Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB) April 03, 2017

Retired orthopedic spine surgeon, Kenneth Pettine, M.D. is excited to release the three year results of his bone marrow stem cell treatment study. Dr. Pettine has been a pioneer in the use of bone marrow concentrate stem cell injections. He was the first surgeon to inject biologics into the human spine as part of an FDA Study in the U.S. almost seven years ago. He has the only U.S. Patent on the method of treating orthopedic and spine pathology with a patient's own stem cells.

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain, said Dr. Pettine. Thats terrific news for patients who up until now only had the option of undergoing expensive and invasive back fusion or artificial disc surgery.

Degenerative disc disease is a common back pain diagnosis in the United States and affects millions of patients. The symptoms of the condition can become so painful that patients may be forced to miss work and are prevented from participating in regular daily activities. Treatment is often limited to palliative care such as chiropractic, physical therapy, narcotics, injections or invasive surgical procedures to try to decrease the daily chronic low back pain. Numerous studies have shown surgery improves back pain in the average patient only 40%. Stem Cell therapy improved the average patient 70% with long term follow up.

Dr. Pettines treatment uses a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to help reduce inflammation in the spine and stimulate the creation of new tissue in the spinal disc to help reverse the effects of the disease. The office procedure is performed with I.V. sedation and usually takes 45 minutes. The study noted that patients who received higher concentrations of stem cells in their injections saw a greater improvement in their back pain.. This three year follow-up research study shows utilizing a patient's own stem cells can provide long-term back pain relief and prevented the need for invasive surgery in 77% of the patients.

If you live in the Northern Colorado area and are experiencing neck or back pain due to degenerative disc disease, you can learn more about Dr. Pettines treatment and research by visiting his website at http://www.KennethPettine.com.

About Dr. Kenneth Pettine Dr. Pettine has been the principal investigator of 18 FDA studies about stem cells and their uses and is considered a pioneer in the field. He founded The Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine in 1991 to offer patients a non-fusion surgical option for their neck and back pain. He co-invented the FDA-approved Prestige cervical artificial disc and the Maverick Artificial Disc. He is currently focused on the use of Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for patients desiring to avoid orthopedic or spine surgery. You can learn more about the therapy and Dr. Pettine at his website, http://www.KennethPettine.com.

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Northern Colorado Surgeon Releases Three Year Results of Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment - PR Web (press release)

A benefit dinner will be held April 1 in honour of seven-month-old Madalayna Ducharme. The Warrior Princess fundraiser starts Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Parkwood Gospel Temple. All proceeds will support the family's ongoing expenses related to her medical treatment.

Madalayna suffers from malignant infantile osteoporosis, a rare genetic disorder of bone development in which the bones become thickened and unhealthy. It leads to bone fractures, short stature, poor bone growth and a thicker skull which may delay development of teeth. Left untreated, it could be fatal.

Early this year, her family started a Facebook campaign that went viral asking for people to sign up to become stem cell or bone marrow donors. Thanks to the number of people who volunteered to be tested, a match was found and Madalayna underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this month.

The recovery is expected to be lengthy as the transplant process is grueling on an infants body. Its expected that she will need to stay in a Toronto hospital for three months while she undergoes treatment.

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Benefit dinner will help family of baby girl recovering from bone marrow transplant - CTV News

In Brief Studies are being done on the value of replacing older blood with younger blood via transfusions. Other researchers are studying the effects of a certain protein, osteopontin, on blood cell production. 1000 Ways To Live Forever

Society is gradually changing its classification of aging as a natural phenomenon to a disease. We have made strides in our research on preventing and potentially reversing the effects of aging.In addition to the ongoing research in molecular biology ontelomeres, there is the interesting idea of utilizing young blood to combat aging. Ironically, the legends of Dracula might be vindicated in light of new research involving young blood to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, which has inspiredclinical trials that may give patients a chance at beating the Grim Reaper.

Ambrosia, a company inspired by the work done by Stanford University neuroscientistTony Wyss-Coray with parabiosis in mice, charges $8,000 per patient for its human clinical trial ofparabiosis. Although there may be 600 people whotake part in the study transfusing 1.5 liters of plasma with donors between the ages of 16 and 25, thestudy is being done without the blessing of Wyss. He believes that the study does not genuinely represent the science and that, theres just no clinical evidence, and youre basically abusing peoples trust and the public excitement around this.

While Ambrosia is operatingwithout clinical evidence to support the trials, the science behind utilizing young blood in repairing and restoring aged cellular processes is worth taking a look at.

Red and white blood cells are produced from stem cellswithin bone marrow, and as we grow older, our bodys ability to replenish the number of red and white blood cells greatly depletes. Similar to the mouse trials ran by Wyss-Coray, researcherHartmut Geigerand his team at the University of Ulm in Germany looked at the bone marrow in mice at varying ages and determined that older rodents produce very low levels of the protein osteopontin.

Rather than looking at blood transfusions for apossible solution like Wyss-Corays team, Geigers team looked the potential of stem cells to test the importance of the deficient protein.The team introduced fresh stem cells into mice that had little to no osteopontin and noticed that the stem cells aged very quickly. When older stem cells were introduced to a dish with osteopontin and anactivator protein, the stem cells began to propagate blood cells.

While companies like Ambrosia are testing blood transfusions on humans to mimic an experiment that utilized a shared circulatory system between an older mouse and a younger mouse, Geigers team notes that long-term studies must be done on their work to verify the effect of osteopontin on rejuvenating cells completely.

The team is developing a drug with the protein and its activating factor, but they do not promise a fountain of youth. They do believe that there would be benefits for the immune systems of the elderly, which may be better positioned to fight diseases that are linked with cardiovascular agingafter takingthe drug.

While all this talk about immortality is exciting, it might be a while before we can actually reap the benefits of researchers studiesin the way we hope. In the meantime, we can keep dreaming away death.

The rest is here:
If Young Blood Can Combat Aging, It May Be Thanks to Just One Protein - Futurism

Alexes Harris tells KUOW's Katherine Banwell her story.

When ProfessorAlexes Harris learned she had a rare form of leukemia, she knew she was in a fight for her life. But she didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a bone marrow match as a woman of color. This is her story.

I have a rare blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome.

I was diagnosed in May 2016 after a year of various tests.Prior to being diagnosed, my only health complaints were a random onset of what felt like asthma attacks during my cycling classes (the only reason I went to the doctor), feeling very tired, and not always thinking clearly. I was told that if I did not begin treatment right away I would have two years to live.

Im a 41-year-old mother of a 9 year old and 5 year old (and wife to an amazing husband), so my only true option was to begin treatment.

After being presented with treatment options, we opted for an intensive round of in-patient chemotherapy, which I underwent in June 2016 and managed symptoms in July, 2016.During my initial diagnosis I learned that I would eventually need a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. This would be my only hope of a cure.

We immediately started research to learn about how matches were found and I discovered that because I am a person with a mixed race and ethnic background (African American, Filipino and white) I would have a difficult time finding a full donor match.

While whites have a 75 percent chance of finding a full match in the existing bone marrow registry, African Americans only have a 19 percent likelihood of finding a match. African Americans comprise only 7 percent of the United States registry.

And, it is projected that by 2017 our likelihood of finding a match will only raise to 21 percent. Within the United States registry, the likelihood for finding a full match is higher for people of Mexican (37 percent), Chinese (41 percent), South Asian (33 percent), Hispanic Caribbean (40 percent) and Native American (52 percent) ancestry than for African Americans, but still significantly lower than the likelihood for whites.

Finding a non-related full match is difficult if you are a person of color, especially people of mixed race origin. Having a 100 percent match is crucial in predicting positive outcomes post-transplant. While the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance has been searching for a match, today, I still do not have a full bone marrow donor match and am moving forward with an alternative stem cell transplant using donated umbilical cord blood. My transplant for using cord blood was in September.

This is why we are organizing a national bone marrow donation registry campaign.I want to make my cancer matter, so my great friends stepped in to make this happen. Our goal is to have 4,000 new people registered by this effort. We need people of all backgrounds to become potential matches to help people like me live.

I am a professor of sociology and teach about social stratification, inequality and racial outcomes in institutional processing.I research class and racial differences in criminal justice processing and outcomes. I am the daughter of a black and Filipino man, wife to a black man, sister to black men, and mother of a black son and daughter.I live in the United States and, as many of us know, understand the racial inequalities in our broader society.Many times I feel overwhelmed about the lack of ability to make institutional differences, be it in our systems of education, criminal justice and health care.

Yet, when it comes to bone marrow donation, and other blood products and organ donation, we can make a difference. We can, for ourselves, save ourselves. Becoming involved in donation empowers us in a way like no other to alleviate health care disparities.

You can learn a lot about my story and this campaignatteamalexes.com. We had bone marrow registries in five cities last fall Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Please consider signing up for the bone marrow registry. You can literally be a superhero and save someones life.

Dr. Alexes Harris is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. This essay was originally published on her personal website.

Link:
I'm a woman of color with cancer. Here's why I can't find a bone marrow donor - KUOW News and Information

"Dancing With the Stars" pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy has been posting pictures on social media while getting treatment for his calf injury and now he's speaking out for the first time.

In exclusive video obtained by "Good Morning America," the past Mirror Ball champ is talking via video to his "DWTS" partner Heather Morris and telling her that he does not intend to lose this season.

Chmerkovskiy sat out Monday's show and Morris was paired up with pro stand-in Alan Bersten.

