By Robert Ashley, M.D. Published: April 4, 2017 12:00 AM CDT Updated: April 4, 2017 12:00 AM CDT

Hair loss could have many causes, including stress. [Thinkstock image]

Dear Doctor: I've been taking thyroid medication for several years, and my doctor says my blood tests are where they should be, but my face feels like sandpaper, my nails are brittle, and I'm losing so much hair that I can see my scalp. Could there be some underlying problem my physician is missing?

Dear Reader: Hair loss can be a distressing symptom, made all the more so when its cause is a mystery.

Your thyroid hormone levels are an obvious place to start, because both low and high thyroid levels can lead to hair and nail changes. Symptoms of high thyroid levels include hair loss, skin that is unusually smooth and warm, and nails that soften and loosen from the nail bed. The remaining hair becomes thinner, softer and does not hold a wave. Symptoms of low thyroid levels also include hair loss, including in the armpits and genital area, but the hair in this scenario is dull, coarse and fragile. As for the nails, they tend to be delicate, thin and have multiple grooves. That said, if your physician has done a complete panel of thyroid tests and the results have been normal, then most likely the function of your thyroid gland is not the cause of the brittle nails nor the hair loss.

That doesn't mean the thyroid isn't a factor. Autoimmune thyroid disease can lead to hair loss, both patchy and more diffuse, as well as inflammatory conditions of the skin. Such disease isn't always reflected in thyroid hormone levels. Checking anti-thyroid antibodies in the blood can identify autoimmune thyroid disease, and point you and your doctor in a clearer direction.

Hair loss also can be caused by androgenic alopecia, linked to an excess of androgens, a type of male hormone. These hormones are present in both men and women, but they're higher than normal in some women, such as those with congenital adrenal hyperplasia or polycystic ovarian disease, which is relatively common. Simply checking levels of testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) can either rule out androgenic alopecia or suggest that it be explored further.

Another potential cause is medication. Some medications can lead to hair loss, so if your symptoms seem coincidental to starting a new medication, there might be an association.

Biotin deficiency, which is rare, can also cause hair loss and inflammation of the facial skin. But if you have a normal diet and eat eggs, you have a low likelihood of this condition. Nonetheless, it's something to rule out.

Iron deficiency also can lead to both brittle nails and hair loss. This doesn't explain the skin manifestations that you have, but if you are looking at other possibilities, checking the iron level of the blood should be part of the work-up.

Any major illness can lead to hair loss and nail changes, and psychological stress can lead to hair loss. So, if there have been major stressors in your life, either physical or psychological, consider that a potential culprit.

In summary, if your thyroid levels are normal, it would be wise to check your thyroid antibodies, androgens and iron levels and your level of stress.

Robert Ashley, M.D., is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

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Hair loss could be caused by multitude of issues - NewsOK.com

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Image Source: Jess Dixon

In 2012, shortly after their wedding day, Jake Anderson and Deborah Bialis hoped to start a family. Because Deborah had a history of ovarian cysts, the couple decided to pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF).

We pursued IVF because if one of my cysts ruptured, it could damage my chances of becoming a biological mother, says Bialis.

Like many couples facing fertility challenges, Jake and Deborah sought the advice of a fertility doctor and were told that they were excellent candidates for IVF and embryo freezing. But when the first cycle was cancelled due to a medical oversight, the couple became understandably discouraged.

We decided to go to another clinic and our new doctor reassured us that we had an excellent chance of having a baby via IVF, Bialisexplains.We felt hopeful, again.

But, Deborah and Jake were shocked when their second round of IVF didnt produce any embryos.

We were in a crisis,Anderson tells Babble.

As young and healthy adults, they never imagined that getting pregnant would be so difficult. But after two rounds of unsuccessful IVF, they were heartbroken and, like so many couples who struggle with infertility, worried that their dreams of parenthood might never come to fruition. After months of treatment, the couple wasnt any closer to having a baby.

Our fertility was crashing before our eyes and it was devastating,says Anderson.

In the meantime, the cost of medical tests, hormone injections, blood draws, and fertility treatments were mounting, and before they knew it, the couple had $75,000 of medical bills to pay.

Deborah and Jake were filled with grief, because they never imagined they would face infertility. They were also confused because their doctors had given them so many mixed messages.

We realized that theres a broad range of opinions and different types of medical care when it comes to treating infertility, says Anderson. Much of the information that clinics provide, such as IVF success rates are reported by the doctors, but we saw a need for information thats patient-driven.

Their personal experience inspired them to create FertilityIQ, a website where infertile couples, families, and women can find comprehensive information about fertility doctors, IVF clinics, and medical procedures such as genetic testing and egg-freezing. Similar to Consumer Reports, patients provide reviews of their doctors and fertility clinics as a way to share information with others.

FertilityIQ launched a little over a year ago. And this month, in honor of Infertility Awareness Month (and to celebrate their sons first birthday), Jake and Deborah are giving away a free cycle of IVF to another couple in need.

After years of infertility, we were finally blessed with a baby, and we want to help make someone elses dreams come true, too, says Bialis. We hope that our gift will lighten the financial burden that IVF brings.

It is more expensive to be infertile in America than in any other developed nation.

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Many women who struggle with infertility believe that biology and science are the two most important puzzle pieces that lead to successful IVF conceptions. But Anderson says that insurance coverage plays a significant role, too.

It is more expensive to be infertile in America than in any other developed nation, he says.

Research shows that the average cost of an IVF cycle is $23,000, and that most women will need more than one cycle to become pregnant. Unfortunately, very few insurance plans cover the cost of these treatments, and only 15states mandate that insurance companies offer fertility benefits to their subscribers.

In fact, new research released just last week and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) states that the cost of IVF often prevents women from pursuing a second round of treatment. Because of this, women with IVF insurance coverage are almost 10 percent more likely to conceive than women without these health benefits.

Who knew there was such a hefty price tag attached to an infertile womans chances of becoming a mother?

These stressors can really wreck a family, says Anderson. Not only is infertility a financial burden, but its also emotionally taxing.

By offering their IVF grant, Deborah and Jake hope to help at least one family bring new life into the world.

The couple will offer one family (grantee) $10,000 to use towards an IVF cycle at a clinic of their choice. The grantee can also give the cycle to another friend or family member in need. To be considered for the grant, the potential winner needs to leave a review of their fertility doctor on the FertilityIQ website by April 27. All reviews are anonymous, and patients who have already written reviews are automatically entered into the drawing.

Were asking for more doctor reviews because this information really helps the fertility patients who use our site,explains Anderson, who notes that this past year, FertilityIQ helped over 100,000 patients find the right fertility doctor. The couple hopes that this number only continues to grow, so that more families can benefit from this information in the future.

Even in the depths of a familys struggles to have a baby, members of the FertilityIQ community go out of their way to help each other, Anderson adds.This simple act of kindness is priceless.

It certainly is.

This New York Clinic Is Helping Moms with Postpartum Depression in a Whole New Way

Article Posted 2 days Ago

More:
Why This Couple Is Giving Away a Free IVF Cycle to Two Hopeful Parents - Babble (blog)

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Infertility can be caused bymany different things. For 25% of couples, a cause can't be identified.

This page covers the possible causes of infertility in men and women.

In women,causes include:

Scarring from surgery

Cervical mucus problems

Fibroids

Endometriosis

Pelvic inflammatory disease

Sterilisation

Medicines and drugs

In men, causes include:

Semen and sperm

Testicles

Sterilisation

Ejaculation disorders

Hypogonadism

Medicines and drugs

This page also has information about:

Unexplained infertility

Infertility is most commonly caused by problems with ovulation, the monthly release of an egg. Some problems stop an egg being released at all, while others prevent an egg being released during some cycles but not others.

Ovulation problems can be a result of:

Pelvic surgery can damage and scar the fallopian tubes, which link the ovaries to the womb.

Cervical surgery can also sometimes cause scarring or shorten the neck of the womb (the cervix).

When you're ovulating, mucus in your cervix becomes thinner so sperm can swim through it more easily. If there's a problem with the mucus, it can make it harder to conceive.

Non-cancerous growths called fibroidsin or around the womb can affect fertility. In some cases, they may prevent a fertilised egg attaching itself to the womb, or they may block a fallopian tube.

Endometriosisis a condition where small pieces of the womb lining (the endometrium) start growing in other places, such as the ovaries. This can damage the ovaries or fallopian tubes andcause fertility problems.

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is an infection of the upper female genital tract, which includes the womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries.

It's often caused by asexually transmitted infection (STI). PID can damage and scar the fallopian tubes, making it virtually impossible for an egg to travel down into the womb.

Some women choose to besterilised if they don't want to have any more children.

Sterilisationinvolves blocking the fallopian tubes to make it impossible for an egg to travel to the womb. It's rarely reversibleif you do have a sterilisation reversed, you won't necessarily become fertile again.

The side effects of some types of medicines and drugs can affect your fertility.

These include:

Illegal drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, can seriously affect fertility and make ovulation more difficult.

The most common cause of infertility in men ispoor quality semen,the fluid containing sperm that's ejaculated during sex.

Possible reasons for abnormal semen include:

Many cases of abnormal semen are unexplained.

