Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category

(CNN) Here is some background information about stem cells.

Scientists believe that stem cell research can be used to treat medical conditions including Parkinsons disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

About Stem Cells:Stem cell research focuses on embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

Stem cells have two characteristics that differentiate them from other types of cells:- Stem cells are unspecialized cells that replicate themselves for long periods through cell division.- Under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, stem cells can be induced to become mature cells with special functions such as the beating cells of the heart muscle or insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

There are four classes of stem cells: totipotent, multipotent, pluripotent, and unipotent.- Totipotent stem cells that develop into cells that make up all the cells in an embryo and fetus. (Ex: The zygote/fertilized egg and the cells at the very early stages following fertilization are considered totipotent)- Multipotent stem cells can give rise to multiple types of cells, but all within a particular tissue, organ, or physiological system. (Ex: blood-forming stem cells/bone marrow cells, most often referred to as adult stem cells)- Pluripotent stem cells (ex: embryonic stem cells) can give rise to any type of cell in the body. These cells are like blank slates, and they have the potential to turn into any type of cell.- Unipotent stem cells can self-renew as well as give rise to a single mature cell type. (Ex: sperm producing cells)

Embryonic stem cells are harvested from four to six-day-old embryos. These embryos are either leftover embryos in fertility clinics or embryos created specifically for harvesting stem cells by therapeutic cloning. Only South Korean scientists claim to have successfully created human embryos via therapeutic cloning and have harvested stem cells from them.

Adult stem cells are already designated for a certain organ or tissue. Some adult stem cells can be coaxed into or be reprogrammed into turning into a different type of specialized cell within the tissue type for example, a heart stem cell can give rise to a functional heart muscle cell, but it is still unclear whether they can give rise to all different cell types of the body.

The primary role of adult stem cells is to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found.

Uses of Stem Cell Research:Regenerative (reparative) medicine uses cell-based therapies to treat disease.

Scientists who research stem cells are trying to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become differentiated as serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation.

Scientists believe stem cells can be used to generate cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies as the need for donated organs and tissues outweighs the supply.

Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases, including Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Policy Debate:Cloning human embryos for stem cells is very controversial.

The goal of therapeutic cloning research is not to make babies, but to make embryonic stem cells, which can be harvested and used for cell-based therapies.

Using fertilized eggs left over at fertility clinics is also controversial because removing the stem cells destroys them.

Questions of ethics arise because embryos are destroyed as the cells are extracted, such as: When does human life begin? What is the moral status of the human embryo?

Timeline:1998 President Bill Clinton requests a National Bioethics Advisory Commission to study the question of stem cell research.

1999 The National Bioethics Advisory Commission recommends that the government allow federal funds to be used to support research on human embryonic stem cells.

2000 During his campaign, George W. Bush says he opposes any research that involves the destruction of embryos.

2000 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issues guidelines for the use of embryonic stem cells in research, specifying that scientists receiving federal funds can use only extra embryos that would otherwise be discarded. President Clinton approves federal funding for stem cell research but Congress does not fund it.

August 9, 2001 President Bush announces he will allow federal funding for about 60 existing stem cell lines created before this date.

January 18, 2002 A panel of experts at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommends a complete ban on human reproductive cloning, but supports so-called therapeutic cloning for medical purposes.

February 27, 2002 For the second time in two years, the House passes a ban on all cloning of human embryos.

July 11, 2002 The Presidents Council on Bioethics recommends a four-year ban on cloning for medical research to allow time for debate.

February 2005 South Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk publishes a study in Science announcing he has successfully created stem cell lines using therapeutic cloning.

December 2005 Experts from Seoul National University Hwang of faking some of his research. Hwang asks to have his paper withdrawn while his work is being investigated and resigns his post.

January 10, 2006 An investigative panel from Seoul National University accuses Hwang of faking his research.

July 18, 2006 The Senate votes 63-37 to loosen President Bushs limits on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

July 19, 2006 President Bush vetoes the embryonic stem-cell research bill passed by the Senate (the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005), his first veto since taking office.

June 20, 2007 President Bush vetoes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, his third veto of his presidency.

January 23, 2009 The FDA approves a request from Geron Corp. to test embryonic stem cells on eight to 10 patients with severe spinal cord injuries. This will be the worlds first test in humans of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells. The tests will use stem cells cultured from embryos left over in fertility clinics.

March 9, 2009 President Barack Obama signs an executive order overturning an order signed by President Bush in August 2001 that barred the NIH from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time.

August 23, 2010 US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issues a preliminary injunction that prohibits the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

September 9, 2010 A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit grants a request from the Justice Department to lift a temporary injunction that blocked federal funding of stem cell research.

September 28, 2010 The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifts an injunction imposed by a federal judge, thereby allowing federally funded embryonic stem-cell research to continue while the Obama Administration appeals the judges original ruling against use of public funds in such research.

October 8, 2010 The first human is injected with cells from human embryonic stem cells in a clinical trial sponsored by Geron Corp.

November 22, 2010 William Caldwell, CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, tells CNN that the FDA has granted approval for his company to start a clinical trial using cells grown from human embryonic stem cells. The treatment will be for an inherited degenerative eye disease.

April 29, 2011 The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lifts an injunction, imposed last year by a federal judge, banning the Obama administration from funding embryonic stem-cell research.

May 11, 2011 Stem cell therapy in sports medicine is spotlighted after New York Yankee pitcher Bartolo Colon is revealed to have had fat and bone marrow stem cells injected into his injured elbow and shoulder while in the Dominican Republic.

July 27, 2011 Judge Lamberth dismisses a lawsuit that tried to block funding of stem cell research on human embryos.

February 13, 2012 Early research published by scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University show that a patients own stem cells can be used to regenerate heart tissue and help undo damage caused by a heart attack. It is the first instance of therapeutic regeneration.

May 2013 Scientists make the first embryonic stem cell from human skin cells by reprogramming human skin cells back to their embryonic state, according to a study published in the journal, Cell.

April 2014 For the first time scientists are able to use cloning technologies to generate stem cells that are genetically matched to adult patients,according to a study published in the journal, Cell Stem Cell.

October 2014 Researchers say that human embryonic stem cells have restored the sight of several nearly blind patients and that their latest study shows the cells are safe to use long-term. According to a report published in The Lancet, the researchers transplanted stem cells into 18 patients with severe vision loss as a result of two types of macular degeneration.

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Stem Cells Fast Facts - KABC

Miami Herald

Want to save a life? Cuban American searches for bone marrow donor Miami Herald According to Gift of Life, a nonprofit, Boca Raton-based bone marrow and blood stem cell registry, 55 percent of Hispanic cancer patients and 75 percent of multiracial patients are never matched, some dying while waiting to get a transplant. The data ...

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Want to save a life? Cuban American searches for bone marrow donor - Miami Herald

COUNTLESS lives across the world could be saved by an Oxfordshire familys appeal to find a bone marrow donor for their little boy.

Two-year-old Alastair Ally Kim has Chronic Granulomatous Disorder (CGD), a life-threatening condition.

He has now become the fourth person in the world to start an experimental gene therapy course at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In the meantime, his parents have spearheaded 200 international donor drives to find their son a match, signing up 7,000 would-be donors in the process - some of whom have since been matched with other patients.

Father Andrew Kim, 37, of Hinton Waldrist near Longworth, said: We want to use whatever momentum Allys story has to help someone else. We know that matches have come through our drives for other people. Its awesome that someone will benefit from all this.

On Thursday, May 25 family friend Cathy Oliveira organised a drive at the Oxford Universitys Old Road research building, signing up 80 staff members in a day.

Ms Oliveira said: When everything happened with Ally I wanted to show support in any way we could; this is directly beneficial not just for Ally but for others.

