"I'm with George Skelton(Los
Angeles Times columnist). Whatever you think about ballot box
budgeting, you could take every penny raised by this and bury it in
the ground - it would still: Reduce smoking (mostly by preventing
some kids, the most price-sensitive group of smokers from starting) .
Save lives. Hurt the lying tobacco companies. All very good things."

CIRM has not taken a position on the measure.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have brought back full movement of the rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries in a study that might sooner or later be used in people with similar injuries.

Gregoire Courtine and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne saw rats with severe paralysis walking and running again after a couple of weeks following a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation of the spinal cord together with robotic support.

"Our rats are not only voluntarily initiating a walking gait, but they are soon sprinting, climbing up stairs and avoiding obstacles," said Courtine, whose results from the five-year study will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

Courtine is quick to point out that it remains unclear if a similar technique could help people with spinal cord damage but he adds the technique does hint at new ways of treating paralysis. Other scientists agree.

"This is ground-breaking research and offers great hope for the future of restoring function to spinal injured patients," said Elizabeth Bradbury, a Medical Research Council senior fellow at King's College London.

Follow us

But Bradbury notes that very few human spinal cord injuries are the result of a direct cut through the cord, which is what the rats had. Human injuries are most often the result of bruising or compression and it is unclear if the technique could be translated across to this type of injury.

It is also unclear if this kind of electro-chemical "kick-start" could help a spinal cord that has been damaged for a long time, with complications like scar tissue, holes and where a large number of nerve cells and fibres have died or degenerated.

Nevertheless, Courtine's work does demonstrate a way of encouraging and increasing the innate ability of the spinal cord to repair itself, a quality known as neuroplasticity.

Other attempts to repair spinal cords have focused on stem cell therapy, although Geron, the world's leading embryonic stem cell company, last year closed its pioneering work in the field.

Continued here:
Robot Therapy Helps Paralysed Rats to Walk Again

Hyderabad, June 2:

Picking stem cells from a patients body, sending it to a sophisticated laboratory to culture a tissue and then implanting it are pass.

A team of doctors at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute has used the tea bag or sprinkler approach to regenerate stem cells. The organisation has developed a lab-free technique that could be available off-the-shelf. This allows eye surgeons with usual facilities to perform the procedure.

The team, led by Dr Virender Singh Sangwan, used this technique to treat those who suffered chemical injuries, resulting in bleeding in the cornea.

Instead of sending stem cells to the lab for culture, the doctor picked the required number of stem cells around the cornea and sprinkled on the damaged area and then put a contact lens. In 15 days, he sees development of a good layer in the place of injured area, Prof. Balasubramanian, Head of Research at LVPEI, said.

A winner of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize, Dr Sangwan said he had conducted the procedure on about 25 patients with good results. This had been published in international scientific magazines.

He is now in the process of developing tools to help doctors.

Leber Congenital Amaurosis

Children down with the rare ocular disorders that result in gradual loss of sight can hope for a cure. Doctors are working on a gene therapy to correct this problem caused by consanguineous marriages.

Though this therapy is in vogue abroad, LVPEI says it is the first centre to carry out research on this procedure. Technically called LCA or Leber Congenital Amaurosis, doctors would refer patients to a gene analysis after studying them for indications.

Excerpt from:
Stem cell therapy for cornea treatment

1 June 2012 Last updated at 12:19 ET

Seven years ago I stood on a bridge over the M40 doing a "piece to camera" for a report about spinal repair. The aim was to come up with a metaphor for how researchers at University College London were trying to overcome spinal cord paralysis.

It went something like this: "Imagine your spinal cord as a motorway, the cars travelling up and down are the nerve fibres carrying messages from your brain to all parts of the body. If this gets damaged the cars can't travel. The messages are blocked, the patient is paralysed.

"Normally there is no way of repairing a severed spinal cord. But the team at UCL took nasal stem cells, and implanted them into the area of damage. These formed a bridge, along which the nerve fibres re-grew and re-connected."

This is the World-Cup of neurorehabilitation. Our rats have become athletes when just weeks before they were completely paralysed.

The research at the Spinal Repair Unit at UCL involved rats, not humans. In my TV report we showed rats unable to climb a metal ladder after one of their front paws had been paralysed to mimic a spinal cord injury. But after an injection of stem cells, the rats were able to move nearly as well as uninjured animals.

