Protein paves the way for correct stem cell differentiation

Feb. 7, 2013 A single embryonic stem cell can develop into more than 200 specialized cell types that make up our body. This maturation process is called differentiation and is tightly regulated through strict control of gene activity. If the regulation is lost, specialized cells cannot develop correctly during development. In adulthood, the specialized cells may forget their identity and develop into cancer cells. Research from BRIC, University of Copenhagen, has identified a crucial role of the molecule Fbxl10 in differentiation of embryonic stem cells and suggests the molecule as a new potential target for cancer therapy.

"Our new results show that this molecule is required for the function of one of the most important molecular switches that constantly regulates the activity of our genes. If Fbxl10 is not present in embryonic stem cells, the cells cannot differentiate properly and this can lead to developmental defects," says Professor Kristian Helin, who heads the research group behind the new findings.

Fbxl10 recruits and activates genetic switches

The Polycomb protein complexes PRC1 and PRC2 are some of the most important genetics switches, which control the fate of individual cells through negative regulation of gene activity. The mechanism by which PRCs are recruited to DNA has been elusive as they are not capable of binding DNA directly. The new results from the Helin research group provide a mechanism for how the PRCs are recruited to the genes that are to be silent.

"Our results show that Fbxl10 is essential for recruiting PRC1 to genes that are to be silenced in embryonic stem cells. Fbxl10 binds directly to DNA and to PRC1, and this way it serves to bring PRC1 to specific genes. When PRC1 is bound to DNA it can modify the DNA associated proteins, which lead to silencing of the gene to which it binds," says postdoc Xudong Wu, who has led the experimental part of the investigation.

Fbxl10 is a potential target for cancer therapy

Timing of gene activity is not only crucial during development, but has to be maintained throughout the lifespan of any cell. Some genes are active at a certain times, but inactive at other times.. Here PRC1 comes into play. PRC1 is dynamically recruited to and dissociated from genes according to the needs of our organism. When cancer strikes, this tight regulation of gene activity is often lost and the cells are locked in a less differentiated stage. This loss of differentiation and the accumulation of other mutations allow the cancer cells to undergo indefinite self-renewal through endless cell divisions, an ability that normal differentiated cells are prohibited from through tight gene regulation.

"Given the emerging relationship between cancer and stem cells, our findings may implicate that an aberrant activity of Fbxl10 can disturb PRC function and promote a lack of differentiation in our cells. This makes it worth studying whether blocking the function of Fbxl10 could be a strategy for tumour therapy," says Xudong Wu.

And that is exactly what the researchers want to try. In collaboration with the biotech company EpiTherapeutics, the researchers want to develop inhibitors to Fbxl10 as a potential novel therapy for cancer.

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Protein paves the way for correct stem cell differentiation

Key protein revealed as trigger for stem cell development

Feb. 7, 2013 A natural trigger that enables stem cells to become any cell-type in the body has been discovered by scientists.

Researchers have identified a protein that kick-starts the process by which stem cells can develop to into different cells in the body, for instance liver or brain cells.

Their discovery could help scientists improve techniques enabling them to turn stem cells into other cell types in the laboratory. These could then be used to test drugs or help create therapies for degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis and liver disease.

Scientists from the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, who studied embryonic stem cells in mice, also developed a technique enabling them to highlight the presence of the key protein -- Tcf15 -- in the cells.

This means that researchers can identify which cells have the protein and watch how it affects stem cells in real time to gain a better understanding of how it works.

The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Dr Sally Lowell, from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This gives us better insight into the crucially important first step stem cells take to differentiate into other cell types. Understanding how and when this happens could help to improve the way in which we are able to control this process."

Researchers pinpointed the protein by looking at how some stem cells are naturally prevented from specialising into other cell types.

They found two sets of proteins, one of which binds to the other blocking them from carrying out their various functions.

They were then able to screen the blocked proteins to find out which ones would enable stem cells to differentiate.

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Key protein revealed as trigger for stem cell development

ALS Patients’ Own Stem Cells Show Promise as a Future Treatment Option

Stem cells taken from ALS patients may have the same capacity to develop into mature neuron-like cells as those collected from healthy donors, according to a new study released this month in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. These findings could open doors to a possible new treatment option while also reducing the chance for rejection and other side effects often seen when someone other than the patient is the cell donor.

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 08, 2013

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrigs Disease, is a rapidly deteriorating neurological condition affecting five out of every 100,000 people worldwide, mainly after the age of 50. The average survival time is only three years.

While no effective treatment exists, preliminary studies suggest that the quality of life and even life expectancy itself could be improved in patients who receive stem cell infusions. However, questions remain about the capacity of these cells to take hold and turn into neurons.

