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Stem cells to fight brain diseases say Cambridge scientists

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Cambridge News Follow us on

Sunday 23 Feb 2014 8:12 AM

Written byELEANOR DICKINSON

Sufferers of serious brain diseases could one day be helped by stem cell treatments , according to scientists at Cambridge University.

Scientists at the University hope to be able to use the regenerative power of stem cells to treat major brain conditions such as Parkinsons and Huntingtons disease.

Their findings are expected to be revealed at the Cambridge Festival of Science next month.

Robin Franklin, the newly appointed Professor of Stem Cell Medicine, will be discussing his research into central nervous system regeneration and the possibility of treating multiple sclerosis.

He said: The brain, although capable of unmatched feats of adaptability, is generally considered to be an organ that is very poor at mending itself after injury.

However, one particular type of brain cell, called the oligodendrocyte the cell that makes the myelin wrapping around nerve fibres can be regenerated when lost in disease by the brains own stem cells.

By studying in the laboratory how brain stem cells generate new oligodendrocytes it has been possible to identify ways in which this important regenerative process might be achieved in the clinic, offering the

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Stem cells to fight brain diseases say Cambridge scientists

Researchers rejuvenate stem cell population from elderly …

By Stem Cell Medicine

FEB. 16, 2014

BY KRISTA CONGER

Benjamin Cosgrove, Helen Blau and their colleagues have identified a process by which older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have pinpointed why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury: Over time, stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew.

In the past, its been thought that muscle stem cells themselves dont change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells environment, said Helen Blau, PhD, the Donald and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor. However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age. In fact, two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles.

Blau and her colleagues also identified for the first time a process by which the older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells. Our findings identify a defect inherent to old muscle stem cells, she said. Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect. As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage.

Blau, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanfords Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, is the senior author of a paper describing the research, published online Feb. 16 in Nature Medicine. Postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Cosgrove, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Penney Gilbert, PhD, now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, are the lead authors.

The researchers found that many muscle stem cells isolated from mice that were 2 years old, equivalent to about 80 years of human life, exhibited elevated levels of activity in a biological cascade called the p38 MAP kinase pathway. This pathway impedes the proliferation of the stem cells and encourages them to instead become non-stem, muscle progenitor cells. As a result, although many of the old stem cells divide in a dish, the resulting colonies are very small and do not contain many stem cells.

Using a drug to block this p38 MAP kinase pathway in old stem cells (while also growing them on a specialized matrix called hydrogel) allowed them to divide rapidly in the laboratory and make a large number of potent new stem cells that can robustly repair muscle damage, Blau said.

Aging is a stochastic but cumulative process, Cosgrove said. Weve now shown that muscle stem cells progressively lose their stem cell function during aging. This treatment does not turn the clock back on dysfunctional stem cells in the aged population. Rather, it stimulates stem cells from old muscle tissues that are still functional to begin dividing and self-renew.

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Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine – Boston.com

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Duke University Health SystemDr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System

Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System and chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, has been appointed to a six-year term as the next president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), effective July 1, 2014. Dr. Dzau will take over the lead role from Dr. Harvey Fineberg, who served in the position for twelve years.

Dr. Dzau began his career in medicine as a cardiologist, having previously taught at Harvard Medical School and served as chair of the department of medicine. He also worked at Brigham and Womens Hospital as the director of research. His ongoing award-winning research has been key in the development of cardiovascular drugs, as well as techniques to repair tissue damage from heart attacks and heart disease using stem cell therapies.

Dr. Eugene Braunwald, often called the father of modern cardiology and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has known Dr. Dzau for more than 40 years and worked with him at many different stages of his career at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Partners Healthcare. In an interview Wednesday he called the upcoming IOM president a force of nature.

He is what I would call a talented, quadruple threat. A great physician, inspiring teacher, and a very creative scientist, said Dr. Braunwald, who trained Dzau when he was a resident at Brigham and Womens and continued to work with him on cardiovascular research when Dr. Dzau became chief resident, and then faculty at Harvard Medical School. The quadruple threat is that he also sees the larger picture. Hes interested in areas of medicine that most academic physicians have stayed away from. His work and ideas in global and community-based medicine have left an important heritage at each institution where hes worked.