Allys CGD means his immune system is compromised and the tiniest infection could leave him seriously ill.

His only chance of a permanent cure is a bone marrow stem cell donation, with a match likely to be of Korean or East Asian origin.

In April the youngster and mum Judy Kim, 36, an Oxford University researcher, travelled to London for him to begin a pioneering new gene therapy treatment.

After a week of chemotherapy to wipe out Allys immune system, cells taken from him are modified in a lab and re-introduced to correct the disorder.

Mr Kim said: Bone marrow would give him back 100 per cent functionality and gene therapy is 10 to 15 per cent; its enough to live in the real world, and not be scared he will die every time he gets an infection.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year, but theres nothing to do but move forward. We are really excited at the thought of him being able to come home this summer.

Blood cancer charity DKMS supported last weeks donor drive in Oxford.

Senior donor recruitment manager Joe Hallet said: Around 30 per cent of patients in need of a blood stem cell donor will find a matching donor within their own family.

The remaining 70 per cent, like Ally, will need to find an unrelated donor to have a second chance of life, so events like these are crucial.

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Oxford University staff join bone marrow stem cell donor drive for ... - Oxford Mail

COUNTLESS lives across the world could be saved by an Oxfordshire familys appeal to find a bone marrow donor for their little boy.

Two-year-old Alastair Ally Kim has Chronic Granulomatous Disorder (CGD), a life-threatening condition.

He has now become the fourth person in the world to start an experimental gene therapy course at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In the meantime, his parents have spearheaded 200 international donor drives to find their son a match, signing up 7,000 would-be donors in the process - some of whom have since been matched with other patients.

Father Andrew Kim, 37, of Hinton Waldrist near Longworth, said: We want to use whatever momentum Allys story has to help someone else. We know that matches have come through our drives for other people. Its awesome that someone will benefit from all this.

On Thursday, May 25 family friend Cathy Oliveira organised a drive at the Oxford Universitys Old Road research building, signing up 80 staff members in a day.

Ms Oliveira said: When everything happened with Ally I wanted to show support in any way we could; this is directly beneficial not just for Ally but for others.

Allys CGD means his immune system is compromised and the tiniest infection could leave him seriously ill.

His only chance of a permanent cure is a bone marrow stem cell donation, with a match likely to be of Korean or East Asian origin.

In April the youngster and mum Judy Kim, 36, an Oxford University researcher, travelled to London for him to begin a pioneering new gene therapy treatment.

After a week of chemotherapy to wipe out Allys immune system, cells taken from him are modified in a lab and re-introduced to correct the disorder.

Mr Kim said: Bone marrow would give him back 100 per cent functionality and gene therapy is 10 to 15 per cent; its enough to live in the real world, and not be scared he will die every time he gets an infection.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year, but theres nothing to do but move forward. We are really excited at the thought of him being able to come home this summer.

Blood cancer charity DKMS supported last weeks donor drive in Oxford.

Senior donor recruitment manager Joe Hallet said: Around 30 per cent of patients in need of a blood stem cell donor will find a matching donor within their own family.

The remaining 70 per cent, like Ally, will need to find an unrelated donor to have a second chance of life, so events like these are crucial.

Read more:
Donor appeal for poorly toddler 'may have saved other lives' - Witney Gazette

Blood stem cells are things of wonder: hidden inside each single cell is the power to reconstitute an entire blood system, like a sort of biological big bang.

Yet with great power comes greater vulnerability. Once these master cells are compromised, as in the case of leukemia and other blood disorders, treatment options are severely limited.

A bone marrow transplant is often the only chance for survival. The surgery takes a healthy donors marrowrich with blood stem cellsand reboots the patients blood system. Unfortunately, like organ transplants, finding a matching donor places a chokehold on the entire process.

According to Dr. George Daley at Harvard Medical School, a healthy sibling gives you a one in four chance. A stranger? One in a million.

For 20 years, scientists have been trying to find a way to beat the odds. Now, two studies published in Nature suggest they may be tantalizingly close to being able to make a limitless supply of blood stem cells, using the patients own healthy tissues.

"This step opens up an opportunity to take cells from patients with genetic blood disorders, use gene editing to correct their genetic defect and make functional blood cells," without depending on donors, says Dr. Ryohichi Sugimura at Boston Childrens Hospital, who authored one of the studies with Daley.

Using a magical mix of seven proteins called transcription factors, the team coaxed lab-made human stem cells into primordial blood cells that replenished themselves and all components of blood.

A second study led by Dr. Shahin Rafii, a stem cell scientist at Weill Cornell Medical College took a more direct route, turning mature cells from mice straight into genuine blood stem cells indiscernible from their natural counterparts.

This is the first time researchers have checked all the boxes and made blood stem cells, says Dr. Mick Bhatia at McMaster University, who was not involved in either study, That is the holy grail.

The life of a blood stem cell starts as a special cell nestled on the walls of a large blood vesselthe dorsal aorta.

Under the guidance of chemical signals, these cells metamorphose into immature baby blood stem cells, like caterpillars transforming into butterflies. The exact conditions that prompt this birthing process are still unclear and is one of the reasons why lab-grown blood stem cells have been so hard to make.

These baby blood stem cells dont yet have the full capacity to reboot blood systems. To fully mature, they have to learn to respond to all sorts of commands in their environment, like toddlers making sense of the world.

Some scientists liken this learning process to going to school, where different external cues act as textbooks to train baby blood stem cells to correctly respond to the body.

For example, when should they divide and multiply? When should they give up their stem-ness, instead transforming into oxygen-carrying red blood cells or white blood cells, the immune defenders?

Both new studies took aim at cracking the elusive curriculum.

In the first study, Daley and team started with human skin and other cells that have been transformed back into stem cells (dubbed iPSCs, or induced pluripotent stem cells). Although iPSCs theoretically have the ability to turn into any cell type, no one has previously managed to transform them into blood stem cells.

A lot of people have become jaded, saying that these cells dont exist in nature and you cant just push them into becoming anything else, says Bhatia.

All cells in an organism share the same genes. However, for any given cell only a subset of genes are turned into proteins. This process is what gives cells their identitiesmay it be a heart cell, liver cell, or blood stem cell.

Daley and team focused on a family of transcription factors. Similar to light switches, these proteins can flip genes on or off. By studying how blood vessels normally give birth to blood stem cells, they found seven factors that encouraged iPSCs to grow into immature blood stem cells.

Using a virus, the team inserted these factors into their iPSCs and injected the transformed cells into the bone marrow of mice. These mice had been irradiated to kill off their own blood stem cells to make room for the lab-grown human replacements.

In this way, Daley exposed the immature cells to signals in a blood stem cells normal environment. The bone marrow acts like a school, explains Drs. Carolina Guibentif and Berthold Gttgens at the University of Cambridge, who are not involved in the study.

It worked. In just twelve weeks, the lab-made blood stem cells had fully matured into master cells capable of making the entire range of cells normally found in human blood. Whats more, when scientists took these cells out and transplanted them into a second recipient, they retained their power.

This a major step forward compared with previous methods, says Guibentif.

In contrast, the second study took a more direct route. Rafii and team took cells lining a mouses vessels, based on the finding that these cells normally turn into blood stem cells during development.

With a set of four transcription factors, the team directly reprogrammed them into baby blood stem cells, bypassing the iPSC stage.

These factors act like a maternity ward, allowing the blood stem cells to be born, says Guibentif.

To grow them to adulthood, Rafii and team laid the cells onto a blanket of supporting cells that mimics the blood vessel nursery. Under the guidance of molecular cues secreted by these supporting cells, the blood stem cells multiplied and matured.

