Published on Mar 25, 2012

CHICAGO (AFP) - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slight improvements in blood pumping but no change in most of their symptoms, United States researchers said on Saturday.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

Previous studies have established that the approach is safe in human patients, but none had examined how well it worked on a variety of heart ailments.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

Read more:
Stem cell therapy could repair some heart damage: Study

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2012) Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions.

Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from the same individual] bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMCs) has demonstrated safety and has suggested efficacy. None of the clinical trials performed to date, however, have been powered to evaluate specific efficacy measures," according to background information in the article.

Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston and colleagues conducted a study to examine the effect of transendocardial administration (use of a special catheter and injection procedure to deliver stem cells to the heart muscle) of BMCs to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with heart failure and/or angina. The patients in the phase 2 randomized trial were receiving maximal medical therapy at 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN) sites between April 2009 and April 2011. Patients were randomized to receive transendocardial injection of BMCs or placebo. The primary outcomes measured for the study, assessed at 6 months, were changes in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) assessed by echocardiography, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversibility of perfusion (blood flow) defect on single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Of 153 patients who provided consent, a total of 92 (82 men; average age: 63 years) were randomized (n = 61 in BMC group and n = 31 in placebo group).

Analysis of data indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups for the primary end points of changes in LVESV index, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversible defect. There were also no differences in any of the secondary outcomes, including percent myocardial defect, total defect size, fixed defect size, regional wall motion (the movement of the wall of the heart during contraction), and clinical improvement.

In an exploratory analysis, the researchers did find that when LVEF was assessed, patients age 62 years or younger showed a statistically significant effect of therapy. Patients in the BMC group demonstrated an average increase in LVEF of 3.1 percent from baseline to 6 months, whereas patients in the placebo group showed a decrease of -1.6 percent.

"In the largest study to date of autologous BMC therapy in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and LV dysfunction, we found no effect of therapy on prespecified end points. Further exploratory analysis showed a significant improvement in LVEF associated with treatment. Our findings provide evidence for further studies to determine the relationship between the composition and function of bone marrow product and clinical end points. Understanding these relationships will improve the design and interpretation of future studies of cardiac cell therapy," the authors write.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Original post:
Treatment of ischemic heart failure with bone marrow cells does not show improvement for certain heart function measures

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Published on Mar 25, 2012

CHICAGO (AFP) - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slight improvements in blood pumping but no change in most of their symptoms, United States researchers said on Saturday.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

Previous studies have established that the approach is safe in human patients, but none had examined how well it worked on a variety of heart ailments.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

Visit link:
Stem cell therapy could repair some heart damage: Study

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2012) Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions.

Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from the same individual] bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMCs) has demonstrated safety and has suggested efficacy. None of the clinical trials performed to date, however, have been powered to evaluate specific efficacy measures," according to background information in the article.

Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston and colleagues conducted a study to examine the effect of transendocardial administration (use of a special catheter and injection procedure to deliver stem cells to the heart muscle) of BMCs to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with heart failure and/or angina. The patients in the phase 2 randomized trial were receiving maximal medical therapy at 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN) sites between April 2009 and April 2011. Patients were randomized to receive transendocardial injection of BMCs or placebo. The primary outcomes measured for the study, assessed at 6 months, were changes in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) assessed by echocardiography, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversibility of perfusion (blood flow) defect on single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Of 153 patients who provided consent, a total of 92 (82 men; average age: 63 years) were randomized (n = 61 in BMC group and n = 31 in placebo group).

Analysis of data indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups for the primary end points of changes in LVESV index, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversible defect. There were also no differences in any of the secondary outcomes, including percent myocardial defect, total defect size, fixed defect size, regional wall motion (the movement of the wall of the heart during contraction), and clinical improvement.

In an exploratory analysis, the researchers did find that when LVEF was assessed, patients age 62 years or younger showed a statistically significant effect of therapy. Patients in the BMC group demonstrated an average increase in LVEF of 3.1 percent from baseline to 6 months, whereas patients in the placebo group showed a decrease of -1.6 percent.

"In the largest study to date of autologous BMC therapy in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and LV dysfunction, we found no effect of therapy on prespecified end points. Further exploratory analysis showed a significant improvement in LVEF associated with treatment. Our findings provide evidence for further studies to determine the relationship between the composition and function of bone marrow product and clinical end points. Understanding these relationships will improve the design and interpretation of future studies of cardiac cell therapy," the authors write.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Read the original here:
Treatment of ischemic heart failure with bone marrow cells does not show improvement for certain heart function measures

Recommendation and review posted by sam

SATURDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- An innovative approach using patients' own bone marrow cells to treat chronic heart failure came up short in terms of effectiveness, researchers report.

Use of stem cell therapy to repair the slow, steady damage done to heart muscle and improve heart function is safe, but has not been shown to improve most measures of heart function, the study authors said.

"For the measures we paid most attention to, we saw no effect, there is no question about that," said researcher Dr. Lemuel Moye, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

"Ultimately, this is going to pay off handsomely for individuals and for public health in general, but it's going to take years of work," Moye said. "We are the vanguard looking for new promising lines of research."