After nearly a decade at Duke, Dr. Dzaus leadership has been credited with the launch of a number of innovative and global-focused medical institutions, including the Duke-National University of Signapore Graduate Medical School, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke Institute for Health Innovation, Duke Cancer Institute, as well as the Duke Translational Medicine Institute.

Im deeply honored to become the next president of the IOM and recognize the critically important role that the IOM will have in improving the health of the nation at a time of extraordinary evolution in biomedical research and health care delivery, Dzau said in a press release from Duke University Health System. The explosion of new data resources, novel technologies and breathtaking research advances make this the most promising time in history for driving innovations that will improve health care delivery, outcomes and quality.

As the health sciences extension of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is known for its leadership in advancing health sciences and objective medical research nationally as a nonprofit academic research organization. The outgoing IOM president, Dr. Harvey Fineberg (previously Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health) has lead the nonprofit for twelve years. His focus and research have centered around public health policy and an improvement in informed medical decision making.

This leaves the medical community wondering what Dr. Dzau will bring to the Institute.

As a former chairman of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), Dr. Dzau advocated for the innovative transition of academic medical and health centers into institutions that can survive the rapid transitions in the health care industry. In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Dzau discusses the uncertain future of academic medical centers. He argues that industry pressures and cost restraints from the Affordable Care Act limit the research and education-based missions of teaching hospitals.

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Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine - Boston.com

'Largest ever' trial of adult stem cells in heart attack patients begins

By Stem Cell Doctors

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The largest ever trial of adult stem cell therapy in heart attack patients has begun at The London Chest Hospital in the UK.

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. Globally, more than 17 million people died from heart disease last year. In the US, over 1 million people suffer a heart attack each year, and about half of them die.

Heart attacks are usually caused by a clot in the coronary artery, which stops the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. If the blockage is not treated within a few hours, then it causes the heart muscle to die.

The stem cell trial - titled "The effect of intracoronary reinfusion of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) on allcause mortality in acute myocardial infarction," or "BAMI" for short - has been made possible due to a 5.9 million ($8.1 million) award from the European Commission.

The full study involves 19 partners across France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK.

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'Largest ever' trial of adult stem cells in heart attack patients begins

This week in health: Prostate cancer and stem cell breakthroughs, snoozing and headaches

By Stem Cell Medicine

Canada.com Health takes a look at a few stories you may have missed this week.

A new study may suggest a re-think is in order in the way we treat prostate cancer. Dr. Julia Hayes, at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, led a study that has found observation to be a reasonable alternative to initial treatment for the 70 percent of men who are diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer.

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At the same time, research continues at Dana-Farber to identify additional biomarkers that can aid in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, as well as to find genetic abnormalities in prostate cancer cells that might indicate how they would respond to certain treatments.

More information on the study can be found here.

PHOTO: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images A scientist conducts research on stem cells at a laboratory in Bangalore, India.

A new study shows it may be possible to reverse aging in muscles.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a possible explanation for why muscles take longer to heal in older bodies: the stem cells within muscle tissues that are supposed to repair damage become less able over time to generate new fibres and self-renew.

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But the research team, led by Dr. Helen Blau, also claim to have discovered a way to rejuvenate these older muscle stem cells so that they function like younger cells. The results of their study has been published in Nature Medicine.

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This week in health: Prostate cancer and stem cell breakthroughs, snoozing and headaches

Stem Cells from Fat Tissue Show Promise in Reconstructive Surgeries for Face and Skull

By Stem Cell Medicine

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 21, 2014

A new study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows that many patients with defects to the skull, face or jaw bone might benefit from reconstructive surgery combining stem cells taken from adipose (fat) tissue seeded on resorbable scaffolds.

These defects can be due to congenital malformations, such as cleft lip and palate, or to traumatic injuries or surgery to remove a tumor. The use of a patients own bone is still considered the gold standard for reconstructing these defects, but this requires yet another surgery to harvest the bone for the reconstructive procedure. The STEM CELLS Translational Medicine study tracked the case of 13 patients undergoing regenerative medicine procedures.

