Scientists use cloning to make stem cells matched to two adults

By adminApril 19, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

Scientists have replicated one of the most significant accomplishments in stem cell research by creating human embryos that were clones of two men.

The lab-engineered embryos were harvested within days and used to create lines of infinitely reproducing embryonic stem cells, which are capable of growing into any type of human tissue.

The work, reported Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell, comes 11 months after researchers in Oregon said they had produced the world's first human embryo clones and used them to make stem cells. Their study, published in Cell, aroused skepticism after critics pointed out multiple errors and duplicated images.

In addition, the entire effort to clone human embryos and then dismantle them in the name of science troubles some people on moral grounds.

MORE: Medicines and machines, inspired by nature

The scientists in Oregon and the authors of the new report acknowledged that the clones they created could develop into babies if implanted in surrogate wombs. But like others in the field, they have said reproductive cloning would be unethical and irresponsible.

The process used to create cloned embryos is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It involves removing the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with a nucleus from a cell of the person to be cloned. The same method was used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996, along with numerous animals from other species.

Human cloning was a particular challenge, in part because scientists had trouble getting enough donor eggs to carry out their experiments. Some scientists said SCNT in humans would be impossible.

Dr. Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Marlborough, Mass., has been working on SCNT off and on for about 15 years. He and his colleagues finally achieved success with a modified version of the recipe used by the Oregon team and skin cells donated by two men who were 35 and 75.

After swapping out the nucleus in the egg cell, both groups used caffeine to delay the onset of cell division a technique that has been called "the Starbucks effect." But instead of waiting 30 minutes to prompt cell division, as was done in the Oregon experiment, Lanza and his team waited two hours.

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Scientists use cloning to make stem cells matched to two adults

Researchers successfully clone adult human stem cells

By adminApril 19, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

20 hours ago by Bob Yirka Credit: Cell Stem Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2014.03.015

(Phys.org) An international team of researchers, led by Robert Lanza, of Advanced Cell Technology, has announced that they have performed the first successful cloning of adult human skin cells into stem cells. A paper by the team describing their work has been published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

The achievement by the team is actually a replication of work done by another team just last yearin that effort the team did the same thing but used donor cells from infants. In this new experiment, two men aged 35 and 75 donated skin cells.

Technically called somatic-cell nuclear transfer aka "therapeutic cloning" the process is similar to that used to clone Dolly the sheep back in 1997. Since that time, researchers have run into a myriad of obstacles in achieving the same results in humans, though it should be noted that there is a major difference in objectivewith humans, the aim is to clone stem cells so that they can be used to treat diseases, not reproduce whole human beings.

To clone the stem cells, the researchers used unfertilized eggs donated by several unidentified women. After removing the DNA material inside the egg, new DNA material extracted from the skin cells of the male donors was injected inside and the resulting filled egg was exposed to a small dose of electricity to cause fusingthe egg was then allowed to "rest" for two hours. Afterwards each egg reprogrammed itself and grew into a blastocyst which eventually grew into a pluripotent stem cell that genetically matched the skin donor. Theoretically such stem cells could then be engineered to grow into various cells, e.g. heart, lung, liver, for transplant into a patient.

Funding for the research was provided by an unnamed foundation and the Korean Governmentthe experiments were conducted in a lab in California. The researchers point out that the process cannot be used to create a whole human being.

The team notes that despite their success, there is still a lot of work to do before cloned stem cells become a viable option for treating medical problems in people. They note that out of 77 eggs donated and used in the experiments, only two led to successful cloningone from each of the male donors. Their experiments do prove however, they add, that successful cloning of human stem cells is possible with donors of any age.