When transplanted into short-lived mice without a functional immune system, the cells sprung to action. In 20 weeks, the mice generated an active immune response when given a vaccine. Whats more, they went on to live a healthy 1.5 yearsroughly equivalent to 60 years old for a human.

Rafii is especially excited about using his system to finally crack the stem cell learning curriculum.

If we can figure out the factors that coax stem cells to divide and mature, we may be able to unravel the secrets of their longevity and make full-fledged blood stem cells in a dish, he says.

Calling both experiments a breakthrough, Guibentif says, this is something people have been trying to achieve for a long time.

However, she points out that both studies have caveats. A big one is cancer. The transcription factors that turn mature cells into stem cells endow them with the ability to multiply efficientlya hallmark of cancerous cells. Whats more, the virus used to insert the factors into cells may also inadvertently turn on cancer-causing genes.

That said, neither team found evidence of increased risk of blood cancers. Guibentif also acknowledges that future studies could use CRISPR in place of transcription factors to transform cells into blood stem cells on demand, further lowering the risk.

The techniques will also have to be made more efficient to make lab-grown blood stem cells cost efficient. Itll be years until human use, says Guibentif.

Even so, the studies deter even the most cynical of critics.

After 20 years, were finally tantalizingly close to generating bona fide human blood stem cells in a dish,"says Daley.

Image Credit: Pond5

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Limitless Lab-Grown Blood Is 'Tantalizingly Close' After 20 Years - Singularity Hub

Malaria parasites (green) are killing this red blood cell, but a new study suggests they also damage bone.

Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock

By Mitch LeslieJun. 2, 2017 , 2:00 PM

Malaria parasites leave a trail of destruction in an infected persons body. The microscopic invaders massacre red blood cells, produce harmful chemicals, and sometimes damage the brain. A new mouse study suggests that the parasites can also weaken bones. If they do the same in people, they could stunt the growth of children infected with the disease. But the study also provides some good news, identifying a potential way to prevent the skeletal decline with a compound similar to vitamin D.

Its important work, says parasitologist Regina Joice Cordy of Emory University in Atlanta, who wasnt connected to the study. Its taken us a step further, she adds, in understanding the long-term effects of malaria infections.

Malaria parasites, which are transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, cause the most destruction during the part of their life cycle when they dwell in red blood cells circulating through the body. There, they reproduce and feast on oxygen-carrying hemoglobin proteins, releasing noxious byproducts. The parasites eventually explode from the blood cells, killing them in droves. Although researchers have also detected the parasites in bone marrow, where blood-forming stem cells reside, no one has known until now whether they damage the skeleton.

To find out, a team led by graduate student Michelle Lee and immunologist Cevayir Coban of Osaka University in Japan infected mice with either of two species of malaria parasites. The rodents immune systems fought off the parasites, but the animals skeletons showed the effects of the infection. We found bone loss for both types of infections, Coban says. In adult mice, the spongy material inside the bones began to break down. It contained more gaps, and support structures were thinner and less numerous. Similar changes occur in the bones of people with osteoporosis, Coban says.

In young mice, the bones also grew slower than normal. As a result, the animals thigh bones were about 10% shorter than those of their uninfected counterparts, the researchers report online today in Science Immunology.

The parasites might trigger these problems, the scientists hypothesized, by upsetting the normal balance between cells known as osteoclasts, which dissolve bone, and cells called osteoblasts, which build it back up. The researchers discovered that both types of cells shut down when the mice were infected with malaria. Once the animals had eliminated the parasites, both cell types started working again. But bone breakdown outpaced bone restoration, suggesting that osteoclasts were working harder.

Why do the mices bones deteriorate even after their immune system ousted the parasites? Lee, Coban, and colleagues suspected that the culprit was chemical waste released by the parasites, including the residue of digested hemoglobin, a molecule called hemozoin. In malaria-infected mice, the researchers found, hemozoin seeped into the bones, turning them black. It was still there 2 months after the parasites had been eliminated. To gauge the impact of hemozoin and other parasite wastes, the team cultured bone marrow cells in a cocktail of these substances. The mixture spurred the cells to release inflammation-promoting molecules known to spur osteoclast production.

That mechanism suggested a way to block the parasites bone-destroying effects. Coban and colleagues gave infected mice alfacalcidol, a derivative of vitamin D that treats osteoporosis by suppressing osteoclasts and stimulating osteoblasts. The drug prevented bone loss in the mice.

Cordy says the proposed bone-destroying mechanism is plausible. The key question, she says, is whether it occurs in humans. So far, Coban says, the researchers dont have direct evidence that malaria triggers bone loss in people. Children in malaria-prone areas often grow abnormally slowly, but researchers arent sure whether malaria or other diseases that are prevalent in these areas are to blame. If further studies confirm the new findings, treating kids with alfacalcidol or related molecules, along with antimalarials, might lead to a growth spurt.

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Malaria may weaken the skeleton - Science Magazine

Two separate research teams have succeeded in generating blood stem cells using completely different procedures. One team was led by stem cell biologist Dr. George Q. Daley of Harvard Medical School and Boston Childrens Hospital. The other team was spearheaded by Dr. Shahin Rafii of the Weill Cornell Medicines Ansary Stem Cell Institute in New York.

In both cases, reprogrammed blood stem cells were able to successfully produce blood cells when implanted into mice. And if either or both procedures turn out to be viable for humans, a future where blood donors will no longer be needed may soon be in the horizon because science has provided us with a way to produce unlimited blood supply.

Stem cells are specially programmed cells that are responsible for creating all of the bodys other cells. There are two types of stem cells embryonic and adult. Embryonic stem cells are located you guessed it in the embryo where they stay before they start to specialise. Adult stem cells are the ones used to repair and replace worn out or old cells.

Those are the natural types. Theres another type, though. Theyre called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells for short). Unlike the first two types, iPS cells arent naturally present. Theyre actually adult stem cells that were converted back to their primitive state, which means they can be coaxed to turn into any type of cell.

Dr. Daley and his team chose to use both embryonic stem cells and iPS cells for their research. Using a combination of proteins, they coaxed the cells to turn into hemogenic endothelium a kind of embryonic tissue that eventually turns into blood stem cells. Next, they tested several transcription factors genes that tell other genes what to do until they came up with the combination (specifically: ERG, HOXA5, HOXA9, HOXA10, LCOR, RUNX1, and SPI1) that pushed the hemogenic endothelium into a blood-forming or blood stem cell state. They then injected those modified cells into the bone marrow of their mice subjects. After several weeks, portions of the mices blood and bone marrow developed different types of blood cells, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and even immune cells.

As Daley described the feat: Were tantalizingly close to generating bona fide human blood stem cells in a dish.

On the other hand, Rafii and his team chose a different route. They didnt make use of iPS cells. Instead, they created true blood stem cells, starting off by extracting stem cells from the blood vessel lining of mature mice. Next, they inserted transcription factors (Fosb, Gfi1, Runx1, and Spi1) into the genomes of the extracted cells, then kept these cells in Petri dishes designed to replicate the environment within human blood vessels.

Over time, the cells turned into blood stem cells and multiplied. They then injected those stem cells into mice treated with radiation (which meant most of their blood and immune cells were gone). The stem cells regenerated not just the blood, but the immune cells too. Consequently, the mice recovered and went on to live for over 1.5 years in the lab.

As described by Rafii, the procedure they used is similar to a direct aeroplane flight, while Daleys is like a flight that took a detour prior to reaching its ultimate destination. Doing away with the iPS part kind of makes Rafiis method slightly better than Daleys because it minimizes the threat of tumors forming or the body rejecting the stem cells, which is a typical reaction that iPS cells might cause. But if Daleys team is able to refine their process to eliminate this risk, then that will level the playing field, so to speak.