"I still feel like we have a chance," he tells Morris and Bersten in the video. "You deserve it and I want to give you 150 percent effort and be physically active as I was at my best."

"I want to come back and win," he says.

Chmerkovskiy has been posting several selfies from the hospital, with one captioned, "Gettin' un-broken."

Chmerkovskiy's fiancee Peta Murgatroyd previously told "Access Hollywood" that he is getting surgery for what could be tears in his calf muscle.

"It's gonna take a couple of weeks at least to get better," she said. "He's having a surgery done," but she added that he's a fighter and will be back as soon as he can.

"GMA" anchor Lara Spencer said today that doctors made a concentrate from Chmerkovskiy's bone marrow stem cells and injected them into his calf to speed up the recovery process.

Earlier in the week, the dancer thanked his fans for all their "love and support!"

"Please rest assured that I'm taking this thing very seriously and, although I don't have a concrete return date, I'll give it my all!" he said on Wednesday.

"Dancing With the Stars" returns Monday night on ABC.

Link:
Exclusive: 'Dancing With the Stars' pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy speaks out about injury - ABC News

BRADENTON, Fla. By now, the time line for recovery from Tommy John surgery is familiar even to the casual baseball fan. It takes at least a year, usually more. It takes tedious, monotonous work on the part of the player.

Alternatives exist, but until now their use among established major leaguers has been limited if tried at all. This season could provide a referendum on two of them. One surgical procedure could cut the recovery time in half. Another treatment could help a player avoid surgery altogether.

I think it can definitely help the game, right-hander Seth Maness, who had a modified elbow ligament surgery in August, said by phone from spring training in Arizona. But the circumstances have to be right.

Maness had a surgery on his right elbow known as a primary repair or primary brace. The procedure reattaches the elbows ulnar collateral ligament to the bone with collagen-coated Arthrex tape. Los Angeles Angels starter Garrett Richards received a stem cell injection into his right elbow to heal his damaged UCL. So far, its working.

The last thing you want to do is have surgery, and if you do what your body does naturally, thats going to be stronger than any replacement surgery, Richards said, also by phone from spring training in Arizona. I just hope that this further gives guys a little bit of knowledge that you have options.

Neither procedure will replace Tommy John. Stem cells dont work in every case, and if the UCL is torn across the middle of the ligament, it needs to be replaced. The sample size for both is also small. But both provide options involving less recovery time for pitchers whose injuries fit a certain profile.

Maness, 28, spent four seasons pitching out of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen and signed a minor league contract with the Kansas City Royals in February. Maness ligament had pulled away from the bone rather than tearing across the middle. Instead of needing a full Tommy John surgery, which requires grafting a tendon from the wrist or hamstring into the elbow to replace the UCL and at least a year of recovery, Maness was a candidate for a primary repair.

Really this primary brace technology had been used more widely in Europe, particularly for ligament injuries of the knee and the ankle, said Dr. George Paletta, St. Louis Cardinals head orthopedic surgeon who performed Maness surgery. So the concept or the idea was, OK, its working well there, is there a way to adapt it to the elbow?

Paletta had done roughly 60 primary repairs on amateur pitchers prior to operating on Maness and saw an average recovery time of 6 months. That background helped him establish three criteria he needed a young pitcher, an otherwise healthy ligament and, most importantly,the ligament needed to pull off the bone on one end rather than tear in the middle.

Weve had a lot of experience with ligaments healing directly to bone and we have a good understanding of that timetable, so we knew that by about 12 weeks after surgery, this repair should be pretty well healed and pretty solid at that point, Paletta said.

Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris also had the primary repair, as did a third pitcher with major league experience, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with whom Maness first discussed the procedure in January. Cardinals non-roster outfielder/pitcher Jordan Schafer had the procedure this month.

The UCL in Richards right elbow had a tear running along the ligament, not across it. He sought second opinions from noted orthopedic surgeons Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

Dr. Andrews pretty much told me, Hey Garrett, if you were my son, I would try the stem cell first, Richards said.

Doctors removed stem cells from his pelvis and injected them into his elbow, in hopes the cells would heal the UCL. Stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, are able to develop into multiple different tissues and can promote healing.

It just feels tight. Youre putting fluid into a place that pretty much doesnt have any room for any more fluid, Richards said of the injection. If you can imagine youre just overfilling a certain area with this nice special sauce.

Teams sometimes use platelet-rich plasma injections, where blood is spun in a centrifuge to isolate growth factors Takashi Saitos PRP injection in 2008 was believed to be the first for a major league pitcher, and Masahiro Tanaka also has pitched successfully with a partially torn UCL after PRP treatment but stem cells are less common. Bartolo Colon, soldiering into his 20th major league season at 43 years old, had a stem cell treatment in 2010. Boston Red Sox left-hander Drew Pomeranz had a stem cell injection in his elbow this winter to address lingering soreness.But Pomeranz went on the disabled list Thursday with left forearm flexor strain.

It doesnt always work. Richards teammate, lefty Andrew Heaney, needed Tommy John last summer after stem cells didnt do the trick.

Richards six-week exam showed significant growth. His three-month check showed even more. He reported no issues this spring, his high-90s mph fastball is back and he is on track to open the season in the rotation.

Everything feels great, Richards said. Basically I took the year off, let my arm heal and now Im back doing what I always do. I just feel refreshed.

Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.

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How new-age medicine is helping Major League Baseball pitchers avoid injury - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Screenshot of Taigas website.

A startup at University of Colorado Anschutz is in the middle of a substantial capital raise.

Taiga Biotechnologies, which is developing new therapies for cancer, HIV and other diseases, has raised $6 million and is looking for an additional $14 million, according to a recent SEC filing.

The date of the first sale was March 16, and so far, the startup has 14 individual investors.

Founded in 2006, Taiga creates therapies for cancer, immune diseases and other serious medical conditions using stem cells, proteins and other molecular compounds.

In 2012, the firmreceived a patent to produce significant amounts of adult blood stem cells using blood from umbilical cords or bone marrow. Blood samples could be stored and expanded to be used after chemotherapy or radiation treatment, instead of having multiple bone marrow transplants.

Last summer, Taiga developed a product to help children with severe immune deficiencies, forcing them to live in protected and sterile environments. The product, which garnered an Orphan Drug Designation from the Food and Drug Administration, was approved for clinical trial in Israel.

Taiga is led by co-founders Brian Turner and Yosef Refaeli.

The company received $12 million in a raise ending in 2015, as well as $246,000 in 2010, according to SEC filings.

Taiga is basedat 12635 E. Montview Blvd. at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Kate Tracy is a BusinessDen reporter who covers nonprofits, startups and the outdoors industry. She is a graduate of Corban University. Email her at kate@BusinessDen.com.

Read more:
UC Anschutz startup gets $6M boost to fight disease with stem cells - BusinessDen

JEROMESVILLE Heidi Steiber was 27 years old when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body, according to the NationalMultiple SclerosisSociety.

"I've experienced various symptoms," Steiber said. "Loss of vision, my left and right hands and left leg don't work very well."

MS is a progressive ailment, Steiber added, which means the damage the disease causes can not be corrected.

Now, 15 years later, the 42-year-old Steiber is hoping to raise enough money to spend a month in Puebla, Mexico to undergo a hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

HSCT is a transplant of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood.

Steiber applied for a similar program in Chicago, but was turned away because they wanted to research MS patients who have had the disease for 10 or less years.

The treatment will cost $55,000 and will keep Steiber in isolation for a month, she said. The treatment will destroy her immune system after her stem cells are taken from her marrow. After the immune system is removed the stem cells will be replaced into her body. She hopes to make her appointment on June 19 at Clinica Ruiz

"It's like Heidi 2.0 or Heidi rebooted," she joked.

She is using a crowd sourcing website to gather donations. So far, she has been excited by the results in one month, raising $32,000 of the $70,000 she is looking for to pay for her treatments and the following recovery. Steiber said her insurance will not contribute to the medical expenses.

"People have been extremely generous. One of my donators did a matching donation, so I raised $3,000 in a day-and-a-half.

Steiber, now residing in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be heading back to her hometown of Jeromesville to the American Legion for a benefit dinner, May 13. It will run from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"You know the expression, it takes a village? That's the village they were talking about Jeromesville," the Hillsdale High graduate said. "It's amazing to have people coming together for you."

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Hillsdale grad looks for medical help in Mexico, local support to get there - Richland Source

Adelaide woman Kate Rafertys son just started school, her daughter is two.

She doesnt like to speak about it with her doctors, but she may not get the chance to see them grow up.

Ms Raferty has a severe form of Leukaemia, which relapsed early in 2017.

She needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant a simple one-day procedure for the donor but of the millions of registered donors around the world, none are a match.

It was a bit hard to absorb because everything happened so fast when I was first diagnosed, she told SBS.

They focused on my sister being a match, and that took weeks to work out that she wasn't a match.

Only about 30 per cent of patients are able to find a match within their family - the chance of a single sibling being a match is 25 per cent.

At about the same time, they told me there wasn't a match worldwide, but never really worked out or advised why, MsRaferty said.

The likely reason is as uncomfortable one Ms Rafertys mother is Hungarian and her father is a white Australian.

The unique background is an inherent part of what makes Kate Raferty who she is, but it may have doomed her chances of finding a donor.

Bone marrow transplants require a partial genetic match relating to an array of genes known as the HLA system - family members are the best chance of a match, but failing that it's likely a donor will have to be found from people with a similar ethnic background.