Explore further: Researchers discover ancient virus DNA remnants necessary for pluripotency in humans

More information: Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Using Adult Cells, Cell Stem Cell, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.03.015

Summary Derivation of patient-specific human pluripotent stem cells via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has the potential for applications in a range of therapeutic contexts. However, successful SCNT with human cells has proved challenging to achieve, and thus far has only been reported with fetal or infant somatic cells. In this study, we describe the application of a recently developed methodology for the generation of human ESCs via SCNT using dermal fibroblasts from 35- and 75-year-old males. Our study therefore demonstrates the applicability of SCNT for adult human cells and supports further investigation of SCNT as a strategy for regenerative medicine.

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Researchers successfully clone adult human stem cells

Stem Cell Therapy treatment for Rhinophyma in Ottawa Illinois

By adminApril 18, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

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Treating Rhinophyma in a traditional medical manner is sometimes a long and grueling process that can offer less hope than you deserve. Additionally, many traditional medical treatments are riddled with drugs and medications that can sometimes cause even more harm to other parts of the body. Further risks of medication mixups, allergies, destruction of the immune system and the constant level of additional medical treatments that may be required, can sometimes weigh heavily on a patient and their chances of regaining a healthful way of life. Recovery can become difficult or almost impossible in some cases.

We offer an alternative treatment or a more stem cell process that centers around the idea of using your own adult stem cells as the basis of this natural treatment. In some areas of the country, traditional medicine and medical practices may not have acknowledged the benefits that stem cell treatments can bring to the healing process. Stem cell treatments may not be a standard course of medical treatment quite yet, but that may be a result of other political and/or profit motives. But rest assured that is all changing and changing quite rapidly as more and more success and overwhelming evidence indicates that adult stem cell therapy is a very successful and viable treatment process for Rhinophyma.

Stem cell treatment is extremely effective and very safe. It is also very natural, ethical and a very effective way in assisting the body to heal naturally and wholesomely. It embodies the very idea of "healing" rather than simply medicating a symptom. The main idea of how adult stem cell treatments work are as follows...

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Stem Cell Therapy treatment for Rhinophyma in Ottawa Illinois

Results are a leap for embryonic stem cells

By adminApril 18, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

Scientists have replicated one of the most significant accomplishments in stem cell research by creating human embryos that were clones of two men.

The lab-engineered embryos were harvested within days and used to create lines of infinitely reproducing embryonic stem cells, which are capable of growing into any type of human tissue.

The work, reported Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell, comes 11 months after researchers in Oregon said they had produced the world's first human embryo clones and used them to make stem cells. Their study, published in Cell, aroused skepticism after critics pointed out multiple errors and duplicated images.

In addition, the entire effort to clone human embryos and then dismantle them in the name of science troubles some people on moral grounds.

The scientists in Oregon and the authors of the new report acknowledged that the clones they created could develop into babies if implanted in surrogate wombs. But like others in the field, they have said reproductive cloning would be unethical and irresponsible.

The process used to create cloned embryos is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It involves removing the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with a nucleus from a cell of the person to be cloned. The same method was used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996, along with numerous animals from other species.

Human cloning was a particular challenge, in part because scientists had trouble getting enough donor eggs to carry out their experiments. Some scientists said SCNT in humans would be impossible.

Dr. Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Marlborough, Mass., has been working on SCNT off and on for about 15 years. He and his colleagues finally achieved success with a modified version of the recipe used by the Oregon team and skin cells donated by two men who were 35 and 75.

After swapping out the nucleus in the egg cell, both groups used caffeine to delay the onset of cell division a technique that has been called "the Starbucks effect." But instead of waiting 30 minutes to prompt cell division, as was done in the Oregon experiment, Lanza and his team waited two hours.

It remains unclear exactly how the egg causes the cells in previously mature tissues in this case, skin to transform into a more versatile, pluripotent state.

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Results are a leap for embryonic stem cells

Surprise: Lost stem cells naturally replaced by non-stem cells, fly research suggests

By adminApril 18, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

12 hours ago

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered an unexpected phenomenon in the organs that produce sperm in fruit flies: When a certain kind of stem cell is killed off experimentally, another group of non-stem cells can come out of retirement to replace them.

