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Conference to shed light on latest stem cell applications

By Uncategorized

The King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) recently joined a conference on stem cell research and its application science and medicine, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The conference, which was organized by the Health Affairs at the National Guard, unveiled the latest discoveries and findings made by researchers at the stem cell and regenerative medicine unit at KAIMRC, the agency said. The conference was attended by several experts on stem cell research representing Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Ahmed Al-Askar, CEO of KAIMRC, said stem cell research is a broad topic that sheds light on how to best exploit human cells to treat diseases for certain organs, such as the liver, kidney or nerves. He said the current use of stem cells is centered on plantation for the treatment of certain types of leukemia, cancer and genetic diseases. Since its inception three years ago, the center has transplanted 200 cells following the creation of a program for transplanting stem cells in children and adults, he said. Saudi Arabia has the sole stem cell donation registry in Arab countries, compared with 60 cells donation registries globally, he said. The Saudi stem cell donation center is meant to attract potential donors from Arab countries, he said. We have had 5,000 donors so far. He said some 400 scientists and experts are working at the center, while another 40 physicians have been dispatched on scholarships to acquire training and specialization. Al-Askar expressed optimism over the future of stem cell use and its contribution to the treatment of a variety of diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, pulmonary and hepatic fibrosis and neurological and cardiovascular disorders.

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Conference to shed light on latest stem cell applications

Doubts over heart stem-cell therapy

By Uncategorized

Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters/Corbis

Many companies around the world offer stem-cell treatments to patients with heart disease.

An analysis of clinical studies that use adult stem cells to treat heart disease has raised questions about the value of a therapy that many consider inappropriately hyped.

Early-phase clinical trials have reported that adult stem cells are effective in treating heart attack and heart failure, and many companies are moving quickly to tap into this potentially lucrative market. But a comprehensive study that looked at discrepancies in trials investigating treatments that use patients own stem cells, published this week in the journal BMJ (ref. 1), finds that only trials containing flaws, such as design or reporting errors, showed positive outcomes. Error-free trials showed no benefit at all.

The publication comes as two major clinical trials designed to conclusively test the treatments efficacy are recruiting thousands of patients.

The BMJ paper is concerning because the therapeutic approach is already being commercialized, argues stem-cell researcher Paolo Bianco at the Sapienza University of Rome. Premature trials can create unrealistic hopes for patients, and divert resources from the necessary basic studies we need to design more appropriate treatments.

Therapies that use adult stem cells typically involve collecting mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow taken from the patients hip bone. The cells are then injected back into the patient, to help repair damaged tissue. Original claims that they differentiated into replacement cells have been rejected2, and many clinicians now believe that the cells act by releasing molecules that cause inflammation, with an attendant growth of oxygen-delivering small blood vessels, in the damaged tissue.

The approach has spawned international commercialization of various forms of the therapy, with companies offering treatments for disorders ranging from Parkinsons disease to heart failure. But the effectiveness of such therapies remains unproven.

I have a lot of hope for regenerative medicine, but our results make me fearful.

The BMJ study, led by cardiologist Darrel Francis at Imperial College London, examined 133 reports of 49 randomized clinical trials published up to April last year, involving the treatment of patients who had had a heart attack or heart failure. It included all accessible randomized studies, and looked for discrepancies in design, methodology and reporting of results.

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Doubts over heart stem-cell therapy

Regenexx – Stem Cell Therapy for Arthritis and Injuries …

By Stem Cell Treatment

Welcome to Regenexx Stem Cell Procedures for Arthritis & Injuries Chris Centeno 2009-09-30T12:05:38+00:00 The Regenexx Procedures are a family of non-surgical stem cell and blood platelet treatments for common injuries and degenerative joint conditions, such as osteoarthritis and avascular necrosis. These stem cell procedures utilize a patients own stem cells or blood platelets to help heal damaged tissues, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, spinal disc, or bone. Regenexx Stem Cell and Blood Platelet Procedures offer a viable alternative for individuals suffering from joint pain, or who may be considering elective surgery or joint replacement due to injury or arthritis. Patients avoid the lengthy periods of downtime, and painful rehabilitation that typically follow invasive surgeries. Commonly Treated Conditions - Regenexx Stem Cell and Platelet Procedures

The list below represents the most commonly treated conditions using Regenexx stem cell or platelet procedures. It is not a complete list, so please contact us or complete the Regenexx Candidate Form if you have questions about whether you or your condition can be treated with these non-surgical procedures. The type of procedure used (stem cell or blood platelet) to treat these conditions is largely dependent upon the severity of the injury or condition.

The Centeno-Schultz Clinic is theoriginalstem cell based musculoskeletal practice in the U.S., with more stem cell orthopedics experience than any other clinic. We are also physician leaders in stem cell treatments for arthritis and injuries in terms of research presentations, publications, and academic achievements.