The study involved stem cells that bear the surface antigen CD133+, which have been shown to have a very low association with creating cancers. These cells can be isolated from a wide range of sources including bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord. A group of researchers from the Tecnolgico de Monterrey School of Medicine, in Monterrey, Mexico, led by Hector Martinez, M.D., Ph.D., Maria Teresa Gonzlez-Garza, Ph.D., and Jorge Moreno Cuevas, M.D., Ph.D., recently reported on the effects of CD133+ stem cells taken from peripheral blood of affected patients and transplanted into their own brains.

In this earlier trial, we provide evidence of a positive clinical response in ALS patients treated with auto-transplantation of CD133+ cells into the frontal motor cortex. However, there was an important question remaining to be answered: Were CD133+ cells obtained from ALS patients capable of transforming into neural cells? The present study demonstrated in a convincing manner the promise of CD133+ cells obtained from affected individual with ALS to transform into cells with neural potential, Dr. Martinez said.

The team collected CD133+ cells from 13 patients diagnosed with ALS and then grew the cells in the lab for a period lasting up to 48 hours. At the end of the two days, they saw an increase in neuronal proteins. This suggested that the stem cells were in the early stages of becoming neurons. Furthermore, the expression of some specific genes within the same time period indicated that the fate towards motor neurons, the neurons being destroyed in Lou Gehrigs patients, was underway.

No correlation was found between age, sex or ALS functional scale and the CD133+ stem cells response to the neuro-induction medium, Dr. Gonzlez-Garza said. Therefore, we concluded that CD133+ stem cells from ALS patients are capable of differentiating into pre-neuron cells, as well as the stem cells from healthy subjects.

These new findings provide the scientific basis for the positive clinical observations in patients with ALS treated by autotransplantation with CD133+ cells in the frontal cortex. But more importantly, they also give credence to the field of stem cell transplantation in other potentially fatal neurodegenerative conditions, Dr. Cuevas added.

This study may help explain the positive clinical outcomes obtained by stem cell transplantation in ALS patients and suggest the potential of stem cell therapy for conditions such as stroke and Parkinsons disease, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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ALS Patients’ Own Stem Cells Show Promise as a Future Treatment Option

Natural Sciences Repository Publishes New Information on Cell Treatment and Tumor Cells

The novel Natural Sciences Repository aims to provide reliable information on various areas of scientific interest in the simplest words and terms possible. The site has now added the new category Cell Treatment which provides scientific information on cellular treatment, which can potentially treat various kinds of disease or injury, and the new category Tumor Cells which contains information on tumors, which are cell growths that might or might not lead to cancerous conditions.

Bad Honnef, Germany (PRWEB) February 07, 2013

The Living Cells Section contains scientific information on the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms. The term "cell" comes from the Latin word "cellula," which means "a small room" and was coined by Hooke in a book he published in the same year (1665) of his momentous discovery. Cell count can be used as a classification for living organisms. Unicellular organisms have a single cell (most bacteria are included in this category), while multicellular organisms are made up of up to trillions of cells. After inclusion of the two new categories, this section contains ten categories including Cell Binding, Cell Gene, Cell Growth, Cell Membrane, Cell Receptor, Tissue Cells, Cell Treatment, Tumor Cells, In Vitro and In Vivo. This section currently contains over 173,000 articles. Users can receive alerts for newly published content in this section by subscribing to the Living Cells Section RSS feed.

The newly published category Cell Treatment contains scientific information on cellular treatment, which can potentially treat various kinds of disease or injury. Stem cell treatment is a kind of intervention treatment, which introduces "new" cells into the patients damaged tissues in order to address a problem presented by the effects of disease or injury. There are a wide variety of stem cell therapies and treatments that exist today, but many of them are undergoing experimental stages or are very costly. The category currently contains over 30,000 articles including one on a beta treatment and P301L tau expression in an Alzheimers disease tissue culture model which act synergistically to promote aberrant cell cycle re-entry, a comparison of three highly active antiretroviral treatment strategies consisting of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, or both in the presence of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors as initial therapy CPCRA 058 FIRST Study, and a phase II study of ABT-510 thrombospondin-1 analog for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Users can receive alerts for newly published content in this category by subscribing to the Cell Treatment RSS feed.