The hope then - and now - is that such animal experiments will translate into similar breakthroughs with patients. Seven years on and the team at UCL led by Professor Geoff Raisman are still working on translating this into a proven therapy for patients. He told me "This is difficult and complex work and we want to ensure we get things right."

So it was with a sense of caution that I approached some Swiss research in the latest edition of the journal Science in which paralysed rats were able to walk again after a combination of electrical-chemical stimulation and rehabilitation training.

The research prompted some newspaper reports talking of "new hope" for paralysed patients. The lead researcher, Professor Gregoire Courtine enthused: "This is the World-Cup of neurorehabilitation. Our rats have become athletes when just weeks before they were completely paralysed."

My colleague James Gallagher has reported on the research and you can read his copy here.

Visit link:
'Hope' for the paralysed?

Research scientist Dr Paul Turner (left) and cell biologist Dr Jim Faed examine bone marrow stem cell colonies in the Spinal Cord Society Research Laboratory in Dunedin. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

University of Otago cell biologist, haematologist and project leader Dr Jim Faed said $1.4 million was needed to trial the use of bone marrow stem cells to stimulate insulin production in type 1 diabetics.

Fundraising is being co-ordinated by the Spinal Cord Society, which had started recruiting for a related trial for spinal cord injury sufferers, to be led by Dr Faed.

That trial, which would have used cells from the person's nose, is on hold, partly for lack of funds, and partly because the diabetes trial would lay the groundwork for better-designed spinal cord research.

The diabetes study would be carried out in the Spinal Cord Society Research Laboratory at Otago University's Centre for Innovation in Dunedin, taking about two years.

Dr Faed said recent research from the United States had "electrified" interest in using stem cells to treat type 1 diabetics.

In what is known as the Chicago study, umbilical cord stem cells were shown to increase insulin production in even the most severe diabetics.

Dr Faed said he hoped the Dunedin study, with a dozen participants, would replicate and expand the Chicago study by explaining the mechanism by which the stem cells promoted insulin production.

Pharmaceutical companies stood to make no money from stem cell research, as the product was generated by the patient's own body; thus the companies could not be tapped for funds.

Dr Faed acknowledged the disappointment of the several spinal cord injury sufferers who had to wait longer for their study.

Read the original here:
Researchers appealing to public for funds

In 2004, I had been stationed at Aviano Air Base, Italy, for about a year. One day, while walking into the base exchange, I was approached by an individual standing by one of the many tables that we associate with trying to sell us something or peddle information.

This person was just like you and I, another military member, but the difference was that he had volunteered to try and convince us (Jane and Joe Public) to sign up to potentially help a leukemia patient by donating bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.

I was not opposed to the thought of being a registered donor, and in fact signed up that very day. The process only took 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork, and four swabs of the inside of my mouth for molecular matching of donor to recipient. Later I thought, probably like many people before me, What are the chances I will ever be called on to donate?

Next thing I knew it was 2008. I was in my office working on some building project updates, and planning to take some leave, when I received an email from some guy I didnt know. It was a strange name along with a strange email address. I thought to myself this has to be spam. Then I noticed the email was signed and encrypted, so I went ahead and opened it.

What I read next was both exciting and scary at the same time. Im paraphrasing here, but the email basically stated, Sgt Faulkwell, you have been identified as a potential donor for a leukemia patient. Please respond if you are still willing to donate.

Several weeks, and a few vials of blood later, I was identified as the most appropriate donor for my recipient. My trip was organized and paid for by the recipients insurance. They explained that I could have had a friend or family member come with me, or travel from anywhere else in the world to meet me and stay for the whole donation period. It is definitely not something that someone has to go through alone.

In the end, I was asked to donate stem cells. The process took five days, in which I received two shots every day to boost my blood stem-cell production. Essentially, I was mass producing blood stem cells, which are neither red nor white cells yet. The cells were harvested on the fifth day.

It was a fairly painless process, but is highly dependent on each individuals own body composition, health, etc. Stem-cell harvesting is similar to having a transfusion. They pull your blood out, spin it in a machine to withdrawal the stem cells, and then return your blood to you. There were some minor side effects, but nothing compared to what my recipient must have been going through.

My donation went extremely well, and I found out roughly one year later that my recipient had graphed with my stem cells, and that he was doing better. I never received another update, but I hope one day to get the chance to meet the person.