The episode features Dr. Centeno and Dr. Hanson, along with patient Barbee James, who required stem cell treatment after a failed micro fracture and continued problems following traditional knee surgery. The episode provided a nice overview of a Regenexx-SD (same-day) stem cell procedure for Barbees knee cartilage damage.

On February 28, 2013 Seattle King TV featured Regenexx patient Paul Lyon, who underwent a Regenexx-SD knee procedure in our Broomfield clinic. The story looks at his results and includes an interview with Dr. Christopher Centeno, along with footage in our advanced lab where stem cells are processed as part of the procedure.

Regenexx Network Physician Dr. Mayo Friedlis (Washington D.C. area) is featured in this recent news story about stem cell therapy, which explores the Regenexx-SD stem cell procedure and a very active seniors outcome following his knee stem cell injection.

Our Pittsburgh, PA. Regenexx Network Provider, Rehabilitation and Pain Specialists, was recently featured in a news story about treating a patients knee pain with stem cells. The patient returned to their clinic for this procedure after experiencing success with the stem cell treatment he received on his other knee.

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Regenexx - Stem Cell Therapy for Arthritis and Injuries ...

The Foundation Fighting Blindness – Research News

By Stell Cell Research

The Foundation Fighting Blindness is committed to funding sight-saving research across Canada and to keeping Canadians living with vision loss informed about the latest developments in vision research. News items and resources about emerging research are listed here. You can also see past issues of our monthly Vision Research e-News here!

OurResearch News items are reviewed by Dr. Bill Stell, Expert Scientific Advisor for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Dr. Stell isaProfessor of Cell Biology and Anatomy; Surgery; Ophthalmology; and Neurosciences at theUniversity of Calgary.

April 15, 2014 - Trial of Treatment to Slow Retinitis Pigmentosa Vision Loss Begins in Italy The eye drop uses a nerve growth factor to protect photoreceptors.

March 31, 2014 - Geneticist's sight-saving contributions recognized Dr. Jane Green received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador

March 25, 2014 - A Link between Exercise and Vision Health American scientists make the first report of simple exercise having a direct effect on retinal health and vision.

Feb 21, 2014 - New Compound May be the Basis of a Promising Drug to Reverse Retinal Blindness California researchers invent a new "photoswitch," which may give light-sensing capacity to retinal nerve cells potentially restoring vision to people with advancedretinal degenerative diseases.

Feb 5, 2014 - Testing the Safety of Induced Stem Cell Therapies Cells derived from induced pluipotent stem cells will soon be used in a clinical trial for dry age-related macular degeneration and may be used for other conditions as well. How are scientists assessing the risks?

Jan 16, 2014 - First gene therapy results for choroideremia suggest cautious optimism Of first six patients treated in the British gene therapy trial for choroideremia, the two most visually impaired experience the most strikingly positive results.

Jan 8, 2014 - Allergies may protect against age-related macular degeneration In a new, and unexpected research finding people with a history of allergies may be less likely to have AMD.

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The Foundation Fighting Blindness - Research News

Arguments for the use of research cloning

By Stell Cell Research

The technical name for cloning is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Once an embryo is created by SCNT it can be inserted into the womb of a recipient (reproductive cloning) or it can be used for research purposes (particularly with the aim of creating stem cells). This second process has often been described as therapeutic cloning. However some have argued that this terminology is highly misleading as to-date no form of therapy has resulted from SCNT. Hence the phrase research cloning may represent a more neutral and honest form of terminology. However at present this terminology has not gained widespread acceptance.

Basic scientific concepts

A gene is a hereditary unit consisting of a sequence of DNA that occupies a specific location on a chromosome. Chromosomes consist of long coiled chains of genes and are found within all nucleated cells in the human body. Human beings normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes; one of each pair is inherited from the genetic mother and one from the genetic father.

In reproductive cloning the embryo is then placed into a womb and allowed to develop into a child. In research cloning the embryo is used for research purposes, for example to generate embryonic stem cells2, leading ultimately to its destruction.

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Arguments for the use of research cloning

adult | stem | cell | doctors | cost | therapy | treatment …

By Stem Cell Doctors

The adult stem cell doctors at Regenocyte treat high-risk, life-threatening conditions of the heart lungs, brain and spinal cord injuries and vascular diseases. Regenocytes founder Dr. Zannos Grekos and his team of international medical doctors, successfully transplant adult stem cells (autologous) to treat heart disease such as cardiomyopathy, pulmonary disease like COPD and Cystic Fibrosis,neurological disease such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers, spinal cord injuries and many other health problems with adult stem cell therapy. Until now, many of the diseases that have not been treatable with traditional medicine or could only be treated through surgery or drugs are now being successfully treated by adult stem cell doctors.

Start NOW and learn how adult stem cell doctors can help you.