There's a link between increased temperature of the scrotum and reduced semen quality, but it's uncertain whether wearing loose-fitting underwear improves fertility.

The testicles produce and store sperm. If they're damaged, it can seriously affect the quality of your semen.

This can happen asa result of:

Some men choose to have avasectomyif they don't want children or any more children.

It involves cutting and sealing off thetubes that carry sperm out of your testicles (thevas deferens) so your semen will no longer contain any sperm.

A vasectomy can be reversed, but reversals aren't usually successful.

Some men experienceejaculation problems that can make it difficult for them to release semen during sex (ejaculate).

Hypogonadism is an abnormally low level of testosterone, the male sex hormone involved in making sperm.

It could be caused by a tumour, taking illegal drugs, orKlinefelter syndrome, a rare syndrome where a man is born with an extra female chromosome.

Certain types of medicines can sometimes cause infertility problems.

These medicines are listed below:

Illegal drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, can also affect semen quality.

In the UK, unexplained infertility accounts for around 25% of cases of infertility. This is where no cause can be identified in either the woman or man.

If a cause for your fertility problems hasn't been identified, talk to your doctor about the next steps.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that women with unexplained infertility who haven't conceived after two years of having regular unprotected sex should be offered IVF treatment.

The NICE guidance has more about unexplained infertility.

Find out more about fertility tests and how problems are diagnosed.

Page last reviewed: 14/02/2017

Next review due: 14/02/2020

The rest is here:
Infertility - Causes - NHS Choices

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Scientists report another step in the use of stem cells to help treat people with debilitating heart failure.

In an early study of 27 patients, Japanese researchers used patients' own muscle stem cells to create a "patch" that was placed on the heart.

Over the next year, the patients generally showed small improvements in their symptoms -- including the ability to walk without becoming breathless and fatigued.

However, experts cautioned that while the results are encouraging, there's a lot of work left ahead before stem cells can be used to treat heart failure.

"They've shown that this approach is feasible," said Dr. Eiran Gorodeski, a heart failure specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

But it's not clear whether the stem-cell tactic was actually effective, said Gorodeski, who was not involved in the study.

RELATED: Antidepressant No Help to Heart Failure Patients

That's because the study didn't include a comparison group that did not receive stem cells.

So it's possible, Gorodeski explained, that the "modest" symptom improvements would have happened anyway. All of the patients were on standard medications, and some had heart devices implanted.

Stem cells are primitive cells that mature into the various cells that make up the body's tissues. In the past 15 years or so, scientists have tried to use the cells to help repair some of the damage seen in heart failure.

Heart failure is a progressive disease where the heart muscle is too damaged to efficiently pump blood throughout the body. It often arises after a heart attack.

Symptoms of heart failure include fatigue, breathlessness and swelling in the limbs. The condition cannot be cured, although medications and implantable devices can treat the symptoms.

In the new study, the researchers used stem cells from the patients' 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 patients' bone marrow -- into the heart.

The patch tactic could have some advantages, said senior researcher Dr. Yoshiki Sawa, of Osaka University.

He said animal research suggests that cells in sheet form survive for a longer period, compared to injections.

To test the safety of the approach, Sawa's team recruited 27 patients who had debilitating symptoms despite standard heart failure therapies. The scientists extracted stem cells from each patient's thigh muscle, then cultured the cells so that they formed a sheet.

The sheet was placed on each patient's heart.

The tactic appeared safe, the researchers said, and there were signs of symptom improvements over the next six months to a year.

Why would stem cells from the thigh muscle affect the heart? It's not clear, Sawa acknowledged.

The stem cells don't grow into new heart muscle cells. Instead, Sawa explained, they seem to produce chemicals called cytokines that can promote new blood vessel growth in damaged areas of the heart. The theory, he said, is that "hibernating" cells in the heart muscle can then function better.

Still, it's too soon to know what the new findings mean, said Gorodeski.

This type of trial, called phase 1, is designed to look at the safety and feasibility of a therapy, Gorodeski said. It takes later-phase trials -- where some patients receive the treatment, and others do not -- to prove that a therapy actually works.

Those trials are underway, Sawa said.

Other studies are further along. Last year, researchers reported on a trial testing infusions of stem cells taken from the bone marrow of patients with severe heart failure.

Patients who received the therapy were less likely to die or be hospitalized over the next year, versus those given standard treatment only. But the study was small, and the stem cells had only a minor impact on patients' heart function.

So it's not clear why the stem-cell patients fared better, Gorodeski said.

For now, he stressed, all stem-cell therapies for heart failure remain experimental.

"There's no cell therapy that we can offer patients right now," Gorodeski said.

The message for patients, he added, is that heart failure can be treated, and researchers are looking for "innovative" ways to improve that treatment.

The study was published April 5 in theJournal of the American Heart Association.

More:
Can Stem Cell 'Patch' Help Heart Failure? - Everyday Health (blog)

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

April 6, 2017 7:01 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) Theres potentially exciting news for the two and a half million people around the world struggling with multiple sclerosis.

There is no known cure, but now an experimental treatment in Israel may be able to reverse the symptoms, CBS2s Dr. Max Gomez reports.

MS is a progressive degenerative disease where the insulation around nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord starts to break down. Its the immune system attacking the insulation.

Medications can slow the disease but dont stop it. Stem cells may be much better.

As Dr. Max reports, walking on a treadmill is a big step for Malia Litman. She had been a top trial attorney in Dallas until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 18 years ago. Slowly, the disease robbed her of her balance, her mobility and her energy.

You can imagine how contracted my world had become, she says.

After she fell and broke her leg, she was in a wheelchair for weeks. Her MS medicines werent really working anymore.

Her search for alternative treatments led toDr. Dimitrios Karussis.

Answers for our diseases and our medical problems are hidden inside our body, hesays.

Karussis heads the experimental stem cell research atHadassah Medical Organization in Israel. He harvests an MS patients own adult stem cells from their bone marrow, then injects them back into their spinal fluid.

As neurologists, we have never seen or even believed that it is possible to reverse any disability, he says.

Litman says within 24 hours of her first treatment, I picked up my leg and went, Oh my god, and I just started crying.

She says her speech is more clear and she has more energy, and shes adamant its not a placebo effect, pointing to a number of tests before and after treatment that show improvement.

Karussis says one patient was even able to walk again.

Researchers are now collaborating with teams at the Mayo Clinic and Harvard, finishing a double-blind study to prove its effectiveness.

Look what I can do now! Its amazing, Litman says.

She still uses her walker but can now get on her rowing machine. After four treatments, shes reactivated her law license and is taking on a case.

I feel like I have my life back. I dont care if I walk with a walker the rest of my life. Although I think I may actually be able to walk again with a couple more treatments, she says.

As Dr. Max reports, the theory is that the stem cells are somehow spurringthe regeneration of the insulating nerve sheaths that are deteriorating in MS.

However, the course of the disease is so variable that Litmans improvement may not be due to the stem cell treatment. Thats why the double-blind studyis so important.

Hadassah Medical Organizations researchers are also looking at the treatments effect on ALS patients.

Visit link:
Stem Cell Treatment Might Reverse Symptoms Of Multiple Sclerosis ... - CBS New York

Recommendation and review posted by sam

The only practical way to scale-up volumes of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is by using microcarriers in single-use bioreactors, say scientists from A*STAR and Instituto Superior Tcnico.

MSCs are multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types which are being investigated for tissue engineering and cellular therapies.

Such cells come from bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood but are very rare, according to Ana Fernandes-Platzgummer, a research scientist for the Stem Cell Engineering Research Group at the Instituto Superior Tcnico in Lisbon, Portugal.

Totipotent cells can form all the cell types in a body, plus the extraembryonic, or placental, cells. The only totipotent cells are embryonic cells within the first couple of cell divisions after fertilisation.

Pluripotent cells can give rise to all of the cell types that make up the body. While embryonic stem cells are considered pluripotent, this class includes induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from skin or blood cells that have been reprogrammed back into an embryonic-like pluripotent state.

Multipotent cells are more limited than pluripotent cells but can develop into more than one cell type. This class includes mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood, and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) derived from mesoderm and located in the red bone marrow.

There are only about 100,000 stem cells in an umbilical cord, she told delegates at the 1st Stem Cell Community day in Germany this week. For cellular therapies we need doses of more than one million cells per kg [ideal (IBW) or actual (ABW) body weight] so we need to expand these cells.

Scale-up challenges

Stem cells can be successfully cultivated using flasks and labscale-volume bioreactors but there are many problems in monitoring and controlling growth, and issues with productivity and cell harvest. Therefore scale-up is a problem, hindered further due to a lack of technologies and processes available to cell therapy makers.

The event in Hamburg organised by bioprocessing tech firm Eppendorf looked to address these challenges in stem cell cultivation and scale-up by bringing together industry and academia.

And Fernandes-Platzgummer said that research by the Instituto Superior Tcnico together with Thermo Fisher-owned Life Technologies showed positive results in the expansion of human MSCs from different sources using a fully-controlled stirred-tank bioreactor combined with microcarrier technology.

The advantage of this is its easy scalability, the high surface area [of the microcarrier], the ability to monitor and control cultivation, and the reduced labour costs and risks of contamination, she said.

