Virginia Western Community College will host a student-led Be the Match donor drive on April 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the courtyward between the Fralin Center and Business Science Building and the Pedestrian bridge. Through the drive, potential donors will learn if they could provide life-saving bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplants.

At the drive, potential donors will complete a registration form with contact information, health information and a signed agreement to join the Be The Match Registry. To help you complete the form, bring along:

Personal identification (such as a driver's license or passport)

Contact information for two family members or friends who would know how to reach you in the future if your contact information changes

You will provide a swab of cheek cells to be tissue-typed. We will use the results to match you to patients

During the drive, an individual who has battled leukemia and received a stem cell transplant will speak to perspective donors on the importance of donation. Please join us to learn how you could help those in need.

For more information on Be the Match, visit http://www.bethematch.org.

Submitted by Josh Meyer

Continued here:
VWCC to host bone marrow donor drive April 19 - Roanoke Times

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd has ordered cell culture technologies from Hitachi as part of its effort to develop a treatment for Parkinsons disease.

The order financial terms of which were not provided will see Hitachi supply automated cell culturing technologies designed for the manufacture of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

Dainippon is developing a cell therapy for Parkinsons-related dopamine neuron loss and neurodegeneration in collaboration with both Hitachi and Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University (CiRA).

Part of the project which is funded by the Japanese Agency of Medical Research and Development (AMED) - involves the development of processing methods and technologies for the production of stem cells for regenerative therapies.

The Japanese drug firm has announced several regenerative medicine-based research projects in recent years, beginning in 2015 when it partnered with Sanbio to develop SB623, an allogenic cell therapy for ischemic stroke to improve motor abilities.

Regenerative meds

Regenerative medicine which engineers or replaces damaged cells within human patients has become a popular area of research in Japan sinceShinya Yamanaka won the 2012 Noel Prize for medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.

Regenerative medicine is also a big focus for the Japanese Government.

Laws introduced in November 2014 therevised pharmaceutical affairs law and newregenerative medicines legislation mean such products could be reviewed and approved in just two years, if deemed to be effective.

Japans Government further underlined its commitment to regenerative medicine in its budget in January 2015, allocating Y2.5bn ($20.8bn) to the industrialisation of regenerative medicine evaluation fundamental technology development business.

See more here:
Sumitomo Dainippon buys cell therapy processing tech from Hitachi - In-PharmaTechnologist.com

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Are you a deathist? A deathist is someone who accepts the fact of death, who thinks the ongoing massacre of us all by ageing is not a scandal. A deathist even insists that death is valuable: that the only thing that gives life meaning is the fact that it ends an idea not necessarily embraced by someone about to be murdered on video by an Isis fanatic.

But what is the alternative? There has never been one, which is why until recently no one needed to coin the term deathist. But now many tech entrepreneurs and scientists take a different view: death, they say, is simply an engineering challenge. Biotechnology should, in principle, be able to reverse the wear-and-tear on cellular machinery in our bodies and keep us in our prime indefinitely, barring violent accident. Consider how many lives this would save. If you think such research should not be pursued, then you are a throwback, a deathist, a morose Luddite thanatophile.

Anti-deathism is one of the main strands of a set of sci-fi dreams that come under the umbrella term transhumanism, the subject of the Irish literary critic Mark OConnells engaging tour. He visits a cryonics facility in the desert outside Phoenix, where customers have paid to have their whole bodies or just their heads (called, Greekly, cephalons in the facilitys distancing jargon) preserved by freezing, in the hope that science will one day figure out how to revive them. He goes to a robotics fair where the audience gasps at humanoid robots that can operate door handles or egress successfully from a car. He hangs out with a gang of grinder cyborgs, that like to implant boxes of electronics under their skin in order to, say, be able to sense the presence of an electromagnetic field. He interviews people working on the idea of uploading human minds to computers, and those like the philosopher Nick Bostrom who fear that one day soon they, and we, might be killed by an omnipotent artificial intelligence of our own creation.

This is all related in a sort of wryly melancholy version of gonzo narrative non-fiction, structured in the simple What I Did Next For My Research style. Think a more overtly erudite version of Jon Ronson. As with that writer, you do occasionally feel that OConnell is expending energy on a less interesting figure simply because they provide so much freakish colour. Some of his transhumanist subjects are pitiful (the virginal man who looks forward to sexbots) but others for instance, the American scientist Laura Deming, who focuses on life extension research are extremely intelligent and persuasive. Overall, the book is thoughtful, modestly unsure of its own opinion, and often disarmingly funny. (Cryogenically frozen brains are left in their skulls, OConnell explains, because technically, it is kind of a hassle to remove the thing entirely.)

The author is especially alert to the assumptions encoded within tech-utopian rhetoric for example, the habit of saying that we should solve death:

The word solve seemed to me to encapsulate the Silicon Valley ideology whereby all of life could neatly be divided into problems and solutions solutions that always took the form of some or other application of technology.

And the very prefix trans- in the word transhumanism expresses, for some, a forlorn desire for spiritual transcendence of mere meat. As one cyborg tinkerer explains to the author:

Ask anyone whos transgender. Theyll tell you theyre trapped in the wrong body. But me, Im trapped in the wrong body because Im trapped in a body. All bodies are the wrong body.

The apparent paradox, then, is that so many transhumanists, while bent on defeating or solving death, also seem rather, well, misanthropic. To be transhumanist is on some level also to be anti-humanist: people tell OConnell what contemptible monkeys current humans are, how disgusting it is that they are doing all this breeding, and how theyd rather be machine-based consciousnesses exploring the vastness of space. But when it comes down to it, you might think there is not all that much to distinguish this, as a consummation devoutly to be wished, from good old-fashioned death.

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Who on earth wants to live forever with the people who want to live forever? - Spectator.co.uk

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Gene therapy carries the promise of cures for many diseases and for types of medical treatment that didn't seem possible until recently. With its potential to eliminate and prevent hereditary diseases such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia and its use as a possible cure for heart disease, AIDS, and cancer, gene therapy is a potential medical miracle-worker.

But what about gene therapy for children? There's a fair amount of risk involved, so thus far only seriously ill kids or those with illnesses that can't be cured by standard medical treatments have been involved in clinical trials using gene therapy.

As those studies continue, gene therapy may soon offer hope for children with serious illnesses that don't respond to conventional therapies.

Our genes help make us unique. Inherited from our parents, they go far in determining our physical traits like eye color and the color and texture of our hair. They also determine things like whether babies will be male or female, the amount of oxygen blood can carry, and the likelihood of getting certain diseases.

Genes are composed of strands of a molecule called DNA and are located in single file within the chromosomes. The genetic message is encoded by the building blocks of the DNA, which are called nucleotides. Approximately 3 billion pairs of nucleotides are in the chromosomes of a human cell, and each person's genetic makeup has a unique sequence of nucleotides. This is mainly what makes us different from one another.

Scientists believe that every human has about 25,000 genes per cell. A mutation, or change, in any one of these genes can result in a disease, physical disability, or shortened life span. These mutations can be passed from one generation to another, inherited just like a mother's curly hair or a father's brown eyes. Mutations also can occur spontaneously in some cases, without having been passed on by a parent. With gene therapy, the treatment or elimination of inherited diseases or physical conditions due to these mutations could become a reality.

Gene therapy involves the manipulation of genes to fight or prevent diseases. Put simply, it introduces a "good" gene into a person who has a disease caused by a "bad" gene.

The two forms of gene therapy are:

Currently, gene therapy is done only through clinical trials, which often take years to complete. After new drugs or procedures are tested in laboratories, clinical trials are conducted with human patients under strictly controlled circumstances. Such trials usually last 2 to 4 years and go through several phases of research. In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must then approve the new therapy for the marketplace, which can take another 2 years.

The most active research being done in gene therapy for kids has been for genetic disorders (like cystic fibrosis). Other gene therapy trials involve children with severe immunodeficiencies, such as adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency (a rare genetic disease that makes kids prone to serious infection), sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, hemophilia, and those with familial hypercholesterolemia (extremely high levels of serum cholesterol).

Gene therapy does have risks and limitations. The viruses and other agents used to deliver the "good" genes can affect more than the cells for which they're intended. If a gene is added to DNA, it could be put in the wrong place, which could potentially cause cancer or other damage.

Genes also can be "overexpressed," meaning they can drive the production of so much of a protein that they can be harmful. Another risk is that a virus introduced into one person could be transmitted to others or into the environment.

