Progeny 'mega cells' pivotal in adult stem cell transplant

A new research has identified that 'megakaryocytes' or 'megacells' are responsible for playing a critical role in adult stem cell transplant.

Hematopoietic stem cells differentiate to generate megakaryocytes in bone marrow and the study has shown that the hematopoietic stem cells (the parent cells) could be directly controlled by their own progeny (megakaryocytes).

The results had suggested that megakaryocytes might be used clinically to facilitate adult stem cell regeneration and to expand cultured cells for adult stem cell transplants.

Researchers at Stowers Institute for Medical Research had discovered that megakaryocytes had directly regulated the function of murine hematopoietic stem cellsadult stem cells that had formed the blood and immune cells and that had constantly renewed the body's blood supply. These cells could also develop into all types of blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Because of their remarkable ability to renew themselves and differentiate into other cells, hematopoietic stems cells have been used to treat many diseases and conditions. The transplantation of isolated human hematopoietic stem cells has been used in the treatment of anemia, immune deficiencies and other diseases, including cancer.

The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

(Posted on 20-10-2014)

Post your comments

Information on States of India:

Read the rest here:
Progeny 'mega cells' pivotal in adult stem cell transplant

Bostons Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC Releases Video Presentation of the Companys Next Generation Stem Cell …

Boston, MA (PRWEB) October 14, 2014

The most important function of tissue stem cells is the most ignored function of tissue stem cells. This seemingly paradoxical revelation is the special province of the ASCTC, upon which Director James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is staking the companys future success. A newly released video of a presentation given by Sherley at the recent 2014 BioPharm America Conference in Boston, provides an opportunity for the regenerative medicine community in particular, and the public in general, to learn directly from the source the scientific basis for this surprising statement.

Director Sherley reveals that the most important function of adult tissue stem cells is their asymmetric self-renewal. Asymmetric self-renewal is the unique property of tissue stem cells to divide continuously to make large numbers of constituent body cells while keeping their own number constant and maintaining their own stem cell function. This tissue stem cell-specific function allows stem cells to continuously renew organs and tissues and to repair them when they are diseased or damaged.

In the video, Director Sherley describes ASCTCs three main next generation technologies that motivate the companys current development goals. The first is patented biomarkers that identify tissue stem cells with sufficient specificity to allow them to be counted for the first time. This technology has potential to accelerate advances in stem cell biomedicine by providing a convenient method for counting stem cells in tissues in the body and in therapeutic cell transplant preparations. The ASCTC intends to license its biomarkers to other companies in the stem cell biotechnology and regenerative medicine industries.

The second technological breakthrough is a method of expanding human tissue stem cells in culture without loss of their normal stem cell functions. Based on asymmetric self-renewal principles, the ASCTC developed technologies that induce tissue stem cells to divide reversibly with greater self-duplication than production of constituent body cells. These technologies promote the exponential production of tissue stem cells that later can be reversed back to making constituent cells. Such capability is ideal for producing large quantities of functional normal human tissue constituent cells for drug evaluations or large quantities of normal human tissue stem cells for cell therapy applications. No other currently available method for multiplying human solid organ stem cells provides normal cells as the final product.

Director Sherley relates the ASCTCs plans to develop its expansion technology to become a manufacturer of human liver stem cells and their derivatives. The company is targeting applications in drug candidate evaluation and liver transplant therapy. For this plan, it is currently working to assemble a superior management team with the first new member target being an outstanding CEO to join Dr. Sherley as the CSO and a strategic cell manufacturing partner. In his current role as director, Dr. Sherley projects that a $30 million investment over a five-year period will be required to achieve the companys first commercial target, which is supplying the pharmaceutical industry with on-demand, reproducible, clinically diverse panels of human cells with mature liver functions for use in drug evaluations.

The video presentation ends with the most recent innovation from the ASCTC. In a partnership venture with AlphaSTAR Corporation (ASC) located in Long Beach, California, ASCTC has recently completed the development of computer simulation software that can accurately estimate the number of tissue stem cells in any human tissue cell culture. ASC develops computer simulation analyses to predict the physical failure of complex composite materials used to build aircraft, racing cars, and other high stress transports like the space shuttle. The two companies have integrated their respective expertise to produce the first-of-its-kind computer simulation-based technology for quantitative monitoring of human tissue stem cells.