The discovery sheds light on the tiny "environments" that stem cells occupy in animal bodies and may help explain how stem cells in tumors replenish themselves, the researchers report in the May 8 issue of the journal Cell Reports. Damage of the kind duplicated in the laboratory occurs naturally after exposure to radiation and perhaps also after ingestion of toxic chemicals such as those used in chemotherapy.

The research group, led by Erika Matunis, Ph.D., a professor of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been using the fruit fly as a model living system in which to study stem cells in their natural state. Most stem cell research is done on cells grown in the laboratory, but in real life, stem cells reside in tissues, where they are sequestered in tiny spaces known as niches. Adult stem cells keep dividing throughout life to make various kinds of cells, like new blood cells and germ cells.

Matunis's group studies such niches in fruit fly testes, the sperm-producing organs shaped like a coiled tube whose end houses a niche. In the niche are three kinds of cells: germ line stem cells, which divide to produce sperm; somatic cyst stem cells, which make a kind of cell that helps the sperm-producing cells out; and hub cells, which make signals that keep the other two kinds of cells going.

The hub cells are not stem cells; they have settled on their final form, incapable of dividing further or changing their functionor so everyone thought.

However, in a bid to figure out what happens when the somatic cyst stem cells are killed off, Matunis suggested that graduate student Phylis Hti figure out how to best do away with them, thinking the task would be straightforward.

Instead, she says, "it took a lot of heroic, patient combinations" of different genes working together to kill the somatic cyst cells, Matunis says.

"When we finally figured out a way to kill all of the somatic stem cells, we thought that the rest of the tissue would probably just empty out," she says. In 35 percent of testes, that's just what happened. But in the rest, the somatic stem cells grew back.

This was a surprise, Matunis says, and left a puzzle: Where were the new somatic stem cells coming from?

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Surprise: Lost stem cells naturally replaced by non-stem cells, fly research suggests

Center denies hand in Ateneo alum's death, calls for probe into all hospitals and docs she consulted

By adminApril 12, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

By: InterAksyon.com April 12, 2014 12:57 PM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

The Green and Young Health and Wellness Center, the facility at the center of allegations of malpractice that allegedly led to the death of an Ateneo de Manila alumna in 2013, on Saturday called for a broader investigation into "all hospitals where she was admitted and all doctors who treated her right before she died".

Stressing that the student, Katherine Grace Tan, "was never given stem cell treatment by the Center or Dr. Antonia Park," the Green and Yough Health and Wellness Center said it was unjustly singled out and wrongly portrayed as accountable for the young womans death.

A cum laude graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, Tan was reported to be suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, when she allegedly underwent treatment at Parks wellness center.

The girl's father, Bernard Tan, claimed his daughter underwent stem cell therapy there after allegedly being advised by Park.

In a statement, however, the Green and Young Health and Wellness Center in Tagaytay City said: "Ms. Katherine Grace Tan was never given stem cell treatment by the Center or Dr. Antonia Park. The allegation is not true."

The Center's statement, released through its lawyer, Stephen Cascolan, added: "As to the cause of death, Ms. Tan's memory deserves to be honored in a manner that is true, fair, and just. Mr. Bernard Tan, the father who brought his daughter to many other physicians right before Ms. Tan died, and long after she visited the Center in July 2012, should show to the public the competent and actual medical findings showing cause of death. All hospitals where she was admitted and all doctors who treated her right before she died should be investigated. An autopsy be conducted to ascertain real and actual cause of death. Only in this manner can the issue be resolved."

Not licensed in the Philippines

Earlier this month, it was reported that Park hadadmitted that she wasn't licensed to practice in the Philippines. Records from the theProfessional Regulatory Commission as of August 2013 showed that Park was not on the list of physicians authorized to practice medicine in the country.