Gene therapy trials in children present an ethical dilemma, according to some gene therapy experts. Kids with an altered gene may have mild or severe effects and the severity often can't be determined in infants. So just because some kids appear to have a genetic problem doesn't mean they'll be substantially affected by it, but they'll have to live with the knowledge of that problem.

Kids could be tested for disorders if there is a medical treatment or a lifestyle change that could be beneficial or if knowing they don't carry the gene reduces the medical surveillance needed. For example, finding out a child doesn't carry the gene for a disorder that runs in the family might mean that he or she doesn't have to undergo yearly screenings or other regular exams.

To cure genetic diseases, scientists must first determine which gene or set of genes causes each disease. The Human Genome Project and other international efforts have completed the initial work of sequencing and mapping virtually all of the 25,000 genes in the human cell. This research will provide new strategies to diagnose, treat, cure, and possibly prevent human diseases.

Although this information will help scientists determine the genetic basis of many diseases, it will be a long time before diseases actually can be treated through gene therapy.

Gene therapy's potential to revolutionize medicine in the future is exciting, and hopes are high for its role in ;curing and preventing childhood diseases. One day it may be possible to treat an unborn child for a genetic disease even before symptoms appear.

Scientists hope that the human genome mapping will help lead to cures for many diseases and that successful clinical trials will create new opportunities. For now, however, it's a wait-and-see situation, calling for cautious optimism.

Date reviewed: April 2014

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Gene Therapy and Children (For Parents) - KidsHealth

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Science Daily

Success of sensory cell regeneration raises hope for hearing restoration Science Daily In an apparent first, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have used genetic manipulation to regenerate auditory hair cells in adult mice. The research marks a possible advance in treatment of hearing loss in humans. The study appears in ...

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Success of sensory cell regeneration raises hope for hearing restoration - Science Daily

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

First bone marrow stem cell transplantations performed in Armenia

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The first two stem cell transplantations of bone marrow in Armenia were performed in the Yolyan Hematology Center by Professor Dr. NicolausKrger, head of the transplantation department of Hamburgs Eppendorf Clinic and the Yolyan Hematology Clinics team.

Professor Smbat Daghbashyan, head of the Armenian transplantation doctors team, told reporters the transplantation passed successfully.

The patients, who trusted her health to the doctors, is a woman from Artsakh, who had to travel abroad for undergoing the same surgery. The second patient is a man, who had a repetition of the disease after chemotherapy, he said, adding that 60 patients annually need stem cell transplantation in Armenia.

We will continue cooperation with our colleagues from Hamburg. The patient who had to receive the transplantation in Hamburg, can get it here the same way. We will perform transplantations in 7-10 patients during this year, since this a gradual process, he said.

Dr. NicolausKrger congratulated the Armenian doctors in introducing the new treatment method in Armenia.

This method is considered to be innovative in the world and is used for treating cancerous diseases, he said.

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First bone marrow stem cell transplantations performed in Armenia - Armenpress.am

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Credit: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Like private investigators on a stake out, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital scientists used patience and video surveillance-like tools to identify cells that trigger blood cell development. The findings offer clues for making blood-forming stem cells in the laboratory that may ultimately help improve access to bone marrow transplantation.

The research will likely open new avenues of investigation in stem cell biology and blood development and provide insight to aid efforts to make transplantable hematopoietic stem cells in the lab, said corresponding author Wilson Clements, Ph.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Hematology.

Blood-forming stem cells are capable of making any type of blood cell in the body. They are also used in transplant therapies for cancers like leukemia or other blood diseases like sickle cell. They are starting to be used to deliver gene therapy. However, a shortage of suitable donors limits access to treatment, and efforts to produce blood from pluripotent stem cells in the laboratory have been unsuccessful. Pluripotent stem cells are the master cells capable of making any cell in the body.

All blood-forming stem cells normally arise before birth from certain endothelial cells found in the interior blood vessel lining of the developing aorta. This processincluding how endothelial cells are set on the path to becoming blood stem cellsis not completely understood.

Clements and first author Erich Damm, Ph.D., a St. Jude postdoctoral fellow, have identified trunk neural crest cells as key orchestrators of the conversion of endothelial cells to blood stem cells. Trunk neural crest cells are made in the developing spinal cord and migrate throughout the embryo. They eventually give rise to a variety of adult cells, including neurons and glial cells in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, which control feeding, fighting, fleeing and procreating.

Using time-lapse video, the researchers tracked the migration of neural crest cells in the transparent embryos of zebrafish. Zebrafish and humans share nearly identical blood systems, as well as the programming that makes them during development. After about 20 hours, the neural crest cells had reached the developing aorta. After hour 24, the migrating cells had cozied up to the endothelial cells in the aorta, which then turned on genes, such as runx1, indicating their conversion to blood stem cells.

The investigators used a variety of methods to show that disrupting the normal migration of neural crest cells or otherwise blocking their contact with the aorta endothelial cells prevented the birth of blood stem cells. Meanwhile, other aspects of zebrafish development were unaffected.

Researchers have speculated that the endothelial cells that give rise to blood-forming stem cells are surrounded by a support niche of other cells whose identity and origins were unknown, Damm said. Our results support the existence of a niche, and identify trunk neural crest cells as an occupant.

Adult bone marrow includes niches that support normal function and notably feature cells derived from trunk neural crest cells.

The findings also suggest that trunk neural crest cells use a signal or signals to launch blood stem cell production during development. The researchers have eliminated adrenaline and noradrenaline as the signaling molecules, but work continues to identify the signaling proteins or small molecules involved.

The research was supported in part by a grant (R00HL097) from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health; the March of Dimes; and ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude.

Reference:

Damm, E. W., & Clements, W. K. (2017). Pdgf signalling guides neural crest contribution to the haematopoietic stem cell specification niche. Nature Cell Biology. doi:10.1038/ncb3508

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Cells Essential for 'Birth' of Blood Stem Cells Revealed - Technology Networks

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Written by AZoNanoApr 11 2017

Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Metin Uz, Suprem Das, Surya Mallapragada and Jonathan Claussen are developing technologies to promote nerve regrowth. The monitor shows mesenchymal stem cells (the white) aligned along graphene circuits (the black). CREDIT: Photo by Christopher Gannon.

Scientists searching for the means to regenerate nerves might find it difficult to acquire the important tools needed for research. One such example is Schwann cells that form sheaths enclosing axons, which are tail-like portions of nerve cells that convey electrical impulses. In addition to promoting regeneration of the axons, the Schwann cells discharge substances, boosting the health of nerve cells.

To put it differently, the Schwann cells prove to be helpful to researchers working towards the regeneration of nerve cells, particularly peripheral nerve cells located outside the spinal cord and brain. However, the count of Schwann cells is too low to be of any use.

Scientists have been using noncontroversial, readily available mesenchymal stem cells that is, bone marrow stromal stem cells with the ability to form cartilage, bone, and fat cells by differentiating them into Schwann cells by means of a chemical process. Unfortunately, this process is costly and laborious.

The Iowa State University research team have been looking for a better way to transform the stem cells into Schwann-like cells, and have created a nanotechnology that employs inkjet printers for printing multi-layer graphene circuits. It also employs lasers to treat and enhance conductivity and the surface structure of the circuits.

The mesenchymal stem cells have been found to adhere and grow in a better manner on the rough, raised, and 3-D nanostructures of the treated circuit. When small doses of electricity of about 100 mV were applied for 10 minutes per day, for a time period of 15 days, the stem cells transformed into Schwann-like cells.

This discovery has made it to the front cover of Advanced Healthcare Materials, a scientific journal. The lead author of the study is Jonathan Claussen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory. The first authors of the study are Suprem Das, a postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the Ames Laboratory, and Metin Uz, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical and biological engineering.

The research has been funded by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and Iowa States College of Engineering, including the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The research has also been supported by The Carol Vohs Johnson Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Surya Mallapragada. She is a co-author of the study, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, as well as an associate of the Ames Laboratory.

This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells. There is huge potential here.

Metin Uz

When compared to the standard chemical process with the ability of differentiating only 75% of the stem cells into Schwann-like cells, the highly effective electrical stimulation carried out in the new technique can differentiate 85%. In addition, the electrically differentiated cells generated a nerve growth factor of 80 ng/mm when compared with 55 ng/mm in the case of the chemically treated cells.

The research team believes the outcome might result in changes in the ways nerve injuries are cured inside the body.

These results help pave the way for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration, where the flexible graphene electrodes could conform to the injury site and provide intimate electrical stimulation for nerve cell regrowth.