While the hoped-for results didn't materialize, there appeared to be a small improvement in some patients, he said. "When we looked at another commonly used measure of heart function called ejection fraction, or the strength of the heart's pumping, that's where all the action was," Moye noted.

It's hard to know which measures of heart function to look at, Moye explained. "We have had some difficulty with that," he said.

Future research will look at other measures of heart function, pay more attention to the characteristics of the cells that are injected and determine which cells are best, he added.

Cardiac cells and other types of specially prepared cells are available now that were not accessible when this study started in 2009, Moye pointed out.

The results of the trial, which was sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, were to be presented Saturday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago. The report was also published online March 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, Moye and colleagues worked with 92 patients, average age 63 and mostly male, who had heart failure with and without chest pain. They were randomly assigned to receive either an injection of 100 million bone marrow cells from their own bone marrow, or an inactive placebo. Patients in both groups also received aggressive medical therapy.

Read more here:
Stem-Cell Trial Failed to Treat Heart Failure

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

CHICAGO - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slightly improved heart function, researchers said at a major U.S. cardiology conference on Saturday.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

The patients all had chronic heart disease, along with either heart failure or angina, and their left ventricles were pumping at less than 45 per cent of capacity.

All the participants in the study were ineligible for revascularization surgery, such as coronary bypass to restore blood flow, because their heart disease was so advanced.

Those who received the stem cell therapy saw a small but significant boost in the heart's ability to pump blood, measuring the increase from the heart's main pumping chamber at 2.7 per cent more than placebo patients.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

"This is the kind of information we need in order to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy," said lead investigator Emerson Perin, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute.

Perin's research, which was conducted between 2009 and 2011 across five U.S sites, was presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Conference in Chicago.

The technique involved taking bone marrow samples from the patients and processing the marrow to extract stem cells. Doctors then injected the cells via catheter into the heart's left ventricle.

The injections, comprising some 100 million stem cells in all, were specifically targeted at damaged areas, identified by real-time electromechanical mapping of the heart.

More here:
Stem cell treatment could repair heart damage

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kristin Wincek kwincek@mhif.org 612-863-0249 Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation

CHICAGO Cell therapy may present an option for patients with ischemic heart disease to use their own bone marrow cells to repair the damaged areas of their hearts, and may pave the way for future treatment options, according to the FOCUS trial, which will be presented as a late-breaking clinical trial March 24 at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session.

This is the largest study to date to look at stem cell therapy, using a patient's own stem cells, to repair damaged areas of the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction. Researchers found that left ventricular ejection fraction (the percentage of blood leaving the heart's main pumping chamber) increased by a small but significant amount (2.7 percent) in patients who received stem cell therapy. The study also revealed that the improvement in ejection fraction correlated with the number of progenitor cells (CD34+ and CD133+) in the bone marrow; and this information will help in evaluating and designing future therapies and trials.

"FOCUS is an incredibly important trial, as it has informed the cell therapy community how to better treat this high-risk patient population, and allows us to enter into an exciting, next generation of stem cell therapy armed with more data," said study investigator Timothy D. Henry, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and director of research with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

This multicenter study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), which is supported through a research grant from the National Institutes of Health's National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), with the goal to evaluate novel stem cell-based treatment strategies for individuals with cardiovascular disease.

FOCUS will be presented at ACC.12 by its lead investigator Emerson C. Perin, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute, one of the five sites in the CCTRN. The Minneapolis Heart Institute is another site of the five in the network, and a large number of CCTRN patients were enrolled in Minnesota.

For this study, which took place between April 2009 and April 2011, the five sites randomly selected 92 patients to receive stem cell treatment or placebo. The symptomatic patients, with an average age 63, all had chronic ischemic heart disease and an ejection fraction of less than 45 percent (baseline 34 percent) along with heart failure and/or angina and were no longer candidates for revascularization. "These patients had no other options, as medical management failed to improve their symptoms," explained the study's co-investigator Jay Traverse, MD, an interventionalist cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and physician researcher with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Bone marrow was aspirated from the patients and processed to obtain just the mononuclear fraction of the marrow. In patients randomly selected to receive stem cell therapy, physicians inserted a catheter into the heart's left ventricle to inject 100 million stem cells in more than 15 sites that showed damage on the electromechanical mapping image of the heart.

"Studies such as these are able to be completed much faster because of the team approach of the network" said Sonia I. Skarlatos, PhD, NHBLI's deputy director of the division of cardiovascular sciences and program director of CCTRN.

Read the rest here:
Cell therapy using patient's own bone marrow may present option for heart disease

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jade Waddy Jade.Waddy@uth.tmc.edu 713-500-3030 JAMA and Archives Journals

Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions.

Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from the same individual] bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMCs) has demonstrated safety and has suggested efficacy. None of the clinical trials performed to date, however, have been powered to evaluate specific efficacy measures," according to background information in the article.

Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston and colleagues conducted a study to examine the effect of transendocardial administration (use of a special catheter and injection procedure to deliver stem cells to the heart muscle) of BMCs to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with heart failure and/or angina. The patients in the phase 2 randomized trial were receiving maximal medical therapy at 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutesponsored Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN) sites between April 2009 and April 2011. Patients were randomized to receive transendocardial injection of BMCs or placebo. The primary outcomes measured for the study, assessed at 6 months, were changes in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) assessed by echocardiography, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversibility of perfusion (blood flow) defect on single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Of 153 patients who provided consent, a total of 92 (82 men; average age: 63 years) were randomized (n = 61 in BMC group and n = 31 in placebo group).

Analysis of data indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups for the primary end points of changes in LVESV index, maximal oxygen consumption, and reversible defect. There were also no differences in any of the secondary outcomes, including percent myocardial defect, total defect size, fixed defect size, regional wall motion (the movement of the wall of the heart during contraction), and clinical improvement.

In an exploratory analysis, the researchers did find that when LVEF was assessed, patients age 62 years or younger showed a statistically significant effect of therapy. Patients in the BMC group demonstrated an average increase in LVEF of 3.1 percent from baseline to 6 months, whereas patients in the placebo group showed a decrease of 1.6 percent.

"In the largest study to date of autologous BMC therapy in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and LV dysfunction, we found no effect of therapy on prespecified end points. Further exploratory analysis showed a significant improvement in LVEF associated with treatment. Our findings provide evidence for further studies to determine the relationship between the composition and function of bone marrow product and clinical end points. Understanding these relationships will improve the design and interpretation of future studies of cardiac cell therapy," the authors write.

###

(JAMA. 2012;307(16):doi:10.1001/jama.2012.418. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)

Originally posted here:
Study examines treatment of heart failure with bone marrow cells

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

SATURDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- An innovative approach using patients' own bone marrow cells to treat chronic heart failure came up short in terms of effectiveness, researchers report.

Use of stem cell therapy to repair the slow, steady damage done to heart muscle and improve heart function is safe, but has not been shown to improve most measures of heart function, the study authors said.

"For the measures we paid most attention to, we saw no effect, there is no question about that," said researcher Dr. Lemuel Moye, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

"Ultimately, this is going to pay off handsomely for individuals and for public health in general, but it's going to take years of work," Moye said. "We are the vanguard looking for new promising lines of research."

While the hoped-for results didn't materialize, there appeared to be a small improvement in some patients, he said. "When we looked at another commonly used measure of heart function called ejection fraction, or the strength of the heart's pumping, that's where all the action was," Moye noted.

It's hard to know which measures of heart function to look at, Moye explained. "We have had some difficulty with that," he said.

Future research will look at other measures of heart function, pay more attention to the characteristics of the cells that are injected and determine which cells are best, he added.

Cardiac cells and other types of specially prepared cells are available now that were not accessible when this study started in 2009, Moye pointed out.

The results of the trial, which was sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, were to be presented Saturday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago. The report was also published online March 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, Moye and colleagues worked with 92 patients, average age 63 and mostly male, who had heart failure with and without chest pain. They were randomly assigned to receive either an injection of 100 million bone marrow cells from their own bone marrow, or an inactive placebo. Patients in both groups also received aggressive medical therapy.

Link:
Stem-Cell Trial Failed to Treat Heart Failure

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

CHICAGO - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slightly improved heart function, researchers said at a major U.S. cardiology conference on Saturday.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

The patients all had chronic heart disease, along with either heart failure or angina, and their left ventricles were pumping at less than 45 per cent of capacity.

All the participants in the study were ineligible for revascularization surgery, such as coronary bypass to restore blood flow, because their heart disease was so advanced.

Those who received the stem cell therapy saw a small but significant boost in the heart's ability to pump blood, measuring the increase from the heart's main pumping chamber at 2.7 per cent more than placebo patients.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

"This is the kind of information we need in order to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy," said lead investigator Emerson Perin, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute.

Perin's research, which was conducted between 2009 and 2011 across five U.S sites, was presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Conference in Chicago.

The technique involved taking bone marrow samples from the patients and processing the marrow to extract stem cells. Doctors then injected the cells via catheter into the heart's left ventricle.

The injections, comprising some 100 million stem cells in all, were specifically targeted at damaged areas, identified by real-time electromechanical mapping of the heart.

More here:
Stem cell treatment could repair heart damage

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kristin Wincek kwincek@mhif.org 612-863-0249 Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation

CHICAGO Cell therapy may present an option for patients with ischemic heart disease to use their own bone marrow cells to repair the damaged areas of their hearts, and may pave the way for future treatment options, according to the FOCUS trial, which will be presented as a late-breaking clinical trial March 24 at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session.

This is the largest study to date to look at stem cell therapy, using a patient's own stem cells, to repair damaged areas of the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction. Researchers found that left ventricular ejection fraction (the percentage of blood leaving the heart's main pumping chamber) increased by a small but significant amount (2.7 percent) in patients who received stem cell therapy. The study also revealed that the improvement in ejection fraction correlated with the number of progenitor cells (CD34+ and CD133+) in the bone marrow; and this information will help in evaluating and designing future therapies and trials.