People like us who have migrated to Australia, or are children of those who migrated and help make up multicultural Australia, have one of the worst chances of finding a match, Ms Rafertysaid.

Paul Berghoffer, Operations Manager with the Bone Marrow Donor Centre, says that while donor matching is based on a range of factors, a HLA match is critical - it's the system which your immune defences use to distinguish your own cells from foreign cells.

You inherit half of your HLA type from your mother and half from your father, and because it is an entirely inherited trait, we find there are HLA clusters within particular ethnic groups," he said.

Within Australia's 170,000-strong donor pool, northwest Europeans are probably over-represented, he said.

The challenge for donor registries in Australia and around the world is to build genetically diverse registries that are reflective of those who need help."

While factors vary case to case, those with a mixed genetic background, such as Kate Raferty, can have even rarer HLA types.

Looking at the law of averages, its definitely more challenging for people of mixed backgrounds to find a HLA match," he said.

"Given there are roughly 29 million donors registered world-wide, the fact that people still can't find a match just stands to show how variable HLA types are."

The answer, he says, is recruitment focused onethnic minorities and people with mixed backgrounds.

Kate Raferty and her husband and children, Christmas 2014.

In her desperation to stay alive to see her children grow up, Ms Raferty has taken to social media to raise awareness and increase donor registration.

Our cure is out there in someone else in the world, we just need them to register, she said.

The Raferty family isnt the only one looking.

Tania in South Australia has a mixed Balkan background.

Baby Ruby in the UK has a mixed Latin American background.

Six-month-oldAustin in the UKis of mixed Polish background.

Five-year-old Valerie in the UK has an African background.

Each family is desperate to find a match, andthey work with each other as part of an international drive to increase the genetic diversity of registered donors.

I am determined, determined to ask each and every one of you to help to save people like my son by signing up to become a stem cell donor for patients in need, said baby Austins father, Lewis.

Some campaigns have signed up thousands of extra donors, and turned up matches for multiple other patients.

Because people are often unaware of the diversity of their own genetic make-up, their campaigns target people very broadly.

My mum is from Hungary but thinks her grandma was from Czechoslovakia, Ms Rafferty said.

Possibly also any bordering country might share the same tissue types.

While doctors have toldMsRafterty her chances of finding a match are slim, she remains optimistic.

Others have found their matches by campaigning like this, but sadly others have died in their search, she said.

Enrolled in a drug trial and receiving blood cord transplants, she now has some extra time with her children, but she says her only hope of a cure is a transplant.

Someone with mixed Jewish-Chinese heritage just found their match, she said, so we live in hope.

You can join Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry if you are aged between 18 and 45 years, in good health and meet the eligibility criteria. Joining the registry requires a blood test. If you are found to be a match, donating can be done through a blood donation or a relatively simple day procedure.

Find out more from the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. To register call 13 14 95.

Excerpt from:
Why mixed-race minorities struggle to find life-saving transplant matches - SBS

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --

With an upcoming permanent change of station, Maj. Mathew Carter, a Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development instructor at Air University, had hundreds of reasons to say no when he was asked to travel to Washington, D.C., to donate bone marrow to a complete stranger. Instead, he decided this opportunity was too important to loose.

Over the weekend of March 25, he underwent a bone marrow extraction procedure in the hope of helping a 7-year-old child he never met.

This story begins in 2003 when he registered with the Department of Defenses Salute to Life program.

Salute to Life, also known as the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program, was initiated in 1991 and is tailored to work exclusively with military members. Over time, the program has recruited more than 1 million donors.

Carter had registered for the program while his father was in the Army. His father was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. Carter and his family attended a bone marrow drive held for their neighbor who was diagnosed with cancer.

After 14 years, he received not only a letter, but an email and a voicemail from the organization informing him of a match.

I was kind of caught off-guard by it. It was one of those things that had a lot of opportunities for me to say no, but I have a 5-year-old, and when they told me there was a child that has a very serious life-threatening disease, there was really no question. It was the right thing to do, so I said yes, said Carter.

Carter began the process in early February by being tested again to confirm the match and getting a physical. By late March he was ready for the procedure.

During the bone marrow extraction, the patient is under local anesthesia while the doctor uses a needle to remove the marrow from the back of the pelvic bone.

Initially before [the surgery] started I was a little anxious. Before you go into any surgery you get a little anxiety, but it was one of those things that I was ready to just do, he said. Afterward, it was just relief knowing that I had done all that I could possibly do to help this person out.

He compared bone marrow donation to other bodily donations in the sense that when you donate other organs, they are permanently removed. However, with bone marrow or stem cells, the body regenerates what is lost.

For the two to four weeks of being sore and tired after the procedure, you look at what the recipient is going through, and it pales in comparison, so having the opportunity to do something like that is just amazing, he said.

For the donor and the recipients safety, they are left completely anonymous.. Once a year has passed after the surgery, they are then given the choice to reach out to each other.

When asked what he would say to the child, he thought for a moment and said, Live your life to the fullest.

Carter hopes that through this experience he can help raise awareness about bone marrow and stem cell donation, and encourages other to sign-up as donors.

Youll be a little sore and tired, but have the opportunity to do something amazing, he said.

For more information about bone marrow or stem cell donation through Salute to Life, visit http://www.salutetolife.org.

More:
Maxwell Airman donates to stranger in need - Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base

Having someone elses marrow or stem cells is called a donor transplant, or an allogeneic transplant. This is pronounced a-low-gen-ay-ik.

The donors bone marrow cells must match your own as closely as possible. The most suitable donor is usually a close relative, such as a brother or sister. It is sometimes possible to find a match in an unrelated donor. Doctors call this a matched unrelated donor (MUD). To find out if there is a suitable donor for you, your doctor will contact The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register.

To make sure that your donors cells match, you and the donor will have blood tests. These are to see how many of the proteins on the surface of their blood cells match yours. This is called tissue typing or HLA matching. HLA stands for human leucocyte antigen.

Once you have a donor and are in remission, you have your high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A week later the donor comes into hospital and their stem cells or marrow are collected.

You then have the stem cells or bone marrow as a drip through your central line.

If you've had a transplant from a donor, there is a risk of graft versus host disease (GVHD). This happens because the transplanted stem cells or bone marrow contain cells from your donor's immune system. These cells can sometimes recognise your own tissues as being foreign and attack them. This can be an advantage as the immune cells may also attack cancer cells left after your treatment.

Acute GVHD starts within 100 days of the transplant and can cause

If you develop GVHD after your transplant, your doctor will prescribe drugs to damp down this immune reaction. These are called immunosuppressants.

Chronic GVHD starts more than 100 days after the transplant and you may have skin rashes, diarrhoea, sore joints and dry eyes. Your doctor is likely to suggest that you stay out of the sun because GVHD skin rashes can often get worse in the sun.

There is more detailed information about graft versus host disease.

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Bone marrow or stem cell transplants for ALL | Cancer ...

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The National Bone Marrow registry took place in the Bluestem Room last Friday. This donor drive was hosted by Love Your Melon and Cardinal Key, with Gail Chism and Mary Kelly acting as representatives from Be The Match as well. On average, one person in 430 is called to donate, but the likelihood of being called also depends on the race of the donor. In total, 57 donors were added to the registry by the end of the event.

Thadd Simpson

Thadd Simpson

The National Bone Marrow registry took place in the Bluestem Room last Friday. This donor drive was hosted by Love Your Melon and Cardinal Key, with Gail Chism and Mary Kelly acting as representatives from Be The Match as well. On average, one person in 430 is called to donate, but the likelihood of being called also depends on the race of the donor. In total, 57 donors were added to the registry by the end of the event.

March 29, 2017 Filed under News

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Fifty-seven students registered to give DNA at the first-ever Bone Marrow Drive at Wayne State College. The drive was in the Bluestem Room of the Kanter Student Center on Friday. That puts WSC at 279 students on the bone marrow registry when combined with MAZE. The drive was put on by Be The Match, a nonprofit organization that helps people diagnosed with diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma to get them the blood that could save their life. Be The Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. We want to get Wayne State on the bone marrow registry, said student Kelsi Anderson said, who runs the Love Your Melon group on campus. A donor can give someone battling blood cancer a second chance. Its crucial for them to have a donor. Those who registered simply gave a cheek swab of their DNA, which will be analyzed to determine if it matches with someone who needs a bone marrow transplant. Its all about the DNA makeup, said Gail Chism of Be The Match. The DNA needs to be as close as possible. A donor could have closer DNA to the patient than a family member. If a match is made, the donor will be sent somewhere local for the bone marrow transplant. A courier will then take the bone marrow to the patient, who could be anywhere in the country. Eighty percent of the time it is like giving plasma, Chism said. Anderson said that in other cases a needle is injected into the pelvic bone todraw the marrow out. Blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma produce abnormal blood cells, other than the normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Blood cells develop from stem cells in bone marrow. A bone marrow transplant helps the patient produce more normal blood cells that help the body with functions such as fightingoff infections or preventing serious bleeding. Anderson said the drive was a shared idea between herself and Jaelyn Lewis, the leader of Cardinal Key. They hope it will become an annual event in the future. I really appreciate what Kelsi has done, Chism said. Shes really been on it. It takes great leadership to put this together. What we get out of here today is priceless.

Thadd Simpson WSC student Lily Roberts swabs her mouth in order to join the National Bone Marrow registry in the Bluestem Room last Friday.