Whatever happens from here on, both procedures are nonetheless considered significant breakthroughs. And even though its not yet certain which method will turn out to be the better one for humans, whats clear is that both methods have the potential to be game-changers when it comes to any kind of treatment involving blood infusion and transfusion.

Both studies have been published in the journal Nature, with Daleys under the title Haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from human pluripotent stem cells and Rafiis under the title Conversion of adult endothelium to immunocompetent haematopoietic stem cells.

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Scientists Close to Generating Unlimited Blood Supply from Stem Cells - Wall Street Pit

The Hindu

Unrelated donor transplants to aid thalassemics The Hindu Transplantation of a special kind of stem cells found in the bone marrow has been the only curative option for patients with thalassemia major (genetic inability to produce normal, adult haemoglobin leading to severe anaemia). Since only 30-35% of such ...

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Unrelated donor transplants to aid thalassemics - The Hindu

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A Devon family are swimming to Great Ormond Street Hospital to help a mum whose 15-month-old son has been diagnosed with very rare syndrome called Diskeratosis Congenita. Little Max Hilton's treatment is reliant on a steady supply of stem cell donors and after being around children with similar conditions Max's mum, Becca, is determined to encourage donors to come forward.

Through a touching Facebook group called Be There For Buzz Man Becca, has charted her son's journey and the difficulty they both face.

Becca's North Devon family have sprung into action to help spread the message that the UK needs more Stem Cell donors and to raise funds for the Antony Nolan Register, an organisation dedicated to researching stem cells and matching donors to those in need of help.

"We're delighted with the support we have received by so many people in aid of raising money for Anthony Nolan, including Reef, Tace and Aimee who are based in North Devon, have organised a charity swim called Swimming to Max; swimming 250 miles from Barnstaple to Romford, the distance between them and Max, over 20 weeks to raise as much as they can for the charity," said Becca.

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"Nobody ever expects their newborn child to be diagnosed with such a rare condition, to see him fighting every day is extremely painful, and to see so many brave children in the same ward really does showcase the need of more stem cell and bone marrow donors. Great Ormond Street Hospital are doing all they can, and we'd like to thank the staff for providing invaluable support to both Max and our family.

"For us, converting the negativity we have experienced with Max into making a positive impact for other patients in the same position will make our day.

"If just one person who reads our story decides to see if they're eligible, that could then continue to save a life. Please don't let it affect someone you love to then decide to register. There are so many patients waiting for suitable donors."

For Becca, telling Max's story is not just important for friends and family, but primarily to raise awareness of the desperate need for donors.

To see if you're eligible to donate stem cells, you must be 16 or over, and it is as easy as spitting in a cup to provide a saliva sample for Anthony Nolan to then assess eligibility to then donate - all done through a free sample kit sent via post, from their website.

Donating bone marrow and stem cells is not invasive at all; 9 out of 10 people donate stem cells via the bloodstream, in a procedure called peripheral blood stem cell collection. One in 10 people will have stem cells taken from the bone marrow itself, whilst under general anaesthetic.

Neither procedure hurts, and it's time more is done to increase the people on the register so patients, similar to Max, have a chance in recovering from their rare conditions with the help of those that are genetically matched to their blood type.

The Be There For Buzz Man Facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/buzzman11, and to find out how to donate stem cells visit http://www.anthonynolan.org.

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Baby Max can only survive with a constant supply of stem cells - Devon Live

Kansas City Star

Sickle cell cure is real, as this Kansas patient proves Kansas City Star Intense pain. Fatigue. Repeated infections, emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Desiree Ramirez endured them often until she became the first adult cured at a Kansas hospital of sickle cell disease. Bone marrow stem cells donated by a ...

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Sickle cell cure is real, as this Kansas patient proves - Kansas City Star

By By Elianna Novitch, The Gazette

May 29, 2017 at 5:00 am | Print View

IOWA CITY More than 20 million people are registered as bone marrow donors in the Be the Match registry, the largest and most diverse donor registry in the world.

But none can help Calder Wills, a 12-year-old Iowa City boy battling stage 4 T-cell lymphoma, or cancer of the blood.

Only one person has been identified as a 100-percent match for Calder, but that person was deemed medically unable to donate bone marrow.

This has left the Wills family with few options.

And so, friends of the family are hosting a donor registry drive on Tuesday to raise awareness about the need for more marrow donors and to perhaps find a match for Calder and others like him.

The event takes place from 3 to 8 p.m. inside the gym at Hoover Elementary School, 2200 E. Court St., Iowa City. Those who attend can join the Be The Match registry. Those who are unable to attend can register online at bethematch.org.

Calder was diagnosed with lymphoma in February 2016. He went into remission within the first 30 days but found out on April 11 the day after his 12th birthday that he had relapsed and would need a bone-marrow transplant. He is one of thousands searching for a match.

He is among the 70 percent of patients who surprisingly dont have a match in their own family, explained Colleen Reardon, manager of the Iowa Marrow Donor Program at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. We are looking for a tissue type match and each sibling has about a 25 percent chance of being a match.

Calder has three siblings, a twin brother Grayson and sisters Charlotte, 7, and Arden, 5, all of whom were not matches. The next best chance a patient has, statistically, is to find an unrelated donor that is a 100-percent match.

Calders mother Brianna Wills described it as devastating when the family found out that the 58-year-old woman who matched with Calder was deemed medically unable to donate.

That left us with no match, no options, she said. Weve decided to pursue cord blood for his transplant, Wills said. He is going to have a cord blood transplant at the University of Minnesota because a bone marrow match wasnt available and he couldnt wait until one became available.

According to the Be The Match website, cord blood is one of three sources of blood-forming cells used in transplant. The others are bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells. Cord blood can be used to treat more than 80 diseases, including blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Cord blood comes from a babys umbilical cord.

Wills said that even though Calder is receiving a different type of transplant, she does not want people to not register as a marrow donor.

I dont want that to dissuade people from continuing to do it because he has about a two out of three chance that this transplant will fail because he has T-cell lymphoma that is very aggressive and very hard to treat, Wills said. Realistically, statistically, we are looking at him needing a second transplant down the road and thats when we hope that well find a donor and we can use a bone marrow match then.

Please still do it and not just for Calder, do it for the thousands of people who also dont have a match.

According to Reardon, of every 540 people who register as a donor, only one will be identified as that perfect match for someone and be asked to donate.

Were not realistically hoping to find Calders donor, I mean that would be amazing, but really were hoping to expand the database. Were just hoping that some family in Texas or somewhere else in the world is also doing this and maybe theyll find Calders donor, Wills said. If were all doing it, were going to expand the database for everyones benefit.

Wills recognizes that even though the drive is in Calders honor, it is truly to the benefit of thousands of other people who dont have donors.

There are other ethnic groups that have very little participation and to be a match you need to be matched with donors that have similar ethnic background as you do, Wills said. So African Americans, Hispanics, people that have mixed races, or Asian background wed love to have them come because there are people waiting for donors of all kinds of backgrounds.

What: Bone Marrow Donor Drive

When: 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Hoover Elementary School, 2200 E. Court St., Iowa City

Details: Join the Iowa Marrow Donor Program and Be The Match Registry using a simple cheek swab.

Info: join.bethematch.org/CalderStrong or call the Iowa Marrow Donor Program at (319) 356-3337.

l Comments: (319) 368-8538; elianna.novitch@thegazette.com

We make it easy to stay connected:

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Bone marrow donor drive honors Iowa City boy battling lymphoma - The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines

These photomicrographs show the initial scratches created with a pipette tip compared with the same scratch 36 hours later and at end of study, at 72 hours, for each experimental group. ac show the control group, from left, at the start, after 36 hours, and after 72 hours. df show the results for the same horse with use of the supernatant solution; and gi show the results for the same horse from the stem cell group. Images: Sherman et al DOI: 10.1186/s13287-017-0577-3

Stem cells taken from bone marrow may substantially improve corneal wound healing in horses, evidence from a study suggests.