After five days cultivation the team produced clinically-relevant cell numbers, she added, using an 800ml spinner flask bioreactor, Thermo Fishers serum-free medium StemPro and reagent TrypLE Select CTS, and plastic microcarriers coated with the xeno-free substrate CELLstart (also made by Thermo Fisher).

'10,000 doses per year, each of a billion cells'

In a separate presentation, Steve Oh principal scientist and associate director at the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), part of Singapores Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) said a similar set-up had shown promise in moving MSC cultivation into scalable technologies and his team is trying to move to a 15L scale.

However, the goal for MSC-based therapies would be producing commercial volumes of 10,000 doses per year, each of a billion cells from the onset, he added.

We looked at all the approaches and really the only practical experience I have of a technology that will succeed is microcarrier technology using single-use bioreactors, he said.

Oh added microcarriers produce higher cell densities with the same amount of media while allowing greater control of the process by providing another metric to configure.

Furthermore, having only thin layers of cells between each carrier offers benefits in the harvesting of stem cells which he said is as problematic as cultivation due to the large aggregates of cell clusters formed which are difficult to break up.

See more here:
Stem cells: Single-use bioreactors and microcarriers can overcome scale-up issues, experts - BioPharma-Reporter.com

Recommendation and review posted by sam

The search continues.

Gabi Ornelas was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in February 2015.

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Read the original:
Girl still in need of bone marrow match - Temple Daily Telegram

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

April 5, 2017 Stem cells (red) on polycaprolactone-based microcarriers. Credit: Elsevier

Bone tissue engineering is theoretically now possible at a large scale. A*STAR researchers have developed small biodegradable and biocompatible supports that aid stem cell differentiation and multiplication as well as bone formation in living animal models.

Mesenchymal stem cells self-renew and differentiate into fat, muscle, bone, and cartilage cells, which makes them attractive for organ repair and regeneration. These stem cells can be isolated from different sources, such as the human placenta and fatty tissue. Human early mesenchymal stem cells (heMSCs), which are derived from fetal bone marrow, were thought to be best suited for bone healing, but were not readily accessible for therapeutic use.

Existing approaches to expand stem cells for industrial applications tend to use two-dimensional materials as culture media, but their production yields are too low for clinical demand. Furthermore, stem cells typically need to be harvested with enzymes and attached to a scaffold before they can be implanted.

To bring commercially viable cell therapies to market, Asha Shekaran and Steve Oh, from the A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute, have created directly implantable microscopic spheres in collaboration with the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. These spheres, which acted as heMSC microcarriers, consist of a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer called polycaprolactone.

According to Shekaran, their initial aim was to expand stem cells on microcarriers in bioreactors to scale up production. However, this strategy threw up difficulties, especially when attempting to effectively dissociate the cells from the microcarriers and transfer them to biodegradable scaffolds for implantation.

"A biodegradable microcarrier would have a dual purpose," Shekaran says, noting that it could potentially provide a substrate for cell attachment during scalable expansion in bioreactors, and a porous scaffold for cell delivery during implantation.

The researchers generated their microcarriers by synthesizing polycaprolactone spheres and coating them with two proteins polylysine and fibronectin. These proteins are found in the extracellular matrix that assists cell adhesion, growth, proliferation, and differentiation in the body.

Microcarriers that most induced cell attachment also promoted cell differentiation into bone-like matrix more strongly than conventional two-dimensional supports. In addition, implanted stem cells grown on these microcarriers produced an equivalent amount of bone to their conventionally-derived analogs.

"This is encouraging because microcarrier-based expansion and delivery are more scalable than two-dimensional culture methods," says Shekaran.

The team now plans to further investigate the therapeutic potential of these microcarrierstem cell assemblies in actual bone healing models.

Explore further: Study shows adipose stem cells may be the cell of choice for therapeutic applications

More information: Asha Shekaran et al. Biodegradable ECM-coated PCL microcarriers support scalable human early MSC expansion and in vivo bone formation, Cytotherapy (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2016.06.016

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Washington State University researchers have found a promising way to preserve sperm stem cells so boys could undergo cancer treatment without risking their fertility.

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Lots of factors can contribute to how fast an organism ages: diet, genetics and environmental interventions can all influence lifespan. But in order to understand how each factor influences agingand which ones may help ...

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Spherical biodegradable carriers support scalable and cost-effective stem cell expansion and bone formation - Medical Xpress

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Bone marrow transplantation, also referred as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the process of replacing diseased or damaged bone marrow or bone marrow stem cells with healthy tissue. Bone marrow is a soft vascular tissue present in the interior of long bones, which is primarily responsible for hematopoiesis (formation of blood cells), production of lymphocytes, and storage of a fat. Bone marrow transplantation procedure is recommended to treat severe stages of leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, multiple myeloma, aplastic and sickle cell anemia, thalassemia etc. In 2015, more than 75,000 bone marrow transplants were performed globally and the count is expected to increase by approximately 25% by the end of 2020. Depending on the source of bone marrow or stem cells, bone marrow transplant procedures are classified as peripheral stem cell transplant (PSCT) or conventional bone marrow transplant. The high potential of the bone marrow transplants and the ongoing researches in the field to reduce the risks and side effects of the procedure will take the market to a new high and provide better healthcare to millions of people in the world.

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Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Drivers and Restraints

Increasing worldwide prevalence of cancers and anemia is the major driver for the growth of global bone marrow transplant market. Moreover, advances in technology, improving healthcare infrastructure, emerging indications of bone marrow transplant for heart and neuronal disorders, growing investment in logistic services, increasing per capita healthcare expenditure are some other factors expected to flourish the global bone marrow transplantation market. However, tremendous cost of the treatment, scarcity of bone marrow donors and uncertainty of reimbursement in several countries are some major restraints for the growth of global bone marrow transplantation market,

Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Overview

Autologous bone marrow transplant segment of transplant type is expected to hold the major share in the global bone marrow transplant market owing to low treatment cost and high success rate. Leukemia being the most potential disease eligible for bone marrow transplant, is anticipated to contribute highest share in the global bone marrow transplant market. Hospital end user segment contributes major market share in global bone marrow transplant market owing to the requirement for advanced healthcare infrastructure for the procedure. Commercialization of stem cell therapies and expansion of them for clinical use is anticipated to cause surge in global bone marrow transplant market over the forecast period of 2016-2026.

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Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Region wise Overview

Geographically, global bone marrow transplant market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa.Europe will continue to lead the global bone marrow transplant market due to high density of bone marrow transplant centers and expanding bone marrow registries. Latin America is anticipated to witness rapid increase in volume of bone marrow transplant market owing to high number of potential candidates for the procedure. Increasing number of bone marrow transplant teams in North America is foreseen to boost the bone marrow transplant market in the region.

Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Key Players

Some of the key players in global bone marrow transplant market are Lonza Group Ltd., Merck Millipore Corporation, Sanofi-Aventis LLC., AllCells LLC., STEMCELL Technologies, ATCC Inc., Hemacare Corporation, Cellular Dynamics International, ReachBio LLC., Conversant Bio, abm Inc., PromoCell GmbH, Cruline Human biospecime PRO, Lifeline Cell Technology, Mesoblast Ltd. and others.

See the article here:
Bone Marrow Transplant Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report ... - MilTech

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

(Picture: Steec/Reddit)

This is Stephan and his 18-month-old daughter Hannah.

Hes a designer from Dublin who likes to put his kid in various precarious situations, from crawling up ladders to chilling with a set of knives.

Or at least, he does on Photoshop.

Stephan is superimposing Hannah into marginally dangerous situations to raise awareness of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) the very rare immune disorder that shes been battling with.

She had a very rare immune disorder called HLH and spent six months of her first year in hospital, receiving chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, which is the only possible cure.

Of 27 million worldwide donors, three were deemed suitable, and an anonymous German lady donated.

Because we missed out on so much normal stuff of the first year, we take tonnes of photos now that were able to do normal things out of isolation.

She is doing much better now (although shes in and out of hospital), but shes lots of fun, always smiling, and has a great sense of humour given what shes been through so far.

Stephan says that he thought it would be funny to worry his family by putting Hannah in precarious situations.

Most of the reactions have been positive, with the odd person not getting the joke and commenting that I should be shot.

Hes hoping that as well as making people laugh, his photos will help raise awareness of bone marrow donation.

And 75% of those in need wont find a matching donor in their families so they need to be found donors from outside.

Once you register to become a donor, its by no means a done deal that youll be parting ways with your marrow. Youve got a 1 in 790 chance of being chosen.

If you want to find out more about how to donate, just click here.

MORE: Families meet adopted rescue dogs for the first time

MORE: 20 ways kids annoy the heck out of their parents

Originally posted here:
A dad has been photoshopping his kid into marginally dangerous situations - Metro

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

April 5, 2017

Stem cell differentiation can now be seen thanks to a combination of machine learning and microfabrication techniques developed by scientists at the RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center in Japan. The results, published in PLOS One, followed the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) which are easily obtained from adult bone marrow.

MSCs have proven to be important for regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy because they can potentially repair many different types of organ damage, as they have the ability to differentiate into various cell types including bone, muscle and fat. Depending on the way the cells are grown the results can be quite different and so controlling differentiation is an important goal.

