very active in the community, educating families and other medical/healthcare professionals on stem cell preservation.

Jill joins Store-A-Tooth after over 20 years experience in clinical marketing and education and holds a degree in Medical Sociology and is a member of the Million Dollar Sales Club.

According to Howard Greenman, CEO of Store-A-Tooth, Jills expertise and knowledge of clinical and surgical advanced techniques in therapeutic and surgical dentistry will prove to be a valuable asset to the Manhattan/Westchester County community as she will be instrumental in helping many families make an informed decision to preserve their childrens dental stem cells for future use.

Stem cells are present in healthy teeth, and can easily be collected as a child loses baby teeth, or from teeth being pulled for orthodontia or wisdom teeth extractions. Dental stem cell banking gives families the opportunity to store their childs stem cells long after birth for potential use in future therapies for conditions such as type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injuries, stroke, heart attack and neurological disorders such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

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About Provia Laboratories, LLC Provia Laboratories, LLC (http://www.provialabs.com) is a health services company specializing in high quality biobanking (the collection, transport, processing, and cryogenic storage of biological specimens). Its dental stem cell banking service, Store-A-ToothTM, gives parents the option to store stem cells today to protect their childrens health tomorrow. Store-A-Tooth preserves precious stem cells from baby and wisdom teeth that would otherwise be discarded, so parents can be prepared for advances in stem cell therapies that someday may help treat conditions such as type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injury, heart attack, stroke, and neurological disorders like Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

For more information about Store-A-Tooth dental stem cell banking, please call 1-877-867-5753 or visit us at http://www.store-a-tooth.com or Like Store-A-Tooth at http://www.facebook.com/storeatooth.

Visit http://www.facebook.com/storeatoothfindacure to learn more about their Stem Cells for a Cure initiative to support diabetes research.

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Store-A-Tooth Dental Stem Cell Banking Announces Appointment of Experienced Representative in Manhattan/Westchester ...

Discredited stem-cell treatment loses in Strasbourg

(ANSA) - Strasbourg, May 28 - The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday ruled that an Italian ban on a controversial stem-cell therapy was legitimate. The case centered around a woman suffering from a degenerative brain disease since birth who argued her rights had been violated by the State denying her Stamina treatment. The process involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient. But its credibility has long been suspect, and last fall the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found its treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell biology". Recent investigations have shown risks of the treatment range from nausea to cancer, and as many as one quarter of all patients treated have experienced "adverse effects". The head of the foundation, Davide Vannoni, may face indictment.

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European rights court says Stamina ban legit

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 28, 2014

Catherine M. Bollard, MBChB, MD, director of Childrens National Health Systems Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy (CETI), and her team have performed the hospitals first treatment using T-cell therapy for a 6-month-old patient with congenital immune deficiency and a life-threatening virus infection.

Not only does this therapy offer a potentially curative treatment for patients who have failed conventional therapies for infections and cancer, the procedure sets the stage for avoiding potentially toxic drugs which can ultimately reduce inpatient stays and medical costs.

Its extremely important, offering a novel therapeutic thats not available at the majority of hospitals worldwide, said Dr. Bollard, a member of the Division of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation and senior scientist at Childrens Nationals Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at Childrens Research Institute. She is also the Principal Investigator and the Sheik Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.

Childrens National is one of the few hospitals in the world to offer cellular therapy to treat life-threatening infections in patients with immune deficiencies as well as preventing or treating relapse in children with cancer. Cellular therapy uses the bodys own immune system to fight cancer and/or infections.

Patients from other hospitals and childrens facilities have been referred to Childrens National because of the uniqueness of the cell therapies we can now offer here, Dr. Bollard said. This kind of procedure reduces the amount of time for care and is not only cost effective for a hospital but also more tolerable for the patient, said Dr. Bollard. None of this could have been achieved without every one of those members within the CETI Program pulling together as a team to make it happen.

In the first of its kind cellular therapy achievement at Childrens National, Dr. Bollard and her team have shown that in the laboratory they can train nave or inexperienced immune system cells (T-cells) to kill cancer and/or viruses. In the first patient treated here, T-cells were grown from the patients mother and then injected into the young patient, who had severe combined immunodeficiency and a potentially life threatening virus infection. The T-cells the patient received (cytotoxic T lymphocytes) are a type of white blood cell that can kill virus-infected cells or cancer cells infected or cells that are damaged in other ways.

The babys immunodeficiency ailments included SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency, a primary immune deficiency, which can result in the onset of one or more serious infections within the first months of life. Early in life, the child was infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV), a latent virus related to herpes that has significant morbidity and high mortality rates in immune compromised people. Initially, the patient had received a bone marrow transplant, but the CMV could not be cleared with the drug therapy he received after transplant, Dr. Bollard said.