Regenocytes adult stem cell doctors, process adult stem cells, taken from the patients own bone marrow or Adipose (fat) tissue, to successfully in treat cardiovascular disease, traumatic brain injury and many other medical conditions. Patients that once had limited options are now finding viable solutions through stem cell therapies with Regenocyte.

Adult Stem Cell Therapy can work for you. Find out HERE.

Adult stem cell therapy research has been documented to effectively treat many inoperable and last stage diseases. Stem cell therapies are used by many respected and qualified physicians around the world as an alternative treatment for more invasive procedures such as pacemakers and even organ transplant.

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adult | stem | cell | doctors | cost | therapy | treatment ...

Cloned embryos yield stem cells for diabetes

By Stem Cell Medicine

And now there are three: in the wake of announcements from laboratories in Oregon and California that they had created human embryos by cloning cells of living people, a lab in New York announced on Monday that it had done that and more.

In addition to cloning the cells of a woman with diabetes, producing embryos and stem cells that are her perfect genetic matches, scientists got the stem cells to differentiate into cells able to secrete insulin.

That raised hopes for realizing a long-held dream of stem cell research, namely, creating patient-specific replacement cells for people with diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart failure and other devastating conditions. But it also suggested that what the Catholic Church and other right-to-life advocates have long warned of - scientists creating human embryos to order - could be imminent.

The trio of successes "increases the likelihood that human embryos will be produced to generate therapy for a specific individual," said bioethicist Insoo Hyun of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. And "the creation of more human embryos for scientific experiments is certain."

The accelerating progress in embryonic stem cell research began last May. Scientists, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University, reported they had created healthy, early-stage human embryos - hollow balls of about 150 cells - by fusing ova with cells from a fetus, in one experiment, and an infant in another.

Earlier this month, scientists at the CHA Stem Cell Institute in Seoul, South Korea, announced they had managed the same feat with skin cells from two adult men.

In each case, scientists used a version of the technique that created the sheep Dolly in 1996, the first clone of an adult mammal. Called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the recipe calls for removing the nuclear DNA from an ovum, fusing it with a cell from a living person, and stimulating each ovum to begin dividing and multiplying. The resulting embryo includes stem cells that can differentiate into any human cell type.

While that sounds simple enough, immense technical hurdles kept scientists from achieving human SCNT over more than a decade of attempts. Now that they have a reliable recipe, including the right nutrients to sustain the eggs and the right timing to start it dividing, they have "a reproducible, reliable way to create patient-specific stem cells" via cloning, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology and co-author of the CHA paper.

INCURABLE DISEASE

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Cloned embryos yield stem cells for diabetes

First disease-specific human embryonic stem cell line by nuclear transfer

By Stem Cell Medical Center

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Apr-2014

Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation

NEW YORK, NY (April 28, 2014) Using somatic cell nuclear transfer, a team of scientists led by Dr. Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and Dr. Mark Sauer at Columbia University Medical Center has created the first disease-specific embryonic stem cell line with two sets of chromosomes.

As reported today in Nature, the scientists derived embryonic stem cells by adding the nuclei of adult skin cells to unfertilized donor oocytes using a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Embryonic stem cells were created from one adult donor with type 1 diabetes and a healthy control. In 2011, the team reported creating the first embryonic cell line from human skin using nuclear transfer when they made stem cells and insulin-producing beta cells from patients with type 1 diabetes. However, those stem cells were triploid, meaning they had three sets of chromosomes, and therefore could not be used for new therapies.

The investigators overcame the final hurdle in making personalized stem cells that can be used to develop personalized cell therapies. They demonstrated the ability to make a patient-specific embryonic stem cell line that has two sets of chromosomes (a diploid state), the normal number in human cells. Reports from 2013 showed the ability to reprogram fetal fibroblasts using SCNT; however, this latest work demonstrates the first successful derivation by SCNT of diploid pluripotent stem cells from adult and neonatal somatic cells.

"From the start, the goal of this work has been to make patient-specific stem cells from an adult human subject with type 1 diabetes that can give rise to the cells lost in the disease," said Dr. Egli, the NYSCF scientist who led the research and conducted many of the experiments. "By reprograming cells to a pluripotent state and making beta cells, we are now one step closer to being able to treat diabetic patients with their own insulin-producing cells."

"I am thrilled to say we have accomplished our goal of creating patient-specific stem cells from diabetic patients using somatic cell nuclear transfer," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and co-founder of NYSCF. "I became involved with medical research when my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and seeing today's results gives me hope that we will one day have a cure for this debilitating disease. The NYSCF laboratory is one of the few places in the world that pursues all types of stem cell research. Even though many people questioned the necessity of continuing our SCNT work, we felt it was critical to advance all types of stem-cell research in pursuit of cures. We don't have a favorite cell type, and we don't yet know what kind of cell is going to be best for putting back into patients to treat their disease."