The research team

Various benefits of using electrical stimulation for transforming stem cells into Schwann-like cells are reported in the paper:

A graphene inkjet printing process, created in Claussens research lab, is an important part of making the process work. Flexible, inexpensive, and wearable electronics can be produced through the process by making appropriate use of the benefits of wonder-material graphene, namely high stability, high strength, biocompatibility, and higher electrical and heat conductivity.

The research team confronted one major challenge after printing the graphene electronic circuits, the circuits mandated further treatment to enhance the electrical conductivity, normally done using chemicals or high temperatures. Both of these methods can damage the flexible printing surfaces which include paper or plastic films.

Claussen and his colleagues overcame the challenge by developing a computer-controlled laser technology with the ability to selectively irradiate inkjet-printed graphene oxide. This step eliminates ink binders and converts the graphene oxide to graphene by physically connecting millions of tiny graphene flakes together. This improves the electrical conductivity by over a thousand times.

The cooperation between Claussens team of nanoengineers (who developed printed graphene technologies), and Mallapragadas team of chemical engineers (who investigated nerve regeneration), started as a consequence of informal conversations on campus.

This resulted in experimental efforts to grow stem cells on printed graphene and then to perform electrical stimulation experiments.

We knew this would be a really good platform for electrical stimulation. But we didnt know it would differentiate these cells.

Suprem Das

Since the process has been successful in differentiating the stem cells, the scientists believe that there may be further prospective applications to consider. For instance, in future, the technology could be applied to develop absorbable or dissolvable nerve regeneration materials. These could be surgically positioned inside a patients body without the need for subsequent surgery to remove the materials.

Excerpt from:
Innovative Process for Differentiating Stem Cells into Schwann-Like Cells - AZoNano

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Pennsylvania state trooper Matt Uram was talking with his wife at a July Fourth party in 2009 when a misjudged spray of gasoline burst through a nearby bonfire and set him alight. Flames covered the entire right side of his body, and after he fell to the ground to smother them, his wife beat his head with her bare hands to put out his burning hair. It was only on the way to the ER, as the shock and adrenaline began to wear off, that the pain set in. It was intense, he says. If you can imagine what pins and needles feel like, then replace those needles with matches.

From the hospital, Uram was transferred to the Mercy Burn Center in Pittsburgh, where doctors removed all of the burned skin and dressed his wounds. It was on the border between a second- and third-degree burn, and he was told to prepare for months of pain and permanent disfigurement. Not long after this assessment, however, a doctor asked Uram if he would be willing to take part in an experimental trial of a new device.

The treatment, developed by German researcher Dr. Jrg Gerlach, was the worlds first to use a patients stem cells to directly heal the skin. If successful, the device would mend Urams wounds using his bodys ability to regenerate fully functioning skin. Uram agreed to the procedure without hesitation.

Five days after the accident, surgeons removed a small section of undamaged skin from Urams right thighabout the size of a postage stampand used it to create a liquid suspension of his stem cells that was sprayed in a fine mist onto the damaged skin. Three days later, when it was time to remove the bandages and re-dress the wounds, his doctor was amazed by what he saw. The burns were almost completely healed, and any risk of infection or scarring was gone.

Pennsylvania State Trooper Matt Uram's arm eventually healed without scarring. RenovaCare

A study subsequently published in the scientific journal Burns described how the spray was able to regrow the skin across the burn by spreading thousands of tiny regenerative islands, rather than forcing the wound to heal from its edge to the inside. The technique meant reducing the healing time and minimizing complications, with aesthetically and functionally satisfying outcomes, the paper stated.

Dozens more burn victims in Germany and the U.S. were successfully treated with the spray following Urams procedure, and in 2014 Gerlach sold the technology to RenovaCare. The medical technology startup has now transformed the proof-of-concept device from a complicated prototype into a user-friendly product called a SkinGun, which it hopes clinicians will be able to use outside of an experimental setting. For that to happen, RenovaCare is preparing clinical studies for later this year, with the aim of Food and Drug Administration approval for the SkinGun.

Once these obstacles are overcome, RenovaCare CEO Thomas Bold believes, the SkinGun can compete with, or even replace, todays standard of care.

Current treatment of severe burns involves transplanting healthy skin from one area of the body and stitching it to another in a process called skin grafting or mesh skin grafting. It is a painful procedure that creates an additional wound at the donor site and can cause restricted joint movement because the transplanted skin is unable to grow with the patient. It is able to cover an area only two to three times as large as the harvested patch. The current standard of care is just horrible, says Bold. We are part of regenerative medicineit is the medicine of the future and will be life-changing for patients.

RenovaCare's SkinGun sprays a liquid suspension of a patient's stem cells onto a burn or wound in order to regrow the skin without scars. RenovaCare

Beyond regulatory matters, there are also limitations to the technology that make it unsuitable for competing with treatments of third-degree burns, which involve damage to muscle and other tissue below the skin. Still, stem cell researcher Sarthak Sinha believes that while the SkinGun may not be that advanced yet, it shows the vast potential of this form of regenerative medicine. What I see as the future of burn treatment is not skin repair but rather functional regeneration of skin and its appendagessuch as hair follicles, glands and fat, says Sinha. This could be achieved by engaging deeper layers of skin and its resident stem cells to partake in tissue regeneration.

Research is already underway at RenovaCare to enable treatment of third-degree burns, which Bold describes as definitely within the range of possibility. Bold claims the adaptations to the SkinGun would allow it to treat other damaged organs using a patients stem cells, but for now the company is focusing solely on burns and wounds to skinthe largest organ of the human body.

Urams burns are now completely unnoticeable. There is no scar tissue or even pigment discoloration, and the regenerated skin even tans. If I show someone where I was burnt, I bet $100,000 they couldnt tell, he says. Theres no scars, no residual pain; its like the burn never happened. Its a miracle.

Uram is frustrated that the treatment is not available to other burn victims, particularly children. I want to see the FDA get off their butts and approve this, he says. A grown man like me to be scarred is OK, but think about the kids that have to live the rest of their lives with pain and scarring. Thats not OK.

Read more here:
Spray-On Skin: 'Miracle' Stem Cell Treatment Heals Burns Without ... - Newsweek

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Over recent years, I have seen a growing interest in stem cells and a particular preparation called Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP). Many famous athletes including Tiger Woods have received PRP for various musculoskeletal problems and some have credited it with their accelerated healing and more rapid return to play.

PRP is plasma, the liquid part of blood, concentrated with many more platelets than typically found there. Platelets are known for their importance in clotting blood, but they also contain hundreds of proteins called growth factors. These are responsible for the cascade of events naturally involved in tissue repair. Your own innate stem cells are attracted to the site of injury and play a critical role in the healing process.

Typically, PRP is isolated from your own blood, drawn in the office while you wait. The highly concentrated growth factors are then delivered back into the body at the site of interest. PRP injections have been used for musculoskeletal problems such as sprained knees, osteoarthritis, and chronic tendon injuries. Previously, these types of conditions were treated with medications, physical therapy, and surgery, but PRP recipients commonly report less pain and stronger, more stable joints. It may even promote new cartilage formation in aging joints enabling you to put off joint replacement surgery.

PRP can also be very effective in treating chronic tendon injuries, especially tennis elbow, a common injury of the tendons on the outside of the elbow. Previously, cortisone injections were commonly used, but we know steroids will ultimately weaken tendons and promote rupture. In contrast, now PRP treatments lead to stronger tendons.

Promoting healing after tendon surgery is another use for PRP. For example, an athlete with a completely torn heel cord may require surgery to repair the tendon. Healing of the torn tendon can potentially be improved by treating the injured area with PRP during surgery. With a shorter recovery time, less chronic pain and stronger tissue, you can see why athletes love PRP!

More recently, PRP is being used extensively in aesthetic medicine to keep us looking younger and to promote hair growth. In the same ways the growth factors in PRP facilitate tissue repair from injury or surgery, they also regenerate aging skin. PRP injected into the facial skin has been called the vampire facial made famous by some Hollywood stars.

Today we use a more advanced technique called micro-needling. The PRP is layered across your face and delivered to the skin using a handheld device called a Micropen. This device has 12 tiny micro-needles that drive the PRP in, calling in the tissue repair team to get to work! The result is accelerated collagen production with new, thicker, stronger collagen. The procedure is well tolerated and done in the office while you are awake. It takes less than a couple of hours to complete and usually two to three treatments are recommended spaced four to six weeks apart. The collagen repair process can take four to six weeks, we expect to see the full results blossom over the course of months and continue to improve over a year.