Tags: 2015, Be The Match, Cardinal Key, Gail Chism, Kelsi Anderson, Love Your Melon, NE, Neb., Nebraska, Nebraska State College System, Spring 2015, Thadd Simpson, The Wayne Stater, Wayne, Wayne State College, Wayne State Wildcats, Wildcats, WSC, WSC Cats, WSC Wildcats, WSCs first-ever Bone Marrow Drive

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WSC's first-ever Bone Marrow Drive - The Wayne Stater

After a baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut, ever wonder where that umbilical cord ends up?

Most of the time, it becomes waste but that cord still has some valuable resources that can save a life.

The blood that is found in it is called umbilical cord blood or cord blood for short.

It contains all the normal elements of blood, such as red and white blood cells. It is also jam packed with stem cells, similar to the ones found in bone marrow.

Birth is pretty exciting, its pretty dramatic. A lot of things are happening, says James E. Baumgartner, M.D., Pediatric Surgeon.

One of those things that people rarely hear about is the option to donate cord blood. Bone marrow and cord blood contain the same type of stem cells, but those from cord blood have more advantages. Since stem cells from cord blood are less mature than stem cells from an adult's bone marrow, a recipient's body is less likely to reject them.

Another benefit is that taking cord blood is less invasive than a bone marrow transplant. Once an umbilical cord is clamped, it is wiped with antiseptic and a needle is inserted into one of the veins to withdraw a few ounces of blood. The procedure takes just a few minutes and is painless.

We all collect prospective data to look for risk for, you know, lung damage, kidney damage, liver damage, heart damage. Were looking at the nervous system pretty carefully and we found nothing. So that we really believe that its safe, explains Baumgartner.

About 70% of patients who need a stem cell transplant dont have a matching donor in their own family, which leads to the main advantage of cord blood. Stem cells from cord blood dont need to be exactly matched to the patient like bone marrow transplants from adult donors. One drawback to cord blood though is that the number of stem cells available is relatively small. This means young children will benefit because they need less.

Families can either save cord blood for themselves or donate it to a bank.

You need to talk to your doctor at least three months before your due date to find out if you are eligible to donate cord blood.

CORD BLOOD TREATMENT SAVES LIVES REPORT #2401

BACKGROUND: A stem cell transplant is a treatment that is used to treat cancers that affect blood and immune system like leukemia, multiple myeloma, and some types of lymphoma. Stem cell transplants are used to treat these types of cancer since the stem cells that the body naturally produces most often die due to treatments like radiation and chemotherapy. Human beings need stem cells to survive, therefore, a stem cell transplant gives patients blood cells that they cant produce anymore. Furthermore, donated cells can often find and kill the cancerous cells better than the patients own cells. Stem cells include:

* Red blood cells (RBCs) * White Blood cells (WBCs) * Platelets (Source: http://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/how-cancer-treated/bone-marrowstem-cell-transplantation/what-stem-cell-transplant-bone-marrow-transplant & https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/stem-cell-transplant/why-stem-cell-transplants-are-used.html)

CORD BLOOD: In the past, the only location where stem cells could be taken for a transplant was in the bone marrow. In recent years cord blood, the blood that is found in the umbilical cord, has been used for stem cell transplants. They possess the same quantity of stem cells as the bone marrow, and they come with more advantages. To start off, no surgery is needed like with bone marrow. Since the umbilical cord is natural in every birth, the mother can choose to donate her cord around three months before she is due. Once the cord is clamped, it is cleaned with antiseptic. Later, a needle is inserted into one of the veins in order to gather the necessary blood. Furthermore, since the cord blood stem cells are less mature than those stem cells from an adults bone marrow, the recipients body is less likely to reject the transplant. This is very important for people with ethnic backgrounds. With bone marrows stem cells, the match between the donor and the recipient has to be 8/8; with cord blood cells, on the other hand, the match can be partial. For recipients that come from an ethnic background, a perfect match can be harder to find. (Source: http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org/qa/what_are_advantages.html)

PROS & CONS: Other advantages that come with core blood cells are the association of lower incidence of GvHD (Graft vs. Host Disease), and the lower risk of viral infections. Nevertheless, the cord blood cells have a drawback: the amount of stem cells found in them is very small. Because of the low number, children benefit from this transplant procedure more than adults. Since childrens bodies are smaller, they need fewer cells for their body to start reproducing them naturally. On the other hand, adults naturally need more cells than the ones the cord blood produces because of their size. (Source: http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org/qa/how_is_it_collected.html)

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Donating the umbilical cord could save someone's life - WNDU-TV

March 27, 2017 07:02 ET | Source: Cellect Biotechnology Ltd.

Cellects technology, ApoGraft, aims to become a game changerin stem cells transplantations for cancer treatments

Company gets green light from DSMB Board for enrolling additional 2 cancer patients for ApoGraft transplantation treatments

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (Nasdaq:APOP) (TASE:APOP), a developer of stem cell selection technology, announced today that the first stem cell transplant procedure has been successfully performed using its ApoGraft technology in the Companys Phase I/II clinical trial in a blood cancer patient.

Up to 50 percent of stem cell transplant procedures, such as bone marrow transplants, result in life-threatening rejection disease, known as Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD). Cellects ApoGraft technology is aiming to turn stem cell transplants into a simple, safe and cost effective process, reducing the associated severe side effects, such as rejection and many other risks.

Dr. Shai Yarkoni, Cellects CEO said, After 15 years of research, this is the first time we have used our technology on a cancer patient suffering from life-threatening conditions. It is a first good step on a road that we hope will lead to stem cell based regenerative medicine becoming a safe commodity treatment at every hospital in the world.

Based on the successful transplantation results, the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) approved the enrollment of 2 additional patients for ApoGraft treatment to complete the first study cohort as planned.

About GvHD

Despite improved prophylactic regimens, acute GvHD disease still occurs in 25% to 50% of recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The incidence of GvHD in recipients of allogeneic stem cells transplantation is increasing due to the increased number of allogeneic transplantations survivors, older recipient age, use of alternative donor grafts and use of peripheral blood stem cells. GvHD accounts for 15% of deaths after allogeneic stem cell transplantation and is considered the leading cause of non-relapse mortality after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

About ApoGraft01 study

The ApoGraft01 study (Clinicaltrails.gov identifier: NCT02828878), is an open label, staggered four-cohort, Phase I/II, safety and proof-of-concept study of ApoGraft process in the prevention of acute GvHD. The study, which will enroll 12 patients, aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the ApoGraft process in patients suffering from hematological malignancies undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation from a matched related donor.

About Cellect Biotechnology Ltd.

Cellect Biotechnology is traded on both the NASDAQ and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (NASDAQ:APOP)(NASDAQ:APOPW)(TASE:APOP). The Company has developed a breakthrough technology for the isolation of stem cells from any given tissue that aims to improve a variety of stem cell applications.

The Companys technology is expected to provide pharma companies, medical research centers and hospitals with the tools to rapidly isolate stem cells in quantity and quality that will allow stem cell related treatments and procedures. Cellects technology is applicable to a wide variety of stem cell related treatments in regenerative medicine and that current clinical trials are aimed at the cancer treatment of bone marrow transplantations.

Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Companys expectations, beliefs and intentions. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as believe, expect, intend, plan, may, should, could, might, seek, target, will, project, forecast, continue or anticipate or their negatives or variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical matters. For example, forward-looking statements are used in this press release when we discuss Cellects aim to make its ApoGraft technology a game changer in stem cell transplantations for cancer treatments and procedures, Cellects Apograft technology aiming to turn stem cell transplants into a simple, safe and cost effective process, reducing the associated severe side effects, such as rejection and many other risks, Cellects hope that stem cell based regenerative medicine will become a safe commodity treatment at every hospital in the world and that Cellects technology is expected to provide pharma companies, medical research centers and hospitals with the tools to rapidly isolate stem cells in quantity and quality that will allow stem cell related treatments and procedures. These forward-looking statements and their implications are based on the current expectations of the management of the Company only, and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In addition, historical results or conclusions from procedures, scientific research and clinical studies do not guarantee that future results would suggest similar conclusions or that historical results referred to herein would be interpreted similarly in light of additional research or otherwise. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: changes in technology and market requirements; we may encounter delays or obstacles in launching and/or successfully completing our clinical trials; our products may not be approved by regulatory agencies, our technology may not be validated as we progress further and our methods may not be accepted by the scientific community; we may be unable to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of our products; unforeseen scientific difficulties may develop with our process; our products may wind up being more expensive than we anticipate; results in the laboratory may not translate to equally good results in real clinical settings; results of preclinical studies may not correlate with the results of human clinical trials; our patents may not be sufficient; our products may harm recipients; changes in legislation; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, which could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement in this press release speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws. More detailed information about the risks and uncertainties affecting the Company is contained under the heading Risk Factors in Cellect Biotechnology Ltd.'s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which is available on the SEC's website, http://www.sec.gov and in the Companys period filings with the SEC and the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.

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Cellect Announces Successful First Cancer Patient Stem Cell Transplant - GlobeNewswire (press release)

During a check-up, on his 43rd birthday, his doctor named summertime flu the most likely culprit.

Then the same thing happened again, and it settled into a disturbing pattern: midweek chills and an escalating fever that would break on Sunday. By Monday, Chris would feel fine, only to have the sequence repeat itself.

He joked about it with colleagues at T-Mobile, where he works in software development, "Well, I hope it's not cancer!"