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Center denies hand in Ateneo alum's death, calls for probe into all hospitals and docs she consulted

Researchers identify transcription factors distinguishing glioblastoma stem cells

By adminApril 11, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Apr-2014

Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital

The activity of four transcription factors proteins that regulate the expression of other genes appears to distinguish the small proportion of glioblastoma cells responsible for the aggressiveness and treatment resistance of the deadly brain tumor. The findings by a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, which will be published in the April 24 issue of Cell and are receiving advance online release, support the importance of epigenetics processes controlling whether or not genes are expressed in cancer pathology and identify molecular circuits that may be targeted by new therapeutic approaches.

"We have identified a code of 'molecular switches' that control a very aggressive subpopulation of brain cancer cells, so-called glioblastoma stem cells," says Mario Suv, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, co-lead author of the Cell article. "Understanding what drives these aggressive cells will give us insights into alternative ways of eliminating them and potentially changing the course of this very deadly tumor."

Normal biological development follows an orderly hierarchical progression from stem cells, capable of differentiating into almost any type of cell, to progenitor cells, giving rise to specific subtypes of cells and tissues, to fully differentiated cells. While the process usually proceeds in a one-way direction, artificially inducing the activity of key transcription factors can reprogram differentiated cells back into a stem-like state, a discovery honored with the 2012 Nobel prize.

Small populations of adult stem cells with somewhat limited developmental potential are responsible for the body's ability to heal injuries and replace worn out cells and tissues, and evidence is growing that rare cancer stem cells are responsible for the uncontrolled growth of some malignant tumors, including glioblastoma. Several studies have used cell-surface markers proteins found on the outer membranes of tumor cells to identify glioblastoma stem cells; but the specific markers used have been controversial and cannot reflect molecular processes going on within tumor cells. The current study was designed to clarify the cellular hierarchy underlying glioblastoma, to identify epigenetic factors that distinguish glioblastoma stem cells from more differentiated tumor cells and to suggest potential therapies targeting those factors.

In a series of experiments, the researchers first identified a set of 19 transcription factors that were expressed at significantly greater levels in cultured human glioblastoma stem cells capable of tumor propagation than in differentiated tumor cells. Testing each of these factors for their ability to return differentiated tumor cells to a stem-like state, identified a combination of four POU3F2, SOX2, SALL2 and OLIG2 that was able to reprogram differentiated tumor cells back into glioblastoma stem cells, both in vitro and in an animal model.

The investigators then confirmed that these four factors and their corresponding regulatory elements the DNA segments to which transcription factors bind were active in from 2 to 7 percent of human glioblastoma cells, cells that also expressed a known stem cell marker. They also showed that inhibiting the action of an important regulatory protein complex that involves a known target gene of one of the core transcription factors a gene active in stem-like glioblastoma cells but not differentiated cells caused glioblastoma stem cells to lose their stem-like properties and die.

"This study brings us back to the fundamental idea that there are many reasons that cancer cells can be aggressive," explains senior author Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD, of MGH Pathology and the MGH Cancer Center. "Just as normal cells with the same genome differentiate into many different cell types, a single tumor characterized by specific genetic mutations can contain many different types of cells stem-like and more differentiated cells with the difference being rooted in their epigenetic information. Identifying the drivers of these different cellular states in glioblastoma stem cells could offer us the best opportunity for treating what remains an extremely difficult-to -treat tumor."

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Researchers identify transcription factors distinguishing glioblastoma stem cells

Arroyo's stem cell doctor charged with illegal practice

By adminApril 10, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

The NBI says Park 'misrepresented herself as a licensed physician in several occasions'

CHARGED. The NBI files charges against an alternative medicine doctor based in Tagaytay. File photo by Buena Bernal/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday, April 10, filed before the Tagaytay City Prosecutor's Office a case against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's stem cell physician for illegal practice of medicine.

Antonia Carandang-Park, an alternative medicine doctor based in Tagaytay City, was charged for having violated Republic Act 2382 or The Medical Act of 1959. Park is the owner and operator of the Green & Young Health & Wellness Center.