The research is the culmination of an effort begun in 2006 to make patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines from patients with type 1 diabetes. Ms. Solomon opened NYSCF's privately funded laboratory on March 1, 2006, to facilitate the creation of type 1 diabetes patient-specific embryonic stem cells using SCNT. Initially, the stem cell experiments were done at Harvard and the skin biopsies from type 1 diabetic patients at Columbia; however, isolation of the cell nuclei from these skin biopsies could not be conducted in the federally funded laboratories at Columbia, necessitating a safe-haven laboratory to complete the research. NYSCF initially established its lab, now the largest independent stem cell laboratory in the nation, to serve as the site for this research.

In 2008, all of the research was moved to the NYSCF laboratory when the Harvard scientists determined they could no longer move forward, as restrictions in Massachusetts prevented their obtaining oocytes. Dr. Egli left Harvard University and joined NYSCF; at the same time, NYSCF forged a collaboration with Dr. Sauer who designed a unique egg-donor program that allowed the scientists to obtain oocytes for the research.

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First disease-specific human embryonic stem cell line by nuclear transfer

Scientists Create Personalized Stem Cells, Raising Hopes for Diabetes Cure

By Stem Cell Medical Center

Regenerative medicine took a step forward on Monday with the announcement of the creation of the first disease-specific line of embryonic stem cells made with a patient's own DNA.

These cells, which used DNA from a 32-year-old woman who had developed Type-1 diabetes at the age of ten, might herald the daystill far in the futurewhen scientists replace dysfunctional cells with healthy cells identical to the patient's own but grown in the lab.

The work was led by Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) and was published Monday in Nature.

"This is a really important step forward in our quest to develop healthy, patient-specific stem cells that can be used to replace cells that are diseased or dead," said Susan Solomon, chief executive officer of NYSCF, which she co-founded in 2005 partly to search for a cure for her son's diabetes.

Stem cells could one day be used to treat not only diabetes but also other diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Embryonic Stem Cells Morph Into Beta Cells

In Type 1 diabetes, the body loses its ability to produce insulin when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become damaged. Ideally this problem could be corrected with replacement therapy, using stem cells to create beta cells the body would recognize as its own because they contain the patient's own genome. This is the holy grail of personalized medicine.

To create a patient-specific line of embryonic stem cells, Egli and his colleagues used a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. They took skin cells from the female patient, removed the nucleus from one cell and then inserted it into a donor egg cellan oocytefrom which the nucleus had been removed.

They stimulated the egg to grow until it became a blastocyst, a hundred-cell embryo in which some cells are "pluripotent," or capable of turning into any type of cell in the body. The researchers then directed a few of those embryonic stem cells to become beta cells. To their delight, the beta cells in the lab produced insulin, just as they would have in the body.

This research builds on work done last year in which scientists from the Oregon Health and Science University used the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique with skin cells from a fetus. It also advances previous work done by Egli and his colleagues in 2011, in which they created embryonic stem cell lines with an extra set of chromosomes. (The new stem cells, and the ones from Oregon, have the normal number of chromosomes.)

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Scientists Create Personalized Stem Cells, Raising Hopes for Diabetes Cure

How human cloning could cure diabetes

By Stem Cell Medical Center

"From the start, the goal of this work has been to make patient-specific stem cells from an adult human subject with type 1 diabetes that can give rise to the cells lost in the disease.

Patients with type 1 diabetes lack insulin-producing beta cells, resulting in insulin deficiency and high blood-sugar levels.

Because the stem cells are made using a patient's own skin cells, the engineered cells for replacement therapy would matching the patient's DNA and so would not be rejected.

It is hoped that in future the stem cell therapy could be used for a wide range of conditions including Parkinson's disease, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, and liver diseases and for replacing or repairing damaged bones.

"I am thrilled to say we have accomplished our goal of creating patient-specific stem cells from diabetic patients using somatic cell nuclear transfer," said Susan Solomon, CEO and co-founder of NYSCF whose own son is Type-1 diabetic.

"Seeing today's results gives me hope that we will one day have a cure for this debilitating disease.

The technique works by removing the nucleus from an adult oocyte an early stage egg - and replacing it with the nucleus of a healthy infant skin cell.

An electric shock causes the cells to begin dividing until they form a blastocyst a small ball of a few hundred cells which can be harvested.

Dr. Rudolph Leibel, a co-author and co-director with Dr. Robin Goland of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, where aspects of these studies were conducted, said: The resulting technical and scientific insights bring closer the promise of cell replacement for a wide range of human disease."

In 2011, the team reported creating the first embryonic cell line from human skin using nuclear transfer when they made stem cells and insulin-producing beta cells from patients with type 1 diabetes.

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How human cloning could cure diabetes

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