The best thing about PRP Micropen Facelift is that theres not serious downtime like you get with laser resurfacing or surgery. Plus, unlike dermal fillers, which will fade in months, these results will continue to improve over the year. Most commonly we treat faces, but the procedure is safe to use all over the body including necks, chests, hands, and even eye lids. It is also quite helpful for minimizing and fading stretch marks.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about PRP for musculoskeletal or skin rejuvenation, please plan to attend our free interactive community lecture on this topic at the Coronado Library Winn Room from 6-7PM on Thursday 04/06/2017!

Lauren Mathewson, ND is Board certified in naturopathic medicine and Patrick Yassini, MD is board certified in family medicine, integrative and holistic medicine. They practice at Peak Health Group, 131 Orange Avenue, #100, Coronado, Calif.; the office number is (619) 522-4005.

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Now You Can Harness Your Own Stem Cells - Coronado Eagle ... - Coronado Eagle and Journal

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

By Paulina De Alva, Prosper Press

The fifth annual Dancing With Dominic fundraiser, which benefits the research to find a cure for Hunter Syndrome, was hosted on Saturday, April 1, 2017 at Hughes Elementary School by the Henriquez family, whose 7-year-old son Dominic was diagnosed with the disease in October of 2011, when he was 22 months old.

The event included a dance in the gymnasium, performances by Prosper ISDs dance teams, face painting by the art students, a catered dinner, a silent auction, a raffle, kids activities and crafts, a photo booth and other activities for all the families.

Dominics mother, Jeanette Espinola, said she is incredibly thankful for the amount of community support shes seen during the planning process, and that the event was made possible all because of the help and support of the community of Prosper. She added that about 15 or 16 families from different parts of the country who have been affected by the disease attended the event.

We had a family gathering in conjunction with the event, she said. Because theres so few of us, were a very close community.

Hunter Syndrome, or Mucopolysaccharidosis Type II (MPS II), is a rare genetic disorder affecting 1 in 150,000 males that slowly destroys the bodys cells due to a missing enzyme, which results in the accumulation of cellular waste throughout the body. It is a progressive and life-limiting disease that mainly affects young boys, and the prognosis is that the children wont live past their teenage years. Espinola said it was a devastating diagnosis for her family.

All of a sudden you lose basically all your dreams that you had for your child, Espinola said. You were going to see him grow up, see him become an adult. But he may not make it past his teenage years.

She said the way she dealt with it was to do what she loves to do and plan to host a big fundraiser party along with her husband, who is a DJ, and with the help of the community in Virginia, where they lived before they moved to Prosper. Dominic loves to dance, so that party in 2012 became the first Dancing With Dominic event.

It was our way of contributing and helping find a cure, and bringing awareness, Espinola said. I think thats the other huge piece of it, is bringing awareness that there are these disorders, there are these kids, and that there is this potential right now to really help them, and the research is pretty much there, we just need the funds right now.

Dominics parents, Jeanette Espinola and Freddy Henriquez, founded the Hunter Syndrome Foundation in 2013, after having hosted already two Dancing With Dominic events, for the specific purpose of funding potential treatments and research and ultimately finding a cure for the disease.

There is one approved treatment for Hunter Syndrome. It consists of an infusion of the man-made version of the enzyme Dominic is missing, which is administered through a four-hour weekly IV treatment that prevents the disease from progressing fast. The medicine he gets, called Elaprase, costs about $12,000 per week, amounting to around half a million dollars per year, and is the second most expensive medicine in the country.

Hes been getting that for five years now since he was diagnosed, Espinola said. But the issue with that is that it doesnt cross into his brain. So he could still lose his cognitive skills, he could still begin regressing.

Its not a complete treatment, so for the past two years hes been in a clinical trial in Chicago where hes getting the enzyme to his brain. It helps in slowing down the progression of the disease in his brain.

Researchers have been searching for a permanent cure, so gene therapy is the next step they are working toward. The gene therapy research for Hunter Syndrome is led by two doctors, Douglas McCarty, Ph.D., and Haiyan Fu, Ph.D. at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. All of the Hunter Syndrome Foundation funds have benefited their work to find a cure. Dr. McCarty said the gene therapy for MPS II is the result of more than a decade of collaborative research efforts with support from MPS II patient family foundations.

This gene therapy approach targets the root cause of MPS II by delivering the correct gene using a vector that can cross the blood-brain-barrier, McCarty said. Our preclinical data have shown great promise with lifelong benefits. We believe that we are well positioned to move forward towards a phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with MPS II.

The vector for the gene therapy will cost $1.4 million to produce, and it will cost another million dollars to begin the clinical trials. The family donates the money raised from the yearly Dancing with Dominic event to the Hunter Syndrome Foundation, and through it, 100 percent of the funding goes toward the doctors research at Nationwide Childrens Hospital so they can find a cure.

Im not doing this by myself, there are families throughout the country who are also raising funds, Espinola said. So all of the families efforts put together throughout the country have raised over $500,000 so far to help the doctors in their research.

Espinola said she hopes the family-led efforts are able to fully fund the clinical trials for gene therapy and for some normalcy for her son, Dominic, in the future.

I hope that Dominic continues to do well and better treatments are found, she said. Maybe one day he can be an adult and lead somewhat of an independent life.

See the article here:
Prosper nonprofit holds fundraiser to help research cure for Hunter Syndrome - Nueces County Record Star

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Researchers may have brought us one step closer to gene therapy for the treatment of hearing loss, after discovering a way to regenerate auditory hair cells in mice.

It is estimated that about 15 percent of adults in the United States have some form of hearing loss, with men being twice as likely to develop the condition than women.

Damage to the auditory hair cells is one of the leading causes of hearing loss.

Aging is a common risk factor for such damage, although the ailment can also arise through prolonged exposure to loud noise, injury (such as head trauma), ear infections, and other illnesses and diseases.

Auditory hair cells are the tiny sensory cells of the cochlea the inner part of the ear that enable us to hear.

These cells consist of hair-like projections, called stereocilia, that are responsible for transforming sound vibrations into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

In humans, auditory hair cells are unable to regenerate in order to replace damaged ones. In fish and birds, however, these cells can regenerate.

The process involves down-regulating expression of the protein p27 and up-regulating the expression of the protein ATOH1, notes study co-author Jian Zuo, Ph.D., of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in San Francisco.

For their study published today in the journal Cell Reports Zuo and team set out to determine whether they could trigger the same process in mice.

Read More: Get the facts on age-related hearing loss

Using genetic manipulation, the researchers deleted the p27 protein and increased ATOH1 expression in mice.

When the mice experienced auditory hair cell damage as a result of exposure to loud noise, the researchers found that the cells supporting the auditory hair cells began to transform into auditory hair cells themselves.

Further investigation revealed that a number of proteins work together in order to regenerate auditory hair cells.

The researchers found that the deletion of p27 increased levels of a protein called GATA3 and boosted the expression of the POU4F3 protein. This increased ATOH1 expression, leading to auditory hair cell regeneration in the rodents.

The researchers explain that ATOH1 is a transcription factor required for the development of auditory hair cells. In humans, the production of ATOH1 stops in the womb.

According to Zuo and colleagues, however, their findings suggest that it may be possible to reactivate ATOH1 production in humans by genetically manipulating the p27, GATA3, and POU4F3 proteins.

Work in other organs has shown that reprogramming cells is rarely accomplished by manipulating a single factor," said Zuo. "This study suggests that supporting cells in the cochlea are no exception and may benefit from therapies that target the proteins identified in this study."

The researchers now plan to conduct a phase I clinical trial that will involve using gene therapy to reinstate ATOH1 production in humans.

The aim is to determine whether such a strategy can trigger auditory hair cell regeneration in humans, and whether this might be an effective treatment for hearing loss.

"Work continues to identify the other factors, including small molecules, necessary to not only promote the maturation and survival of the newly generated hair cells, but also increase their number," said Zuo.

Read More: What? Hearing loss expected to rise dramatically

Read the rest here:
Gene Therapy May Help Those With Hearing Loss - Healthline

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Physician and business leader Dr. Charles Mok today announced the publication of Testosterone: Strong Enough for a Man, Made for a Woman (available now). The book is published with ForbesBooks, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes Media.