Eye injuries are common in horses, most likely because of the size of their eyes and their prominent position in the head.

Researchers from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine conducted a laboratory experiment to assess the performance of stem cells taken from bone marrow in the breast bone of five horses.

Amanda Sherman and her colleagues, writing in Stem Cell Research & Therapy, described the process by which they collected and isolated the autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells for their study.

Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent connective-tissue cells that can change into a variety of cell types to form the likes of bone, cartilage, muscle and fat.

The supernatant solution comprising cell-medium sediment left over from the centrifuging process was also used in the study to compare its performance against the stem cells. A naive culture media was used as a control.

Corneal stromal cells were cultured and transferred on to six collagen-coated plates. A scratch was then placed the length of these equine corneal fibroblast cultures using a fine pipette.

The plates were then exposed to either the stem cells, the supernatant solution or the naive culture medium.

The researchers reported a significant percentage decrease in the scratch area remaining in the stem cell and supernatant groups compared to the control group after 72 hours.

The decrease was significantly greater in the stem-cell group compared to the supernatant group 36 hours after exposure and at all times thereafter.

The performance of the supernatant solution was most likely due to the presence of the growth factor TGF-1, which was identified on analysis. TGF-1 was found in even greater concentrations in the stem cell group.

The researchers concluded that the use of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells may substantially improve corneal wound healing in horses.

The supernatant solution may also improve corneal wound healing, given the significant decrease in scratch area compared to control treatments, and would be an immediately available and cost-effective treatment option, they said.

The researchers said studies in live horses were warranted to evaluate the potential treatments safety and effectiveness for corneal wound healing.

The universitys study team comprised Sherman,Brian Gilger,Alix Berglund and Lauren Schnabel.

Effect of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and stem cell supernatant on equine corneal wound healing in vitro Amanda B. Sherman, Brian C. Gilger, Alix K. Berglund and Lauren V. Schnabel Stem Cell Research & Therapy 2017 8:120 DOI: 10.1186/s13287-017-0577-3

The study, published under a Creative Commons License, can be read here.

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Stem cells show promise in helping to heal eye injuries in horses - Horsetalk

FOX31 Denver

How a simple cheek swab can save a life FOX31 Denver DENVER -- The need is undeniable. The majority of cancer patients in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant are not able to get one, in part because they can't find a match. Doctors hope more people will register to be a donor, and say all it ...

Original post:
How a simple cheek swab can save a life - FOX31 Denver

AR Rahman (Pic: ENS).

CHENNAI: Double Oscar winning Indian composer A R Rahman has made an appeal to youngsters to register themselves as bone marrow donors. The music directors appeal is made on behalf of the Chennai-based Jeevan Stem Cell Foundation to mark the world blood cancer day (May 28, Sunday).

The foundations co-founder and chairman, P Srinivasan said every year over 1.2 lakh Indians are diagnosed with blood cancer and another 10,000 children born with diseases like Thalassemia. They could hope for a 60 to 80% chance of cure, with matching stem cell donors. So, the foundation has created a registry, which is a database of potential stem cell donors, and matching donors are identified when needed.

To encourage more people to register in this database, the foundation with the help of AR Rahman has put out a YouTube video to mark world blood cancer day. Over 90 per cent of us cant find a stem cell match because Indian DNA is different and we dont have a large bone marrow registry.

If you are between 18 and 50, it is your time to save an Indian life, sign up with me as bone marrow donor in Jevan stem cell registry, said Rahman in the video.

Interested individuals can login to http://www.bethecure.in, read who are eligible and register as potential stem cell donors.

Excerpt from:
Be bone marrow donors: A R Rahman's appeal to youth - The New Indian Express

The Hindu

Indian researchers develop 3D bioprinted cartilage The Hindu The bioink has high concentration of bone-marrow derived cartilage stem cells, silk proteins and a few factors. The chemical composition of the bioink supports cell growth and long-term survival of the cells. The cartilage developed in the lab has ...

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Indian researchers develop 3D bioprinted cartilage - The Hindu

UW Health trial involves injecting... More Headlines

MADISON, Wis. - Doctors at UW Health are involved in a clinical trial using stem cells for the treatment of heart failure.

The CardiAMP therapy involves withdrawing a patients bone marrow. The bone marrow is then processed on-site to separate the stem cells from the plasma. The patients own stem cells are then injected into damaged areas of the heart using a catheter.

It is hopeful that we can improve things. I dont think we can necessarily cure the damage, but I think we can improve things, said Dr. Amish Raval, director of cardiovascular clinical research at UW Health.

The CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial is a phase III study that will eventually enroll up to 260 patients. For the first 10 patients, UW Health is one of three sites nationwide performing the procedure.

I figured it was possibly going to do something good for me, said Dan Caulfield, a Madison man enrolled in the study.

Caulfield, who is 81 years old, has had three heart attacks.

I was 46 years old and had a heart attack. It was called a fatal heart attack in those days, Caulfield said. I had two more heart attacks in 2002, and since then it has been sort of downhill.

Improving the quality of life of individuals with heart failure is a goal of the CardiAMP therapy.

There is about a 50 percent five-year mortality associated with this condition and those five years can be awfully tough on these folks because they have a lot of problems with shortness of breath, weakness and sometimes chest discomfort while walking. So it is not just a matter of quantity of life, it is also a quality of life issue, Raval said.

The procedure involves a very targeted injection of stem cells into the area near where the heart is damaged.

We create a targeted map and based on that targeted map we have a really clear sense of where the damage is. Then it is my task to go in and try to get into the adjacent border areas, Raval said.

In the U.S. there are approximately 6.5 million people living with heart failure. According to the American Heart Association, that number is expected to rise by 46 percent by the year 2030.

This is one of the few pivotal trials in the United States that is really, I think, going to pave the way for future studies, Raval said.

The outcome of the CardiAMP trial will be measured by any change in distance during a six-minute walk 12 months after an initial baseline measurement is taken.

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UW Health trial involves injecting stem cells into patients with heart failure - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

Schamper's life was still saved, however, thanks to an international registry of willing bone-marrow and stem-cell donors, people from all walks of life who made the decision to step up and, if they could, save the life of someone even though they had never met.

"So I personally understand the importance of trying to register more potential donors," Schamper said in an interview this week with the News Tribune Opinion page. "This is something simple that any one of us can do to help save a life. It's so important to educate the public and community and to let people know how easy it is."

Schamper's story is a reminder of the critical importance of at least seriously considering becoming a registered bone-marrow and stem-cell donor in case someone out there like her, someone with a blood cancer or blood-related illness, is suddenly in life-or-death need.

May 28 is World Blood Cancer Day, an annual observance of the same reminder.

And a story in the News Tribune on April 22 offered Duluthians yet another prompt. It chronicled the moment a 40-year-old Duluth woman, Merissa Edwards, met the 30-year-old woman from Cologne, Germany, responsible for the stem cell transplant in 2014 that saved her life.

"It's so important for us to help other people keep their families together and save a mother or father or son or daughter," Edwards said in the story. "The more people we can encourage to cheek-swab and get on the registry, the more lives we can help save and help families stay together."

Cheek-swab? Yep, registering is that simple. After signing up at dkms.org, a swab kit comes in the mail. After swabbing the inside of your cheek, you just mail it back. And then wait. In case that day ever comes when someone out there your genetic twin is in desperate need of your help.