The new stem cell monitoring technology has several important foreseeable applications, including determining stem cell number for dosing in cell therapies; identifying agents that increase stem cell number, which might be healing agents or carcinogens; and identifying agents that are toxic to stem cells. ASCTC and ASC are partnering to develop the new technology to screen out stem cell toxic drug candidates at the beginning of the drug development pipeline, before pharmaceutical companies have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on their evaluation at later stages of drug development, as well as in the marketplace.

Sherley suggests that many stem cell scientists and regenerative medicine companies overlook asymmetric self-renewal, because it has been difficult to study. This difficulty, which is partly due to the scarcity of stem cells in tissues, has fostered a climate of controversy about asymmetric self-renewal. Sherley assures, ASCTC is past the controversy and on to achieving significant regenerative medicine advances by employing our special know-how in this crucial aspect of adult tissue stem cell biology.

Read more from the original source:
Bostons Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC Releases Video Presentation of the Companys Next Generation Stem Cell ...

What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the …

Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important? What are the unique properties of all stem cells? What are embryonic stem cells? What are adult stem cells? What are the similarities and differences between embryonic and adult stem cells? What are induced pluripotent stem cells? What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized? Where can I get more information? VII. What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized?

There are many ways in which human stem cells can be used in research and the clinic. Studies of human embryonic stem cells will yield information about the complex events that occur during human development. A primary goal of this work is to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become the differentiated cells that form the tissues and organs. Scientists know that turning genes on and off is central to this process. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. Predictably controlling cell proliferation and differentiation requires additional basic research on the molecular and genetic signals that regulate cell division and specialization. While recent developments with iPS cells suggest some of the specific factors that may be involved, techniques must be devised to introduce these factors safely into the cells and control the processes that are induced by these factors.

Human stem cells are currently being used to test new drugs. New medications are tested for safety on differentiated cells generated from human pluripotent cell lines. Other kinds of cell lines have a long history of being used in this way. Cancer cell lines, for example, are used to screen potential anti-tumor drugs. The availability of pluripotent stem cells would allow drug testing in a wider range of cell types. However, to screen drugs effectively, the conditions must be identical when comparing different drugs. Therefore, scientists must be able to precisely control the differentiation of stem cells into the specific cell type on which drugs will be tested. For some cell types and tissues, current knowledge of the signals controlling differentiation falls short of being able to mimic these conditions precisely to generate pure populations of differentiated cells for each drug being tested.

Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including maculardegeneration, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Figure 3. Strategies to repair heart muscle with adult stem cells. Click here for larger image.

2001 Terese Winslow

For example, it may become possible to generate healthy heart muscle cells in the laboratory and then transplant those cells into patients with chronic heart disease. Preliminary research in mice and other animals indicates that bone marrow stromal cells, transplanted into a damaged heart, can have beneficial effects. Whether these cells can generate heart muscle cells or stimulate the growth of new blood vessels that repopulate the heart tissue, or help via some other mechanism is actively under investigation. For example, injected cells may accomplish repair by secreting growth factors, rather than actually incorporating into the heart. Promising results from animal studies have served as the basis for a small number of exploratory studies in humans (for discussion, see call-out box, "Can Stem Cells Mend a Broken Heart?"). Other recent studies in cell culture systems indicate that it may be possible to direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells or adult bone marrow cells into heart muscle cells (Figure 3).

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure, has ranked as the number one cause of death in the United States every year since 1900 except 1918, when the nation struggled with an influenza epidemic. Nearly 2,600 Americans die of CVD each day, roughly one person every 34 seconds. Given the aging of the population and the relatively dramatic recent increases in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, CVD will be a significant health concern well into the 21st century.

Cardiovascular disease can deprive heart tissue of oxygen, thereby killing cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes). This loss triggers a cascade of detrimental events, including formation of scar tissue, an overload of blood flow and pressure capacity, the overstretching of viable cardiac cells attempting to sustain cardiac output, leading to heart failure, and eventual death. Restoring damaged heart muscle tissue, through repair or regeneration, is therefore a potentially new strategy to treat heart failure.