Observing MSC differentiation under different conditions is an essential step in understanding how to control the process. However, this has proved challenging on two fronts. First, the physical space in which the cells are grown has a dramatic impact on the results, causing significant variation in the types of cells into which they differentiate. Studying this effect requires consistent and long lasting spatial confinement. Second, classifying the cell types which have developed through manual observation is time consuming.

Previous studies have confined cell growth with fibronectin on a glass slide. The cells can only adhere and differentiate where the fibronectin is present and are thus chemically confined. However, this procedure requires high technical skill to maintain the confinement for an extended period of time. To overcome this, the first author of the study, Nobuyuki Tanaka, decided to look for a new way to confine them. Using a simple agarose gel physical confinement system, he found that he could maintain them for up to 15 days. Tanaka says, "It was wonderful to be able to do this, because agarose gel is a commonly used material in biology laboratories and can be easily formed into a micro-cast in a PDMS silicone mold."

He continues, "The advantage of this system is that once the PDMS molds are obtained the user only needs agarose gel and a vacuum desiccator to create highly reproducible micro-casts." The vacuum pump pulls the agarose gel into the mold. He explains, "We provided the protocol to our coauthors at ETH Zurich and they performed the agarose micro-casting and conducted the stem cell differentiation study. Stem cells were captured in the micro-structures and their differentiation was controlled under the captured condition."

Tanaka's paper also describes an automated cell type classification system, using machine learning, which reduces the time and labor needed to analyze cells. "Combined together, these tools give us a powerful way to understand how stem cells differentiate in given conditions."

According to Yo Tanaka, leader of the Laboratory for Integrated Biodevice, where the research was conducted, "We hope this will break down the barriers that have hindered research in this area so far and help to establish harmony between biologists and engineers. The focus of engineers has traditionally been to develop new technologies, but scientists prefer to use well established technologies. However, if our newly developed technology is simple enough it can spread rapidly, this is our goal."

Explore further: Stem cells seem speedier in space

More information: PLOS One (2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173647

Journal reference: PLoS ONE

Provided by: RIKEN

Growing significant numbers of human stem cells in a short time could lead to new treatments for stroke and other diseases. Scientists are sending stem cells to the International Space Station to test whether these cells ...

To date, it has been assumed that the differentiation of stem cells depends on the environment they are embedded in. A research group at the University of Basel now describes for the first time a mechanism by which hippocampal ...

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A new study of Peruvian frogs living at a wide variety of elevationsfrom the Amazon floodplain to high Andes peakslends support to the idea that lowland amphibians are at higher risk from future climate warming.

Puffin pairs that follow similar migration routes breed more successfully the following season, a new Oxford University study has found.

(Phys.org)A pair of biology professors, one with the University of Illinois, the other with Macquarie University in Australia has proposed in a Perspective piece in the journal Science that the traits we see as instinctual ...

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This is really great! Getting stem cells to differentiate in to desired adult cells is what is holding back stem cell therapies. This is a MAJOR step in that direction!

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New technique helps researchers determine how stem cells ... - Phys.Org

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Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have found that a class of heart failure drugs might decrease low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in patients who do not respond to statins. In a study appearing in the April 6, 2017 issue ofCell Stem Cell, cardiac glycosides reduced levels of a precursor of LDL in liver-like cells, and patients taking cardiac glycosides for heart failure had low LDL.

Not everyone with high LDL cholesterol responds to statins. Statins increase levels of a cell surface receptor that removes LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. However, statins do not work in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), who have a rare mutation in that receptor. FH patients have very high cholesterol and die of cardiovascular disease by their forties. The existing drugs for FH can cause fatty liver disease, and the best treatment is a liver transplant.

Stephen A. Duncan, D. Phil., SmartStateTMChair of Regenerative Medicine at MUSC, and his colleagues, including Max A. Cayo, Ph.D., an MSTP student at the Medical College of Wisconsin, developed a drug screen to identify an alternative to statins. They focused on apolipoprotein B (ApoB), a molecule that liver cells use to make LDL and which is normal in patients with FH. Drugs that decrease ApoB could potentially lower cholesterol independently of the LDL receptor in FH patients and also in patients with other forms of high cholesterol.

FH was a perfect model for testing alternatives to statins. Yet the rarity of FH meant these liver cells were scarce. Duncan's group obtained skin cells from a patient with the rare disorder from the Next Generation Genetic Association Studies consortium of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which studies genetic mutations linked to cardiovascular diseases. Next, they generated induced pluripotent stem cells from these skin cells. Stem cells continually double their numbers while in culture. This meant that a sample of converted skin cells from a single patient with FH provided a renewable source of liver-like cells that retained the mutation.

The team treated their liver-like cells with the SPECTRUM drug library, a collection of 2300 pharmaceuticals, many of which have reached clinical trials. In a surprising finding, all nine cardiac glycosides in the library, some once widely prescribed for heart failure, reduced ApoB levels in liver-like cells from the patient with FH, ranging from 29 percent (ouabain) to 38 percent (digoxin) to 73 percent (gitoxin). In further tests, they also lowered ApoB levels in human hepatocytes and reduced them by 30 percent in mice engineered to grow normal human livers without the FH mutation at doses eight times below their toxicity thresholds. Molecular tests revealed that glycosides shorten the lifetime of the ApoB molecule, in part by increasing how quickly it is degraded.

As everyone needs ApoB to make LDL cholesterol, this was proof that cardiac glycosides could potentially also work in patients with other forms of high cholesterol. To find out, the team combed through more than five thousand records of patients prescribed cardiac glycosides for heart failure who also had LDL cholesterol records. On average, LDL cholesterol levels were lower in those taking a cardiac glycoside (reduction of 9 mg/dL) or a statin (reduction of 14 mg/dL) than in those not taking any drug. No difference in LDL cholesterol levels was noted between those taking an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, another heart failure drug with no known role in cholesterol production, and those not taking any drug. Duncan's team also found patients who had LDL measurements recorded both before and after being prescribed a cardiac glycoside. LDL cholesterol dropped in 16 out of 21 patients and by an average of nearly 26 points, which was similar to the 32-point drop seen in a matching group of patients prescribed statins.

This study contains the first evidence to date that cardiac glycosides could potentially reduce LDL cholesterol independently of the LDL receptor, where statins act, by promoting ApoB degradation.

It is not clear from this study whether cardiac glycosides decrease LDL cholesterol in patients who do not have heart failure or at what dose they should be used. The cardiac glycosides have narrow ranges of efficacy for the treatment of heart failure, above which they can be toxic. However, they could offer inexpensive, life-saving options for patients with FH. Digoxin, the cardiac glycoside most commonly prescribed for heart failure, costs less than one dollar per day. Additionally, a cardiac glycoside in a low dose could conceivably provide an added benefit to patients already taking a statin. Finally, using stem cell-based screens of drugs that are already on the market is an innovative way to investigate treatments for rare liver diseases.

"There are so few livers available for transplant," says Duncan. "Having the stem cell model where we make liver cells in the culture dish opens up a possibility of using this not only to investigate a disease, but also as a way to discover drugs that could fix a disease."

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Stem Cell Drug Screen Yields Potential Alternative to Statins - R & D Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

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The global stem cells market is expected to grow at an incredible CAGR of 25.5% from 2015 to 2022 and reach a market value of US$297 billion by 2022.

Florida, April 06: Market Research Engine adds a new research study on the report, titled Global Stem Cells Market Analysis by Therapy, Application and Geography Trends and Forecast, 2015 2022.

The global stem cells market is expected to grow at an incredible CAGR of 25.5% from 2015 to 2022 and reach a market value of US$297 billion by 2022.

Browse Full Report from here: http://www.marketresearchengine.com/reportdetails/global-stem-ce

The emergence of Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells as an alternative to ESCs (embryonic stem cells), growth of developing markets, and evolution of new stem cell therapies represent promising growth opportunities for leading players in this sector.

Due to the increased funding from Government and Private sector and rising global awareness about stem cell therapies and research are the main factors which are driving this market. A surge in therapeutic research activities funded by governments across the world has immensely propelled the global stem cells market. However, the high cost of stem cell treatment and stringent government regulations against the harvesting of stem cells are expected to restrain the growth of the global stem cells market.

This report will definitely help you make well informed decisions related to the stem cell market.

The stem cell therapy market includes large number of players that are involved in development of stem cell therapies of the treatment of various diseases. Mesoblast Ltd. (Australia), Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (U.S.), Celgene Corporation (U.S.), and StemCells, Inc. (U.S.) are the key players involved in the development of stem cell therapies across the globe.

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Scope of the Report

This market research report categorizes the stem cell therapy market into the following segments and sub-segments:

By Mode of Therapy

Allogeneic Stem Cell Therapy Market o CVS Diseases o CNS Diseases o GIT diseases o Eye Diseases o Musculoskeletal Disorders o Metabolic Diseases o Immune System Diseases o Wounds and Injuries o Others

Autologous Stem Cell Therapy Market o GIT Diseases o Musculoskeletal Disorders o CVS Diseases o CNS Diseases o Wounds and Injuries o Others

By Therapeutic Applications

Musculoskeletal Disorders Metabolic Diseases Immune System Diseases GIT Diseases Eye Diseases CVS Diseases CNS Diseases Wounds and Injuries Others

By Geography

North America Europe Asia-Pacific RoW (Rest of the World)

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When Philip Rhoades' parents died he put their brains on ice. Journalist SHERELE MOODY finds out what he plans to do with his own body after death.