There are too many myths and facts out there for me to get into, but the next time you have someone approach you to become a registered bone-marrow donor, I hope you will take the time to register. You could very well save someones life!

Originally posted here:
Are you a bone-marrow donor? You could save someone’s life today

A gravely ill Tucson teen is hoping a bone-marrow drive this weekend will give her a new chance at life.

Delia Gonzalez was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called aplastic anemia three years ago. While medication kept the illness at bay for a while, she's now surviving on blood transfusions to keep her alive and is extremely sick, family friend Laine Sklar said.

Aplastic anemia occurs when the body's bone marrow doesn't make enough new blood cells. Bone marrow is a spongelike tissue inside the bones. It makes stem cells that develop into red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Gonzalez, 19, who is Hispanic and Norwegian, needs a bone-marrow transplant to save her life but has not been able to find a match among her close friends and family.

The former Catalina Foothills High School student is hoping to both grow the bone-marrow database and find a match for herself, Sklar said.

The bone-marrow drive will be held at two locations from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Sunday. Southern Arizonans between the ages of 18 and 60 are invited to give a cheek swab at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1300 N. Greasewood Road, and at Ramada 7 in Reid Park across from the McDonald's on East 22nd Street.

Donors with diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds are especially critical, as patients in need of a transplant are most likely to match someone of their own race and ethnicity.

Patients particularly need potential donors between the ages of 18 and 44. That's because younger donors produce more and higher-quality cells than older donors.

All cheek swabs will become part of the Be the Match Registry to potentially help thousands of patients with life-threatening diseases.

The National Marrow Donor Program operates the Be the Match Registry and partners with a global network of leading hospitals, cord-blood banks, laboratories and recruiters.

Link:
Bone-marrow drive on Sunday aims to help sick Tucson teen

CLEARWATER, FL--(Marketwire -06/01/12)- Biostem U.S., Corporation (HAIR) (HAIR) (Biostem, the Company), a fully reporting public company in the stem cell regenerative medicine science sector, has made its Scientific and Medical Board of Advisors publications available on the company website, http://www.biostemus.com.

Chief Executive Officer Dwight Brunoehler stated, "The company is very proud of the many contributions its SAMBA members have made, and continue to make, to the medical community. As their publications and credentials show, this is a very prestigious and influential group. Having worked with them in past projects and now at Biostem, I know them all to be active participants in the development and guidance of the company's objectives. Their diversified areas of expertise and backgrounds are already playing a major role in assisting the company as it moves forward into the expanding field of regenerative medicine."

About Biostem U.S., Corporation Biostem U.S., Corporation is a fully reporting Nevada corporation with offices in Clearwater, Florida. Biostem is a technology licensing company with proprietary technology centered on providing hair re-growth using human stem cells. The company also intends to train and license selected physicians to provide Regenerative Cellular Therapy treatments to assist the body's natural approach to healing tendons, ligaments, joints and muscle injuries by using the patient's own stem cells. Biostem U.S., Corporation is seeking to expand its operations worldwide through licensing of its proprietary technology and acquisition of existing stem cell related facilities. The company's goal is to operate in the international biotech market, focusing on the rapidly growing regenerative medicine field, using ethically sourced adult stem cells to improve the quality and longevity of life for all mankind.

More information on Biostem U.S., Corporation can be obtained through http://www.biostemus.com, or by calling Fox Communications Group 310-974-6821.

See the article here:
Biostem U.S., Corporation Presents Scientific and Medical Board of Advisors Publications

Stem cell therapy may one day be used to cure disorders such as Fragile-X syndrome, or Cystic fibrosis and other genetic maladies.

Matthew Vella

The Maltese government wants the European Commission to abandon plans to provide funds for research activities on stem cells that involve "the destruction of human embryos".

In a declaration on the ethical principles for the Horizon 2020 programme, which is an 80 billion fund for the EU's programme for research and innovation to create new jobs, the Maltese government said it wanted more detailed guidelines on the bioethical principles that will guide research programmes.

Horizon 2020 will allow the financing of research on human stem cells - both adult and embryonic - as long as it is permitted by the national laws of member states.

The fund however will not finance human cloning, genetic modification, or the creation of human embryos intended for the purpose of research or stem cell procurement.