Continue reading here:
What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the ...

Stem cell therapy could create new blood vessels

New York, Oct 13 (IANS): Diseases that occur due to blood flow problems could soon become a lot easier to treat as researchers have developed a technique to jump-start the body's system for creating blood vessels.

The research could lead to new therapies for illnesses such as peripheral artery disease - a painful leg condition caused by poor blood circulation which can lead to skin problems, gangrene and even amputation.

"While the body has cells that specialise in repairing blood vessels and creating new ones, called endothelial colony forming cells, these cells can lose their ability to proliferate into new blood vessels as patients age or develop diseases like peripheral arterial disease," said lead researcher Mervin Yoder Jr. from the Indiana University School of Medicine.

If younger, more enthusiastic endothelial colony forming cells could be injected into the affected tissues, they might jump-start the process of creating new blood vessels, the findings showed.

Although these cells are relatively difficult to find in adults, especially in those with peripheral arterial disease, they are present in large numbers in umbilical cord blood.

The researchers said they had developed a potential therapy through the use of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, which are normal adult cells that have been "coaxed" via laboratory techniques into reverting into the more primitive stem cells that can produce most types of bodily tissue.

Those laboratory created endothelial colony forming cells were injected into mice, where they were able to proliferate into blood vessels and restore blood flow to tissues in damaged mouse retinas and limbs.

"This is one of the first studies using induced pluripotent stem cells that has been able to produce new cells in clinically relevant numbers - enough to enable a clinical trial," Yoder noted.

The findings appeared in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Stay updated wherever you go with Daijiworld.com and Daijiworld 24X7 tv channel mobile apps. CLICK HERE to download it for your device. (available on Android and IOS)

Read the original post:
Stem cell therapy could create new blood vessels

TeleHealth Now Accepting New Patients for Insurance Based Stem Cell Procedures at La Jolla Office

La Jolla, California (PRWEB) October 13, 2014

One of the top stem cell clinics in California, Telehealth, is now accepting new patients for insurance based stem cell procedures at an additional location in La Jolla CA. Most insurance is accepted for the stem cell therapies for such conditions as degenerative arthritis, tendonitis, ligament injuries, sports injuries and more. Call (888) 828-4575 for more information and scheduling.

For years, Telehealth has been offering regenerative medicine procedures for such conditions as rotator cuff tendonitis, achilles tears, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, degenerative arthritis of the joints and more. The stem cell procedures offered include bone marrow derived or fat derived stem cell procedures, or amniotic therapy. The Board Certified doctors are highly skilled in the musculoskeletal stem cell procedures, and treat patients with the utmost expertise and compassion.

The newest location in La Jolla joins the existing clinics in Orange CA and Upland CA. Coverage for the procedures exists for PPO's, Medicare and Tricare. The procedures are extremely low risk, and small studies have consistently shown beneficial results of the injections.

The treatments at Telehealth represent a new paradigm for pain relief. Whereas most pain treatments mask pain well, such as with steroids, the stem cell treatments offer patients the capability to regenerate and repair damaged tissue. This helps to potentially regenerate cartilage, tendon, ligament tissue in those with arthritis or soft tissue injuries.

For those with sports injuries, arthritis, fractures, plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, etc, and desire insurance covered stem cell therapy, call Telehealth at (888) 828-4575.

More:
TeleHealth Now Accepting New Patients for Insurance Based Stem Cell Procedures at La Jolla Office

Stem Cell Breakthrough Brings Researchers One Step Closer To Type 1 Diabetes Cure

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Researchers writing in the October 9 edition of the journal Cell report they have for the first time successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in nearly every way to regular, normally-functioning beta cells.

The discovery, which was the work of a team led by Douglas Melton of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is being hailed as a breakthrough in the search for an effective way to treat type 1 diabetes a disease which affects an estimated three million Americans each year.

According to BBC News online health editor James Gallagher, Melton and his colleagues were able to produce hundreds of millions of the cells in their laboratory. Furthermore, their tests on mice demonstrated that the cells could treat the disease, which is caused when the immune system begins destroying the cells that are responsible for controlling blood glucose levels.