"FOCUS is an incredibly important trial, as it has informed the cell therapy community how to better treat this high-risk patient population, and allows us to enter into an exciting, next generation of stem cell therapy armed with more data," said study investigator Timothy D. Henry, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and director of research with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

This multicenter study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), which is supported through a research grant from the National Institutes of Health's National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), with the goal to evaluate novel stem cell-based treatment strategies for individuals with cardiovascular disease.

FOCUS will be presented at ACC.12 by its lead investigator Emerson C. Perin, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute, one of the five sites in the CCTRN. The Minneapolis Heart Institute is another site of the five in the network, and a large number of CCTRN patients were enrolled in Minnesota.

For this study, which took place between April 2009 and April 2011, the five sites randomly selected 92 patients to receive stem cell treatment or placebo. The symptomatic patients, with an average age 63, all had chronic ischemic heart disease and an ejection fraction of less than 45 percent (baseline 34 percent) along with heart failure and/or angina and were no longer candidates for revascularization. "These patients had no other options, as medical management failed to improve their symptoms," explained the study's co-investigator Jay Traverse, MD, an interventionalist cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and physician researcher with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Bone marrow was aspirated from the patients and processed to obtain just the mononuclear fraction of the marrow. In patients randomly selected to receive stem cell therapy, physicians inserted a catheter into the heart's left ventricle to inject 100 million stem cells in more than 15 sites that showed damage on the electromechanical mapping image of the heart.

"Studies such as these are able to be completed much faster because of the team approach of the network" said Sonia I. Skarlatos, PhD, NHBLI's deputy director of the division of cardiovascular sciences and program director of CCTRN.

Excerpt from:
Cell therapy using patient's own bone marrow may present option for heart disease

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

As South Allegheny's first participant in the University of Pittsburgh Gene Team, junior Shannon Wygonik is sharing her love for science with elementary students in her home district.

Hosted by Pitt's biological sciences department, the Gene Team combines research and educational components to foster an interest in science.

Gene Team coordinator Marcie H. Warner believes the inquiry-driven education model inspires high school participants as well as the young students they encounter through the Science Corps portion of the team's program.

"It aims to ignite a love of science in middle and elementary school students by bringing them together with high school students with an interest in science," Warner said. "These high school 'science mentors' come to the classrooms of younger students and present short interactive science lessons that touch on topics such as respiration, natural selection and genetics."

Shannon shared the Science Corps mission Friday with SA fourth-graders in a presentation called "What's in My Pizza?" The lesson focused on yeast's role in the dough-making process and how respiration of the tiny organisms produces carbon dioxide, which causes dough to rise.

Fourth-grader Anessa Short thought the lesson was easy to grasp.

"We got to interact and touch and feel the dough," Anessa said. "It was exciting. It was fun."

Shannon said she loves to see youngsters play with science.

"I really want to share what I know with them," she said. "It gives me an opportunity to teach the kids something exciting something as simple as pizza and how it relates to science."

Gene Team coordinator Brian DiRienzo said passion is what the program strives to achieve.

Here is the original post:
Pitt Gene Team member shares love of science

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

By Uduak Grace Thomas

Users of ChimerMarker, a short tandem repeat chimerism analysis software solution marketed by SoftGenetics, are reporting a significant reduction in the time required to analyze STRs in blood samples of patients who have undergone bone marrow transplants.

The tool automates the process of assessing the chimerism ratio the proportion of donor cells relative to the host patients own cells in post-transplant cases based on the presence of STRs that are unique to both the patient and the donor, Don Kristt, head of molecular pathology at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel, explained to BioInform this week.

According to SoftGenetics, the software can be used to monitor chimerism levels in allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplants or hematopoietic stem cell transplants; bone marrow transplants; and cord and peripheral blood stem cell transplant samples.

SoftGenetics partnered with Kristt to develop the software, which it released last March (BI 3/18/2011). The company later added a module for testing fetal samples for maternal cell contamination prior to performing genetic testing for cystic fibrosis or other diseases (BI 9/2/2011).

The software provides capabilities for genotyping and chimerism analysis and tools to automatically identify donor and recipient peaks in samples following bone marrow transplants. It also calculates percent chimerism and quality metrics for single donor or double donor cases.

Dawn Wagenknecht, who supervises the HLA-Vascular Biology Laboratory at Franciscan St. Francis Health, told BioInform this week that her team was able to reduce the time required to calculate the ratio of donor to recipient cells in blood samples by as much as 85 percent.

She explained that the team ran parallel analyses of 10 blood samples using both ChimerMarker and a manual approach that the lab had used prior to purchasing the software, which involved manually sorting data generated by capillary sequencing in Excel spreadsheets, and then calculating the ratios either on the sheet or using a hand calculator.

In addition to the time savings, ChimerMarker also simplifies the analysis process because all the steps of the workflow are in a single package, she said.

The software also maintains records of the donor sample and the patients blood before transplantation so that the results from subsequent tests after transplant can be compared to the initial samples, she said.