The European Commission does not explicitly solicit the use of human embryonic stem cells, but Horizon 2020 allows the use of human stem cells according to the objectives of the research, and only if it has the necessary approvals from the member states.

The Maltese declaration echoes previous statements by the Commission of Catholic Bishops of the EC (Comece), which said Horizon 2020 did not include greater protection of human embryos from stem cell research.

Malta says it does not want any such embryos to be used for stem cell research. The statement by the Maltese government said the Horizon 2020 programme "does not take sufficiently into account the therapeutic potential of human adult stem cells."

Malta wants Europe to commit to a reinforcement of research on human adult stem cells, and that Europe should abstain from financing matters of fundamental ethical principles, which differ among member states.

Read more:
Malta opposing EU financing for stem cell research on embryos

LONDON Scientists in Switzerland have restored full movement to rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries in a study that spurs hope that the techniques may hold promise for someday treating people with similar injuries.

Gregoire Courtine and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne saw rats with severe paralysis walking and running again after a couple of weeks following a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation of the spinal cord together with robotic support.

"Our rats are not only voluntarily initiating a walking gait, but they are soon sprinting, climbing up stairs and avoiding obstacles," said Courtine, whose results from the five-year study will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

Courtine is quick to point out that it remains unclear if a similar technique could help people with spinal cord damage but he adds the technique does hint at new ways of treating paralysis.

Other scientists agree.

"This is ground-breaking research and offers great hope for the future of restoring function to spinal injured patients," said Elizabeth Bradbury, a Medical Research Council senior fellow at King's College London.

But Bradbury notes that very few human spinal cord injuries are the result of a direct cut through the cord, which is what the rats had. Human injuries are most often the result of bruising or compression and it is unclear if the technique could be translated across to this type of injury.

It is also unclear if this kind of electro-chemical "kick-start" could help a spinal cord that has been damaged for a long time, with complications like scar tissue, holes and where a large number of nerve cells and fibres have died or degenerated.

Nevertheless, Courtine's work does demonstrate a way of encouraging and increasing the innate ability of the spinal cord to repair itself, a quality known as neuroplasticity.

Other attempts to repair spinal cords have focused on stem cell therapy, although Geron, the world's leading embryonic stem cell company, last year closed its pioneering work in the field.

Original post:
Paralyzed rats walk again

LONDON Scientists in Switzerland have restored full movement to rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries in a study that spurs hope that the techniques may hold promise for someday treating people with similar injuries.

Gregoire Courtine and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne saw rats with severe paralysis walking and running again after a couple of weeks following a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation of the spinal cord together with robotic support.

"Our rats are not only voluntarily initiating a walking gait, but they are soon sprinting, climbing up stairs and avoiding obstacles," said Courtine, whose results from the five-year study will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

Courtine is quick to point out that it remains unclear if a similar technique could help people with spinal cord damage but he adds the technique does hint at new ways of treating paralysis.

Other scientists agree.

"This is ground-breaking research and offers great hope for the future of restoring function to spinal injured patients," said Elizabeth Bradbury, a Medical Research Council senior fellow at King's College London.

But Bradbury notes that very few human spinal cord injuries are the result of a direct cut through the cord, which is what the rats had. Human injuries are most often the result of bruising or compression and it is unclear if the technique could be translated across to this type of injury.

It is also unclear if this kind of electro-chemical "kick-start" could help a spinal cord that has been damaged for a long time, with complications like scar tissue, holes and where a large number of nerve cells and fibres have died or degenerated.

Nevertheless, Courtine's work does demonstrate a way of encouraging and increasing the innate ability of the spinal cord to repair itself, a quality known as neuroplasticity.

Other attempts to repair spinal cords have focused on stem cell therapy, although Geron, the world's leading embryonic stem cell company, last year closed its pioneering work in the field.

View post:
Paralyzed rats walk again in Swiss study

Health

May 30, 2012

by Suzanne Kurtz, JTA

For nearly a year, Julie Gavrilov has been trying to find a match for her father, Mark.

Diagnosed with a rare and aggressive blood cancer, he needs a stem cell transplant to survive the disease.

A Bukharian Jew born in Uzbekistan, he will have the best chance of survival if he finds a donor from within his own ethnic community.