In the book, Dr. Mok, who has persistently followed the research on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and its health benefits for 30 years, confronts medical professionals for their slow integration of testosterone into HRT. With support from a wealth of peer-reviewed studies, he shows how testosterone therapy can help women facing menopause maintain their weight, increase their sexuality, and reduce the health risks associated with aging.

In his new book, Dr. Mok describes the dramatic transformation HRT has undergone in the past several decades. For years, synthetic hormones were widely prescribed to treat women in the United States experiencing menopause. HRT clinical trials in the early 2000s called the practice into question after observing an increase in health risks in women taking synthetic hormones. Those safety concerns, Dr. Mok argues, were valid, but misleading. Today's treatment protocolsusing natural hormones such as testosteroneare entirely different.

"Clinical studies show that testosterone therapy reduces the risk of breast cancer by 50 to 75 percent and relieves virtually all symptoms of menopause with no adverse effects," said Dr. Mok. "The benefits of implementing testosterone into hormone replacement therapy are virtually unprecedented, and yet the larger medical community continues to ignore the facts."

The book Testosterone: Strong Enough for a Man, Made for a Woman is now available for purchase on Amazon.com.

About ForbesBooks

Launched in 2016 in partnership with Advantage Media Group, ForbesBooks is the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes Media, the 99-year-old global media, branding and technology company. ForbesBooks offers business and thought leaders an innovative, speed-to-market publishing model and a suite of services designed to strategically and tactically support authors and promote their expertise. For more information, visitwww.forbesbooks.com.

About Dr. Charles Mok

A speaker, author and authority in his field,Dr. Charles Mok has dedicated his life to helping patients gain confidence, feel younger and live a healthier lifestyle. After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Mok began a career in emergency medicine, eventually working as the vice chairman of the emergency department at Mt. Clemens General Hospital, now known as McLaren Macomb. During these years, he saw countless patients with health emergencies that were fully preventable. In 2003, Dr. Mok founded Allure Medical Spa, one of the largest and most successful medical practices in the state of Michigan, to improve the lives of patients with treatments including varicose veins, hair loss and fat reduction, cosmetic surgery, stem cell therapy, and more. His mission is to reveal the clinical research supporting natural hormone therapy's safety and effectiveness to educate and change the lives of many women for the better. For more information, visit http://www.drcharlesmok.com.

Media Contacts

Mary Scott, Allure Medical Spa, mscott@alluremedicalspa.com, (313) 3784651

Read More

See the rest here:
Dr. Charles Mok Releases Innovative New Book on Women's Health - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Travis Rathbone

Helpful solutions to issues with sleeping well.

Hot flashes may be keeping you up and insomnia can actually get worse after menopause. The reason: Various age-related ailments can lead to sleep issues, and so can the medicines we take for them, says internist and sleep-medicine specialist Raj Dasgupta, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "Depression is linked to insomnia, for example, but the drugs we prescribe for it selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can also cause insomnia." Try this...

Sleep in a cave. Get blackout shades for your bedroom, cover power lights on electronics and dim your clock's display. Keep your room at a cool 60 to 65 degrees, which can help fend off hot flashes.

Ban gadgets in bed. The blue light from your smartphone or tablet screen suppresses melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone. A study in the journal PNAS showed that people who read print books right before bed slept better than those who read e-books on a tablet.

Don't just lie there. When you're counting sheep, get up, go to another room and do something low key, like knitting or reading (no TV!), until you feel sleepy again.

Act now if: Bad sleep is affecting your ability to function during the day. Insomnia can be a symptom of other health issues, such as arthritis, hyperthyroidism and acid reflux. It also increases your risk of serious accidents. Tell your doctor about it.

Read the original here:
Mysteries of the Female Body - AARP News

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

TWIN FALLS Two therapists with Primary Therapy Source have recently pursued continuing education opportunities.

Physical Therapist Assistant David Fowers attended a continuing education class in Boise in March.

Functional Strength: An Updated Approach to Exercising Our Patients provided him the ability to advance his understanding of therapeutic exercise and create basic to advanced functional exercise programs. These can be customized for patients.

Teresa Prine, who has a masters degree in physical therapy, attended the Big Sky Athletic Training and Sport Medicine Conference.

The topics discussed included sudden cardiac death in athletes, the importance of eye movements in evaluation of brain injury, fracture healing, focused nutrition, stem cell procedure benefits, exertional heat illness, overuse injuries and cardiac issues in athletes.

Prine also attended the Big Sky Concussion Conference to learn about current research for targeted treatment, oculomotor measures, concussion clinical profiles, gender considerations and concussion in youth contact sports. She can be reached at Primary Therapy Source at 208-734-7333.

Read more:
Therapists receive continuing education - Twin Falls Times-News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Researchers looking for ways to regenerate nerves can have a hard time obtaining key tools of their trade.

Schwann cells are an example. They form sheaths around axons, the tail-like parts of nerve cells that carry electrical impulses. They promote regeneration of those axons. And they secrete substances that promote the health of nerve cells.

In other words, they're very useful to researchers hoping to regenerate nerve cells, specifically peripheral nerve cells, those cells outside the brain and spinal cord.

But Schwann cells are hard to come by in useful numbers.

So researchers have been taking readily available and noncontroversial mesenchymal stem cells (also called bone marrow stromal stem cells that can form bone, cartilage and fat cells) and using a chemical process to turn them, or as researchers say, differentiate them into Schwann cells. But it's an arduous, step-by-step and expensive process.

Researchers at Iowa State University are exploring what they hope will be a better way to transform those stem cells into Schwann-like cells. They've developed a nanotechnology that uses inkjet printers to print multi-layer graphene circuits and also uses lasers to treat and improve the surface structure and conductivity of those circuits.

It turns out mesenchymal stem cells adhere and grow well on the treated circuit's raised, rough and 3-D nanostructures. Add small doses of electricity -- 100 millivolts for 10 minutes per day over 15 days -- and the stem cells become Schwann-like cells.

The researchers' findings are featured on the front cover of the scientific journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. Jonathan Claussen, an Iowa State assistant professor of mechanical engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, is lead author. Suprem Das, a postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the Ames Laboratory; and Metin Uz, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical and biological engineering, are first authors.

The project is supported by funds from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Iowa State's College of Engineering, the department of mechanical engineering and the Carol Vohs Johnson Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering held by Surya Mallapragada, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, an associate of the Ames Laboratory and a paper co-author.

"This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells," Uz said. "There is huge potential here."

The electrical stimulation is very effective, differentiating 85 percent of the stem cells into Schwann-like cells compared to 75 percent by the standard chemical process, according to the research paper. The electrically differentiated cells also produced 80 nanograms per milliliter of nerve growth factor compared to 55 nanograms per milliliter for the chemically treated cells.

The researchers report the results could lead to changes in how nerve injuries are treated inside the body.

"These results help pave the way for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration where the flexible graphene electrodes could conform to the injury site and provide intimate electrical stimulation for nerve cell regrowth," the researchers wrote in a summary of their findings.

The paper reports several advantages to using electrical stimulation to differentiate stem cells into Schwann-like cells:

A key to making it all work is a graphene inkjet printing process developed in Claussen's research lab. The process takes advantages of graphene's wonder-material properties -- it's a great conductor of electricity and heat, it's strong, stable and biocompatible -- to produce low-cost, flexible and even wearable electronics.

But there was a problem: once graphene electronic circuits were printed, they had to be treated to improve electrical conductivity. That usually meant high temperatures or chemicals. Either could damage flexible printing surfaces including plastic films or paper.

Claussen and his research group solved the problem by developing computer-controlled laser technology that selectively irradiates inkjet-printed graphene oxide. The treatment removes ink binders and reduces graphene oxide to graphene -- physically stitching together millions of tiny graphene flakes. The process makes electrical conductivity more than a thousand times better.

The collaboration of Claussen's group of nanoengineers developing printed graphene technologies and Mallapragada's group of chemical engineers working on nerve regeneration began with some informal conversations on campus.

That led to experimental attempts to grow stem cells on printed graphene and then to electrical stimulation experiments.

"We knew this would be a really good platform for electrical stimulation," Das said. "But we didn't know it would differentiate these cells."

But now that it has, the researchers say there are new possibilities to think about. The technology, for example, could one day be used to create dissolvable or absorbable nerve regeneration materials that could be surgically placed in a person's body and wouldn't require a second surgery to remove.

Read more:
Graphene, electricity used to change stem cells for nerve regrowth - Science Daily

Recommendation and review posted by sam

by Stuart Tomlinson, KATU News

Steven Donovan suffered a stroke on Father's Day, 2014. (KATU)

Steven Donovan just knew something wasnt right.