IN an ideal world, Philip Rhoades will die peacefully and pain-free, his body will be put on ice and he will be brought back to life in a time when illness does not exist and people live forever.

And when he does come back, the cryonics expert will have his deceased mum and dad for company.

After Gerald and Dorothy Rhoades died in May of 2016, Philip placed their brains in a commercial cryogenic facility - the kind that stores animal semen for artificial insemination and human eggs for IVF.

Philip froze his parents' brains because it only costs about $35,000 to keep each organ for perpetuity compared to $200,000 each to have their bodies frozen, transported and stored in cryonics facilities overseas.

"The key thing is being able to download the information in the brain," Philip said of keeping his mum and dad's neurological remains on ice.

"In the case of a neural archive, we're not concerned about reviving the body's cells, we're concerned with the neural architecture that has the information in it.

"It's likely that we will be able to in the next 10 or 20 years be able to extract that information with high-resolution brain scans.

"We'd then dump the information into a super computer."

When a cryonics candidate dies, a team of medical experts prepares them for transport to a storage facility by stabilising their body, packing it with ice, lacing the blood with an anti-coagulant and feeding oxygen to the brain.

When the body arrives at its final destination the blood is drained and the water in the cells is replaced by a liquid "anti-freeze" that ensures the organs and tissues do not shatter when ice crystals form during the freezing process.

The body is then cooled by dry ice to minus 130 degrees before being placed in a protective body bag and lowered, head first, into a metal tank filled with liquid nitrogen that is kept at minus 196 degrees.

Bodies are stored upside down to ensure the brains are the last thing to thaw if the tank leaks.

While Philip could only afford to freeze his parents' brains, he hopes to have his entire body put on ice for re-animation "as soon as possible" but he acknowledged he could be waiting around for quite a while.

"Trying to revive a whole human being is a difficult operation," he said of the process that some scientists say won't work because of the damage extreme temperatures cause to human cells.

"If you're getting a cryonic suspension then the intention is that modern scientific technology will allow the body to be thawed out, completely revived and rejuvenated so you look like you're 25 and you feel like you're 25 again.

"Life is too short - it shouldn't be three score and 10 years, it should be thousands of years."

Philip hopes he does not get Alzheimer's disease like his father had in the years before he died.

If he does end up with the same illness, Philip is considering what he calls "pre-mortal suspension" before the dementia renders him unable to make his own decisions.

His plan is to end his own life while connected to machinery that will prepare his body for the cryonics process.

Philip is currently working on a way to remove the need for human intervention when he dies and the process of initiating the cryonic state because of the potential legal implications for anyone seen to be assisting in his death.

"It will involve technology that will drain my blood, undertake the automatic perfusion and all of that," Philip said.

- ARM NEWSDESK

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Brains on ice: The Aussie man planning to live forever - Mackay Daily Mercury

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Middle-aged men jonesing for a boost in vitality are turning to steroids in increasing numbers, say researchers and health professionals. Men in their 40s, 50s even 60s and 70s are turning to hormones to fight the effects of aging, including weight gain and decreased libido, according to The Guardian.

Joseph Kean, a visiting research fellow at Liverpool John Moores University, said that usage has doubled in the number of men 50 and over in the past five years. He told The Guardian, Guys are saying they just want to stand a bit taller and feel they can stand alongside the younger generation who are much more aware of how they look."

But the vision of a buffer, more energized you comes with caveats including the potential for worsening sleep apnea, heart disease, blood clots, and prostate complications.

Testosterone levels decline early on, starting at around age 30. This drop can lead to any number of unwanted side effects and problems, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health. Low-T as it is often referred to, is responsible for much more than just weight gain and decreased sex drive. It is correlated with insulin resistance, low muscle strength and development even poor cognitive function. So it's a given that men would want to head off this decline and preserve their vigor for as long as possible.

We have come across a lot of older men using [steroids]. Its almost like hormone replacement therapy [for menopause relief] for females. Steroids can help you lose body fat as well, Julien Baker, an applied physiology professor at the University of the West of Scotland, told The Guardian. The evidence isnt there about what the long-term impact is yet. We are not sure what these drugs are doing to you at that age, but everyone perceives it as safe.

Magazines geared toward rejuvenation through hormone replacement have sprung up, as have clinics that promote testosterone replacement therapy in the United States and abroad.

The Juice Clinic in Sheffield, England, is one such service for people using steroids and image-enhancing drugs. Sid Wiffen, the clinic's team leader, told The Guardian he has noted an increase in older men asking for help. Steroid use for older men is often about the youthful effects, and about body image and energy levels. I hear talk of men feeling more pressure now to look good, so they are more likely to go to the gym and dress well," he said. It can be dangerous, and it does worry me. Lots of people we see are keen to make an informed decision about their steroid use, but some get information elsewhere and its not always good.

That elsewhere includes the internet of course, where misinformation on the topic flourishes. The healthier, safer route by far is to seek the advice of a physician and get a prescription.

Steroids, officially known as anabolic-androgenic steroids, were first developed for medical use in wasting conditions. Their possession or sale without a prescription is illegal in the United States, though some people are able to get them online or in gyms. Some countries permit legal possession, including the U.K., though it is illegal to supply them there. Steroids come in pill form, injectables (intramuscular), and topical gels.

Baker said while there could be some benefits for older men, the risks should be well understood. Introducing something your body stopped producing naturally may lead to repercussions or have health implications, he said. Theres not enough research out there to look at that. Someone taking steroids at 50 its not clear what might happen to them in the future.

Once users discontinue the use of steroids, many report withdrawal symptoms such as low mood and anxiety, something men should keep in mind as well.

2017 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.

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Boost in Steroid Use Among Older Men - Newsmax

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For decades, research singled out saturated fat and cholesterol as the prime dietary villains in heart disease. Following a report that the sugar industry quietly funded much of that research, sugar has found itself in the spotlight.

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Sugar has deleterious effects on the heart, and its important to be aware of them, notes Haitham Ahmed, MD. It has a negative impact on your lipids, your weight and your risk of diabetes. And it provides calories with no nutritional benefits.

Heres a breakdown of sugars impact on lipids, the substances in your blood that contribute to heart disease:

Sugars impact extends beyond the bloodstream. When you eat sugar, your blood glucose levels quickly rise. This causes an immediate spike in insulin, the fat storage hormone. The more sugar you eat, the more insulin you secrete, and the more fat you build up.

When you have more fat, you become more resistant to insulin. So you secrete more insulin, which leads to more fat storage, explains Dr. Ahmed. This vicious cycle results in prediabetes and diabetes, weight gain, and metabolic syndrome.

Over the past 20 years in developed and developing countries, weight has gone up, along with the incidence of obesity and diabetes.

In the 90s, the bottom layer of the food pyramid was all cereals, bread and pastas. Those were the foods we were supposed to eat more of and collectively, as a society, we gained a tremendous amount of weight, says Dr. Ahmed.

Because low-fat foods were supposed to be heart-healthier, manufacturers added sugars such as high-fructose corn syrup to make their products more appealing.

In 2015, recognizing that sugar has become a problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised its dietary guidelines. Now, it says added sugars should make up no more than 10 percent of our total calories. And at least half of our complex carbohydrates should come from whole grains.

The sugar in fresh fruit is packaged with beneficial fiber, vitamins and minerals. Many large studies, including a 2016 study of 500,000 Chinese adults, show that fresh fruit consumption lowers blood sugar, and the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

A half-cup of orange juice and an orange may each have 20 grams of carbohydrate, says Dr. Ahmed. The juice is absorbed right away, spiking your blood sugar so that your pancreas wants to rapidly secrete insulin. But the fibers in the orange delay its absorption, so your blood sugar doesnt spike as much.

Foods with a low glycemic index like fresh fruits and veggies, and whole grains help to stabilize blood sugar. Foods with a high glycemic index like punch, pizza, potatoes and pancakes spike blood sugar, inviting insulin resistance and weight gain.

Dietary studies have produced conflicting data. But one diet has proven over and over again in large scale, high-quality, randomized, controlled trials to significantly lower the risk of heart disease and to help people live longer with less dementia.

Thats the Mediterranean diet.

Focusing on healthier fat sources like fish, nuts and olive oil, the diet is heavy on veggies, beans and legumes, favors white meat over red, and includes low-fat dairy. And, needless to say, sugary desserts are scarce.

Its not really a diet, its more a style of eating, says Dr. Ahmed. Its easy, anyone can do it, and youre not starving yourself or limiting calories. So its sustainable. And its filled with stuff we all love to eat.

All the data show that crash diets can be effective in the short term. But people quickly regain those lost pounds and, over time, put on even more weight, he says.

None of which is good for your heart.

If sugar can harm your heart, are artificial sweeteners the answer for a sweet tooth?

Im not a fan of artificial sweeteners. Lots of studies show that diet beverages dont help people lose weight, says Dr. Ahmed. And drinking more than two artificially sweetened beverages a day may increase your risk of heart disease.