Since learning of her 58-year-old fathers diagnosis, Gavrilov, an attorney in New York, has organized a donor drive at a Bukharian Jewish community center in the Queens borough of the city, written heartfelt messages for local synagogue newsletters and posted her plea on Facebook.

A compatible donor has yet to be identified, but Gavrilov, 32, is hopeful that the person who can save her fathers life will be found.

It just takes one person, she said.

Finding that person for Jews of non-Ashkenazi descent can be especially difficult.

Excerpt from:
Israeli, U.S. drives aiming to increase number of non-Ashkenazi bone marrow donors

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - There are two ways to donate bone marrow. The method used depends on the patient and is determined by their doctor. It's easier than ever and one volunteer is making sure that message is told.

It's a touching story, a young woman finds out she has leukemia, her long time friend sets out to help find a match to save her life.

The woman is Leslie Harris, now mother to a healthy baby boy, born theday doctors diagnosed her.Her future is still unsure. After three rounds of chemo, she's waiting for a bone marrow match.

He's not a student, but Colin Hall carries his backpack with him everywhere. Inside: his swabbing kits used to find a potential bone marrow donor for his friend Leslie Harris.

GetSwabbed.orgis out to "defeat blood cancer by empowering people to take action, give bone marrow and save lives." Hall is a volunteer rep for the DKMS organization.

Hall says, "Once I found out about [Leslie's leukemia]I got online to send out for MY free bone marrow kit because she needed a bone marrow transplant."

That urgent and emotional response was just the beginning of Hall's involvement in bone marrow donation work. He says the statistics are daunting, "Only 1 in 20,000 people become a match for somebody. And part of the problem is there is only 2 percentof the population on the registry. So we need to get more people on that registry so more people have a chance of finding a match."

While finding a match for the patient is hard enough, add to that the fact that many qualified donors don't know how easy the process can actually be.

Dr. Steve Medlin, with the Myeloma Institute at UAMS, says technology has come a long way in just a few short years.

"This used to be a painful procedure -or a more difficult procedure anyway-in which we'd have to extract the stem cells from the bone marrow typically from the hip bones. Now it's a much more simple procedure...and much better tolerated. It's just a process that takes maybe an hour or so to get the cathater in and maybe 4 to 6 hours on a machine to collect the stem cells then the cathater's out and the process is finished." says Medlin.

Continue reading here:
Bone marrow donation easier than ever

NEW YORK, May 31, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE Amex:NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), an international biopharmaceutical company focused on cell based therapies, announced today that Company management will present at six conferences in June.

International Society for Cellular Therapy Annual Meeting

National Investment Banking Association Conference

International Society for Stem Cell Research 10th Annual Meeting

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Conference

Alliance for Regenerative Medicine -- Clinical Outlooks for Regenerative Medicine 2012

Marcum's Inaugural MicroCap Conference

About NeoStem, Inc.

NeoStem, Inc. ("NeoStem") is a leader in the development and manufacture of cell therapies. NeoStem has a strategic combination of revenues, including that which is derived from the contract manufacturing services performed by Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC, a NeoStem company. That manufacturing base is one of the few cGMP facilities available for contracting in the burgeoning cell therapy industry, and it is the combination of PCT's core expertise in manufacturing and NeoStem's extensive research capabilities that positions the company as a leader in cell therapy development. Amorcyte, LLC, also a NeoStem company, is developing a cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Amorcyte's lead compound, AMR-001, represents NeoStem's most clinically advanced therapeutic and is enrolling patients in a Phase 2 trial for the preservation of heart function after a heart attack. Amorcyte expects to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2012/2013 for AMR-001 for the treatment of patients with congestive heart failure. Athelos Corporation, also a NeoStem company, is developing a T-cell therapy for a range of autoimmune conditions with its partner Becton-Dickinson. NeoStem's pre-clinical assets include its VSEL(TM) Technology platform for regenerative medicine, which NeoStem believes to be an endogenous, pluripotent, non-embryonic stem cell that has the potential to change the paradigm of cell therapy as we know it today.

For more information on NeoStem, please visit http://www.neostem.com.

Read the rest here:
NeoStem to Present at Six Conferences in June

This finding can help researchers model diseases in the lab, and allow these diseases to be studied

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a way to turn both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocytes.