Beta cells in the pancreas pump out insulin to bring down blood sugar levels, Gallagher said. But the bodys own immune system can turn against the beta cells, destroying them and leaving people with a potentially fatal disease because they cannot regulate their blood sugar levels. It is different to the far more common type 2 diabetes.

Melton, who started his search for a cure for type 1 diabetes when his infant son Sam was diagnosed with the disease 23 years ago, said that he hopes to start human transplantation trials using the cells within a few years time. The professor, whose daughter also has type 1 diabetes, said in a statement that his team is now just one preclinical step away from the finish line.

The breakthrough comes after 15 years of seeking a bulk recipe for making beta cells, which sense the level of sugar in the blood and keep it in a healthy range by making precise amounts of insulin, said John Lauerman of Bloomberg Businessweek. He added that the technique, which begins with human stem cells, which have the ability to become any type of tissue or organ, is an important step toward understanding and treating diabetes.

This is part of the holy grail of regenerative medicine or tissue engineering, trying to make an unlimited source of cells or tissues or organs that you can use in a patient to correct a disease, added Albert Hwa, director of discovery science at JDRF, a New York-based type 1 diabetes research group that funded Meltons work.

The Harvard researcher explained to Lauerman that their research has led to the development of a six-step recipe for making mature, insulin-secreting beta cells that takes 30 days. He added that laboratories will be able to use the cells to test drugs to treat type 1 diabetes, as well as to gain new insight as to how the disease originally occurs.

In addition, since the researchers successfully manufactured the millions of beta cells required for transplantation, Telegraph Science Editor Sarah Knapton said that it could spell the end of daily insulin injections for the 400,000 type 1 diabetes patients in the UK and the over 30,000 Americans newly diagnosed with the disease each year.

See the original post:
Stem Cell Breakthrough Brings Researchers One Step Closer To Type 1 Diabetes Cure

Neural stem cell overgrowth, autism-like behavior linked, mice study suggests

People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes.

A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause "overgrowth" in the offspring's brain.

The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports.

"We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result in larger brains and, ultimately, autistic behavior, is through the activation of the neural stem cells that reside in the brain of all developing and adult mammals," said Dr. Harley Kornblum, the paper's senior author and a director of the Neural Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

In the study, the researchers mimicked environmental factors that could activate the immune system -- such as an infection or an autoimmune disorder -- by injecting a pregnant mouse with a very low dose of lipopolysaccharide, a toxin found in E. coli bacteria. The researchers discovered the toxin caused an excessive production of neural stem cells and enlarged the offspring's' brains.

Neural stem cells become the major types of cells in the brain, including the neurons that process and transmit information and the glial cells that support and protect them.

Notably, the researchers found that mice with enlarged brains also displayed behaviors like those associated with autism in humans. For example, they were less likely to vocalize when they were separated from their mother as pups, were less likely to show interest in interacting with other mice, showed increased levels of anxiety and were more likely to engage in repetitive behaviors like excessive grooming.

Kornblum, who also is a professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said there are many environmental factors that can activate a pregnant woman's immune system.

"Although it's known that maternal inflammation is a risk factor for some neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, it's not thought to directly cause them," he said. He noted that autism is clearly a highly heritable disorder, but other, non-genetic factors clearly play a role.

The researchers also found evidence that the brain growth triggered by the immune reaction was even greater in mice with a specific genetic mutation -- a lack of one copy of a tumor suppressor gene called phosphatase and tensin homolog, or PTEN. The PTEN protein normally helps prevent cells from growing and dividing too rapidly. In humans, having an abnormal version of the PTEN gene leads to very large head size or macrocephaly, a condition that also is associated with a high risk for autism.

Read the original:
Neural stem cell overgrowth, autism-like behavior linked, mice study suggests

UCLA study finds link between neural stem cell overgrowth and autism-like behavior in mice

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Oct-2014

Contact: Mark Wheeler mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2265 University of California - Los Angeles @uclanewsroom

People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes.

A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause "overgrowth" in the offspring's brain.

The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports.