Conventional treatment using antiviral agents is expensive and toxic and can be ineffective. Transfer of virus-specific T cytotoxic cells is seen as an alternative means of preventing and treating these infections. The hospital takes donor cells and manufactures them in the lab to fight specific viruses and/or cancer. The cells are given to the patients in the outpatient clinic, in a procedure that takes less than five minutes. The cytotoxic T-cells usually take within two to six weeks after which time the patient may no longer need other medications to treat or prevent infection.

We give these cells to the patient and then we hope that in a couple of weeks the CMV viral load falls to very low levels or even zero, Dr. Bollard said. This patient is 6 months old. By giving these T-cells, he can get off the drug therapy and spare his kidneys from the toxicity of the antiviral drugs.

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Catherine M. Bollard, MBCHB, MD, of Childrens National Performs Its First Treatment Using T-Cell Therapy On Child ...

Disabled mice regained the ability to walk less than two weeks after receiving human neural stem cells (Photo: Shutterstock)

When scientists at the University of Utah injected human stem cells into mice disabled by a condition similar to multiple sclerosis, they expected the cells to be rejected by the animals' bodies. It turned out that the cells were indeed rejected, but not before they got the mice walking again. The unexpected finding could have major implications for human MS sufferers.

In multiple sclerosis, the body's immune system attacks the myelin sheath that covers and insulates nerve fibers in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve. With that insulation gone, the nerves short-circuit and malfunction, often compromising the patient's ability to walk among other things.

In the U Utah study (which was begun at the University of California, Irvine) human neural stem cells were grown in a Petri dish, then injected into the afflicted mice. The cells were grown under less crowded conditions than is usual, which reportedly resulted in their being "extremely potent."

As early as one week after being injected, there was no sign of the cells in the animals' bodies evidence that they had been rejected, as was assumed would happen. Within 10 to 14 days, however, the mice were walking and running. After six months, they still hadn't regressed.

This was reportedly due to the fact that the stem cells emitted chemical signals that instructed the rodents' own cells to repair the damaged myelin. Stem cells grown under the same conditions have since been shown to produce similar results, in tests performed by different laboratories.

Additional mouse trials are now planned to assess the safety and durability of the treatment, with hopes for human clinical trials down the road. "We want to try to move as quickly and carefully as possible," said Dr. Tom Lane, who led the study along with Dr. Jeanne Loring from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. "I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Source: University of Utah

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-May-2014

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

Tampa, Fla. (May 28, 2014) To be suitable for medical transplantation, one idea is that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) need to remain "undifferentiated" i.e. they are not changing into other cell types. In determining the best way to culture hESCs so that they remain undifferentiated and also grow, proliferate and survive, researchers have used blood cell "feeder-layer" cultures using animal-derived feeder cells, often from mice (mouse embryonic fibroblasts [MEFs]). This approach has, however, been associated with a variety of contamination problems, including pathogen and viral transmission.

To avoid contamination problems, a Brazilian research team has investigated the use of human menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal cells (MBMCs) as feeder layers and found that "MBMCs can replace animal-derived feeder systems in human embryonic stem cell culture systems and support their growth in an undifferentiated stage."

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Medicine, but is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/cm/pre-prints/content-CM1019silvadosSantos.

"Human embryonic stem cells present a continuous proliferation in an undifferentiated state, resulting in an unlimited amount of cells with the potential to differentiate toward any type of cell in the human body," said study corresponding author Dr. Regina Coeli dos Santos Goldenberg of the Instituto de Biofisica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. "These characteristics make hESCs good candidates for cell based therapies."

Feeder-layers for hESCs comprised of MEFs have been efficiently used for decades but, because of the clinical drawbacks, the authors subsequently experimented with human menstrual blood cells as a potential replacement for animal-derived feeder-layers, not only for negating the contamination issues, but also because human menstrual blood is so accessible. MBMCs are without ethical encumbrances and shortages, nor are they difficult to access - a problem with other human cells, such as umbilical cord blood cells, adult bone marrow cells or placenta cells.

"Menstrual blood is derived from uterine tissues," explained the researchers. "These cells are widely available 12 times a year from women of child-bearing age. The cells are easily obtained, possess the capability of long-term proliferation and are clinically compatible with hESCs-derived cells."

The researchers found that their culture system using MBMCs as a feeder-layer for hESCs are the "closest and more suitable alternative to animal-free conditions for growing hESCs" and a "good candidate for large-expansion of cells for clinical application." They also found no difference in growth factor expression when comparing the use of growth factors in both the standard feeder system using animal cells and the feeder system they tested using hESCs.

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Brazilian researchers find human menstrual blood-derived cells 'feed' embryonic stem cells

Block GmbH Centre for Living Cell Therapy
The fresh cell therapy/stem cell therapy is always a full body treatment. The improvement of the function of individual organs also affects all other organs positively.

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SINGAPORE: Australia-based stem cell therapy firm Mesoblast has announced plans to accelerate commercial manufacturing operations in Singapore.

This is to prepare for new product launches in the United States and other major markets over the next couple of years.

Its existing operations in Singapore include making stem cell products for clinical trials under its contract with its partner, pharmaceutical company Lonza.