DKMS is an international nonprofit based in New York that urges registrations and then covers after-insurance costs for donors. Saving a life doesn't cost a thing.

Schamper is now a donor recruitment coordinator for DKMS, one of several such nonprofits that feeds the same international registry. She's in Illinois. Her donor was from California. She got to meet him at a DKMS-sponsored gala in 2011.

"It was a pretty powerful experience being able to meet the man that saved my life and being able to thank him in person. It's a moment I'll never forget," Schamper said. "When somebody needs a bone-marrow or stem-cell transplant it's because all other options have stopped working for them. There's no more chemotherapy that they can do. There's no more medication that they can take. This is somebody's last chance at hope for survival."

If you could help, if you could step up to save a life, even the life of someone you've never met, wouldn't you?

The need is great: Every year in the U.S., around 14,000 patients need a life-saving bone-marrow or stem-cell transplant. Fewer than half find matching donors, however. And only 30 percent find donors within their own families.

While 6.4 million potential donors are registered in the U.S., that actually accounts for only 2 percent of our total population. That's not many of us, and the more who register the better the chances of a match when a life is on the line.

Like Schamper's and Edwards' lives were two moms who get to continue being moms thanks for the selfless decisions of others.

Originally posted here:
Our view: Get registered, save a life - Duluth News Tribune

After 20 years of trying, scientists have transformed mature cells into primordial blood cells that regenerate themselves and the components of blood. The work, described [May 17] in Nature offers hope to people with leukemia and other blood disorders who need bone-marrow transplants but cant find a compatible donor. If the findings translate into the clinic, these patients could receive lab-grown versions of their own healthy cells.

One team, led by stem-cell biologist George Daley of Boston Childrens Hospital in Massachusetts, created human cells that act like blood stem cells, although they are not identical to those found in nature. A second team, led by stem-cell biologist Shahin Rafii of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, turned mature cells from mice into fully fledged blood stem cells.

Time will determine which approach succeeds. But the latest advances have buoyed the spirits of researchers who have been frustrated by their inability to generate blood stem cells from iPS cells. A lot of people have become jaded, saying that these cells dont exist in nature and you cant just push them into becoming anything else, [Mick Bhatia, a stem-cell researcher at McMaster University, who was not involved with either study] says.

[Read the Daley study here.]

Read the Rafii study here.]

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Lab-grown blood stem cells produced at last

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Breakthrough for bone marrow transplant recipients: Lab-grown blood stem cells produced for first time - Genetic Literacy Project

Q: How close are we to curing blood diseases with human stem cells?

A: New research has nudged scientists closer to one of regenerative medicine's holy grails: the ability to create customized human stem cells capable of forming blood that would be safe for patients.

Advances reported in the journal Nature could not only give scientists a window on what goes wrong in such blood cancers as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. They could also improve the treatment of those cancers, which affect some 1.2 million Americans.

While the use of blood-making stem cells in medicine has been common since the 1950s, it remains pretty crude. After patients with blood cancers have undergone powerful radiation and chemotherapy, they often need a bone-marrow transplant to rebuild their white blood cells, which are destroyed by that treatment.

The blood-making stem cells that reside in a donor's bone marrow and in umbilical cord blood harvested after a baby's birth are called "hematopoietic," and they can be life-saving. But even these stem cells can bear the distinctive immune system signatures of the person from whom they were harvested. So they can provoke an attack if the transplant recipient's body registers the cells as foreign.

This response, called graft-versus-host disease, affects as many as 70 percent of bone-marrow transplant recipients soon after treatment, and 40 percent develop a chronic version of the affliction later. It kills many patients.

Rather than hunt for a donor who's a perfect match, doctors would like to use a patient's own cells to engineer the hematopoietic stem cells.

The patient's mature cells would be "reprogrammed" to their most primitive form: stem cells capable of becoming virtually any kind of human cell. Then factors in their environment would coax them to become stem cells capable of giving rise to blood.Once reintroduced into the patient, the cells would take up residence without prompting rejection and set up a lifelong factory of healthy new blood cells.

If the risk of rejection could be eliminated, physicians might also feel more confident treating blood diseases that are not immediately deadly such as sickle cell disease and immunological disorders with stem cell transplants.

One of two research teams, led by stem cell pioneer Dr. George Q. Daley of Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, started their experiment with human "pluripotent" stem cells primitive cells capable of becoming virtually any type of mature cell.

The scientists then programmed those pluripotent stem cells to become endothelial cells, which line the inside of certain blood vessels.Using suppositions gleaned from experiments with mice, Daley said his team confected a "special sauce" of proteins that sit on a cell's DNA and program its function. When they incubated the endothelial cells in the sauce, they began producing hematopioetic stem cells.

Daley's team then transferred the resulting blood-making stem cells into the bone marrow of mice to see if they would "take." In two out of five mice who got the most promising cell types, they did. Not only did the stem cells establish themselves, they continued to renew themselves while giving rise to a wide range of blood cells.

A second team, led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine's Ansary Stem Cell Institute, achieved a similar result using stem cells from the blood-vessel lining of adult mice.

But Daley cautioned that significant hurdles remain before studies like these will transform the treatment of blood diseases.

"We do know the resulting cells function like blood stem cells, but they still are at some distance, molecularly, from native stem cells," he said.

Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

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Medical Q&A: Progress made in getting stem cells to 'take' in mice - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

He was tired of the daily pain that made even shaking someone's hand almost unbearable.

Marlette lost his arm in an accident when he was a teenager, but as an active kid, he didn't this slow him down. He continued to play football and golf, running track and even wrestling.

But over time, the strain on his remaining arm and wrist took a toll.

So to relieve his pain, he traveled from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Munich, Germany, with the hopes that a special procedure using stem cells could make a difference.

"There's no cartilage," Marlette said of his wrist. "I'm bone-on-bone. It is constantly inflamed and very sore."

As Marlette grew older, even the simplest things, like tucking in his shirt or putting on a jacket, became incredibly painful.

Marlette developed cysts and holes in the bones of his wrist. Doctors prescribed anti-inflammatory medications, but they only managed the pain, doing nothing to actually heal the problem. One day, his doctor, Dr. Bob Van Demark at Sanford Health in South Dakota, where Marlette works in finance, saw a presentation by Dr. Eckhard Alt.

It was about a new treatment using stem cells.

"Following an infection or wound or trauma," Alt said, "there comes a call to the stem cells in the blood vessels, which are silent, and nature activates those cells."

Stem cells are located throughout our bodies, like a reserve army offering regeneration and repair. When we're injured or sick, our stem cells divide and create new cells to replace those that are damaged or killed. Depending on where the cells are in the body, they adapt, becoming specialized as blood cells, muscle cells or brain cells, for example.

Alt was the first person to use adipose tissue, or fat, as a prime source of stem cells, according to Dr. David Pearce, executive vice president for research at Sanford health.

"He observed that the simplest place to get some stem cells is really from the fat," said Pearce. "Most of us could give some fat up, and those stem cells don't have to be programmed in any way, but if you put in the right environment, they will naturally turn into what the cell type around them is."

Fat tissue has a lot of blood vessels, making it a prime source of stem cells, and Alt recognized that stem cells derived from adipose tissue are also particularly good at becoming cartilage and bone.

Bone marrow is another source of stem cells, but these easily turn into blood and immune cells. Stem cells from fat have another fate.

"Fat-derived stem cells have a different lineage they can turn into, that is really cartilage and bone and other sort of connective tissues," said Pearce.

Van Demark traveled to Alt's Munich clinic along with some doctors from Sanford, which is now partnering with Alt on clinical trials in the United States. Marlette's doctor was impressed with what he saw and recommended the treatment to his patient.