The bureau's investigation found that Park "misrepresented herself as a licensed physician [on] several occasions."

Watch this report below,

The NBI Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division (AOTCD) was acting on a complaint filed before the bureau by physician Eunice Salazar-Abad, who worked as an aesthetic physician with Park.

According to the NBI, Abad noticed some "irregularities" and the "unorthodox method" of treatment by Park. The NBI also found that Park, whose treatment of Arroyo gained her popularity, did not make an effort to correct news reports that referred to her as a medical doctor.

ILLEGAL PRACTICE. Dr Antonia Park in this Nov 17, 2012 photo taken by Kate Tan. Photo from Bernard Tan.

In her diagnosis of Arroyo, Park supposedly signed an official statement dated July 25, 2012 as "Dra. Antonia Park, M.D.," where she considered stem cell therapy for Arroyo, who's now under hospital arrest for plunder charges at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. Mrs Arroyo is suffering from a debilitating neck and back pain.

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Arroyo's stem cell doctor charged with illegal practice

Lawmaker wants Arroyo stem cell doctor arrested

By adminApril 9, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

A HOUSE member is urging law enforcement agents to arrest the alternative medicine doctor of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the death of an Ateneo de Manila scholar last year.

OFW Family party-list Representative Roy Seneres said the Philippine National Police (PNP) can now arrest Antonia Park if found to be practicing medicine without any license.

Park, who is believed to be a South Korean, was blamed by the family of Katherine Grace Tan for her death last year.

Bernard Tan said his 23-year-old daughter died after undergoing embryonic stem cell therapy allegedly administered by Park at the latters Green and Young Health and Wellness Center in Tagaytay City.

Seneres called for an investigation of Park's operations, saying that unless she is a medical doctor and has a license to practice medicine, she is barred from conducting any medical procedure on sick patients.

The lawmaker also called on the Tan family to file the necessary charges against Park if they have enough evidence against her.

Park's service was previously sought by Arroyo when she was granted bail on electoral fraud charges two years ago.

The former chief executive motored to Tagaytay City reportedly to confer with Park regarding her spine problem.

Seneres noted that the former president's spine ailment has not improved since her Tagaytay trip but, in fact, doctors at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMCC) where she is under hospital detention had claimed that her health issue has turned for the worse.

Arroyo's sister, Cielo Macapagal-Salgado, and former spokesperson, Charito Planas, have reportedly recommended Park's services to the Pampanga lawmaker.

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Lawmaker wants Arroyo stem cell doctor arrested

Japan stem cell scientist stands by 'phoney' research

By adminApril 9, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

53 minutes ago

A young female scientist accused of fabricating data made a tearful apology live on Japanese television Wednesday for "mistakes" in her research, but insisted her ground-breaking conclusions on stem cells were accurate.

Haruko Obokata, 30, blamed her youth and inexperience for errors in her methodology, but said she had managed to create the building-block cells capable of growing into the specialised cells of the brain, liver, heart or kidneys.

"I apologise with my whole heart to my co-authors... and many others for causing trouble because of my insufficient efforts, ill-preparedness and unskilfulness," a visibly shaken Obokata told a press conference.

"To many people there may be too many unbelievable mistakes, but that does not affect the conclusion," she said.

Obokata was feted as a modern-day Marie Curie after unveiling research that showed a simple way to re-programme adult cells to become a kind of stem cell.

So-called Stimulus-Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency (STAP) cells were hailed as a breakthrough that could provide a ready supply of the base material for much-needed transplant tissue at minimal cost.

Campaigners said it represented a leap forward in the fight against degenerative diseases.

Her profilea young woman in a world dominated by middle-aged menwas seized on by Japan's media, which was charmed by eccentricities that included her insistence on wearing a housewife's apron in the laboratory, instead of a white coat.

But within weeks of her paper being published in the prestigious journal Nature, questions began to emerge, with fellow scientists saying they were unable to replicate her results.

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Japan stem cell scientist stands by 'phoney' research