Researchers have a few theories about this, he explains:

Neither artificial sweeteners nor sugar are a good idea for most people, says Dr. Ahmed. If you want to quench your thirst, its best to drink unsweetened seltzer or water. The only time an artificially sweetened beverage is better is when you have diabetes and have to prevent blood sugar spikes.

More here:
Why a Sweet Tooth Spells Trouble for Your Heart - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic (blog)

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

It is not uncommon for pet owners to feel nervous about visits to the veterinary clinic if their pet has experienced fear during a previous visit.

It is important people remain compassionate toward fearful or fear-based aggressive animals so we can better enable them reduce their anxiety and learn that certain stimuli are not scary.

First, we must understand that fear behaviors have a stimulus, a physiological change within the pet and a behavioral change that is outwardly expressed.

Second, we need to imagine entering the veterinary clinic from the animals point of view.

While many pets enjoy car rides, not all do, so they may be feeling anxiety just from the car trip.

Once they enter the clinic there are many other sights, sounds, smells and memories that lead to fear. There may be a big dog sitting across from them, or a vocal cat or an unusual smell.

Once in the exam room, we must observe their nonverbal communication and adjust our approach accordingly.

Our ultimate goal is to reduce physiological changes to stressful stimuli so that the pets mental state is in a place where they can learn the situation is not scary.

Our pets have very subtle ways of communicating fear with us prior to cowering, growling, barking or biting. Signs of nervousness include lip licking, whale eye (when the pet looks to the side and the whites of the eye are visible), pacing, panting, scratching when there is no itch, and yawning.

These are called displacement behaviors, and are used to signal to the fear-inducing situation that the animal is nervous and wants to engage, but is not feeling confident in doing so.

Our goal in the exam room is to help your pet feel safe and secure so its brain can learn that the situation is not scary.

Ways to overcome this are with high-value treats, praise and rewarding confident behavior. We should never punish displacement behaviors growling, cowering, barking, or biting.

Punishment may teach the dog not to display these signals and could lead to bites without warning. We also need to make sure that we are not reinforcing fearful behavior. Our goals are to desensitize and counter-condition their responses to fearful stimuli.

Behavioral managements for pets with fear-based aggression will need to be further individualized because the bite risk is higher.

With patients with a known bite history, their safety as well as the safety of our staff are of utmost priority.

For animals with fear-based aggression, certain medications may be prescribed prior to visits to help the dog cope with stress.

It may take months or years to rehabilitate a fear-based aggressive dog. In some cases, it may be even be challenging to hospitalize or board these patients because of the stress it can cause them, which could in turn delay healing.

This type of stressful event may actually undo progress that has been made to help them feel less stressed in the exam room.

It is not uncommon for us to recommend delay-boarding them because of the risk of undoing progress in their rehabilitation.

There are also many ways we try to reduce stress in the exam room. One of the ways we attempt to help cats is by using a quieter, calm tone of voice; Feliway feline-appeasing hormone spray on towels; and restraint techniques that make them feel safe.

A stress response is very common for indoor-only cats because they are not exposed to new environments as frequently as outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats.

Often, just the carrier and car ride can make cats feel stressed! It is important to expose them to the carrier in nonstressful settings so they become more accustomed to it.

Even taking joy rides can help.

As most dog owners know, canines can be very sensitive to our feelings and stress levels. I recommend owners also take deep breaths and relax on the way to the clinic and in the exam room, because this helps reduce stress in their pets.

We recommend dogs come into the clinic on an empty stomach so we can feed them treats brought in by the owner or ones we keep in the exam room as counter-conditioning. We then tailor our restraint techniques based on the dogs body language, displacement behaviors and stress level. Some dogs are even scared of the white coat, so I sometimes choose not to wear one.

It is important to remember that stress and fear can be managed with compassion, diligence, counter-conditioning and, in some cases, medication. We do not want to ignore our loved ones communication with us.

Danielle Carey, DVM, is an associate veterinarian who practices mixed-animal veterinary medicine at the Animal Clinic of Walla Walla. Contact her at 509-525-6111.

Image: Priority Pet Clinic via Flickr; unedited

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VET VIEWS: Understanding your pets' fear in the veterinary clinic - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

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An LGBT lobby group in Sweden has been mocked for producing an unnecessarily explicit and overtly PC sexual rights pamphlet aimed at gay and transgender asylum seekers.

The graphic 32-page booklet published by the non-profit RFSL group, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQ Rights contains a series of cartoons depicting people of differing skin tones having solo sex, three-way sex, gay sex and one picture of a wheelchair-bound man having sex with a transexual man.

One of the men who crops up in several of the cartoons is particularly hairy, for some reason, while there are also various pictures of sex toys. The pamphlets language is blunt, using a variety of coarse slang terms for sex acts and organs which some may consider questionable.

Titled Sexual Health and Rights in Sweden and listed on the groups website since March 2, the pamphlets introduction reads: This brochure is a guide for you who are newly arrived in Sweden and identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or queer (lgbtq)In Sweden, anyone who is 15 years old or older can agree to have sex. This is called consenting to sexual acts. There is no law against same sex sexual practisesAs an asylum seeker or undocumented migrant, you can get emergency healthcare.

Among the bizarre sex cartoons it also offers this advice to trans asylum seekers:

If you are trans you can get medical help transitioning into a body that suits your gender identity. You can also change your legal gender. To get trans healthcare you often need to visit a healthcare centre and ask for a referral to a gender clinic. There are six clinics in Sweden. Stockholm and Lund have youth clinics that treat people above the age of 16. Some transgender persons want hormone treatment. Some also want chest surgery, genital surgery and hair removal. Most of these services, like surgery and hormone treatment, cost no more than any other doctors visit.

Many have been withering about the pamphlet. One observer, calling himself Sargon of Akkad, wrote simply: So tolerant, so diverse.

More:
Swedish LGBT Lobby Group Publishes Bizarre Sex Brochure for Trans Asylum Seekers - Heat Street

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A stem cell treatment for heart failure patients is safe and shows early signs of effectiveness, according to a study published Wednesday.

The study was conducted by Japanese researchers in 27 patients, who received transplants of stem cells taken from their own thigh muscles. There were no major complications, and most patients showed considerable improvement in their symptoms.

The study was published in the open-access Journal of the American Heart Association. Dr Yoshiki Sawa of Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine was the senior author. It can be found at j.mp/stemheart.

However, two San Diego cardiologists who do stem cell research on heart disease cautioned that similar clinical trials have shown promise over the years, only to fail at the end for various reasons. There is no approved stem cell therapy for heart failure.

So while the trial itself appears to be well-conducted, the researchers are very far from actually proving their treatment is effective, said Dr. Richard Schatz of Scripps Health and Dr. Eric Adler of UC San Diego School of Medicine.

For one thing, the trial was small, they said, and larger trials are where the most rigorous scientific evaluations are made.

These early trials have looked beneficial in the past, Adler said. When we do the larger trials, the results are more equivocal.

Adler said the signs of efficacy in this trial are modest. For example, the change in ejection fraction, a measurement of efficiency in pumping blood, rose from 27 percent to 30 percent in 15 of the 27 patients. Their heart failure was associated with a lack of blood flow, or ischemia. The remaining non-ischemic patients actually had a slight decline.

The entire field of stem cell and regenerative therapy for heart disease has been a disappointment to date, Schatz said.

Weve been at it for 20 years now, and we dont have a product or a positive (late-stage) trial, so that tells you pretty much everything you need to know, he said. Its not for lack of trying or billions of dollars invested. Its just very, very difficult.

The cardiac field has had more success with other technologies, such as cardiac stents. Schatz is the co-inventor of the first stent.

In the study, the researchers acknowledge that previous attempts had only been modestly effective. They devised a method of producing sheets of muscle stem cells and attaching them to the inner layer of the sac that encloses the heart, a layer that rests directly on the heart surface.

The stem cell sheets stimulate healing by producing chemicals that stimulate cardiac regeneration, the study said. The cells themselves dont survive in the long term, but by the time they die they have served their purpose.

Loss of function

Heart failure is a progressive disease in which the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood. This can be triggered by a heart attack or any other cause that damages the heart muscle.

When damaged heart muscle is replaced with scar tissue, as often happens, the heart loses pumping capacity. It becomes overstressed, and its output of blood declines. This limits the patients ability to engage in intensive physical activity. In advanced cases, patients may become bedridden.

Existing treatments include drugs and LVAD units, which take over some of the hearts function to relieve stress. Some drugs may help the heart work more efficiently, but none have been shown to improve heart failure by actually regenerating lost heart muscle.

Stem cell therapy is tested in patients who havent responded well to other treatments. Trials have been and are being conducted in San Diego area hospitals.

Scripps Health has been testing a cardiac stem cell therapy from Los Angeles-based Capricor. The cells, taken from donor hearts, are injected into the coronary artery, where they are expected to settle in the heart and encourage regrowth.

UC San Diego is testing a heart failure therapy from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. It consists of bone marrow derived mesenchymal precursor cells. These can give rise to several different cell types, including muscle cells.

And many other trials are going on throughout the country and internationally.

Adler and Schatz said theres reason for optimism in the long run, as technologies improve.

Just because the other trials have been negative doesnt mean this technique wont be beneficial, Adler said. Its just too early to tell.

That said, Schatz emphasized that the nature of the three-phase clinical trial process means that the show-stoppers for a treatment typically appear late.