Marlette paid his own way to Munich, where he would receive an injection of stem cells from his own fat tissue.

"I had one treatment, and my wrist felt better almost within the next couple weeks," Marlette said. "Through the course of the next seven months, it continued to feel better and better."

One injection was enough for this ongoing improvement.

"We see (from an MRI scan) that those cysts are gone, the bone has restructured, the inflammation is gone, and he formed ... new cartilage," said Alt.

MRIs confirmed what he was feeling: The cartilage had begun to regenerate in his wrist. Because the procedure uses autologous cells, which are cells from the patient's own body, there's little to no chance of rejection by the body's immune system.

Though the procedure worked for Marlette, the use of stem cells as a form of treatment is not without controversy or risk. In the US, they have been mired in controversy because much of the early research and discussion has been centered around embryonic and fetal stem cells.

Marlette traveled to Germany because approved treatments like this are not available in the United States. Clinics have popped up across the country, but they lack oversight from the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Robin Smith, founder of the Stem for Life Foundation, first began working in this field 10 years ago. According to Smith, there were 400 clinical trials for stem cells when she first started; now, there are 4,500. She partnered with the Vatican to hold a stem cell conference last year.

"We're moving toward a new era in medicine," said Smith, who was not involved in this research. "(We are) recognizing cells in our body and immune system can be used in some way -- manipulated, redirected or changed at the DNA level -- to impact health and cure disease. It is an exciting time."

Dr. Nick Boulis is a neurosurgeon with Emory University in Atlanta. His team ran the first FDA-approved clinical trials in the US to inject stem cells in the spinal cords of patients with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and he isn't surprised to see procedures like the one at Alt's clinic in Germany have success.

"Joints and bones heal," Boulis said. "The nervous system is very bad at healing. It doesn't surprise me that we're seeing successes in recapitulating cartilage before we're seeing successes in rebuilding the motherboard."

Smith also cautioned patients to do their research, especially about the types of cells being used. "When you have a health problem, and you need a solution, sometimes you don't have three five, seven years to get there," she said, referencing the slow progression of regulations in places like the United States.

"So really ,look for places that have the regulatory approval of the country they're in. Safety has to be number one," she said.

Alt's Munich clinic was approved by the European equivalent of the FDA, the European Medicines Agency. Through the partnership with Sanford, the health group is now launching clinical trials in America, focusing on rotator cuff injuries, a common shoulder injury. This is the first FDA-approved trial of its kind.

Further down the line, Alt hopes to see stem cells used for such issues as heart procedures and treating the pancreas to help diabetics. For him, the growth is limitless.

"I think it will be exponential," he said. "It will be the same thing (we saw) with deciphering the human genome. The knowledge will go up exponentially, and the cost will go exponentially down. For me, the most exciting thing is to see how you can help patients that have been desperate for which there was no other option, no hope, and how well they do."

For Marlette, it has meant a wrist free from pain and a life free from pain medication.

Since the procedure in August, he hasn't taken any of the anti-inflammatory drugs. "I have more range of motion with my wrist, shaking hands didn't hurt anymore," he said. "My wrist seems to continue to improve, and there's less and less pain all the time."

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Patient uses fat stem cells to repair his wrist - CNN

Science World Report

Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplants Could Advance ALS Treatment Science World Report The researchers discovered that bone marrow stem cell transplants may advance the treatment of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The transplants enhanced the motor functions and nervous system conditions in mice with ALS that modeled in ... Stem cell transplants beneficial to mice with ALSLife Science Daily all 2 news articles »

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Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplants Could Advance ALS Treatment - Science World Report

With gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, offending genes could one day be snipped out of hematopoietic stem cells, then be returned to their owners to generate new lines of disease-free blood cells

New research has nudged scientists closer to one of regenerative medicines holy grails: the ability to create customised human stem cells capable of forming blood that would be safe for patients. Advances reported in the journal Nature could not only give scientists a window on what goes wrong in such blood cancers as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, but they could also improve the treatment of those cancers, which affect some 1.2 million Americans. The stem cells that give rise to our blood are a mysterious wellspring of life. In principle, just one of these primitive cells can create much of a human beings immune system, not to mention the complex slurry of cells that courses through a persons arteries, veins and organs. While the use of blood-making stem cells in medicine has been common since the 1950s, it remains pretty crude. After patients with blood cancers have undergone powerful radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill their cancer cells, they often need a bone-marrow transplant to rebuild their white blood cells, which are destroyed by that treatment. The blood-making stem cells that reside in a donors bone marrow and in umbilical cord blood that is sometimes harvested after a babys birth are called hematopoietic, and they can be life-saving. But even these stem cells can bear the distinctive immune system signatures of the person from whom they were harvested. As a result, they can provoke an attack if the transplant recipients body registers the cells as foreign. This response, called graft-versus-host disease, affects as many as 70 percent of bone-marrow transplant recipients in the months following the treatment, and 40 percent develop a chronic version of the affliction later. It can overwhelm the benefit of a stem cell transplant. And it kills many patients. Rather than hunt for a donor whos a perfect match for a patient in need of a transplant a process that can be lengthy, ethically fraught and ultimately unsuccessful doctors would like to use a patients own cells to engineer the hematopoietic stem cells. The patients mature cells would be reprogrammed to their most primitive form: stem cells capable of becoming virtually any kind of human cell. Then factors in their environment would coax them to become the specific type of stem cells capable of giving rise to blood. Once reintroduced into the patient, the cells would take up residence without prompting rejection and set up a lifelong factory of healthy new blood cells. If the risk of deadly rejection episodes could be eliminated, physicians might also feel more confident treating blood diseases that are painful and difficult but not immediately deadly diseases such as sickle cell disease and immunological disorders with stem cell transplants. The two studies published on Wednesday demonstrate that scientists may soon be capable of pulling off the sequence of operations necessary for such treatments to move ahead. One of two research teams, led by stem cell pioneer Dr George Q. Daley of Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, started their experiment with human pluripotent stem cells primitive cells capable of becoming virtually any type of mature cell in the body. Some of them were embryonic stem cells and others were induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which are made by converting mature cells back to a flexible state. The scientists then programmed those pluripotent stem cells to become endothelial cells, which line the inside of certain blood vessels. Past research had established that those cells are where blood-making stem cells are born. Here, the process needed a nudge. Using suppositions gleaned from experiments with mice, Daley said his team confected a special sauce of proteins that sit on a cells DNA and programme its function. When they incubated the endothelial cells in the sauce, they began producing hematopioetic stem cells in their earliest form. Daleys team then transferred the resulting blood-making stem cells into the bone marrow of mice to see if they would take. In two out of five mice who got the most promising cell types, they did. Not only did the stem cells establish themselves, they continued to renew themselves while giving rise to a wide range of blood cells. A second research team, led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicines Ansary Stem Cell Institute in New York, achieved a similar result using stem cells from the blood-vessel lining of adult mice. After programming those cells to revert to a more primitive form, the scientists also incubated those stem cells in a concoction of specialised proteins. When the team, led by Raphael Lis and Dr Shahin Rafii, transferred the resulting stem cells back into the tissue lining the blood vessels of the mice from which they came, that graft also took. For at least 40 weeks after the incubated stem cells were returned to their mouse owners, the stem cells continued to regenerate themselves and give rise to many blood-cell types without provoking immune reactions. In addition to making a workhorse treatment for blood cancers safer, the new advances may afford scientists a unique window on the mechanisms by which blood diseases take hold and progress, said Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. From a research point of view you could now actually begin to model diseases, said Greenberger. If you were to take the cell thats defective and make it revert to a stem cell, you could effectively reproduce the disease and watch its progression from the earliest stages. That, in turn, would make it easier to narrow the search for drugs that could disrupt that disease process early. And it would speed the process of discovering which genes are implicated in causing diseases. With gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, those offending genes could one day be snipped out of hematopoietic stem cells, then be returned to their owners to generate new lines of disease-free blood cells. But Daley cautioned that significant hurdles remain before studies like these will transform the treatment of blood diseases. We do know the resulting cells function like blood stem cells, but they still are at some distance, molecularly, from native stem cells, he said. By tinkering with the processes by which pluripotent stem cells mature into blood-producing stem cells, Daley said his team hopes to make these lab-grown cells a better match for the real things. Los Angeles Times/TNS

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Regenerative medicine: holy grail within grasp? - Gulf Times

New research has nudged scientists closer to one of regenerative medicines holy grails: the ability to create customized human stem cells capable of forming blood that would be safe for patients.