One of its key products still awaiting full approval is Prochymal, which Mesoblast says can help to more than double the survival rate of patients suffering from complications after receiving tissue transplants from donors -- known as graft versus host disease.

The global stem cell market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 12 per cent between 2011 and 2016 to reach more than S$8 billion by 2016.

Mesoblast said commercial manufacturing requires a much larger capacity and operations must be scaled-up to meet regulatory demands.

Silviu Itescu, chief executive at Mesoblast, said: "We are now in a phase of making more investments in order to get our processes to commercial scale. That anticipates successful commercial launches.

"If we're successful in that over the next 18-24 months, then we're going to leverage the investment in our commercial facilities to be able to build up and prepare for launching of much larger opportunities in cardiovascular medicine, orthopaedics and diseases of immunity and inflammation which would require purpose-built facilities."

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Mesoblast to accelerate operations in S'pore

By Joel Ceausu, May 28th, 2014

An East End Montreal hospital is home to a new national network on regenerative medicine and cell therapy research. CellCAN will be based at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and directed by renowned cell therapy researcher Dr. Denis Claude Roy. The objective is to unite efforts of researchers, clinicians, funders, industry, charities, government members, patient representatives and the public. Specifically, CellCAN will promote exchanges, cooperation, partnership development and innovation in regenerative medicine and cell therapy, explained Roy. As the hub of a network of cell therapy centers and labs in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Edmonton, and Vancouver, CellCAN will propel Canadian stem cell research and clinical development forward thanks to a $3 million grant over four years. Discoveries in stem cell research make their way to clinical trials bringing researchers closer to new treatments for patients with cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and ocular diseases, neurological and blood disorders and other health issues. Regenerative cell therapies have almost unlimited possibilities, said Roy, director of the cellular therapy laboratory at Maisonneuve-Rosemonts research centre. This will transform the nature of medicine and have significant impact on our health care systems. The Universit de Montral-affiliated hospital in Rosemont is an internationally recognized leader in hematology-oncology, stem cell transplants, ophthalmology, nephrology and kidney transplants. The funds come from the federally financed Networks of Centres of Excellence, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Foundation, Ronald and Herbert Black, and various organizations across Canada.n

Click here to see the full newspaper. Updated on May 28, 2014

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East End home for cell network

Littleton, MA (PRWEB) May 27, 2014

Provia Labs Store-A-Tooth, a leader in dental stem cell preservation, announces Jerra DiPrisco as the new dedicated representative, growing the companys South Florida field office. Jerra brings over 10 years of experience in the dental field including Oral and General Dentistry. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of Stem Cell Science will be an asset in educating the South Florida community on the benefits of banking stem cells from teeth.

She will be responsible for providing resources and support to dentists who offer the Store-A-Tooth service to patients in their practices, as well as educating local families about the powerful choice they can make to bank their childrens stem cells when their teeth come out.

Dr. Jeffrey Eisner, DMD, of Eisner Oral Surgery in Miami said: I treat patients every day with conditions that could be solved with stem cells in the future. Patients should know about this cutting edge and promising technology which could safeguard their childrens future. According to Eisners Vice President of Operations, Sonny Diblasi who stored her sons dental stem cells a few years ago the practice routinely tells patients about Store-A-Tooth as part of their patient education prior to scheduled extractions.

Ms. DiPrisco joins Store-A-Tooth after many years as a Clinical and Marketing professional at various dental practices and is also a registered nurse.

Jerras experience and drive will prove to be a valuable asset to the South Florida community as she will aid many families in making an informed decision to preserve their childrens dental stem cells for future use. said Howard Greenman, CEO of Store-A-Tooth.

Stem cells are present in healthy teeth, and can easily be collected as a child loses baby teeth, or from teeth being pulled for orthodontia or wisdom teeth extractions. Dental stem cell banking gives families the opportunity to store their childs stem cells long after birth for potential use in future therapies for conditions such as type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injuries, stroke, heart attack and neurological disorders such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers. ### About Provia Laboratories, LLC Provia Laboratories, LLC (http://www.provialabs.com) is a health services company specializing in high quality biobanking (the collection, transport, processing, and cryogenic storage of biological specimens). Its dental stem cell banking service, Store-A-ToothTM, gives parents the option to store stem cells today to protect their childrens health tomorrow. Store-A-Tooth preserves precious stem cells from baby and wisdom teeth that would otherwise be discarded, so parents can be prepared for advances in stem cell therapies that someday may help treat conditions such as type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injury, heart attack, stroke, and neurological disorders like Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

For more information about Store-A-Tooth dental stem cell banking, please call 1-877-867-5753 or visit us at http://www.store-a-tooth.com or Like Store-A-Tooth at http://www.facebook.com/storeatooth. Visit http://www.facebook.com/storeatoothfindacure to learn more about their Stem Cells for a Cure initiative to support diabetes research.

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Store-A-Tooth Dental Stem Cell Banking Announces Appointment of Experienced Representative in South Florida