On alternating weekends from May to October, Chris would volunteer as a back country ranger for the US Forest Service -- a physically demanding role that involves patrolling Washington's Cascade Mountain forests and hiking along high-altitude trails with a backpack that can weigh up to 32 kilograms.

But now, even at sea level, he was getting winded just walking his two dogs around the block. What was going on?

A medical appointment revealed a heart murmur and suspicions of endocarditis, an infection of the heart's inner lining. The scare triggered another series of tests that led Chris and his husband, Bill Sechter, to Emergency Room 4 at the University of Washington Medical Center.

A whiteboard checklist documented his Saturday morning: insertion of a large-bore IV as a potential conduit for antibiotics, a round of blood draws, and discussions with the ER doctor.

Then the phone rang and the nurse answered, listened and responded to multiple questions in quick succession: "Yes. Yes. Oh, OK. OK. Yeah." He excused himself from the room and soon returned in a "full hazmat suit", as Chris describes it. Yellow.

"And that's when we were like, 'Oh s***, it's on. Something is seriously bad.'"

Chris learned that his level of infection-fighting neutrophil cells, normally churned out by the bone marrow, had fallen so low that his defenses were in tatters. He was also severely anemic, with roughly half the normal amount of red blood cells in his blood.

It wasn't endocarditis. And when one of his doctors performed a blood smear, she saw something on the microscope slide that shouldn't be there: blasts.

These leukemic cells, stuck in adolescence, were the harbingers of the coming horde that had so astonished 19th-century surgeons.

The doctor apologetically broke the news and Chris and his sister dissolved into tears. In an emotional Facebook post later that day, he attached a picture of himself in a hospital gown and pink face mask and wrote: "this avowed agnostic could actually go for your good juju / positive thoughts or even your (gasp) prayers."

More tests, including a bone marrow biopsy of his pelvic bone, painted an increasingly disturbing picture. He had acute myeloid leukaemia, a fast-progressing cancer.

The biopsy suggested that an astonishing 80 per cent of his bone marrow cells were cancerous. Strike one.

Other results suggested that chemotherapy wouldn't be as effective on his form of leukemia. Strike two.

And genetic tests put him in the unfavorable risk category by revealing that his cancer cells carried only one copy of chromosome 21, a rare anomaly associated with "dismal" outcomes, according to recent studies. Strike three.

Chris needed to start chemotherapy immediately.

But first, he had his sperm banked. Then, with family and a close friend at his side, he celebrated his impending treatment with prime rib and cheap champagne smuggled into his hospital room.

Over three days, he received multiple doses of the anticancer drugs cladribine, cytarabine and mitoxantrone, the last a dark blue concoction often dubbed "Blue Thunder." The drug turned his urine a shade he describes as "Seahawks green" in honor of Seattle's football team. Other patients have had the whites of their eyes temporarily turn blue.

On the third night of his drug infusion, a sudden back pain grew into an intense pressure in his chest that felt like he was being stabbed. A heart attack? An emergency CAT scan instead revealed two newly formed blood clots: one in his right leg and another in his right lung -- not uncommon consequences of chemotherapy.

Over the next six months, Chris would need transfusions of blood-clotting platelets whenever his level of them dipped too low, and daily injections of a blood-thinning drug whenever it rose too high.

Thirteen days after being admitted into the hospital, he posted a more hopeful Facebook entry: "And I'm finally going home! Now the real adventure begins."

Based on his leukemia classification, Chris was braced for multiple rounds of chemotherapy. He and his husband were overjoyed when a second bone marrow biopsy suggested that the leukemia had become undetectable after only a single round.

Because of his high-risk classification, however, Chris's doctors said that the cancer was likely to return without a bone marrow transplant.

But Chris discovered that he had inherited an extremely rare set of cell-identifying protein tags. Only one bone marrow donor on the worldwide registry matched his genetic tags, and that person was unable to donate.

An umbilical cord blood transplant, Chris and his doctors agreed, was his best hope.

Like bone marrow, cord blood is unusually rich in hematopoietic stem cells -- which can give rise to every type of blood cell -- and their more developed descendants, progenitor cells, which are more limited in what they can become. But, unlike bone marrow, cord blood can be collected in advance and stored for decades in liquid nitrogen.

First, Chris would need to spend another five days in the hospital for a standard follow-up round of chemotherapy to pick off any hidden cancer cells. Chris marked the occasion with a Facebook post of himself in a grey felt Viking helmet and attached braids. "Round 2... And FIGHT!" This time, the chemo went off without a hitch.

He was a familiar face at the medical center, though, with three additional hospitalizations: twice for bacteremia, a bacterial blood infection marked by high fevers, and once so doctors could tame an allergic reaction to a transfusion of platelets, which always reminded Chris of chicken broth.

He had to steel himself again on Christmas Eve for the arrival of the "big guns": two days of conditioning chemotherapy, headlined by a derivative of mustard gas. Its name is cyclophosphamide, and it works by sabotaging the machinery that copies DNA in rapidly dividing cells. As it does this, it breaks down to form toxic chemicals, including a pungent one called acrolein, which can destroy the lining of the bladder.

To neutralize its effects, patients must take another drug, called mesna, and drink plenty of water.

After a day of rest, Chris began a radiation therapy regimen so intense that it would have killed him if delivered in a single dose. Instead, his radiologists used a particle accelerator to fire X-rays at him in multiple bursts during morning and evening sessions over four days.

"You basically get into a tanning booth made out of clear Plexiglas," he said.

Wearing nothing but a paper gown, Chris had to stay completely still behind two metal shielding blocks, each the size of a brick, positioned to protect his lungs from irreversible radiation-induced scarring. He did get a mild tan, he says, along with damaged skin that still resembles crepe paper.

Another absurdity still makes him laugh: while he requested punk rock for one of the sessions, he was instead blasted with the tune of Prince's 'Erotic City'.

When he finished the final round of total body irradiation on 30 December, the radiology team gathered for a final tribute and let Chris hit a small ceremonial gong.

The morning of New Year's Eve, Chris wrote on Facebook, "I'm as nervous as an expectant father!" An hour and a half later, he marked the delivery of his "zero birthday" with a small chocolate cake and a decorative "0" candle: the day when his own bone marrow cells, erased by radiation and chemotherapy, were replaced by roughly four tablespoons of a life-granting elixir from the cord blood of two baby girls.

Even with some of the best help that medicine can offer, transplant recipients face a daunting few weeks without functional bone marrow when nearly anything can kill them.

Chris and Bill have nicknamed the donors Amelia and Olivia based on their blood types, A-negative and O-positive. In a later post, Chris marveled at the new arrivals reseeding his bone marrow: "I use more vanilla flavoring creamer in my coffee than the volume of cells that are rebuilding my entire blood and immune system."

Four hours after the initial infusions, he received his protective bridge of blood-forming stem cells, collected and expanded from the cord blood of a third baby, a boy he and Bill have nicknamed Eddie.

Less than three weeks after the transplant, Chris's neutrophils had fully engrafted and genetic tests suggested that Amelia had decisively won the fight to form his new blood and bone marrow. He progressed so rapidly, in fact, that he had to stay in the hospital for two days after he was fit to leave, so that Bill could finish preparing the apartment.

28 January: discharge day. As his family packed up his hospital room, Chris was taking a shower when a wall of exhaustion hit him. He could no longer stand or even dry himself off and sat dripping on the shower bench until Bill heard his calls for help.

He had survived, but life had fundamentally changed.

At home, every surface had to be disinfected daily with a bleach solution. At first, Chris couldn't walk 100 feet down the apartment hallway without leaning on his brother. Until he hit the 100-day milestone after his transplant, the end of the most vulnerable period for recipients, he returned to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance every other day for blood tests and checkups.

On the 97th day, Chris and his family celebrated a hard-fought victory when he was officially declared cancer-free: a leukemia survivor.

Despite dozens of studies documenting its curative powers, cord blood is saved after only 5 per cent of all US births. The rest is simply thrown away.

Michael Boo, chief strategy officer for the National Marrow Donor Program, estimates that only one in ten of those retained units passes the required screening tests and has enough volume to merit long-term storage.

Cord blood is also notoriously expensive, ranging from $22,000 to $45,000 per unit. Due to the relatively low demand from doctors, Boo says, public banks -- at least in the US -- are collecting as much as they can afford to keep. Beyond persuading new parents to donate, then, lowering the cost of cord blood transplants may depend upon persuading more doctors to use the cells and more insurers to cover them.

One potential use has attracted the avid interest of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. As part of Project BioShield, the federal agency has been on the lookout for medical interventions that could treat acute radiation syndrome after a dirty bomb or nuclear disaster.

Cord blood transplants in adults, still an option of last resort in the early 2000s, nearly slammed to a halt over the quandary of how to keep patients alive until their new bone marrow cells could kick in.

Some researchers reasoned that they could boost the transplant volume by giving adults two cord blood units instead of one. John Wagner and colleagues at the University of Minnesota performed the first double transplant in 2000, using cells from two infant donors.

The tactic dramatically reduced the rate of graft failure, in which the recipient's body rejects the new cells. But it barely changed the time needed to regenerate the bone marrow, and some critics have questioned whether a double cord blood transplant offers any significant benefits.

Wagner says his research suggested that transplanting enough blood-forming cells was necessary but likely not sufficient for better results. Improved patient survival, in fact, seemed to depend more upon a revised roster of drugs given pre-transplant.