"We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result in larger brains and, ultimately, autistic behavior, is through the activation of the neural stem cells that reside in the brain of all developing and adult mammals," said Dr. Harley Kornblum, the paper's senior author and a director of the Neural Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

In the study, the researchers mimicked environmental factors that could activate the immune system such as an infection or an autoimmune disorder by injecting a pregnant mouse with a very low dose of lipopolysaccharide, a toxin found in E. coli bacteria. The researchers discovered the toxin caused an excessive production of neural stem cells and enlarged the offspring's' brains.

Neural stem cells become the major types of cells in the brain, including the neurons that process and transmit information and the glial cells that support and protect them.

Notably, the researchers found that mice with enlarged brains also displayed behaviors like those associated with autism in humans. For example, they were less likely to vocalize when they were separated from their mother as pups, were less likely to show interest in interacting with other mice, showed increased levels of anxiety and were more likely to engage in repetitive behaviors like excessive grooming.

Read more:
UCLA study finds link between neural stem cell overgrowth and autism-like behavior in mice

Brain Repair 'May Be Boosted By Curry Spice'

A spice commonly found in curries may boost the brain's ability to heal itself, according to a report in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy.

The German study suggests a compound found in turmeric could encourage the growth of nerve cells thought to be part of the brain's repair kit.

Scientists say this work, based in rats, may pave the way for future drugs for strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

But they say more trials are needed to see whether this applies to humans.

Spice injection

Researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in Julich, Germany, studied the effects of aromatic-turmerone - a compound found naturally in turmeric.

Rats were injected with the compound and their brains were then scanned.

Particular parts of the brain, known to be involved in nerve cell growth, were seen to be more active after the aromatic-turmerone infusion.

Scientists say the compound may encourage a proliferation of brain cells.

In a separate part of the trial, researchers bathed rodent neural stem cells (NSCs) in different concentrations of aromatic-tumerone extract.

Originally posted here:
Brain Repair 'May Be Boosted By Curry Spice'

Common Curry Ingredient Could Help The Brain Battle The Affects Of Alzheimers

September 27, 2014

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Eating spicy Indian food could help boost the brains ability to heal itself, according to new research published in Fridays edition of the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy.

According to Damian Gayle of The Daily Mail, aromatic turmerone, a compound found in the popular curry spice turmeric, could encourage the growth of nerve cells believed to help repair the brains of those suffering from neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia or Alzheimers disease.

In lab tests involving rats, researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3) in Germany, the University Hospital of Cologne Department of Neurology and the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research found that aromatic turmerone promoted the proliferation of brain stem cells and their development into neurons.

The study authors believe it could help scientists develop new ways to treat conditions that kill brain cells, which include strokes and Alzheimers. However, they told BBC News health reporter Smitha Mundasad that additional trials are required to see if the affect is applicable to humans.

The researchers injected the rodents with the compound, and then scanned their brains, Mundasad explained. They found that activity increased in the regions of the brain known to be involved in nerve cell growth following infusion with the bioactive compound. Specifically, they found that the subventricular zone (SVZ) was wider and the hippocampus had expanded in the brains of rats injected with aromatic turmerone.

In a different part of the trial, the researchers bathed rodent neural stem cells (NSCs) in different concentrations of aromatic tumerone extract. NSCs are stem cells found within adult brains that differentiate into neurons, and play a vital role in the self-repair and recovery of brain function in neurodegenerative diseases, the authors explained.

Rat fetal NSCs were cultured and grown in six different concentrations of aromatic tumerone during a 72-hour period, and at some concentrations, the compound was shown to increase stem cell proliferation by as much as 80 percent without having any impact on cell death. Furthermore, the cell differentiation process also became accelerated in cells treated with the aromatic tumerone compound when compared to untreated controls.

In a statement, lead author and INM-3 researcher Dr. Maria Adele Rueger said, While several substances have been described to promote stem cell proliferation in the brain, fewer drugs additionally promote the differentiation of stem cells into neurons, which constitutes a major goal in regenerative medicine. Our findings on aromatic turmerone take us one step closer to achieving this goal.

Read the original post:
Common Curry Ingredient Could Help The Brain Battle The Affects Of Alzheimers