It was the morning of Fathers Day, 2014. Donovan's daughter made him strawberry shortcake and as he rose from his easy chair that morning, his field of vision changed he likened it to having the multi-faceted vision of a fly.

There was a sound like a jet engine in his head, and the images began spinning.

I remember asking, calling out to my wife for help saying, Help me, I think I'm having a stroke, Donovan said.

He was rushed to a Bay Area hospital where he was assigned a doctor from OHSU, who interviewed him via a remote hookup.

Doctors in the Bay Area administered clot-busting drugs, which Donovan said was (a) critical first step toward treating the stroke.

Donovan was airlifted to Portland and admitted to OHSU, and in less than 24 hours became part of a clinical trial at OHSU, where doctors were testing the efficacy of stem cell treatments for strokes.

They go to the brain and they make the brain act more like it's a very young brain, said Dr. Wayne Clark, a professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine and director of the Oregon Stroke Center at OHSU. We know that when children have strokes, they can have a full recovery, even with a major stroke. People in their 90s who have a stroke show very little recovery.

Donovan became part of a global study involving 129 patients. Sixty-five of them were given stem cells grown in bone marrow; 61 patients received a placebo.

The study, recently published in The Lancet medical journal, found that not only was the treatment safe with no side effects, after one year stroke victims showed improvement over those who received the placebo.

Dr. Clark says once approved by the FDA, stem cell treatment could make a big difference in recovery from strokes.

If these results are confirmed, this would really open up the number of patients who would be able to receive treatment for their strokes, Clark told OHSU news.

Two years after his stroke, as part of his recovery, Donovan enrolled in a 10-day mountaineering class on Mount Baker and plans to climb Mount Hood as soon as possible.

"This is truly amazing,'' he said of his recovery. "I was paralyzed and couldn't even move, and even though the mountaineering training was hard, I was able to do it."

Dr. Clark says OHSU will be a part of a second round of trials this summer.

Read more:
OHSU stem cell study shows promise in treating strokes - KATU

Recommendation and review posted by sam

(NAPSI)You may be surprised to learn that multiple myeloma is the second most common cancer of the blood, after leukemia. It starts in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell. In time, myeloma cells collect in the bone marrow and may damage the solid part of the bone and eventually harm other tissues and organs, such as the skeleton and the kidneys.

In fact, there are approximately 114,000 new cases diagnosed every year. If you or a loved one is among the 230,000 people living with multiple myeloma worldwide there are a few facts you should know.

What Can Be Done

For many people with the disease, an autologous stem cell transplant may be an answer for eligible patients. This involves collecting the patient's own blood-forming stem cells and storing them. He or she is then treated with high doses of chemotherapy or a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. This kills cancer cells but also eliminates the remaining blood-producing stem cells in the bone marrow. Afterward, the collected stem cells are transplanted back into the patient, so the bone marrow can produce new blood cells.

To help people learn more about the disease and its treatments, the Multiple Myeloma Journey Partners Program was created.

This peer-to-peer education program for patients, caregivers and health care providers leverages storytelling as a tool to improve the patient experience. Journey Partners are multiple myeloma patients who have experienced similar emotions, faced the same challenges and asked the same questions about living with the disease. A Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner will come to any community in which 10 or more people would like to attend the free one-hour educational seminar. The main benefit is that multiple myeloma patients know they're not alone, and the program provides educational resources and services that help patients and families navigate their journey to achieve the best possible outcomes.

As John Killip, a Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner, puts it, "It was conversations with my support group, family and health care providers that influenced my decision to have a stem cell transplant in 2008, when I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma, at the age of 65. Mentoring other multiple myeloma patients is one of the highlights of my life. I became a Journey Partner to share my story and help others with the disease make sense of the diagnosis and overcome the fear of the unknown."

Learn More

For more information or to request a program, you can visit http://www.mmjourneypartners.com. Anyone interested in becoming a Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner can contact the program coordinator listed on the website. The program is sponsored by Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi focused on rare diseases, multiple sclerosis, immunology, and oncology.

On the Net:North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.(NAPSI)

View post:
Understanding Multiple Myeloma - Caswell Messenger

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Renal and Urology News

Stem Cell-Sheet Transplantation Possible for Heart Failure Renal and Urology News In the new study, researchers used stem cells from the patient's own thigh muscle to create a patch they placed on the heart. That's in contrast to many past studies, where researchers have injected stem cells often from a patient's bone marrow ... Regenerative Medicine: What Is PRP Therapy?CBS Detroit all 13 news articles »

Read the rest here:
Stem Cell-Sheet Transplantation Possible for Heart Failure - Renal and Urology News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

As a kid, I was always intrigued with potions and products. My father worked as a scientist, whose specialty was chemistry as well as business. For many years he worked as the Director of Research and Development for the Mennen Company. Perhaps this is where my love of products and researching products began.

Like many women, my skin can be difficult at times. I have eczema which makes it intermittently sensitive, so I have to be careful of the products I use. While researching these products, I also looked into the science supporting them.

As fate would have it while exploring some interesting articles on my Twitter feed recently, I came across an intriguing tweet I just couldnt ignore. It was a tweet by a glamorous NYC dermatologist who was talking about how excited she was to receive her Lifeline Skin Care products in the mail. Her excitement was so infectious; I decided to look into these products for myself; and looking into them, ultimately led to me buy them.

While researching Lifeline Skin Cares products, I also looked into the science supporting them. Lifeline Skin Care products use something I had never heard of before; they use human, non-embryonic stem cells as one of the main ingredients to help tone and reduce the signs of aging.

Science

As a therapist, I not only look for products that work well and that I believe in, but also look at the philosophy of the company. Lifeline Skin Care was a socially conscious company and fit that standard.

Clinical Trials

The original goal for these researchers was to find a cure for diabetes and Parkinsons disease. These scientists created the first non-embryonic human stem cells. This discovery made finding cures for Parkinsons disease and corneal disease more promising. Currently, some of ISCOs most promising research is in the field of Parkinsons disease.

Parkinsons disease (PD) is a long-term degenerative disease of the central nervous system. It mainly affects the motor system and its symptoms usually have a slow-onset. In early stages, the disease is characterized by shaking, slow movement, difficulty in walking, and rigidity. In time, thinking and behavioral problems may occur. Advanced stages of the disease bring dementia.

istock jm1366

International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO), is the parent company of Lifeline Skin Care and has devoted many years of research to improve this terrible disease. The company has developed a unique method of creating human neural stem cells which when introduced into the brain, promote the recovery of dopaminergic neurons, the brain cells that are originally affected and cause the disease symptoms. ISCOs preclinical studies showed that the administration of these neural stem cells were safe and improved motor symptoms. To date, 3 of the planned total of 12 patients, have entered the clinical trial and have received neural stem cells. At this point in time, all patients have been discharged from their hospital settings and are observed to be meeting clinical expectations.

Lifeline Skin care (LSC) - a subsidiary of ISCO - uses the extracts from human stem cells, (produced by ISCO), and developed for the skin in order to improve the signs of ageing. The latest technology being used to advance a cure for PD is now available for the skin in a line of products produced by LSC. The profits from the sale of these skin care products go directly to ISCO in order to fund the development of a therapy for PD.

From a skincare perspective, not only did Lifeline Skin Cares products feel good on my face, but I started to notice that my skin appeared brighter and less wrinkles, especially around my eyes (love that!).

From a psychological perspective, the younger we look and feel, the more optimistic and hopeful we tend to be about life and future options. I like the idea of feeling young, looking forever fabulous and most of all, being healthy.

Fortunately, Lifeline Skin Care found a way to help women and men look and feel their very best while scientists from their parent company work toward eradicating illness by using their special non-embryonic stem cell technology. Beauty is more than skin-deep; beauty can be on a mission, too.

More:
The International Stem Cell Corporation, a Company Dedicated to Curing Parkinson's Disease - Huffington Post

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Mouse heart section showing human progenitor cells that formed functional human blood vessels. Purple color signifies human blood vessels, red staining signifies the blood vessels of the mouse that received the human cell implants. Credit: UIC

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a molecular switch that converts skin cells into cells that make up blood vessels, which could ultimately be used to repair damaged vessels in patients with heart disease or to engineer new vasculature in the lab. The technique, which boosts levels of an enzyme that keeps cells young, may also circumvent the usual aging that cells undergo during the culturing process. Their findings are reported in the journal Circulation.