To their surprise, researchers also discovered that the donors in a double cord blood transplant seem to battle for dominance, a curious "graft-versus-graft" phenomenon that almost always results in the victor dominating the recipient's new bone marrow and blood cells.

Filippo Milano, associate director of the Cord Blood Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, compares it to a pivotal scene in the 1986 movie Highlander, when the antagonist exclaims, "There can be only one!"

On a sunny morning nearly a year after Chris's transplant, he and I meet the Italian-born doctor in his lab so he can greet one of his star patients and explain the science behind the therapy that saved Chris's life. Milano is passionate about coaching soccer and cooking. On the side, he jokes, he conducts research on cord blood transplants.

Upon his arrival to "The Hutch" in 2009, Milano teamed up with Colleen Delaney, founder and director of the Cord Blood Program, to test and refine a treatment strategy that may yet prove a better option than a bone marrow transplant for people with leukemia who are at high risk of relapsing.

Based on collaborations and discussions with other experts in the field, Delaney pioneered a method to minimize the risk of infection and bleeding after a cord blood transplant by reducing the time needed for the new blood cells to kick in. The strategy relies on what she and Milano call an "expanded" blood unit.

Starting with an extra batch of cord blood, they separate out the minuscule fraction of blood-forming stem cells and their early descendants and expand that population in the lab.

The hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of resulting stem and progenitor cells can jump start the generation of protective blood cells in the recipient. When infused along with a more traditional transplant, they can act like a temporary bridge until the replacement bone marrow takes over. "The net gain was that you didn't have those very prolonged periods of recovery," Wagner said.

One crucial component, Delaney discovered, is a protein called Notch ligand.

When added to the blood-forming stem cells, Notch ligand lets them divide quickly in the lab but temporarily pauses their development by preventing them from maturing into the normal range of cell types. Critically, they never give rise to T or B immune cells, which would seek out and destroy any perceived threats lacking the proper "self" ID tags.

Putting a donor's T cells into an unmatched recipient, Delaney says, would trigger fatal graft-versus-host disease. "That's the key: we get rid of all those bad parts of the immune system that need to be matched or they can kill you."

The "bridge of recovery" lasts only so long before the full contingents of other donor cells begin attacking and dismantling it. But, with no cells checking IDs initially, the early flood of blood-forming stem cells need not be matched to the recipient at all, meaning that the "expanded" cord blood unit could be created well ahead of time and used whenever needed as a universal donor.

Other researchers are working on strategies toward the same end, and Mary Laughlin describes the overall progress as "very exciting".

Delaney's work, she says, "is very important, saving lives and improving the tolerability of these transplants and the success of these transplants".

This is an edited extract from an article first published by Wellcome on Mosaic. It is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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The life-saving treatment that's being thrown in the trash - CNN.com - CNN

Using video microscopy in a living mouse lung, a team of researchers at the Universities of California, San Francisco (UCSF) & Los Angeles (UCLA), has revealed that the lungs play a previously unrecognized role in blood production.

Visualization of resident megakaryocytes in the lungs. Image credit: Emma Lefranais et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21706.

The team, headed by UCSF Professor Mark R. Looney, found that the lungs produced more than half of the platelets blood components required for the clotting that stanches bleeding in the mouse circulation.

In another finding, the team also identified a previously unknown pool of blood stem cells capable of restoring blood production when the stem cells of the bone marrow, previously thought to be the principal site of blood production, are depleted.

This finding definitely suggests a more sophisticated view of the lungs that theyre not just for respiration but also a key partner in formation of crucial aspects of the blood, Prof. Looney said.

What weve observed here in mice strongly suggests the lung may play a key role in blood formation in humans as well.

The study was made possible by a refinement of a technique known as two-photon intravital imaging.

The authors were using this technique to examine interactions between the immune system and circulating platelets in the lungs, using a mouse strain engineered so that platelets emit bright green fluorescence, when they noticed a surprisingly large population of platelet-producing cells called megakaryocytes in the lung vasculature.

When we discovered this massive population of megakaryocytes that appeared to be living in the lung, we realized we had to follow this up, said team member Dr. Emma Lefranais, from the UCSF Department of Medicine.

More detailed imaging sessions soon revealed megakaryocytes in the act of producing more than 10 million platelets per hour within the lung vasculature, suggesting that more than half of a mouses total platelet production occurs in the lung, not the bone marrow, as researchers had long presumed.

Video microscopy experiments also revealed a wide variety of previously overlooked megakaryocyte progenitor cells and blood stem cells sitting quietly outside the lung vasculature estimated at 1 million per mouse lung.

Proposed schema of lung involvement in platelet biogenesis. The role of the lungs in platelet biogenesis is twofold and occurs in two different compartments: (a) platelet production in the lung vasculature; after being released from the bone marrow or the spleen, proplatelets (a1) and megakaryocytes (a2) are retained in the lung vasculature, the first capillary bed encountered by any cell leaving the bone marrow, where proplatelet formation and extension and final platelet release are observed; (b) mature and immature megakaryocytes along with hematopoietic progenitors are found in the lung interstitium; in thrombocytopenic environments, hematopoietic progenitors from the lung migrate and restore bone marrow hematopoietic deficiencies. Image credit: Emma Lefranais et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21706.

The discovery of megakaryocytes and blood stem cells in the lung raised questions about how these cells move back and forth between the lung and bone marrow.

To address these questions, Prof. Looney, Dr. Lefranais and their colleagues conducted a clever set of lung transplant studies.

First, they transplanted lungs from normal donor mice into recipient mice with fluorescent megakaryocytes, and found that fluorescent megakaryocytes from the recipient mice soon began turning up in the lung vasculature.

This suggested that the platelet-producing megakaryocytes in the lung originate in the bone marrow.

In another experiment, the team transplanted lungs with fluorescent megakaryocyte progenitor cells into mutant mice with low platelet counts.

The transplants produced a large burst of fluorescent platelets that quickly restored normal levels, an effect that persisted over several months of observation much longer than the lifespan of individual megakaryocytes or platelets.

This indicated that resident megakaryocyte progenitor cells in the transplanted lungs had become activated by the recipient mouses low platelet counts and had produced healthy new megakaryocyte cells to restore proper platelet production.

Finally, the researchers transplanted healthy lungs in which all cells were fluorescently tagged into mutant mice whose bone marrow lacked normal blood stem cells.

Analysis of the bone marrow of recipient mice showed that fluorescent cells originating from the transplanted lungs soon traveled to the damaged bone marrow and contributed to the production not just of platelets, but of a wide variety of blood cells, including immune cells such as neutrophils, B cells and T cells.

These experiments suggest that the lungs play host to a wide variety of blood progenitor cells and stem cells capable of restocking damaged bone marrow and restoring production of many components of the blood.

To our knowledge this is the first description of blood progenitors resident in the lung, and it raises a lot of questions with clinical relevance for the millions of people who suffer from thrombocytopenia, Prof. Looney said.

The findings were published online March 22, 2017 in the journal Nature.

_____

Emma Lefranais et al. The lung is a site of platelet biogenesis and a reservoir for haematopoietic progenitors. Nature, published online March 22, 2017; doi: 10.1038/nature21706

This article is based on text provided by the University of California, San Francisco.

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Lungs Play Previously Unknown Role in Blood Production - Sci-News.com

As people age, so does their blood. The question is: what exactly is in the blood of older people that makes it age? And in the same light, what is in the blood of younger people that can help rejuvenate old blood?

The idea of using young blood to rejuvenate old blood was not an automatic conclusion, of course. While it does seem logical, it remained a theory until tests that involved conjoining (i.e. stitching together) of old and young mice for the purpose of swapping blood revealed that the concept did have merit. With shared blood, the health of younger mice deteriorated while the health of older mice improved.

Another kind of experiment done was non-invasive blood swapping using tubes. The results were similar, though different explanations emerged for the change in health conditions of both old and young mice. When conjoined, the mice shared more than just blood; their organs got affected too. In non-invasive blood swapping, the old blood got diluted.

While these experiments were done on mice, theres a chance they might work in people as well. However, this involves blood donation from young people, which might mean the supply will be limited when it comes to fulfill demand.

As an alternative, a research team at Germanys University of Ulm led by Hartmut Geiger turned to stem cells, specifically, what are being referred to as mother stem cells those stem cells in the bone marrow that produce red and white blood cells, and whose number become fewer and fewer as a person ages. With fewer of these cell-generating cells, older people become more susceptible to conditions like anemia and heart disease. They become less capable of fighting infection as well.

By examining mice bone marrow, Geigers team discovered that older mice have considerably lower levels of a protein known as osteopontin. To check the effect of this protein on blood stem cells, they injected stem cells into mice that had low levels of osteopontin. What happened was, the cells aged much quicker.

However, when they mixed older stem cells with osteopontin and a protein that activates osteopontin, the old stem cells started producing white blood cells as if they were young stem cells. This suggests that osteopontin might indeed have a hand in rejuvenating old stem cells and making them behave as if they were young again.

While majority of blood rejuvenation efforts focus on the liquid part of blood (or plasma), Geiger believes blood cells might also play a vital role since cells can move better in the bodys tissues.

Following the initial results of their experiments, the team is now working on developing a drug that contains osteopontin and its corresponding protein activator. The hope is that this drug can promote youthful behavior in blood stem cells and boost the number of mother stem cells. Ultimately, this can help in the treatment of age-related blood disorders, and possibly boost the immune system of the elderly too so they dont get sick as easily.