The new Tumor Cells category contains scientific information on tumors, which are cell growths that might or might not lead to cancerous conditions. In spite of popular knowledge and belief, a tumor is not completely synonymous with cancer. A cancer is almost always malignant, while a tumor can be benign or pre-malignant. A neoplasmic tumor is often caused by an abnormal proliferation of tissues, which can be a direct result of genetic mutations. The category currently contains over 23,500 articles including one on 15-Lipoxygenase 2 15-LOX2 which is a functional tumor suppressor that regulates human prostate epithelial cell differentiation, senescence, and growth size, a parametric study of freezing injury in BPH1CAFTD-2 human prostate tumor cells, and one that asks whether aberrant methylation of tumor suppressor genes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is clinically relevant or not. Website users can receive alerts for newly published content in this category by subscribing to the Tumor Cells RSS feed.

The repository groups information in the natural sciences according to interrelated sections and categories that will help readers understand the context of whatever topic is searched information on. Each unit contains a definition composed in an understandable way and each item in these sections and categories contains up to twenty clickable tags.

Frank Linne TriScience.com +49-3-22241-78087 Email Information

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Natural Sciences Repository Publishes New Information on Cell Treatment and Tumor Cells

Wells seeks injury cure before Olympics

Kiwi freeskier Jossi Wells is hoping stem cell treatment will provide him with a shot at contesting next year's Sochi Winter Olympics free of knee pain. 7 February 2013

Wanaka freeskier Jossi Wells sounds almost wistful when he talks about the possibility of competing pain-free.

Still only 22, Wells has lived and skied with patella tendinopathy - the same condition haunting top tennis player Rafael Nadal - for the last seven years.

"I haven't had a day since I was 15 that I don't have excruciating pain in my knees as soon as I bend them," he told NZ Newswire.

That hasn't stopped him from compiling an outstanding record in the demanding sport, including X Games silvers in halfpipe (2010) and slopestyle (2008), backed up by an X Games Big Air bronze in 2012.

Now, a year out from the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city Sochi, Wells is juggling his training workload with accumulating qualification points for ski halfpipe and slopestyle for their Olympic debut.

Just as important, he's also looking at beginning stem cell treatment later this month in Melbourne which has the potential to help him compete without pain.

It's a heady thought.

"I can't wait ... it's going to be like I was 14 again and skiing every moment that I could.

"This stem cell stuff's pretty exciting, because it's kind of the first thing that's come around that could really help."

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Wells seeks injury cure before Olympics

VistaGen's Collaborators Identify Definitive Precursor for Adult Blood and the Immune System

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 7, 2013) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. ( OTCQB : VSTA ), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism assays, today announced significant advancements in its stem cell technology licensed from the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, Canada. The advancements, which improve VistaGen's ability to develop new stem cell-based bioassay systems and potentially improved cell therapies for human blood system disorders, were reported in the December 2012 edition of Cell Reports, an open-access journal from Cell Press.

The exclusively licensed stem cell technology from UHN, which applies equally to both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), enables the efficient production of mature hematopoietic (blood) precursor cells.These blood cell precursors give rise to red cells, granulocytes and immune cells (lymphocytes), which represent the majority of the blood cells found in the body.

"In collaboration with our long-term strategic partners at UHN, we continue to pioneer stem cell technology that promises to change the way we develop medicine and apply treatment," stated Shawn K. Singh, CEO of VistaGen. "In addition to creating new capabilities and in vitro assays for drug rescue and predictive toxicology, these advancements open the door to development of new treatments for bone marrow failure, anemia, viral diseases and other conditions that compromise the immune system."

"Due to only partial understanding of the timing and control of the development of definitive hematopoiesis in humans, scientists were previously limited in their ability to identify and produce, from human pluripotent stem cells, the important precursor for mature red and white cells of the blood," said H. Ralph Snodgrass, PhD, VistaGen's President and Chief Scientific Officer. "The identification and characterization of this important precursor provides a readily accessible pluripotent stem cell-derived target cell population that can be expanded and matured into the types of cells needed for novel in vitro assays and our drug rescue efforts, and enables improved technologies and approaches for future cell therapy collaborations."

Dr. Gordon Keller, Chairman of UHN's McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto and co-founder of VistaGen, stated, "We've been working for many years studying in vitro differentiation of pluripotent stem cells trying to identify, and then expand, the first human cell capable of producing the adult blood and immune system. I believe that we now have a better understanding of this important transition from embryonic to adult hematopoiesis, and have the tools to develop improved methods to expand this cell in large numbers for both drug development and cell therapy applications."

About VistaGen Therapeutics VistaGen is a biotechnology company applying human pluripotent stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism screening. VistaGen's drug rescue activities combine its human pluripotent stem cell technology platform, Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube, with modern medicinal chemistry to generate novel, safer chemical variants (Drug Rescue Variants) of once-promising small molecule drug candidates. These are drug candidates discontinued by pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) or university laboratories, after substantial investment in discovery and development, due to heart or liver toxicity or metabolism issues. VistaGen uses its pluripotent stem cell technology to generate early indications, or predictions, of how humans will ultimately respond to new drug candidates before they are ever tested in humans, bringing human biology to the front end of the drug development process.