Sean Palecek, study leader and professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with Timothy Kamp, professor of cardiology at UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Xiaojun Lian, a UW graduate student, have developed a technique for abundant cardiomyocyte production, which will allow scientists to better understand and treat diseases.

Cardiomyocytes are important cells that make up the beating heart. These cells are extremely difficult to obtain, especially in large quantities, because they only survive for a short period of time when retrieved from the human heart.

But now, the UW researchers have found an inexpensive method for developing an abundance of cardiomyocytes in the laboratory. This finding can help researchers model diseases in the lab, and allow these diseases to be studied. Researchers will also be able to tests drugs that could help fight these diseases, such as heart disease.

"Many forms of heart disease are due to the loss or death of functioning cardiomyocytes, so strategies to replace heart cells in the diseased heart continue to be of interest, said Kamp. "For example, in a large heart attack up to 1 billion cardiomyocytes die. The heart has a limited ability to repair itself, so being able to supply large numbers of potentially patient-matched cardiomyocytes could help."

The UW research team found that changing a signaling pathway called Wnt can help guide stem cell differentiation to cardiomyocytes. They just turned the Wnt pathway on and off at different times using two small molecule chemicals.

"Our protocol is more efficient and robust," said Palecek. "We have been able to reliably generate greater than 80 percent cardiomyocytes in the final population while other methods produce about 30 percent cardiomyocytes with high batch-to-batch variability.

"The biggest advantage of our method is that it uses small molecule chemicals to regulate biological signals. It is completely defined, and therefore more reproducible. And the small molecules are much less expensive than protein growth factors."

This study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

See the rest here:
New Method Turns Embryonic/Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Cardiac Muscle Cells

KIAH

12:01 p.m. CDT, May 30, 2012

How do you mend a broken heart? Thanks to scientists in Israel, we might soon have an answer.

Dr. Lior Gepstein and his team at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology managed to take skin cells from ailing heart patients and by adding three genes and valproic acid (used to treat epilepsy), they turned the cells into beating heart tissue.

And it was not just any old heart cells, but, according to Gepstein, "heart cells that are healthy, that are young and resemble heart cells at the day that the patient was born."

The researchers put the new beating heart tissue into rat hearts and saw it was not rejected, but seemed to establish connections with the rodents' tissue.

Stem cell experts praised the research as promising but urged people not to expect to be stopping by the clinic for a fresh heart any time soon. Gepstein's researchers say clinical trials should begin within the next 10 years.

See the rest here:
Skin cells turned into beating heart cells

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A stem cell treatment investigated for Huntingtons disease holds out hope that scientists will someday be able to reverse damage caused by the degenerative brain disorder.

The technique, which uses reprogrammed skin cells from a Huntingtons patient, successfully restored motor functions in rats, said Dr. Patrik Brundin, a Van Andel Institute researcher who was involved in the study.

Its an interesting step, one weve been hoping for, he said. Its exciting.

The technique also will be tested in treatments for Parkinsons disease, said Brundin, who came to VAI from Sweden in October to lead the institutes Parkinsons research.

Scientists from Sweden, South Korea and the U.S. collaborated on the study, which was published online Monday in the journal Stem Cells.

Brundin said researchers took stem cells derived from the skin of a patient with Huntingtons disease and converted them to brain cells or nerve cells in culture dishes in the lab. The cells were transplanted into the brains of rats that had an experimental form of Huntingtons, and the rats motor functions improved.

The unique features of the (stem cell approach) means that the transplanted cells will be genetically identical to the patient, Jihwan Song, an associate professor at CHA University in Seoul and co-author of the study, said in a statement released by VAI. Therefore, no medications that dampen the immune system to prevent graft rejection will be needed.

Brundin estimated the research might lead to treatments for humans in five to 10 years, although he acknowledged a timeframe is difficult to predict. Researchers are eager to find a new treatment for Huntingtons because there is nothing really powerful to offer currently, he said.

Huntingtons is a genetic disorder affecting one in every 10,000 Americans that slowly diminishes a persons ability to walk, talk and reason. A child of a parent who has Huntingtons has a 50 percent chance of inheriting the gene that causes it.

Medications can relieve some symptoms in some cases, but there are no treatments available that can slow the disease, according to the Huntingtons Disease Society of America.