Read more here:
Labs Report 85 Percent Reduction in STR Analysis Time with SoftGenetics' ChimerMaker Software

Recommendation and review posted by sam

22-03-2012 12:16 Dr. Victor Dzau is a physician and pioneering translational research scientist, and is widely recognized as one of the most influential medical leaders worldwide. He is currently the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University and the President and CEO of Duke University Health System. Dr. Dzau's groundbreaking research established the curent understanding of the renin-angiotensin system, which is now known to underlie a wide range of heart and blood vessel diseases, from hypertension to heart failure. His work led directly to the development of drugs that inhibit this system, that now represent the foundation of modern medical therapy for many cardiac disorders. Dr. Dzau continues to lead an innovative and productive reseach lab, pioneering innovative stem cell and genetic treatments for heart and blood vessel diseases. Dr. Dzau has received numerous honors for his contributions to research and medicine, including the 2011 Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research.

Link:
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine for Cardiac Care by Dr. Victor Dzau - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

23-03-2012 13:00 Regenerative Medicine is a revolutionary medical approach that taps into the body's innate ability to regenerate or heal itself. Organogenesis specializes in bringing this exciting new approach to patients today.

The rest is here:
Regenerative Medicine Science - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

By Uduak Grace Thomas

Users of ChimerMarker, a short tandem repeat chimerism analysis software solution marketed by SoftGenetics, are reporting a significant reduction in the time required to analyze STRs in blood samples of patients who have undergone bone marrow transplants.

The tool automates the process of assessing the chimerism ratio the proportion of donor cells relative to the host patients own cells in post-transplant cases based on the presence of STRs that are unique to both the patient and the donor, Don Kristt, head of molecular pathology at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel, explained to BioInform this week.

According to SoftGenetics, the software can be used to monitor chimerism levels in allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplants or hematopoietic stem cell transplants; bone marrow transplants; and cord and peripheral blood stem cell transplant samples.

SoftGenetics partnered with Kristt to develop the software, which it released last March (BI 3/18/2011). The company later added a module for testing fetal samples for maternal cell contamination prior to performing genetic testing for cystic fibrosis or other diseases (BI 9/2/2011).

The software provides capabilities for genotyping and chimerism analysis and tools to automatically identify donor and recipient peaks in samples following bone marrow transplants. It also calculates percent chimerism and quality metrics for single donor or double donor cases.

Dawn Wagenknecht, who supervises the HLA-Vascular Biology Laboratory at Franciscan St. Francis Health, told BioInform this week that her team was able to reduce the time required to calculate the ratio of donor to recipient cells in blood samples by as much as 85 percent.

She explained that the team ran parallel analyses of 10 blood samples using both ChimerMarker and a manual approach that the lab had used prior to purchasing the software, which involved manually sorting data generated by capillary sequencing in Excel spreadsheets, and then calculating the ratios either on the sheet or using a hand calculator.

In addition to the time savings, ChimerMarker also simplifies the analysis process because all the steps of the workflow are in a single package, she said.

The software also maintains records of the donor sample and the patients blood before transplantation so that the results from subsequent tests after transplant can be compared to the initial samples, she said.

Originally posted here:
Labs Report 85 Percent Reduction in STR Analysis Time with SoftGenetics' ChimerMaker Software

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

By Andrea Anderson

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) A study appearing online last night in PLoS Genetics has found gene expression differences in brain samples from children with autism spectrum disorder compared to adults with the condition, hinting that different pathological processes may be at work in the autistic brain depending on age.

A California research team used arrays to assess almost three-dozen post mortem brain samples from individuals with or without autism, gauging both gene expression and copy number alterations in a region called the prefrontal cortex. Along with comparisons between unaffected and affected individuals, the investigators looked at how expression patterns in samples from toddlers and children with ASD compared with those in samples from adolescents and adults with ASD.

Though some gene expression patterns in the prefrontal cortex turned up regardless of age in the ASD group, researchers also found age-dependent gene expression alterations in autism. For example, samples from children with ASD tended to show atypical expression of genes contributing to neuron number consistent with some of the unusual early brain growth patterns previously described in ASD whereas adult autism cases were marked by unusual expression profiles involving genes from signaling, immune, and repair pathways.

"We're showing that the adult condition where you have neuron loss and you have immunological activation isn't the way it began. It's an outcome," co-corresponding author Eric Courchesne, director of the National Institutes of Health-University of California at San Diego's Autism Center of Excellence, told GenomeWeb Daily News.

For more than a decade, studies have been finding distinct early brain development patterns in autism, including excess neurons in certain parts of the brain. This overgrowth seems to stop sometime during childhood, Courchesne noted. And by adolescence or adulthood, the enlarged brain regions seen in childhood generally seem to disappear through processes such as neuron loss and/or thinning in some cortical areas.

That has made it tricky to figure out the molecular roots of the early brain overgrowth seen by neuroimaging experiments or postmortem analyses, authors of the new study explained, though previous genetic studies have garnered clues about some of the age-independent processes contributing to autism.

"Up until now, there has been no information on the developmental, molecular pathology of autism that is, what's going wrong early in the brain that's responsible for excess and abnormal brain growth," Courchesne explained.

He and his colleagues used Illumina microarrays to assess expression profiles across the genome in post-mortem prefrontal cortex samples, comparing the patterns in unaffected and affected individuals and in younger and older individuals with ASD.

Because they were dealing with RNA from post-mortem brain samples, which are often not collected immediately after death, the researchers sent samples to Illumina for processing with its DASL assay to help get as much signal as possible out of the microarray experiments.

View original post here:
Age-Related Gene Expression Differences in Autism Detected in Post-Mortem Brain Samples

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Public release date: 23-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hannes Lohi hannes.lohi@helsinki.fi 358-919-25085 University of Helsinki

A new epilepsy gene for idiopathic epilepsy in Belgian Shepherds has been found in the canine chromosome 37. The research of Professor Hannes Lohi and his group conducted at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhlsan Research Center opens new avenues for the understanding of the genetic background of the most common canine epilepsies. The research also has an impact on the understanding of common epilepsies in humans. The research is published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE on March 23, 2012.

Epilepsy affects about 1-5% of the human population at some stage of live, and it includes a host of syndromes the age of onset, causes and prognosis of which vary significantly. Based on their basic mechanisms epilepsy syndromes are divided into genetic (idiopathic) epilepsies, structural / metabolic (symptomatic) epilepsies and epilepsies of unknown cause. Symptomatic causes refer to discernible external or structural change, whereas with idiopathic epilepsy there is a strong genetic background. A common denominator between the different syndromes are reoccurring epileptic seizures, which are divided according to an international classification into two main groups focal and generalized seizures based on clinical symptoms and research findings. About two thirds of the seizures in adults are focal in nature and one third generalized. In children and teenagers the occurrence of generalized forms of epilepsy is greater (ca. 50%).

Identification of the epilepsy gene on process

Genetic factors are estimated to play a role in the development of epilepsy in as many as 40% of epilepsy patients. Several genes affecting the development of symptomatic epilepsies have already been identified, but the genetic background of multifactorial idiopathic epilepsies often remain unknown. Both focal and generalized idiopathic epilepsies occur in Belgian Shepherds. The research group of Professor Hannes Lohi, working in collaboration with Danish, Swedish and American researchers in an EU-funded project, has made a major breakthrough by identifying a chromosome region associated with the most common form of epilepsy in dogs. By comparing the genome of dogs with epilepsy and healthy control dogs a gene region in chromosome 37 was discovered, which if homozygous, increases the risk of epilepsy seven-fold. In addition the research findings indicate that other, still unknown, genetic risk factors may be present in the breed.

The identified region has excellent neurological candidate genes for epilepsy and ongoing follow-up research is aimed to identify the specific gene causing epilepsy. Epilepsy genes have not previously been identified in this chromosome region, so the discovery will reveal an entirely new epilepsy gene in dogs and possibly also in humans. The type of epilepsy occurring in Belgian Shepherds is extremely common in also other breeds and thus the discovery may have an impact on the understanding of the epilepsies in different dog breeds.

"There are only few genes in the identified region and I believe that the ongoing analyses will help us to discover the specific epilepsy gene," says Professor Hannes Lohi who led the research. "This would give us a better understanding of the disease mechanisms and provide us with new diagnostic tools for the disease."

The Research group of Hannes Lohi has begun an extensive gene-sequencing project in which the entire identified chromosome region will be 'read through' with a next-generation sequencing method. By identifying the specific gene mutation an individual's epilepsy risk could be assessed, although the gene mutation may also be common in dogs that never become symptomatic of epilepsy.

Epilepsy is common among Belgian Shepherds

Read more:
New epilepsy gene located in dogs

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Lymphoma / Leukemia / Myeloma Article Date: 23 Mar 2012 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend printer friendly opinions

Current Article Ratings:

5 (1 votes)

The drug blocks these cells from binding to bone marrow by driving them into the bloodstream, where they are more susceptible to chemotherapy.

Geoffrey L. Uy, M.D., co-first author on the study and assistant professor of medicine, said:

52 individuals with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) whose AML was resistant to the standard chemotherapy regimen or who had relapsed, were enrolled to participate in the combined Phase I and II clinical trial. All 46 participants in the Phase II section of the trial received plerixafor. The researchers found that all 46 participants achieved complete remission (no evidence of cancer was found in the bone marrow or blood following treatment).

Uy, who treats patients at the Alivn J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, explained:

Results from earlier studies have demonstrated that mutations that cause AML may vary considerably among patients. Senior author, John F. DiPersio, M.D., Ph.D, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Professor of Medicine, notes that all these leukemia cells, regardless of individual mutations, rely on the protective effects of the bone marrow.

DiPersio, who also treats people at the Siteman Cancer Center, said:

More:
Plerixafor Improves Acute Myeloid Leukemia Chemo Efficacy

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Ear, Nose and Throat Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology Article Date: 23 Mar 2012 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend printer friendly opinions

Current Article Ratings:

In the March 20 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reveal that the mTOR molecular pathway stimulates the activity of the Gli1 protein in the development and progression of esophageal cancer.

Senior author of the study, Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., vice president for basic research, professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, explained:

Crosstalk between these two pathways is a challenge, but our experiments showed a combination of the mTOR inhibitor RAD-001 (Afinitor) and the Hedgehog inhibitor GDC-0449 (Erivedge) steeply reduced the tumor burden in a mouse model of esophageal adenocarcinoma."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved both drugs for use in other types of cancer.

After examining 107 tissue samples of human esophageal cancer, the researchers found that 87 (81.3%) had a marker of Gli1 activated by Hedgehog and 80 (74.8%) had a marker of mTOR promotion of Gli1.

According to the researchers less than 20% of individuals suffering from esophageal cancer (one of the most aggressive forms of cancer) survive for 5 years. Furthermore, they highlight that since the 1980s, the disease has become more prevalent in the U.S by 5% to 10% each year. Obesity and inflammation are believed to contribute to this increased incidence.

In order to show how mTOR and Hedgehog, both involved in esophageal and other types of cancers, converge on Gli1, the team conducted experiments with cell lines, human tumor samples and mouse models.

Read more from the original source:
Potential Combination Therapy For Esophageal Cancer

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Newswise TAMPA, Fla. (March 23, 2012) An international group of researchers, including those from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have published a paper in the March 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reviewing the results of a study that analyzed mutations in 18 genes of 398 patients who had acute myeloid leukemia (AML). They found that several mutated genes predicted improved outcomes when patients with certain gene mutations were given high-dose induction chemotherapy. Their findings suggest that mutational profiling could potentially be used for both risk stratification and also in helping health care providers make therapeutic decisions for some AML patients.

Previous studies have found that AML is a highly heterogenic disorder, said study co-author Hugo F. Fernandez, a senior member at Moffitt and associate chief of Moffitts Blood and Marrow Transplantation Division. Moreover, recent studies have revealed that a number of genetic mutations in AML patients might have prognostic value. The question of the presence of these gene mutations altering outcomes based on current therapy had not been answered to date.

Their paper cites a clinical trial carried out by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) in which dose-intensified chemotherapy improved outcomes in two age sets of AML patients. Based on these findings, the research team hypothesized that carrying out mutational analysis of all known molecular alterations occurring in more than 5 percent of patients with AML might allow for the identification of distinct, molecularly defined subgroups of patients who might benefit from dose-intensified chemotherapy.

The laboratory research team subsequently performed a mutational analysis on diagnostic samples from 398 patients enrolled in the ECOG clinical trial they cited and used patients frozen sample cells for extraction and profiling. The researchers validated the results of this latter group of 104 patients.

We found that intensification of the dose of anthracycline significantly improved outcomes and overall survival in patients with mutations in DNMT3A, NPM1 or MLL translocations, said Fernandez. This finding suggests that mutational profiling could be used to determine which AML patients will benefit from dose-intensive induction therapy.

Most importantly, said Fernandez, this study demonstrates how integrated mutational profiling of samples from a clinical trial cohort can advance understanding of the biologic characteristics of AML.

About Moffitt Cancer Center Follow Moffitt on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MoffittCancerCenter Follow Moffitt on Twitter: @MoffittNews Follow Moffitt on YouTube: MoffittNews

Located in Tampa, Moffitt Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, which recognizes Moffitts excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Moffitt is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the countrys leading cancer centers, and is listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of Americas Best Hospitals for cancer.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

Excerpt from:
Identifying Acute Myeloid Leukemia Gene Mutations May Indicate Risk, Best Treatment

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

22-03-2012 12:29 Dr. Rebecca Carley talks about the vast dangers of vaccines and other AMA-approved treatments that actually do greater harm. website: drcarley.com (expand for more info) "The only safe vaccine is one that is never used." (Dr.James R. Shannon, former Director National Institute of Health) Vaccine Ingredients - Formaldehyde, Aspartame, Mercury + more The numbers of microbes, antibiotics, chemicals, heavy metals and animal byproducts is staggering. Would you knowingly inject these materials into your children? This following list of common vaccines and their ingredients should shock anyone --- eye-opening list here http://www.rense.com (page xcerpt) Acel-Immune DTaP - Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis Wyeth-Ayerst 800.934.5556 * diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis adsorbed, formaldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, thimerosal, and polysorbate 80 (Tween-80) gelatin Act HIB Haemophilus - Influenza B Connaught Laboratories 800.822.2463 * Haemophilus influenza Type B, polyribosylribitol phosphate ammonium sulfate, formalin, and sucrose Attenuvax - Measles Merck & Co., Inc. 800-672-6372 * measles live virus neomycin sorbitol hydrolized gelatin, chick embryo Biavax - Rubella Merck & Co., Inc. 800-672-6372 * rubella live virus neomycin sorbitol hydrolized gelatin, human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue BioThrax - Anthrax Adsorbed BioPort Corporation 517.327.1500 * nonencapsulated strain of Bacillus anthracis aluminum hydroxide, benzethonium chloride, and ...

See original here:
Dr. Rebecca Carley : Vaccines

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Public release date: 23-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dawn Peters healthnews@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley-Blackwell

New research found the genetic variant Patatin-like phospholipase domain containing protein-3 (PNPLA3) acting in conjunction with the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR) is associated with increased susceptibility to fatty liver disease in obese children. The study, published in the March issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, determined the PNPLA3 and GCKR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were responsible for up to 39% of the hepatic fat content in this pediatric population.

Obesity is a global health concern and children are not unscathed by this epidemic. As a result, experts say nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the leading cause of chronic liver disease in children and adolescents in industrialized countries. Previous studies indicate genetics significantly impacts the susceptibility of developing fatty liver and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), particularly in early-onset disease, which places greater interest on childhood obesity.

For the current study, a team led by Dr. Nicola Santoro from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut recruited 455 obese children and adolescents who underwent genotyping and fasting triglycerides and lipoprotein particles testing. Participants in this pediatric cohort had a mean age of 13 years with 181 Caucasian, 139 African American and 135 Hispanic children. Researchers measured hepatic fat content (HFF%) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a subset of 142 children.

Study findings show that rs1260326 in the GCKR gene is associated with higher triglycerides levels and higher levels of very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) in Caucasian and African American children. The GCKR SNP was associated with fatty liver in each of the three ethnic groups. A joint effect between PNPLA3 and GCKR SNPs was responsible for 32% of the HFF% in Caucasian, 39% in African American and 15% of Hispanic children. "Our findings confirm that obese youths with genetic variants in the GCKR and PNPLA3 genes may be more susceptible to fatty liver disease. We need to be cautious, though, and refrain to automatically extend this observation to the overall population. In fact, our data refer to a population of obese children and adolescents. I think that further studies involving lean subjects and adults may help to further define in more details these associations," said Dr. Santoro.

In a related editorial, Valerio Nobili with "Bambino Gesu" Children's Hospital and Research Institute in Italy concurs, "Dr. Santoro and colleagues determined the additive effect of PNPLA3 and GCKR variants explained over one third of hepatic fat content variance in obese children." He recommends that ethnicity data be replicated in larger study cohorts due to the small number of participants in each of the three groups.

The study authors suggest that the GCKR variant may lead to accumulation of fat in the liver through an increase in hepatic triglyceride production and further research is warranted to confirm their results. Dr. Santoro concludes, "While the small sample size raises the possibility of false negative results in our study, the presence of both GCKR and PNLPA3 genetic variants acting in combination confers susceptibility to fatty liver disease in obese children."

###

This study and editorial are published in Hepatology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the articles may contact healthnews@wiley.com.

Originally posted here:
Study identifies genetic variants linked to fatty liver disease in obese children

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2fee68d4/progenitor_and_ste) has announced the addition of Woodhead Publishing Ltd's new book "Progenitor and Stem Cell Technologies and Therapies" to their offering.

Progenitor and stem cells have the ability to renew themselves and change into a variety of specialised types, making them ideal materials for therapy and regenerative medicine. "Progenitor and stem cell technologies and therapies" reviews the range of progenitor and stem cells available and their therapeutic application.

Part one reviews basic principles for the culture of stem cells before discussing technologies for particular cell types. These include human embryonic, induced pluripotent, amniotic and placental, cord and multipotent stem cells. Part two discusses wider issues such as intellectual property, regulation and commercialisation of stem cell technologies and therapies. The final part of the book considers the therapeutic use of stem and progenitor cells. Chapters review the use of adipose tissue-derived stem cells, umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells, bone marrow, auditory and oral cavity stem cells. Other chapters cover the use of stem cells in therapies in various clinical areas, including lung, cartilage, urologic, nerve and cardiac repair.

With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, "Progenitor and stem cell technologies and therapies" is a standard reference for both those researching in cell and tissue biology and engineering as well as medical practitioners investigating the therapeutic use of this important technology.

Key Features:

- Reviews the range of progenitor and stem cells available and outlines their therapeutic application

- Examines the basic principles for the culture of stem cells before discussing technologies for particular cell types, including human embryonic, induced pluripotent, amniotic and placental, cord and multipotent stem cells

- Includes a discussion of wider issues such as intellectual property, regulation and commercialisation of stem cell technologies and therapies

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2fee68d4/progenitor_and_ste

Here is the original post:
Research and Markets: Progenitor and Stem Cell Technologies and Therapies Reviews the Range Of Progenitor and Stem ...

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ)One of the last search and rescue dogs from 9/11 lives here in Maryland. She was suffering from a painful condition until her owner took action with breakthrough technology.

Mary Bubala has the story.

Red is a search and rescue dog from Annapolis, but has traveled across the country. Her missions include Hurricane Katrina, the La Plata tornadoes and the Pentagon after 9/11.

They credit them with finding 70 percent of the human remains so that helped a whole lot of those families actually get closure, said Heather Roche, Reds owner.

Sept. 11 was Reds first search. Today shes one of the last 9/11 search and rescue dogs still alive.

She retired last summer due to severe arthritis.

It would be nice if her arthritis, if she felt better, that she could do those kinds of things that she misses, Reds owner said while fighting back tears. Alright I am going to cry.

Roche did some research and found an animal hospital in northern Virginia that uses breakthrough stem cell therapy to treat arthritis in dogs.

The Burke Animal Clinic is one of just a few across the country that use stem cell therapy.

The vet harvests 1 to 2 ounces of the dogs fatty tissue, activates the stem cells and then injects them back into the troubled areas.

See more here:
Stem Cell Therapy Used To Treat 9/11 Search And Rescue Dog

Recommendation and review posted by simmons