Details of the study have been reported in The EMBO Journal.

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Protein Found in Young Blood Could Be The Key To Fight Aging - Wall Street Pit

The Hindu

Bone marrow transplants up: Jipmer The Hindu Dr. Biswajit of the Department of Medical Oncology said the hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), commonly known as bone marrow transplant or blood marrow transplant (BMT) programme, was started in Jipmer in January 2013. The current BMT unit ...

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Bone marrow transplants up: Jipmer - The Hindu

Investopedia

Cellect Succeeds In First Stem Cell Transplant (APOP) Investopedia It includes more than half the stem cell transplant procedures, including bone marrow transplant, resulting in a serious rejection disease called Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD). GvHD is a medical disorder which results from receipt of transplanted ... Cellect Announces Successful First Cancer Patient Stem Cell TransplantP&T Community Why Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (APOP) Stock Is Soaring TodayInvestorplace.com Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (NASDAQ:APOP) Surges 22.76% Monday's Pre-SessionBenchmark Monitor all 32 news articles »

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Cellect Succeeds In First Stem Cell Transplant (APOP) - Investopedia

Healthy cell function relies on well orchestrated gene activity. Via a fantastically complex network of interactions, around 30,000 genes cooperate to maintain this delicate balance in each of the37.2 trillion cellsin the human body.

Broadly speaking, cancer is a disruption of this balance by genetic changes, or mutations. Mutations can trigger over-activation of genes that normally instruct cells to divide, or inactivation of genes that suppress the development of cancer. When a mutated cell divides, it passes the mutation down to its daughter cells. This leads to the accumulation of non-functioning, abnormal cells that we recognise as cancer.

Our laboratoryis focused on understanding how one particular cancer chronic myeloid leukaemiaor CML works. Each year more than 700 patients in the UK andover 100,000worldwide are diagnosed with CML. After recent advances,almost 90%of patients under the age of 65 now survive for more than five years.

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But in the vast majority of patients CML is currently incurable and lifelong treatment means that patients must live with side effects and the chance of drug resistance arising. With increasing numbers of CML patients surviving (and treatment costing between 40,000 and 70,000 per patient a year), increasing strain is being placed on health services.

A single mutation

CML is perhaps unique in cancers in that a single mutation, namedBCR-ABL, underlies the disease biology. This mutation originates in a singleleukaemic stem cell, but is then propagated throughout the blood and bone marrow as leukaemia cells take over and block the healthy process of blood production. The presence of BCR-ABL affects the activity of thousands of genes, in turn preventing these cells from fulfilling their normal function as blood cells.

Drugsthat specifically neutralise the aberrant effects of this mutation were introduced to the clinic from the early 2000s. These drugs have revolutionised CML patient care. Many are now able to live relatively normal lives with their leukaemia under good control.

But while these drugs kill the more mature daughter cells of the originally mutated leukaemia stem cell, they have not fully lived up to their initial billing as magic bullets in the fight against cancer. This is because the original seed population of leukaemic stem cellsevade therapy,lying dormant in the bone marrowto stimulate new cancer growth when treatment is withdrawn.

To truly cure CML we must expose, understand the inner workings of, and uproot the leukaemia stem cells. And to do this, we need to learn more about them. How do they survive the treatment that so readily kills their more mature counterparts? Which overactive or inactivated genes protect them?

We believe that the answers to these questions lie in the analysis of biological big data. Genome-scale technologies now allow scientists to measure the activity (or expression) of every gene in the genome simultaneously, in any given population of cells, or even at the level of a single cell. Comparison of expression data generated from leukaemia stem cells with the same data generated from healthy blood stem cells will reveal single genes or networks of genes potentially targetable in the fight against leukaemia.

Big data to the rescue

In a project funded by Bloodwise and the Scottish Cancer Foundation, we have createdLEUKomics. This online data portal brings together a wealth of CML gene expression data from specialised laboratories across the globe, including our own at the University of Glasgow.

Our intention is to eliminate the bottleneck surrounding big data analysis in CML. Each dataset is subjected to manual quality checks, and all the necessarycomputational processingto extract information on gene expression. This enables immediate access to and interpretation of data that previously would not have been easily accessible to academics or clinicians without training in specialised computational approaches.

Consolidating these data into a single resource also allows large-scale, computationally-intensive research efforts by bioinformaticians (specialists in the analysis of big data in biology). From a computational perspective, the fact that CML is caused by a single mutation makes it an attractive disease model for cancer stem cells. However, existing datasets tend to have small sample numbers, which can limit their potential.

The more samples available, the higher the power to detect subtle changes that may be crucial to the biology of the cancer stem cells. By bringing all the globally available CML datasets together, we have significantly increased the sample size, from two to six per dataset to more than 100 altogether. This offers an unprecedented opportunity to analyse gene expression data to expose underlying mechanisms of this disease.

As of March 2017, theportalis up and running in the public domain. We are planning to tour Scotland and present at international conferences, aiming to train researchers in how best to exploit this new resource. Ultimately, we hope that this tool will lead to new ideas and approaches, and attract more funding, in the fight against CML. And while we continue to expand our representation of CML data in real time from research centres all over the world, we also plan to begin incorporating data from other types of leukaemia.

In recent years, targeted therapies have becomehugely importantin cancer research. By providing these data to the CML research community withinLEUKomics, we hope to mobilise new research into cancer-causing leukaemic stem cells, and ultimately design treatments to target them without affecting healthy cells. Our database provides a critical stepping stone in this process.

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How Big Data is Being Mobilized in the Fight Against Leukemia - Drug Discovery & Development

In the United States alone, more than 400,000 lumbar discectomies and 500,000 spinal fusions are performed each year for symptoms related to lumbar disc degeneration. The ability to get these to heal without surgery has been a long-term goal of many patients and physicians alike. The Spine Center continues to be on the forefront of treatment options and is proud to offer stem cell therapy treatments for patients as part of our comprehensive non-operative treatment options.

Adult stem cells are divided into different categories. For example, the types of adult stem cells Dr. Theofilos uses to treat musculoskeletal issues are known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These are multi-potent cells that can differentiate into bone cells, cartilage cells, or fat cells.

The human body has multiple storage sites for stem cells to repair degenerated and injured structures. Dr. Theofilos has found that obtaining stem cells from the hip bone (iliac bone) is easily performed within minutes and, in most cases, is a fairly painless procedure for the patient. The stem cells are obtained from bone marrow; just minutes later, they are used for treatment.

This procedure is done in our office and after the procedure, the syringe of stem cells is taken to the lab and placed in a specialized machine called a centrifuge. The centrifuge spins the bone marrow solution and stem cells are separated from the non-useful cells. Now, the stem cells are ready for the treatment.

For those whom are ideal candidates, this provides great hope with reduction in pain and improved quality of life without the need for major surgery.

Voted as one of Americas Top Surgeons, Charles S. Theofilos, MD, Neurosurgeon and Founder of The Spine Center is a leading provider of the state-of-the-art, most comfortable and effective surgical, minimally invasive and non-surgical treatment options for a full range of cervical and spinal ailments, including stem cell therapy and artificial disc replacement. He was among a field of 20 top neuro and orthopedic surgeons in the U.S. chosen to participate in the groundbreaking Artificial Disc Study, which compared the clinical outcome of disc replacement versus traditional spinal fusion. A widely sought after educator and lecturer, Dr. Theofilos has offices in Palm Beach Gardens and Port St. Lucie. In an effort to maintain and honor the commitment to our patients, we will continue to accept Medicare and Medicare Advantage insurance plans for all new and follow up appointments.

11621 Kew Gardens Ave., Suite 101;Palm Beach Gardens

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What are mesenchymal stem cells? - Palm Beach Post

Stem cells are the foundation of all our body cells before they differentiate to become specialised cells that grow into our tissues and organs, such as kidney cells, muscle cells, nerve cells, and so on.

They commonly come from two sources: The embryo (embryonic stem cells formed in early development after the human egg is fertilised by a sperm); and adult tissue (adult stem cells, such as those existing in bone marrow to later differentiate to form red blood cells, white blood cells and other components of the blood).

The use of human embryonic stems cells for treatment or research is often frowned upon by some people, as they regard the human embryo as a person that should not be discarded after such endeavours. Consequently, much scientific work has recently been focused on the use of adult stem cells.

THE USE OF STEM CELLS

Stem cells may be beneficial in treating diseases that are amenable to cell replacement. However, this is still a young science, and belief that a particular treatment helps two or three people does not convince the scientific community or the whole society that the treatment will work for everyone so afflicted.

Scientific proof comes from conducting clinical trials, the international gold standard often involving hundreds of people so afflicted and comparing them with an equivalent number of people not afflicted to determine whether a treatment really works for those who receive it.

Whilst many stem cell research projects are currently being conducted in various centres around the world to determine whether they produce benefits, and what may be the possible risks involved, there are also medical clinics that are using stem cells not in a registered research project, but rather in the actual treatment of affected people.

TREATMENT CAN CAUSE HARM

A recent report in the highly respected New England Journal of Medicine informed that three elderly women in Florida had been blinded by an unproven treatment.

They had signed up for a purported clinical trial in 2015 for which they had to pay US$5,000 each. Before surgery, the vision in their eyes varied from 20/30 to 20/200, but within one week after surgery, they experienced a variety of complications, including vision loss, detached retinas and bleeding into their eyes, resulting in total blindness.