Go here to see the original:
First treatment for Huntington's disease shows promise in rats, Van Andel Institute scientist says

Public release date: 29-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Tim Hawkins Tim.Hawkins@vai.org 616-234-5519 Van Andel Research Institute

Grand Rapids, Mich. (May 29, 2012) Researchers from South Korea, Sweden, and the United States have collaborated on a project to restore neuron function to parts of the brain damaged by Huntington's disease (HD) by successfully transplanting HD-induced pluripotent stem cells into animal models.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be genetically engineered from human somatic cells such as skin, and can be used to model numerous human diseases. They may also serve as sources of transplantable cells that can be used in novel cell therapies. In the latter case, the patient provides a sample of his or her own skin to the laboratory.

In the current study, experimental animals with damage to a deep brain structure called the striatum (an experimental model of HD) exhibited significant behavioral recovery after receiving transplanted iPS cells. The researchers hope that this approach eventually could be tested in patients for the treatment of HD.

"The unique features of the iPSC approach means that the transplanted cells will be genetically identical to the patient and therefore no medications that dampen the immune system to prevent graft rejection will be needed," said Jihwan Song, D.Phil. Associate Professor and Director of Laboratory of Developmental & Stem Cell Biology at CHA Stem Cell Institute, CHA University, Seoul, South Korea and co-author of the study.

The study, published online this week in Stem Cells, found that transplanted iPSCs initially formed neurons producing GABA, the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, which plays a critical role in regulating neuronal excitability and acts at inhibitory synapses in the brain. GABAergic neurons, located in the striatum, are the cell type most susceptible to degeneration in HD.

Another key point in the study involves the new disease models for HD presented by this method, allowing researchers to study the underlying disease process in detail. Being able to control disease development from such an early stage, using iPS cells, may provide important clues about the very start of disease development in HD. An animal model that closely imitates the real conditions of HD also opens up new and improved opportunities for drug screening.

"Having created a model that mimics HD progression from the initial stages of the disease provides us with a unique experimental platform to study Huntington's disease pathology" said Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), Head of the Neuronal Survival Unit at Lund University, Sweden, and co-author of the study.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and psychiatric problems. It typically becomes noticeable in mid-adult life, with symptoms beginning between 35 and 44 years of age. Life expectancy following onset of visual symptoms is about 20 years. The worldwide prevalence of HD is 5-10 cases per 100,000 persons. Key to the disease process is the formation of specific protein aggregates (essentially abnormal clumps) inside some neurons.

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Researchers restore neuron function to brains damaged by Huntington's disease

30-05-2012 10:25

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Heart-Attack-Patient-Receives-Adult-Stem-Cell-Therapy- - Video

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

A CHOC Childrens research project, under the direction of Philip H. Schwartz, Ph.D., senior scientist at the CHOC Childrens Research Institute and managing director of the facilitys National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource, has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The grant will be used to develop a stem cell-based therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS I), a fatal metabolic disease that causes neurodegeneration, as well as defects in other major organ systems.

Based on a number of medical and experimental observations, children with inherited degenerative diseases of the brain are expected to be among the first to benefit from novel approaches based on stem cell therapy (SCT).

Dr. Schwartz explains, While uncommon, pediatric genetic neurodegenerative diseases account for a large burden of mortality and morbidity in young children. Hematopoietic (bone marrow) stem cell transplant (HSCT) can improve some non-neural symptoms of these diseases, but does not treat the deadly neurodegenerative process. Our approach targeting the effects of the disease on organs besides the brain with HSCT and neurodegeneration with a second stem cell therapy specifically designed to treat the brain is a strategy for whole-body treatment of MPS I. Our approach is also designed to avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted cells.

This research is designed to lead to experimental therapy, based on stem cells, by addressing two critical issues: early intervention is required and possible in this patient population; and teaching the immune system not to reject the transplanted cells is required. This research also sets the stage for efficient translation of this technology into clinical practice, by adapting transplant techniques that are standard in clinical practice or in clinical trials, and using laboratory cell biology methods that are easily transferrable to clinical cell manufacturing.

Nationally recognized for his work in the stem cell field, Dr. Schwartz research focuses on the use of stem cells to understand the neurobiological causes of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Named one of the best childrens hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2011-2012) and a 2011 Leapfrog Top Hospital, CHOC Children's is exclusively committed to the health and well-being of children through clinical expertise, advocacy, outreach and research that brings advanced treatment to pediatric patients.

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CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine