The Record: Stem cell advance

TWO NEW studies offer extraordinary hope that we may be closer to the day when people can use their own cells to treat significant medical conditions, without using controversial stem cell methods that involve harvesting human embryos.

Stem cell research has provided a glimpse of a future in which doctors can reverse the effects of certain ailments and decrease people's suffering. But the topic also carries with it a passionate ethical debate. This new, faster method if proved successful could push us past much of that controversy.

Researchers in Japan published studies in the journal Nature this week that described how they "reprogrammed" blood cells taken from mice by soaking them in an acidic solution. The scientists found that when the cells which they called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency were injected back into mice, they multiplied and grew into heart, bone, brain and other organs.

Medical researchers have worked for years to use pluripotent stem cells to treat diseased organs, severed spinal cords and other conditions like diabetes, blindness and muscular dystrophy.

While not all stem cell research has involved human embryos, that method is commonly known by the public and makes many people uncomfortable. Some religious groups have pushed to have the practice banned. Scientists aren't even sure that method would work, since a patient's body could reject foreign cells.

However, researchers say this new method could increase the chance of success because it would use a person's own cells.

"If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material," said Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London. "The age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived."

Mason wasn't involved in the study but is one of several outside experts who have weighed in expressing that this study looks extremely promising.

"It's remarkable," said Rudolf Jaenisch, a pioneering stem cell researcher at MIT. "Let's see whether it works in human cells, and there's no reason why it shouldn't."

The lead study author, Haruko Obokata, a biochemistry researcher at the RIKEN research institute in Japan, said they have started looking at how this method works with human cells.

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The Record: Stem cell advance

Herald News: A hopeful discovery on stem cells

TWO NEW studies offer extraordinary hope that we may be closer to the day when people can use their own cells to treat significant medical conditions, without using controversial stem cell methods that involve harvesting human embryos.

Stem cell research has provided a glimpse of a future where doctors can reverse the effects of certain ailments and decrease people's suffering. But the topic also carries with it a passionate ethical debate. This new, faster method if proved successful could push us past much of that controversy.

Researchers in Japan published studies in the journal Nature this week that described how they "reprogrammed" blood cells taken from mice by soaking them in an acidic solution. The scientists found that when the cells which they called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency were injected back into mice, they multiplied and grew into heart, bone, brain and other organs.

Medical researchers have worked for years to use pluripotent stem cells to treat diseased organs, severed spinal cords and other conditions like diabetes, blindness and muscular dystrophy.

While not all stem cell research has involved human embryos, that method is commonly known by the public and makes many people uncomfortable. Some religious groups have pushed to have the practice banned. Scientists aren't even sure that method would work, since a patient's body could reject foreign cells.

However, researchers say this new method could increase the chance of success because it would use a person's own cells.

"If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material," said Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London. "The age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived."

Mason wasn't involved in the study but is one of several outside experts who have weighed in expressing that this study looks extremely promising.

"It's remarkable," said Rudolf Jaenisch, a pioneering stem cell researcher at MIT. "Let's see whether it works in human cells, and there's no reason why it shouldn't."

The lead study author, Haruko Obokata, a biochemistry researcher at the RIKEN research institute in Japan, said they have started looking at how this method works with human cells.

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Herald News: A hopeful discovery on stem cells

Groundbreaking: Embryonic Stem Cells Made With Acid

This is big.

Scientists have found a way to create embryonic stem cells without using an embryo or without introducing genetic material. The discovery could revolutionize medicine by giving doctors a way to repair diseased and damaged tissue think heart disease, blindness, skin burns with organs and tissue grown from the patients own cells.

Cloning Creates Human Embryonic Stem Cells

The researchers, led by Haruko Obokata from the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, found that by when they applied various stresses to white blood cells, such as bathing them in acid or putting them in a low-oxygen environment, nearly bringing them to the brink of death, some of the cells lost their blood identity and reverted to a state equivalent to an embryonic stem cell.

They call these cells STAP, for stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency.

When the scientists transferred the STAP cells to a special growth-promoting solution, they began to multiply and look like embryonic stem cells, which can grow into any type of cell skin, bone, organ depending on the environment into which they were placed.

And when the cells were injected into mice embryos, they contributed to the overall tissue of the baby mice, something that researchers didnt think would be possible.

Not only is the approach faster and far cheaper than current methods, but it eliminates the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research, which requires the destruction of an embryo, raising ethical concerns. The new approach also avoids the genetic risks associated with the alternative to the embryonic method, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. That technique requires the introduction of genetic material into a cell, and has lead to tumor growth in some cases.

Stem Cell Treatment Cures Blindness

Inspiration for the research came from techniques already used in labs and in gardening, where a change in the physical environment can alter a cells identity. In the lab, for example, frog skin cells can be switched to brain cells if exposed to a solution with a low pH. And botanists can grow a new plant by creating a plant callus, a node of plant cells created from a physical injury to an existing plant.

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Groundbreaking: Embryonic Stem Cells Made With Acid

Stem Cell Treatment in Miami Florida – Call Now 1 888 545 …

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CellTherapyFlorida U.S. Program and PRP Therapy are now being applied towards painful, injured and inflammatory conditions facilitating healing of muscle, tendons, ligaments, articular and meniscal injuries.

Loss of Hair Your own stem cells from a small area of adipose (fat) tissue can be isolated and activated. Together with a PRP and growth factors from a small sample of blood, it can be locally injected into the scalp for male and female pattern hair loss treatment.

A single treatment of Stem Cells can be of a long-term benefit. Other therapies and drugs are an hours-to-days alternative!

The utilization of insulin in the conventional treatment of diabetes mellitus is only a "symptomatic" approach, and curing diabetes involves a great deal more.

Due to the fact most of the diseases that lead to loss of vision do so as a result of abnormal vasculature and/or nerve degeneration, the use of stem cells to stabilize or prevent visual loss holds great promise.

Autism is characterized by abnormalities in social interaction, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive, obsessive behavior.

Regenerative cellular therapy aims for the return of damaged lung(s) to a more functional state through the use of autologous adult stem cells. Promising results have been reported in patients with lung diseases receiving this type of regenerative therapy.

Chronic kidney disease means progressive loss of the kidney function that leads to end stage kidney disease (ESKD). End stage kidney disease is the complete or almost complete kidney function failure. This condition takes place when kidneys lose their ability to maintain the day to day level of function.

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Stem Cell Treatment in Miami Florida - Call Now 1 888 545 ...

Ore. doctor suspended for stem cell treatments | The Columbian

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PORTLAND The Oregon Medical Board has issued a rare emergency suspension of a Eugene, Ore., physician's license after the doctor conducted experimental stem cell treatments on patients. The board considers Dr. Kenneth Welker's medical practice an immediate danger to the public.

Welker can appeal the suspension, issued Thursday. He did not return calls from The Associated Press on Friday, nor did the clinic at which he's employed, Oregon Optimal Health.

According to his online biography, Welker is a trained surgeon who quit his practice to pursue alternative medicine in 2007.

In May 2013, the board's suspension order says, Welker injected processed stem cells into the spine of a 62-year-old woman, and was confused when she began to sweat and feel tingling in her extremities.

Stem cells, unlike other cells in the body, have two distinct characteristics. They can renew themselves through cell division, and they are not specialized in the way that muscle cells or brain cells are. Under certain conditions, they can be induced to transform into organ- or tissue-specific cells.

In 1998, researchers discovered how to derive stem cells from human embryos, and in 2006, they determined how to induce some specialized adult cells to take on the genetic characteristics of stem cells. These are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSC.

iPSC have long been used to treat cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma -- it's what doctors are using when they do bone marrow transplants. The cells are being studied for everything from heart disease to diabetes, but it's too soon to know if these approaches are safe or effective.

Advocates of alternative medicine have heaped praise on the possibility of using iPSC to treat a variety of maladies. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, for instance, had stem cells taken from fat in his own body, grown in a lab and then injected into his back and his bloodstream during a 2011 operation to fuse part of his spine.

But scientists have questioned the safety and wisdom of Perry's treatment, especially because it was not part of a clinical trial in which unproven therapies are tested in a way that helps protect patients and advances medical knowledge.

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Ore. doctor suspended for stem cell treatments | The Columbian

More Local News

(WFLA) When Judy Loar, 68, could not bear to walk any longer due to excruciating pain in both of her knees from degenerative joint disease, she did what most people in her condition do, she went in for a surgical knee replacement.

After being released, Loar found out her knee cap had been set incorrectly.

Going through surgery again to fix her other knee was not an option, so Loar started researching other alternatives to ease the agony of bone-on-bone friction caused by her condition.

"I really did my research, because I knew I could go through another major surgery," said Loar who became a patient of Dr. Dennis Lox.

Dr. Lox is the founder and medical director of Tampa-based Florida Spine and Sports Medicine Center, and one of the world's leading doctors specializing in using stem cell therapy as an alternative to successfully treat debilitating injuries or conditions.

Loar describes the procedure as painless, with no down time.

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More Local News

‘Blazin’ a trail’

Four-year-old Rikky Foresman is having a lot of firsts.

Last week, Rikky, his parents and three older siblings traveled to a women and children's hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, for stem cell therapy to treat his spina bifida myelomeningocele.

"This hospital has this 'beacon factor,' " said Rikky's father, Rik Foresman, of Old Lycoming Township, as he described the process to a room full of friends and family at the DuBoistown VFW Sunday at a homecoming for the youngster.

RASHELLE CAREY/Sun-Gazette Rikky Foresman, 4, of Old Lycoming Township, recently underwent stem cell therapy for spina bifida myelomeningocele and almost immediately displayed improvements to his feet and legs.

RASHELLE CAREY/Sun-Gazette Rikky Foresman and his party guests watch videos and photos on a computer screen on Sunday.

At the hospital, Foresman said, a doctor injects the beacon factor into the cells that need repaired. The beacon factor acts as a red flag, making the cells "yell for help."

Doctors then inject stem cells from the umbilical cords and placenta of healthy babies, which quickly target the cells yelling for help and begin treating them, Foresman said.

The entire procedure takes 30 to 45 minutes. The Tijuana facility is the only hospital with the capability to do the procedure, Foresman said.

Rikky suffers from spina bifida myelomeningocele. The condition has caused him to have no control over his bladder or bowels and he has no feeling from the knees down.

When doctors asked his parents which areas the stem cells should focus on, they listed, in order, his bladder, then his bowel, his hip and then his legs.

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'Blazin' a trail'

Desperate parents make heart-breaking YouTube appeal to find stem cell donor for one-year-old daughter dying from …

Margot Martini's form of leukaemia is so rare, doctors have only seen three similar cases in the last decade

The parents of a one-year-old girl dying from an extremely rare form of leukaemia have made a desperate global appeal to find her a stem cell donor.

Margot Martini was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital aged just 14 months last October.

She needed an immediate blood transfusion and spent the next ten days on life support.

Her parents Vicki and Yasser have been told she has a form of leukaemia so rare her consultant has seen only three such cases in the last decade.

They have made a desperate appeal via YouTube in a bid to find a stem cell donor who could save her life.

Yasser told Sky News: "Margot needs to receive a stem cell donation from someone with a similar tissue type as hers. So we are on a worldwide search for a donor - and unfortunately, without much luck to date."

Because Margot's leukaemia is so rare, Margot's parents are organising national "donor drives" where volunteers can register in the hope that someone will be a perfect match.

Anyone who wants to can request a saliva swab kit which can be used at home or register at designated medical centres on three separate "donor days".

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Desperate parents make heart-breaking YouTube appeal to find stem cell donor for one-year-old daughter dying from ...

Start of stem-cell study offers hope to patients with spinal-cord injuries

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Friday, January 10, 2014 4:33PM EST Last Updated Friday, January 10, 2014 11:42PM EST

A team of doctors at the University of Calgary has, for the first time in North America, successfully performed a stem cell transplant in a spinal cord injury patient, a procedure that could offer a glimmer of hope to patients whose injuries have long been considered untreatable.

The doctors injected the neural stem cells into the spine of a 29-year-old paraplegic, who will now be monitored to determine whether implanting those cells is safe.

Later studies will look at whether it is possible to regenerate new tissue and repair the mans injury.

That is the goal, a cure, the University of Calgarys Dr. Steven Casha, who performed the procedure on Wednesday, told CTV News.

Stem cells have the potential to recreate lost tissue, he added, although that remains to be proven in humans with spinal cord injuries. The answer, he said, is a long way away.

The transplant is part of an ongoing clinical trial being conducted by StemCells Inc., which harvested the stem cells from the nervous system of a fetus. The company holds a patent on the cells.

Data from three patients in Europe who have already undergone a transplant suggests the procedure is safe.

We have not been seeing significant complications or adverse eventsand there have been a couple of patients who havemade very small gains in functionthat appear to be hopeful and that is very interesting, Dr. Michael Fehlings, head of the spinal program at Toronto Western Hospital and the lead investigator for the trial at the University of Toronto, told CTV.

Fehlings cautioned that the results are very preliminary.

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Start of stem-cell study offers hope to patients with spinal-cord injuries

Artificial Bone Marrow Created By German Scientists, Could Be Used To Treat Leukemia Someday

Bone marrow nurtures both red blood cells and white blood cells, with healthy people producing more than 500 billion red- and-white blood cells every day. But when bone marrow is damaged by a disease like leukemia, or by radiation or chemotherapy drugs, the supply of blood cells drops, leaving a person at risk for fatal infections.

Leukemia and other types of bone-marrow diseases are often treated by transplanting healthy hematopoietic stem cells, which can develop into various kinds of blood cells, from another person. The donor cells can be taken from another persons bone marrow or bloodstream, or from preserved umbilical cords and placentas. But finding a matching donor can be difficult, and the amount of stem cells harvested from the donor may not always be enough to meet the needs of the patient.

One thing that doctors want to be able to do is to find a way to cultivate a bumper crop of stem cells. But blood stem cells thrive in a very specific environment inside bone marrow. And bone marrow has a very complex architecture, like a tiny sponge that contains many sizes of pores, and special docking proteins for stem cells.

"We assume that stem cells [do] not only notice the chemical composition of their surroundings., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology researcher and co-author of the study Cornelia Lee-Thedieck told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. They can probably also feel if their environment is soft or hard, rough or smooth.

Lee-Thedieck and colleagues used a simple, porous polymer to mimic a sponge-like structure for the base of their artificial bone marrow. They added proteins similar to ones found in bone marrow to act as docking points for the blood stem cells, and added other cells to help ferry necessary molecular messages and materials back and forth.

When hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood were introduced to the artificial environment, they thrived much better than in standard 2-dimensional cell-culture systems. But the authors guess that it will be at least another 15 years before most patients will be able to benefit from this invention.

"Producing artificial bone marrow for culturing and multiplying blood stem cells is a potentially interesting application," Martin Bornhuser, a researcher from the University Hospital Dresden unaffiliated with the current paper, told DW. "It would make it possible to generate a sufficient number of stem cells from a small amount to transplant into an adult patient.

SOURCE: Raic et al. Biomimetic macroporous PEG hydrogels as 3D scaffolds for the multiplication of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Biomaterials 35: 929-940, January 2014.

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Artificial Bone Marrow Created By German Scientists, Could Be Used To Treat Leukemia Someday