Tighter standards needed

Clean trials trials where we all agree that this is the patient population we want to look at, are needed, he said.

For example, heart failure comes in two types, he said. Ischemic heart failure is caused by heart attacks and blocked arteries, which impede blood flow. Non-ischemic heart failure can be caused by damage from diseases, such as a virus.

Non-ischemics can be younger people, in their 20s and 30s, while the ischemic patients are older. Mixing those patient groups in a single trial is a mistake, he said.

Theyre different animals, Schatz said.

Another pitfall is failing to screen carefully enough to enroll only patients likely to benefit, Schatz said.

You can have a patient who has chest pain, and coronary disease just incidentally, he said.

His shoulder or chest pain is from a virus. So he goes into the trial and gets a placebo injection in his arm of cortisone, and his arm pain goes away. And because hes in that placebo group, hes counted as a success the pain went away. It has nothing to do with his heart. Thats an extreme example, but we actually saw that happen.

In a failed gene therapy trial for heart disease, some patients apparently had received the injection in the wrong location, missing the heart muscle, Schatz said.

You assume they got the gene, but they didnt, Schatz said. The study was negative, and thats why I think it was negative.

Such errors dont show up in Phase 1 trials, Adler and Schatz said, because theyre focused on evaluating safety. And these early trials dont have many patients, there arent enough to comfortably determine the therapy is really effective.

By the last stage of the trial, these sources of error have often been identified and trial standards have tightened up. And thats when the faulty assumptions made early appear as the trial ends in failure.

Despite those forbidding hurdles, Adler said research should continue.

This disease is killing a lot of people. Theres not going to be enough hearts to go around for transplant. Theres six million Americans with heart failure, and theres 2,000 heart transplants a year. So coming up with novel regenerative cell-based therapy is something were still excited about.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

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Study: heart failure stem cell therapy safe, shows early signs of effectiveness - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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TiGenix reports 2016 full year results | P&T Community P&T Community PRESS RELEASERegulated informationinsider information TiGenix reports 2016 full year results (Conference call and webcast today at 13:00 CEST) and more »

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TiGenix reports 2016 full year results | P&T Community - P&T Community

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Its tough being a kid, when No seems to be the primary component in an adults vocabulary. Dont jump on the bed, Dont touch the hot pan, and, my personal favorite as a parent, No, you may not color your sister with permanent markers.

Being a young, developmentally impressionable cell is also no picnic. How to choose what developmental path to follow? Should it become a nerve cell, a skin cell, a muscle cell? Now stem cell researcher Marius Wernig, MD, along with postdoctoral scholarMoritz Mall, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Michael Kareta, PhD,have shown that young would-be neural cells also live in a culture of no in the form of a powerful repressor protein called Myt1l that actively blocks all other cell fates including skin, heart, lung and liver.

They published their results yesterday in Nature.

As I explained in our release:

The study marks the first identification of a near-global repressor that works to block many cell fates but one. It also suggests the possibility of a network of as-yet-unidentified master regulators specific to each cell type in the body.

Myt1l works in conjunction with another protein that channels the developing cell into the neural cell fate by encouraging the expression of nerve-specific genes. Wernig explained:

Together, these proteins work as a perfect team to funnel a developing cell, or a cell that is being reprogrammed, into the desired cell fate Its a beautiful scenario that both blocks the fibroblast program and promotes the neuronal program. My gut feeling would be that there are many more master repressors like Myt1l to be found for specific cell types, each of which would block all but one cell fate.

Blocking Myt1l expression even in adult neural cells can cause them to lose their way, the researchers found. They begin to express non-neuronal genes and become less efficient at transmitting nerve signals.Because Myt1l has been found to be mutated in some cases of autism, schizophrenia and major depression, theresearch may one day offer new therapeutic avenues for affected people.

Wernig is a member of StanfordsInstitute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

Previously: Bridging the stem-cell gap: Stanford researchers identify unique transition state,Its not just science fiction anymore: Childx speakers talk stem cell and gene therapyandCongratulations to Marius Wernig, named Outstanding Young Investigator by stem cell society Image by Gemma Evans

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No means no in stem cell fates, say Stanford researchers - Scope (blog)

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Using 3D tissues generated from stem cells, scientists in Germany were able to gain insights into a hereditary disorder which affects parts of brain.

Scientists have grown 3D mini-brains from stem cells and used them to better understand how a rare congenital brain defect develops.

A new method could push research into developmental brain disorders an important step forward, researchers said. Scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany converted skin cells from patients into induced pluripotent stem cells.

From these jack-of-all-trades cells, they generated brain organoids small 3D tissues which resemble the structure and organisation of the developing human brain.

Investigations into human brain development using human cells in the culture dish have so far been very limited: the cells in the dish grow flat, so they do not display any three-dimensional structure.

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Model organisms are available as an alternative, such as mice. The human brain has, however, a much more complex structure. Developmental disorders of the human brain can thus only be resembled to a limited degree in the animal model.

Scientists at the University of Bonn applied a recent development in stem cell research to tackle this limitation: they grew 3D organoids in the cell culture dish, the structure of which is incredibly similar to that of the human brain.

These mini brains offer insight into the processes with which individual nerve cells organise themselves into our highly complex tissues. In their work, the scientists investigated the Miller-Dieker syndrome a hereditary disorder is attributed to a chromosome defect. As a consequence, patients present malformations of important parts of their brain.

In patients, the surface of the brain is hardly grooved but instead more or less smooth, said Vira Iefremova, from University of Bonn. The researchers produced induced pluripotent stem cells from skin cells of Miller-Dieker patients, from which they then grew brain organoids.

In organoids, the brain cells organise themselves very similar to the process in the brain of an embryo: the stem cells divide; a proportion of the daughter cells develops into nerve cells; these move to wherever they are needed.

In organoids, the brain cells organise themselves very similar to the process in the brain of an embryo. (Shutterstock)

These processes resemble a complicated orchestral piece in which the genetic material waves the baton. In Miller-Dieker patients, this process is fundamentally disrupted.

We were able to show that the stem cells divide differently in these patients, said Philipp Koch, associate professor from the University of Bonn. In healthy people, the stem cells initially extensively multiply and form organised, densely packed layers. Only a small proportion of them becomes differentiated and develops into nerve cells, said Koch, who led the study.

Certain proteins are responsible for the dense and even packing of the stem cells. The formation of these molecules is disrupted in Miller-Dieker patients.

The stem cells are thus not so tightly packed and, at the same time, do not have such a regular arrangement. This poor organisation leads, among other things, to the stem cells becoming differentiated at an earlier stage.

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3D 'mini-brains' help understand rare developmental disorders - Hindustan Times

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Distinct growth factors promote the survival of specific types of motor neurons in the spinal cord, according to a study led by Georg Haase, of Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France. The results suggest that these factors may work together to provide trophic support to motor neurons in the CNS and therefore, a combination of them may be needed to protect motor neurons damaged by disease.

Growth factors have always been tantalizingly attractive in ALS, said Nicholas Boulis of Emory University Medical School, who was not involved in the study. But the problem is, there has been a failure of growth factors to perform [in the clinic]. This study provides tangible evidence that you may be able to get a bigger effect by combining growth factors.

The study appeared on March 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neurotrophic Factors in ALS: The power of two+

Sorting out ALS. George Haases team at Aix-Marseille University in France used a FACS-based method to identify NTFs needed to protect distinct classes of motor neurons in the developing lumbar spinal cord. Now, the researchers are adapting this method to determine which of these substances may be needed to protect adult motor neurons, including those affected by ALS. The results may help clinicians develop neuroprotective treatment strategies tailored for the disease. [Courtesy of Schaller et al., 2017, PNAS]

Researchers first turned to neurotrophic factors (NTFs) in the early 1990s as a potential therapy for ALS in hopes to promote the survival of motor neurons damaged by the disease. But initial therapies proved ineffective in part due to delivery challenges (see Rogers, 2014).

In more recent years, neuroscientists discovered that many of these growth factors may work together to provide trophic support for motor neurons and promote their survival at least in the developing spinal cord (see Gould and Enomoto, 2009). But how these substances orchestrate this process remains an open question.

A growing number of researchers suspect that there may be distinct classes of motor neurons that are protected by distinct NTFs during development. To test this hypothesis, Haases team at Aix-Marseille University in France isolated motor neurons from the developing lumbar spinal cord in the mouse and determined which growth factors supported them.

To carry out this analysis, first author Sbastien Schaller and colleagues dissected out lumbar spinal cords at day E12 and suspended the tissue. Then, they used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate the motor neurons, cultured them and exposed them to combinations of neurotrophic substances.

The technique enabled motor neurons to be specifically captured from embryos by using Hb9:GFP mice, originally developed by Columbia Universitys Thomas Jessell in New York, which express GFP in motor neurons in the developing central nervous system.

100% of the cells expressed the motor neuronal markers ChAT and SMI 32, and none expressed interneuronal markers, indicating the exquisite purity of the isolated cells, said Haase. That, combined with the methods speed and degree of automation, make FACS-derived motor neurons a promising platform for future studies, he said, including screening for potential ALS therapies.