The authors of the article from the Standard University School of Medicine sought to make patients, doctors and the various regulatory agencies aware of the risks of such a minimally regulated, patient-funded research. It stated that some clinics appeal to patients that are desperate for care and who hope that stem cells will be their answer, but as in the case of these women, some of these current enterprises are very dangerous.

At this particular clinic, fat cells were taken from the patients abdomens and processed to obtain stem cells which were then injected into their eyes. The patients reported that the entire process took less than one hour. The patients had both eyes treated at once, even though most doctors would opt for a conservative approach to observe how the first eye responds.

THE NEED FOR THE REGULATION OF RESEARCH

The article stated that while there is a lot of well-founded evidence for the positive potential of stem cell treatment for many human diseases, such treatments should be conducted in a well-designed clinical trial based on pre-clinical research.

The treatment done for the women lacked nearly all the components of a properly designed clinical trial, including a hypothesis based on laboratory experiments, the involvement of a control group of people and a treatment group, the safe collection of data, the masking of clinical and patient groups, and plans for follow-up.

Clinics offering stem cell treatments exist in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Cuba. However, while both The Bahamas and Cuba have developed regulations that stipulate in law the conditions to be met for stem cell treatments and research within their jurisdictions, Jamaica has developed no such regulation.

THE MEDICAL ACT DOES NOT PROVIDE PROTECTION

The Medical Act of Jamaica was passed in 1976, but does not mention or provide any guidance or protection regarding research with human participants.

Its focus was to: Register medical practitioners; appoint examiners to conduct exams for people applying for registration, and ensure the maintenance of proper professional conduct by practitioners.An amendment in 2004 added the requirement of continuing medical education for practitioners.

Guyana and St Lucia are the only countries in the Caribbean that have joined the progressive countries who all have legislation governing research with human participants within their borders. Regulations should stipulate the requisite conditions, including that treatment and research be monitored by an appropriate ethics committee to meet all international standards.

Without this, vulnerable people seeking health benefits will unknowingly continue to subject themselves to risks of harm without the protection that proper regulations can provide.

Derrick Aarons MD, PhD is a consultant bioethicist/family physician, a specialist in ethical issues in medicine, the life sciences and research, and is the Ethicist at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). (The views expressed here are not written on behalf of CARPHA)

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Stem cell treatments can go wrong - Jamaica Observer

A non-surgical treatment that uses a patients own bone marrow stem cells to treat chest pain or angina improved both symptoms and the length of time treated patients could be physically active, according to recent research.

We injected a catalyst molecule that caused bone marrow stem cells to enter the patients blood, then harvested them to re-inject into the patient,said Hadyanto Lim, Ph.D., study senior author.

Thirty minutes after the cell separation procedure finished, the collected stem cells were injected back into the patient through an IV.

Four weeks after receiving the treatment, patients experienced significantly fewer angina-related symptoms, and they were able to exercise at a higher intensity and for a longer period of time.

The studys limitations are the small number of patients and absence of a control group. Because no control group was used, the placebo effect cannot be ruled out, Lim noted.

Although this treatment is currently used to treat some cancers multiple myeloma and lymphoma it will need more investigation before it can be made available to the general public to treat angina, according to Lim.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Hard to treat chest pain may be improved with a patients own stem cells

For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia.

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Injection with own stem cells alleviates chest pains, angina, study finds - Genetic Literacy Project

Selfless Ray Noble may never meet the stranger whose life he saved.

The 29-year-old registered as a stem cell and bone marrow donor four years ago after a young girl his wife knew was diagnosed with cancer.

If that was my little girl Id want someone to be there for her, he said.

Ive been a blood donor for a while, so I thought why not sign up to the stem cell register as well.

And last year dad-of-one Ray, from Wallsend, made a life-saving donation after being told he was a match for an unknown patient in urgent need of a transplant.

Now blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan have urged more people to follow Rays example after a survey revealed that 50% of young men from the North East could not be encouraged to sign up to a blood stem cell or bone marrow register for any reason.

Every year there are 2,000 people in the UK in need of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. This is usually their last chance of survival.

For Ray, the path to becoming a blood cancer patients last hope started when a relative of his wifes friend was diagnosed with the disease.

The process was pretty simple, he said.

I followed the instructions on the Anthony Nolan website about how to sign up.

Within a week or two they sent me a spit test, where I basically had to spit into a tube and send it off so it could be analysed.

I then got a card a few weeks later saying I was on the register.

Since signing up, Ray has been identified as a potential match for two patients.

About two years ago Anthony Nolan got in touch to say that I was a potential match for someone and I had to go and give some samples.

On that one they managed to find a closer match - I was eight out of 10 and they found a 10 out of 10, which was obviously better for the patient.

Then around Christmas last year they confirmed that I was a match for someone.

After undergoing several health checks and injections to stimulate the stem cells in his blood, Ray travelled down to Sheffield in April last year to make the donation.

All in all it took about four or five hours, he said. Id been aching a bit before the procedure because of the injections but afterwards I felt totally fine.

Ray, who is dad to two-year-old Ariana, has since convinced several friends and relatives to sign up.

For me its a question of, why not?, he said.

Its not that likely that youre ever going to be asked to donate - its just a case of being on there for someone if they need it.

I always ask people: How would you feel if it was your child or parent or cousin, if they needed a donor and you werent a match - would you want someone to step up and help them?

Every 20 minutes someone in the UK finds out they have a blood cancer.

Around 2,000 people in the UK in need of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant every year. This is usually their last chance of survival.

75% of UK patients wont find a matching donor in their families. So they turn to Anthony Nolan to find them an unrelated donor.

Healthy adults aged between 16 and 30 can sign up for a simple, pain-free test through the Anthony Nolan Trust.

The charity particularly need more young men to sign up. They produce more stem cells than women and are six times more likely to donate, but make up just 15% of the register. They also need more donors from black and minority ethnic backgrounds as they often struggle to find matches for people in these groups.

Check the list of criteria to make sure youre eligible to join and fill in an application form, either online or at an Anthony Nolan recruitment event.

If you come to a recruitment event and your application is OK, you can give your saliva sample there. If you apply online, youll be sent spit kit in the post. All you need to do is spit into a small tube and post it back.

The sample will be tested and the results put in the charitys database. Every time someone needs a transplant, theyll automatically compare their tissue to yours and the 620,000 other individuals on the register.

You can donate your stem cells in two ways.

Nearly 90% of people donate their stem cells quickly and easily in a process similar to giving blood, called peripheral blood stem cell collection.

The other 10% donate through bone marrow, where they give cells from the bone marrow in their pelvis.

If youre on the register, you must be happy to donate stem cells in either way.

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'If that was my little girl I'd want someone to step up': Stem cell donor on lifesaving transplant - ChronicleLive

Challenging a long-held model about how blood is formed, a study led by UC San Francisco researchers has found that the lungs play a crucial role in the process, producing half of blood platelets and also storing blood-forming stem cells.

The study, performed in mice, also found that blood stem cells and progenitor cells travel freely between the lungs and bone marrow, long considered the primary source of blood production.

If found to occur in humans, this discovery about the lungs role in blood production could provide new approaches for treating blood diseases, pulmonologist Mark R. Looney, M.D., senior author of the study, said in a statement.

Moreover, the success of lung transplantation might be increased by better understanding this process. Immune reaction between donor blood cells in the lungs and the host could contribute to transplant rejection, the study stated.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. When placed online, the study can be found at j.mp/lungblood.

"This finding definitely suggests a more sophisticated view of the lungs -- that they're not just for respiration but also a key partner in formation of crucial aspects of the blood," Looney said. "What we've observed here in mice strongly suggests the lung may play a key role in blood formation in humans as well."

"Dr. Looney and his team have disrupted some traditional ideas about the pulmonary role in platelet-related hematopoiesis, paving the way for further scientific exploration of this integrated biology," said Traci Mondoro, of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, in the statement.

While it has been known for decades that platelets can be made in the lungs, the study indicates that lung production is a more important factor than previously thought, said Mondoro, project officer at the Translational Blood Science and Resources Branch of the NHLBI, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers studied the lungs of mice genetically engineered to make a green fluorescent protein in platelets and platelet-making cells called megakaryocytes. They found a larger than expected number of these cells.

Megakaryocytes that release platelets in the lungs originate from extrapulmonary sites such as the bone marrow; we observed large megakaryocytes migrating out of the bone marrow space, the study said. The contribution of the lungs to platelet biogenesis is substantial,accounting for approximately 50% of total platelet production or 10 million platelets per hour.

After discovering this process, the researchers looked for more signs of blood cells residing in the lungs. They found progenitor cells that turn into megakaryocytes, along with blood-forming, or hematopoietic, stem cells. a total of 1 million per mouse lung.

These cells constitute a reservoir that can replenish the bone marrow, the study said.

Under conditions of thrombocytopenia (platelet deficiency) and relative stem cell deficiency in the bone marrow, these progenitors can migrate out of the lungs, repopulate the bone marrow, completely reconstitute blood platelet counts, and contribute to multiple hematopoietic lineages, the study stated. These results identify the lungs as a primary site of terminal platelet production and an organ with considerable hematopoietic potential.

The studys co-first authors are Emma Lefranais and Guadalupe Ortiz-Muoz, both of UCSF. It was supported by the UCSF Nina Ireland Program in Lung Health; the UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

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Lungs make platelets, store blood stem cells: Study - The San Diego ... - The San Diego Union-Tribune