Scientists have many ways to convert one type of cell into another. One technique involves turning a mature cell into a pluripotent stem cell one that has the ability to become any type of cell and then using chemical cocktails to coax it into maturing into the desired cell type. Other methods reprogram a cell so that it directly assumes a new identity, bypassing the stem-cell state.

In the last few years, scientists have begun to explore another method, a middle way, that can turn back the clock on skin cells so that they lose some of their mature cell identity and become more stem-like.

They dont revert all the way back to a pluripotent stem cell, but instead turn into intermediate progenitor cells, says Dr. Jalees Rehman, associate professor of medicine and pharmacology at UIC, who led the team of researchers. Progenitor cells can be grown in large quantities sufficient for regenerative therapies. And unlike pluripotent stem cells, progenitor cells can only differentiate into a few different cell types. Rehman calls this method to produce new cells partial de-differentiation.

Other groups have used this technique to produce progenitor cells that become blood vessel cells. But until now, researchers had not fully understood how the method worked, Rehman said.

Without understanding the molecular processes, it is difficult for us to control or enhance the process in order to efficiently build new blood vessels, he said.

His group discovered that the progenitors could be converted into blood vessel cells or into red blood cells, depending on the level of a gene transcription factor called SOX17.

The researchers measured the levels of several genes important for blood vessel formation. They saw that as progenitor cells were differentiating into blood vessel cells, levels of the transcription factor SOX17 became elevated.

When they increased levels of SOX17 even more in the progenitor cells, they saw that differentiation into blood vessel cells was enhanced about five-fold. When they suppressed SOX17, the progenitor cells produced fewer endothelial cells and instead generated red blood cells.

It makes a lot of sense that SOX17 is involved because it is abundant in developing embryos when blood vessels are forming, Rehman said.

When the researchers embedded the human progenitor cells into a gel and implanted the gels in mice, the cells organized into functional human blood vessels. Skin cells that had not undergone a conversion did not form blood vessels when similarly implanted.

When they implanted the progenitor cells into mice that had sustained heart damage from a heart attack, the implanted cells formed functional human blood vessels in the mouse hearts and even connected with existing mouse blood vessels to significantly improve heart function.

The human adult skin cells used by Rehmans team can easily be obtained by a simple skin biopsy.

This means that one could generate patient-specific blood vessels or red blood cells for any individual person, Rehman said. Using such personalized cells reduces the risk of rejection, he said, because the implanted blood vessels would have the same genetic makeup as the recipient.

Rehman and his colleagues noticed something else about the progenitor cells they had elevated levels of telomerase the anti-aging enzyme that adds a cap, or telomere, to the ends of chromosomes. As the caps wear away a little bit each time a cell divides, they are believed to contribute to aging in cells, whether in the body or growing in culture in the laboratory.

The increase in telomerase we see in the progenitor cells could be an added benefit of using this partial de-differentiation technique for the production of new blood vessels for patients with cardiac disease, especially for older patients, Rehman said. Their cells may already have shortened telomeres due to their advanced age. The process of converting and expanding these cells in the lab could make them age even further and impair their long-term function. But if the cells have elevated levels of telomerase, the cells are at lower risk of premature aging.

While telomerase has benefits, the enzyme is also found in extremely high levels in cancer cells, where it keeps cell division in overdrive.

We were concerned about the risk of tumor formation, Rehman said, but the researchers didnt observe any in these experiments. But to truly determine the efficacy and safety of these cells for humans, one needs to study them over even longer time periods in larger animals.

Reference:

Zhang, L., Jambusaria, A., Hong, Z., Marsboom, G., Toth, P. T., Herbert, B., . . . Rehman, J. (2017). SOX17 Regulates Conversion of Human Fibroblasts into Endothelial Cells and Erythroblasts via De-Differentiation into CD34 Progenitor Cells. Circulation. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.116.025722

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

See the article here:
Partial De-differentiation Converts Skin Cells into Blood Vessel Cells - Technology Networks

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a molecular switch that converts skin cells into cells that make up blood vessels, which could ultimately be used to repair damaged vessels in patients with heart disease or to engineer new vasculature in the lab. The technique, which boosts levels of an enzyme that keeps cells young, may also circumvent the usual aging that cells undergo during the culturing process. Their findings are reported in the journal Circulation.

Scientists have many ways to convert one type of cell into another. One technique involves turning a mature cell into a "pluripotent" stem cell -- one that has the ability to become any type of cell -- and then using chemical cocktails to coax it into maturing into the desired cell type. Other methods reprogram a cell so that it directly assumes a new identity, bypassing the stem-cell state.

In the last few years, scientists have begun to explore another method, a middle way, that can turn back the clock on skin cells so that they lose some of their mature cell identity and become more stem-like.

"They don't revert all the way back to a pluripotent stem cell, but instead turn into intermediate progenitor cells," says Dr. Jalees Rehman, associate professor of medicine and pharmacology at UIC, who led the team of researchers. Progenitor cells can be grown in large quantities sufficient for regenerative therapies. And unlike pluripotent stem cells, progenitor cells can only differentiate into a few different cell types. Rehman calls this method to produce new cells "partial de-differentiation."

Other groups have used this technique to produce progenitor cells that become blood vessel cells. But until now, researchers had not fully understood how the method worked, Rehman said.

"Without understanding the molecular processes, it is difficult for us to control or enhance the process in order to efficiently build new blood vessels," he said.

His group discovered that the progenitors could be converted into blood vessel cells or into red blood cells, depending on the level of a gene transcription factor called SOX17.

The researchers measured the levels of several genes important for blood vessel formation. They saw that as progenitor cells were differentiating into blood vessel cells, levels of the transcription factor SOX17 became elevated.

When they increased levels of SOX17 even more in the progenitor cells, they saw that differentiation into blood vessel cells was enhanced about five-fold. When they suppressed SOX17, the progenitor cells produced fewer endothelial cells and instead generated red blood cells.

"It makes a lot of sense that SOX17 is involved because it is abundant in developing embryos when blood vessels are forming," Rehman said.

When the researchers embedded the human progenitor cells into a gel and implanted the gels in mice, the cells organized into functional human blood vessels. Skin cells that had not undergone a conversion did not form blood vessels when similarly implanted.

When they implanted the progenitor cells into mice that had sustained heart damage from a heart attack, the implanted cells formed functional human blood vessels in the mouse hearts -- and even connected with existing mouse blood vessels to significantly improve heart function.

The human adult skin cells used by Rehman's team can easily be obtained by a simple skin biopsy.

"This means that one could generate patient-specific blood vessels or red blood cells for any individual person," Rehman said. Using such personalized cells reduces the risk of rejection, he said, because the implanted blood vessels would have the same genetic makeup as the recipient.

Rehman and his colleagues noticed something else about the progenitor cells -- they had elevated levels of telomerase -- the "anti-aging" enzyme that adds a cap, or telomere, to the ends of chromosomes. As the caps wear away a little bit each time a cell divides, they are believed to contribute to aging in cells, whether in the body or growing in culture in the laboratory.

"The increase in telomerase we see in the progenitor cells could be an added benefit of using this partial de-differentiation technique for the production of new blood vessels for patients with cardiac disease, especially for older patients," Rehman said. "Their cells may already have shortened telomeres due to their advanced age. The process of converting and expanding these cells in the lab could make them age even further and impair their long-term function. But if the cells have elevated levels of telomerase, the cells are at lower risk of premature aging."

While telomerase has benefits, the enzyme is also found in extremely high levels in cancer cells, where it keeps cell division in overdrive.

"We were concerned about the risk of tumor formation," Rehman said, but the researchers didn't observe any in these experiments. "But to truly determine the efficacy and safety of these cells for humans, one needs to study them over even longer time periods in larger animals."

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Turning skin cells into blood vessel cells while keeping them young - Science Daily

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M

ice that walk straight and fluidly dont usually make scientists exult, but these did: The lab rodents all had a mouse version of Parkinsons disease and only weeks before had barely been able to lurch and shuffle around their cages.

Using a trick from stem-cell science, researchers managed to restore the kind of brain cells whose death causes Parkinsons. And the mice walked almost normally.The same technique turned human brain cells, growing in a lab dish, into the dopamine-producing neurons that are AWOL in Parkinsons, scientists at Swedens Karolinska Institute reportedon Monday in Nature Biotechnology.