A combinatorial approach? Beginning in the early 1990s, researchers developed potential neuroprotective therapies for ALS that delivered single neurotrophic substances. But according to a new study, multiple NTFs may be needed to promote the survival of motor neurons affected by the disease. [Courtesy of Schaller et al., 2017, PNAS]

Next, the team exposed motor neurons to 12 different neurotrophic factors (BDNF, NT3, GDNF, neurturin, artemin, persephin, CNTF, CT1, LIF, HGF, IGF1, and VEGF), alone or in combination. Individually, all NTFs promoted neuronal survival after 3 days in culture, with GDNF being the most effective (43%). HGF, however, protected only about 20% of motor neurons in culture. But when HGF, CNTF and artemin were combined, motor neuron survival reached nearly 50%.

The effects were additive, explained Haase. That suggested to us that each [of these growth factors] were supporting a subset of motor neurons.

To test that hypothesis, the researchers used subtype cell surface-specific antibodies to label three major subsets of motor neurons from the lumbar spinal cordthe medial motor column, which innervate axial muscles, the lateral motor column, which innervate limb muscles, and preganglionic, which synapse with downstream neurons of the autonomic motor system. They then used FACS to separate each subtype, and exposed them to HGF, CNTF or artemin.

They found that each of these NTFs promoted the survival of distinct classes of motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord. For example, HGF preferentially supported survival of motor neurons in the lateral motor column neurons, key motor neurons affected by ALS.

The effects were mediated by distinct neurotrophic factor receptors decorating the surface of each type of motor neuron, explained Haase. When we blocked the HGF receptor, we completely blocked the survival effect of HGF. That means these motor neurons depend on this particular factor for their survival.

Additional analysis indicated that CNTF and artemin protected other types of motor neurons located elsewhere in the spinal cord.

Lateral thinking. HGF promotes the survival of motor neurons that innervate the limbs through a c-Met-mediated mechanism at least in the developing spinal cord (Schaller et al., 2017). The neurotrophic substance is the basis of Viromeds VM202, a gene therapy-based strategy now being evaluated at the phase 1/2 stage (Sufit et al., 2017). [Image: Emw, Wikimedia Commons.]

Together, the findings suggest that these substances provide trophic support and promote the survival of specific types of motor neurons in the developing spinal cord.

This is a very high-quality paper that helps clarify the field, said Clive Svendsen of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California. Until now, it was not clear that distinct subsets of motor neurons may respond to their own subsets of growth factors.

Motor neurons that could potentially include those that descend from the brainstem, and those involved in breathing, also affected by the disease.

The results suggest that combining growth factors may offer more therapeutic benefit than single factors in ALS according to Nicholas Boulis.

Svendsen agreed. This is suggesting that for therapies, if you want to protect motor neurons, you may have to expand to include multiple growth factors, Svendsen said. However, he noted, and as confirmed in this study, GDNF by itself is still perhaps the most powerful all-around survival factor for motor neurons.

Svendsen is now developing a potential therapy for ALS that uses genetically engineered neural stem cells to deliver GDNF to the spinal cord. The Phase 1 clinical trial is soon to be launched (see October 2016 news).

Neuroprotective therapies: the next generation?

The next big question, which this paper leaves open, according to Svendsen is whether the growth factors identified in this study protect motor neurons in the adult nervous system.

Haase agreed. This is a critical question, and we are adapting our method to look at this now.

A stem cell-based approach? Haases team previously developed a FACS-based technique to isolate reprogrammed motor neurons generated from human iPS cells (Toli et al., 2015). The approach could be used to identify key neurotrophic substances that promote the survival of patient-derived motor neurons. [Image: Reprogrammed sALS motor neuron, Alves et al., 2015. CC BY 4.0].

Some neural circuits change drastically during adulthood, while others stay pretty much the same, so weve got to do the experiments to find out, explained Svendsen. But I will probably be trying HGF soon in my own experiments.

In the meantime, said Haase, it is important to keep in mind that the growth factors found to be less effective in this study should not be ruled out as potential therapies. They may act sequentially during development, or may require co-factors to exert their effect which were not present in our growth medium, he said.

It is also important to keep in mind that this study did not evaluate the ability of any of these substances to regenerate axons, a key goal in terms of developing therapies for ALS and other motor neuron diseases including SMA.

The challenges of delivery, which have stymied the field to date, remain paramount, Haase also noted. Gene delivery approaches with adeno-associated vectors have been studied for single growth factors, but if several are needed, a larger-capacity vector, such as lentivirus, may be required, according to Boulis. Multiple rounds of ex vivo gene therapy to equip stem cells with multiple growth factor genes, would be another option, followed by surgical implantation of the modified cells.

Further exploration in in vivo models and patient-derived iPS cells are an important next step to determine which combination of these substances could be of the most benefit, added Boulis.

But despite these challenges, Boulis agrees this approach is worth considering. As a surgeon who does translational work on the application of growth factors to ALS, this may be an Aha! moment, said Boulis.

Reference

Schaller S, Buttigieg D, Alory A, Jacquier A, Barad M, Merchant M, Gentien D, de la Grange P, Haase G. Novel combinatorial screening identifies neurotrophic factors for selective classes of motor neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Mar 21;114(12):E2486-E2493. [PubMed].

Toli D, Buttigieg D, Blanchard S, Lemonnier T, Lamotte dIncamps B, Bellouze S, Baillat G, Bohl D, Haase G.Modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in pure human iPSc-derived motor neurons isolated by a novel FACS double selection technique. Neurobiol Dis. 2015 Oct;82:269-80. [PubMed].

Further Reading

Rogers, ML. Neurotrophic Therapy for ALS/MND. New York: Springer New York; c2014. p. 1755-85. (Kostrzewa RM, editor. Handbook of Neurotoxicity.)

Gould TW, Enomoto H. Neurotrophic modulation of motor neuron development. Neuroscientist. 2009 Feb;15(1):105-16. [PubMed].

disease-als gdnf HGF neuroprotection neurotrophic factor topic-clinical topic-randd VEGF

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Neurotrophic factors in ALS: a winning combination? - ALS Research Forum

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When Philip Rhoades' parents died he put their brains on ice. Journalist SHERELE MOODY finds out what he plans to do with his own body after death.

IN an ideal world, Philip Rhoades will die peacefully and pain-free, his body will be put on ice and he will be brought back to life in a time when illness does not exist and people live forever.

And when he does come back, the cryonics expert will have his deceased mum and dad for company.

After Gerald and Dorothy Rhoades died in May of 2016, Philip placed their brains in a commercial cryogenic facility - the kind that stores animal semen for artificial insemination and human eggs for IVF.

Philip froze his parents' brains because it only costs about $35,000 to keep each organ for perpetuity compared to $200,000 each to have their bodies frozen, transported and stored in cryonics facilities overseas.

"The key thing is being able to download the information in the brain," Philip said of keeping his mum and dad's neurological remains on ice.

"In the case of a neural archive, we're not concerned about reviving the body's cells, we're concerned with the neural architecture that has the information in it.

"It's likely that we will be able to in the next 10 or 20 years be able to extract that information with high-resolution brain scans.

"We'd then dump the information into a super computer."

When a cryonics candidate dies, a team of medical experts prepares them for transport to a storage facility by stabilising their body, packing it with ice, lacing the blood with an anti-coagulant and feeding oxygen to the brain.

When the body arrives at its final destination the blood is drained and the water in the cells is replaced by a liquid "anti-freeze" that ensures the organs and tissues do not shatter when ice crystals form during the freezing process.

The body is then cooled by dry ice to minus 130 degrees before being placed in a protective body bag and lowered, head first, into a metal tank filled with liquid nitrogen that is kept at minus 196 degrees.

Bodies are stored upside down to ensure the brains are the last thing to thaw if the tank leaks.

While Philip could only afford to freeze his parents' brains, he hopes to have his entire body put on ice for re-animation "as soon as possible" but he acknowledged he could be waiting around for quite a while.

"Trying to revive a whole human being is a difficult operation," he said of the process that some scientists say won't work because of the damage extreme temperatures cause to human cells.

"If you're getting a cryonic suspension then the intention is that modern scientific technology will allow the body to be thawed out, completely revived and rejuvenated so you look like you're 25 and you feel like you're 25 again.

"Life is too short - it shouldn't be three score and 10 years, it should be thousands of years."

Philip hopes he does not get Alzheimer's disease like his father had in the years before he died.

If he does end up with the same illness, Philip is considering what he calls "pre-mortal suspension" before the dementia renders him unable to make his own decisions.

His plan is to end his own life while connected to machinery that will prepare his body for the cryonics process.

Philip is currently working on a way to remove the need for human intervention when he dies and the process of initiating the cryonic state because of the potential legal implications for anyone seen to be assisting in his death.

"It will involve technology that will drain my blood, undertake the automatic perfusion and all of that," Philip said.

- ARM NEWSDESK

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Brains on ice: The Aussie man planning to live forever - Warwick Daily News

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New York Times

Why Are We So Obsessed With the End of the World? New York Times Last year, Don DeLillo published an exemplary preapocalyptic novel, Zero K, narrated by the son of a billionaire who's sunk his hopes, his fortune, his wife and himself into cryonic storage beneath the Central Asian steppes. Cryonics has for decades ...

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Why Are We So Obsessed With the End of the World? - New York Times

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