Advances reported Wednesday in the journal Nature could not only give scientists a window on what goes wrong in such blood cancers as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. They could also improve the treatment of those cancers, which affect some 1.2 million Americans.

The stem cells that give rise to our blood are a mysterious wellspring of life. In principle, just one of these primitive cells can create much of a human beings immune system, not to mention the complex slurry of cells that courses through a persons arteries, veins and organs.

While the use of blood-making stem cells in medicine has been common since the 1950s, it remains pretty crude. After patients with blood cancers have undergone powerful radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill their cancer cells, they often need a bone-marrow transplant to rebuild their white blood cells, which are destroyed by that treatment.

The blood-making stem cells that reside in a donors bone marrow and in umbilical cord blood that is sometimes harvested after a babys birth are called hematopoietic, and they can be life-saving. But even these stem cells can bear the distinctive immune system signatures of the person from whom they were harvested. As a result, they can provoke an attack if the transplant recipients body registers the cells as foreign.

This response, called graft-versus-host disease, affects as many as 70% of bone-marrow transplant recipients in the months following the treatment, and 40% develop a chronic version of the affliction later. It can overwhelm the benefit of a stem cell transplant. And it kills many patients.

Rather than hunt for a donor whos a perfect match for a patient in need of a transplant a process that can be lengthy, ethically fraught and ultimately unsuccessful doctors would like to use a patients own cells to engineer the hematopoietic stem cells.

The patients mature cells would be reprogrammed to their most primitive form: stem cells capable of becoming virtually any kind of human cell. Then factors in their environment would coax them to become the specific type of stem cells capable of giving rise to blood.

Once reintroduced into the patient, the cells would take up residence without prompting rejection and set up a lifelong factory of healthy new blood cells.

If the risk of deadly rejection episodes could be eliminated, physicians might also feel more confident treating blood diseases that are painful and difficult but not immediately deadly diseases such as sickle cell disease and immunological disorders with stem cell transplants.

The two studies published Wednesday demonstrate that scientists may soon be capable of pulling off the sequence of operations necessary for such treatments to move ahead.

One of two research teams, led by stem-cell pioneer Dr. George Q. Daley of Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, started their experiment with human pluripotent stem cells primitive cells capable of becoming virtually any type of mature cell in the body. Some of them were embryonic stem cells and others were induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which are made by converting mature cells back to a flexible state.

The scientists then programmed those pluripotent stem cells to become endothelial cells, which line the inside of certain blood vessels. Past research had established that those cells are where blood-making stem cells are born.

Here, the process needed a nudge. Using suppositions gleaned from experiments with mice, Daley said his team confected a special sauce of proteins that sit on a cells DNA and program its function. When they incubated the endothelial cells in the sauce, they began producing hematopioetic stem cells in their earliest form.

Daleys team then transferred the resulting blood-making stem cells into the bone marrow of mice to see if they would take. In two out of five mice who got the most promising cell types, they did. Not only did the stem cells establish themselves, they continued to renew themselves while giving rise to a wide range of blood cells.

A second research team, led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicines Ansary Stem Cell Institute in New York, achieved a similar result using stem cells from the blood-vessel lining of adult mice. After programming those cells to revert to a more primitive form, the scientists also incubated those stem cells in a concoction of specialized proteins.

When the team, led by Raphael Lis and Dr. Shahin Rafii, transferred the resulting stem cells back into the tissue lining the blood vessels of the mice from which they came, that graft also took. For at least 40 weeks after the incubated stem cells were returned to their mouse owners, the stem cells continued to regenerate themselves and give rise to many blood-cell types without provoking immune reactions.

In addition to making a workhorse treatment for blood cancers safer, the new advances may afford scientists a unique window on the mechanisms by which blood diseases take hold and progress, said Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

From a research point of view you could now actually begin to model diseases, said Greenberger. If you were to take the cell thats defective and make it revert to a stem cell, you could effectively reproduce the disease and watch its progression from the earliest stages.

That, in turn, would make it easier to narrow the search for drugs that could disrupt that disease process early. And it would speed the process of discovering which genes are implicated in causing diseases. With gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, those offending genes could one day be snipped out of hematopoietic stem cells, then be returned to their owners to generate new lines of disease-free blood cells.

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Scientists get closer to making personalized blood cells by using patients' own stem cells - Los Angeles Times

BENGLURU: Fateh Singh, a six-year-old thalassemia major patient from Amritsar, underwent a bone marrow transplant last May which gave him a new lease of life. A year later, the boy met his saviour, Naval Chaudhary, whose stem cells were used for the procedure. The child was diagnosed with the condition when he was one-and-a-half years old.

On Thursday, the donor and recipient met for the first time. Naval, 28, a professional living in Bengaluru, had registered with DATRI, an unrelated blood stem cell donors registry in 2015. He said: "I was very happy to hear I was a potential match for a patient. But then I was told the donation process had to be done through bone marrow harvesting. Initially, I was a tad hesitant but then I researched the procedure and was counselled by Dr Sunil Bhat, paediatric haemato-oncologist from Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre."

"I realized that saving a life is more important than the type of procedure I had to go through. So I decided to go ahead," he added.

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6-year-old thalassemia patient from Punjab meets his stem cell ... - Times of India

Welsh rockers The Alarm are using their shows to encourage fans to become bone marrow donors.

The band, who are set to play at the Electric Ballroom in London, on Saturday, have arranged for swabbing station to be set up at the venue.

It means fans will be able to join a bone marrow donor registry with a simple cheek swab.

Leader singer Mike Peters, who has battled cancer three times, co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation in 2007 with the aim to "save lives, one concert at a time".

It hosts donor drives at concerts and festivals around the world by encouraging music fans aged 18 to 55 to sign up to the International Bone Marrow Registry.

To date, more than 150,000 music fans have joined the registry, and more than 3,100 potentially-lifesaving matches for blood cancer patients.

Bone marrow is a soft tissue found in the middle of certain bones. It contains stem cells, which are the "building blocks" for other normal blood cells (like red cells, which carry oxygen, and white cells, which fight infection).

Some diseases, such as leukaemia, prevent people's bone marrow from working properly. And for certain patients, the only cure is to have a stem cell transplant from a healthy donor.

Peters, 58, from North Wales, was first diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1995. He has also battled leukaemia twice.

He said: "It's humbling to see how many people have responded to the Get On The List campaign so far."

Blood cancer charity DKMS, which is the world's largest donor centre, has worked with the LHS Foundation since 2013.

Joe Hallett, senior donor recruitment manager at the charity, said: "Only one in three people with a blood cancer in the UK and in need of a life-saving blood stem cell transplant will be lucky enough to find a suitable match within their own family.

"Finding a match from a genetically similar person can offer the best treatment, a second chance of life."

Last updated Fri 19 May 2017

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Rock band encourages fans to become bone marrow donors - ITV.com - ITV News