VistaGen's small molecule prodrug candidate, AV-101, has completed Phase 1 development for treatment of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain, a serious and chronic condition causing pain after an injury or disease of the peripheral or central nervous system, affects millions of people worldwide.

Visit VistaGen at http://www.VistaGen.com, follow VistaGen at http://www.twitter.com/VistaGen or view VistaGen's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/VistaGen.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the success of VistaGen's stem cell technology-based drug rescue, predictive toxicology and metabolism screening activities, further development of stem cell-based bioassay systems, and potentially improved cell therapies, for human blood system disorders or other diseases or conditions, clinical development and commercialization of AV-101 for neuropathic pain or any other disease or condition, its ability to enter into strategic predictive toxicology, metabolism screening, drug rescue and/or drug discovery, development and commercialization collaborations and/or licensing arrangements with respect to one or more drug rescue variants, cell therapies or AV-101, risks and uncertainties relating to the availability of substantial additional capital to support its research, drug rescue, development and commercialization activities, and the success of its research and development plans and strategies, including those plans and strategies related to any drug rescue variant or cell therapy identified and developed by VistaGen, or AV-101. These and other risks and uncertainties are identified and described in more detail in VistaGen's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. VistaGen undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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VistaGen's Collaborators Identify Definitive Precursor for Adult Blood and the Immune System

Living to 100 with Anti-Aging and Rejuvenation Stem Cells Therapy

The state of the art Laboratory and clinic at World Stem Cells Clinic announces its latest in Stem Cell Treatments and procedures to rejuvenate the face, body, organs and increase the feeling of well being.

Lutz, Florida (PRWEB) February 07, 2013

The Stem Cell Treatment at World Stem Cells Clinic takes 5 days to complete as the treatments are comprehensive and designed to maximize the benefits and safety a patient derive from the process.

World Stem Cells, LLC worldstemcells.com will provide patient management service assisting the patient on their flight, hotel, provide transportation to and from the airport, transportation to and from your hotel to World Stem Cells Clinic, provide 24/7 communication and be the patients ombudsmen.

FACTS ABOUT AGING

The science shows each minute, our body is dying, this is a fact. Each minute that passes by our body has lost 300,000,000 cells. That means the cells that die in our body equals the population of the United States, each and every single minute. As we age less and less of those cells are replace and we slowly decay. Doctors have see people over a 100 that if cut nothing happens as there are no cells to close the wound.

Thus Aging is a result of progressive depletion of stem cells, so the introduction of new stem cells and adjunctive treatments has the potential of slowing down or reversing this process. Stem cells possess a unique anti-aging effect by regenerating and repairing organs, improving immune function, repair damaged by stress, and various toxins we are exposed to in our daily life.

Stem Cells often thought of as futuristic, controversial and unknown, are now providing the latest anti-Aging, rejuvenation and beauty secret.

THE SIGNS OF AGING

The signs of aging generally start at 40, earlier for those who have burned the candle at both ends , smokers, have been under stress or in contact with toxic sustenances and generally later for those who have had less stress, non smokers, exercised and eat properly but in the end we all will age. Some of the signs of aging are:

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Living to 100 with Anti-Aging and Rejuvenation Stem Cells Therapy

Stem-cell doctor Grekos should lose license, pay heavy fines, costs, state recommends

Photo by Allie Garza

Zannos Grekos

Bonita Springs cardiologist Zannos Grekos should lose his license because he committed medical malpractice in performing an unscientific stem cell procedure on a patient who died, according to new case filings.

State Department of Health attorneys also recommend that a judge fine Grekos the maximum $40,000 and order him to pay expenses to investigate and prosecute him, according to the states recommended order to the judge.

The state costs to date are $200,222, according to Department of Health spokeswoman Ashley Carr.

The case involves Grekos' unorthodox stem-cell therapy on 69-year-old Domenica Fitzgerald in 2010, who suffered a stroke and was taken off life support. She died April 4, 2010.

John Fitzgerald, the victim's husband, pointed out Wednesday that the three-year anniversary of his wife's death is approaching.

"I'm worn out," he said. "I want some closure. My family wants closure."

Still, he said the state's two prosecutors have worked hard, and he had been told that $200,000 had been spent so far on the case.

"I know the system is slow," he said. "It seems to be working."

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Stem-cell doctor Grekos should lose license, pay heavy fines, costs, state recommends