Success in lab mice and human cells is many difficult steps away from success in patients. The study nevertheless injected new life into a promising approach to Parkinsons that has suffered setback after setback replacing the dopamine neurons that are lost in the disease, crippling movement and eventually impairing mental function.

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This is not going to happen in five years or possibly even 10, but Im excited about the potential of this kind of cell replacement therapy, said James Beck, chief scientific officer of the Parkinsons Foundation, which was not involved in the study. It could really give life back to someone with Parkinsons disease.

There is no cure for Parkinsons, a neurodegenerative disease that affects an estimated 10 million people worldwide, most prominently actor Michael J. Fox. Drugs that enable the brain to make dopamine help only somewhat, often causing movement abnormalities called dyskinesia as well as bizarre side effects such as a compulsion to gamble; they do nothing to stop the neurodegeneration.

As Parkinsons patients wait, Fox Foundation and scientist feud over drug trial

Rather than replacing the missing dopamine, scientists led by Karolinskas Ernest Arenas tried to replace dopamine neurons but not in the way that researchers have been trying since the late 1980s. In that approach, scientists obtained tissue containing dopamine neurons from first-trimester aborted fetuses and implanted it intopatients brains.Although a 2001clinical trialfound that the transplants partly alleviated the rigidity and tremors of Parkinsons, the procedure caused serious dyskinesia in about 20 percent of patients, Beck said. More problematic is that fetal issue raises ethical concerns and is in short supply.

It was clear that usable fragments of brain tissue were extremely difficult to recover, said Dr. Curt Freed, of the University of Colorado, who pioneered that work.

Instead, several labs have therefore used stem cells to produce dopamine neurons in dishes. Transplanted into the brains of lab rats with Parkinsons, the neurons reduced rigidity, tremor, and other symptoms. Human studies are expected to begin in the US and Japan this year or next, Beck said.

In the Karolinska approach, there is no need to search for donor cells and no cell transplantation or [need for] immunosuppression to prevent rejection, Arenas told STAT. Instead, he and his team exploited one of the most startling recent discoveries in cell biology: that certain molecules can cause one kind of specialized cell, such as a skin cell, to pull a Benjamin Button, aging in reverse until they become like the embryonic cells called stem cells. Those can be induced to morph into any kind of cell heart, skin, muscle, and more in the body.

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Arenas and his team filled harmless lentiviruses with a cocktail of four such molecules. Injected into the brains of mice with Parkinsons-like damage, the viruses infected plentifulbrain cells called astrocytes. (The brains support cells, astrocytes perform jobs like controlling blood flow.)The viruses also infected other kinds of cells, but their payload was designed to work only in astrocytes, and apparently caused no harm to the other cells.

The molecules, called transcription factors, reprogrammed some of the astrocytes to become dopamine neurons, which were first detected three weeks later in the mouse brains. The dopamine neurons were abundant 15 weeks later, an indication that after changing into dopamine neurons the astrocytes stayed changed.

Five weeks after receiving the injections, the mice, which used to have Parkinsons-like gait abnormalities, walked as well as healthy mice. That suggests that direct reprogramming [of brain cells] has the potential to become a novel therapeutic approach for Parkinsons, Arenas told STAT.

That could have value for preserving the brain circuitry destroyed by Parkinsons, said Colorados Freed.

A lot of hurdles need to be overcome before this becomes a Parkinsons treatment. The Trojan horse system for delivering the reprogramming molecules inside viruseswould need to turn more astrocytes into dopamine neurons and leave other kinds of cells alone: Although viruses getting into mouse brain cells apparently caused no harm, that might not be so in people. We will need to use virus with selective [attraction] for astrocytes, Arenas said.

The morphed cells would presumably be ravaged by whatever produced Parkinsons in the first place. But in other cell transplants, Arenas said, the disease catches up with transplanted cells in 15 to 20 years, buying patients a good period of time. He thinks it might be possible to give patients a single injection but hold off some of the reprogramming with a drug, turning it on when the brain again runs short of dopamine neurons.

The basic technology to develop such strategies currently exists, he said.

The Karolinska lab is working to make the techniquesafer and more effective, including by using viruses that would deliver reprogramming molecules only to astrocytes. We are open to collaborations aimed at human studies, Arenas said.

Would patients be willing to undergo brain injections? People with Parkinsons disease, Beck said, are willing to go through a lot for any hope of improvement.

Sharon Begley can be reached at sharon.begley@statnews.com Follow Sharon on Twitter @sxbegle

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Mighty morphed brain cells cure Parkinson's in mice, but human trials still far off - STAT

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In a pioneering study, European scientists have reprogrammed brain cells in mice to correct some of the movement disorders of Parkinsons disease.

The scientists also demonstrated the reprogramming in human brain cells grown in cultures.

In both mice and human cell cultures, the procedure converted brain cells called astrocytes into cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter necessary for movement. Dopamine-making neurons are destroyed in Parkinsons disease; so replacing them should alleviate symptoms.

Like all biomedical research, this approach will require more development and testing before it can be considered for treating actual patients.

The study was published Monday in Nature Biotechnology. Pia Rivetti di Val Cervo was first author, and Ernest Arenas was senior author. Both are of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

The study can be found online at j.mp/astropark.

Researchers worked on mice that had had their dopamine-making neurons destroyed. They used a viral delivery system to transmit three genes to the astrocytes that reprogrammed some of them into dopamine-making cells.

The next steps to be taken toward achieving this goal include improving reprogramming efficiency, demonstrating the approach on human adult striatal astrocytes, developing systems to selectively target human striatal astrocytes in vivo, and ensuring safety and efficacy in humans, the study concluded.

The study is a more sophisticated version of gene therapy approaches that have previously been investigated for Parkinsons, and is worth pursuing, said Parkinsons disease researcher Andres Bratt-Leal. However, much more work needs to be done before it can be considered for patients, he said. Meanwhile, other therapeutic projects are much closer to clinical testing.

Bratt-Leal is involved in one of those projects, a San Diego-based initiative to reprogram skin cells from Parkinsons patients into embryonic-like cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, and then mature them into the dopamine producing neurons. These neurons will then be implanted into the brains of the patients, if work by the Summit for Stem Cell Foundation succeeds.

Implanting new neurons has shown tremendous promise in animal models and clinical trials using dopamine-producing neurons derived from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells are going to start in the next 1 to 2 years, said Bratt-Leal, the foundations director of research. Gene therapy is promising, but there remain a lot of questions before it is ready for clinical trial.

In a dish, only a fraction of the cells are successfully made into cells which resemble dopamine-producing neurons, Bratt-Leal said. I'd like to know what happens to all the other cells which don't complete that transformation. Are the cells made with gene therapy as good as the neurons we can make from stem cells?

With cell therapy clinical trials around the corner and improvements in gene therapy technology, patients with Parkinson's disease have reasons to stay active and optimistic about the future.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

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Brain cells reprogrammed to make dopamine, with goal of Parkinson's therapy - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Member-tethered, receptor-blocking antibodies protect cells from rhinovirus.

A new approach to treating AIDS was discovered by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).

Scientists have found a way to stick HIV-fighting antibodies to immune cells, which may foster a cell population resistant to the virus.

The experiments under lab conditions show resistant cells can quickly replace diseased cells under lab conditions, which shows the potential to cure a person with HIV, according to TSRI.

"This protection would be long term," said Jia Xie, senior staff scientist at TSRI and the first author of the study. It was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Richard Lerner, M.D., Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at TSRI, led the study. The researchers will work with investigators at City of Hope's Center for Gene Therapy to investigate this new therapy as a potential treatment for HIV.

They will evaluate the treatment with safety tests as required by federal regulations.

"City of Hope currently has active clinical trials of gene therapy for AIDS using blood stem cell transplantation, and this experience will be applied to the task of bringing this discovery to the clinic," said John A. Zaia, M.D., director of the Center for Gene Therapy, in a statement.

"The ultimate goal will be the control of HIV in patients with AIDS without the need for other medications," said Zaia.

A significant new advantage with this treatment is that antibodies hang onto a cell's surface, blocking HIV from accessing a crucial cell receptor and spreading infection, according toTSRI.

This is really a form of cellular vaccination, said Lerner.

Antibodies recognize the CDR4 binding site, which allows them to block HIV from attacking a critical receptor in the cell. Scientists say this technique can produce an HIV-resistant population of cells.

Published at 7:14 PM PDT on Apr 10, 2017 | Updated at 7:15 PM PDT on Apr 10, 2017

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Scientists Find New Way to Fight HIV at Scripps Research Institute - NBC Southern California

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