To our knowledge, this study represents the first GMP-compliant application for autologous adipose-derived stem cells in the treatment of defects at various sites of the cranio-maxillofacial skeleton, said the studys lead investigator, George K. Sndor, M.D., DDS, Ph.D., of the University of Tampere (UT), Tampere, Finland. He and Susanna Miettinen, Ph.D., were lead investigators on the study conducted by scientists and clinicians who, in addition to UT, came from the University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland) and Central Hospital (Jyvskyl, Finland).

Isolated reports of hard tissue (bone) reconstruction in the skull, face or jaw (cranio-maxillofacial skeleton) exist, but multi-patient case series are lacking. This study aimed to review the experience of 13 people with hard tissue defects at four anatomically different sites: the frontal sinus (three cases), cranial bone (five cases), the jaw (three cases) and the nasal septum (two cases).

Stem cells were harvested from adipose tissue in each patients abdomen, treated in the lab and then seeded onto resorbable scaffold materials for implantation back into the patient. The scaffolds were constructed with either bioactive glass or -TCP (a bone graft substitute). In some cases a protein called rhBMP-2, which plays an important role in the development of bone and cartilage, was added, too.

The results were promising. All three of the frontal sinus cases and three of the five cranial defect cases were successfully treated. (The other two cranial cases in which non-rigid resorbable containment meshes were used sustained bone resorption to the point that they required a redo procedure.) One of the two septal perforations failed after a year due to an infection resulting from the patients own actions, but the other healed successfully.

The three patients with reconstructed jaw defects also had good results; in fact, two of them chose to have dental implants placed directly into the stem cell-seeded grafts after healing, allowing these patients to once again enjoy a normal diet.

While the resorption of some of the constructs in the cranial defects was more than expected, Nevertheless, Dr. Sndor said, the majority of these challenging defects 10 of 13 were successfully treated with integration of the stem cell-seeded constructs to the surrounding skeleton at the defect sites. Dr. Miettinen added that the next steps should involve more animal studies and tracking of long-term results in humans.

This case series, involving various sites of defect, illustrates the potential promise of engineering replacement bone in the lab to avoid harvesting bone from the patient, commented Anthony Atala, M.D., editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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Stem Cells from Fat Tissue Show Promise in Reconstructive Surgeries for Face and Skull

Stem cell donor clinic planned for 4-year-old battling leukemia again

By Stem Cell Treatment

Paul Herron and Anne Hodgkinson wake up every day knowing their daughter could die.

Their 4-year-old, Katie, has cancer, and for the second time in her young life she is fighting to stay alive.

Shes scared. Shes terrified, Herron told the Star from Torontos Ronald McDonald House, where the Cambridge family is currently staying so Katie can get treatment at the Hospital for Sick Children.

For Anne and I, its been a parents worst nightmare.

When Katie was just 15 months old, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But after 25 months of intensive treatment, including lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations, chemotherapy and steroids, Katie fought the cancer into remission.

Finally, the family thought, they could say goodbye to hospital beds and the hours spent pacing hallways waiting for results. Finally, they could be normal.

But last November, the life they had built for themselves crumbled once again. The cancer was back, and this time Katie would need a stem cell donor.

The first time, we never made it public. We kept to ourselves, said Herron. But because this time she needs a stem cell donation, we had to get the word out.

No one in the family is a match, and the national registry has yet to turn up a name. This Saturday, Katies supporters will host a stem cell donor clinic at the Cambridge Sports Park from 1 to 5 p.m. All thats required for testing is a cheek swab.

(Stem cells are collected from a matching donors bone marrow or blood after the donor has given informed consent and undergone medical tests to encourage good health and compatibility.)

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Stem cell donor clinic planned for 4-year-old battling leukemia again

THOUGHT OF THE DAY :

By Stem Cell Treatment

The biggest ever stem cell trial involving heart attack patients has got under way in London. The study, which will involve 3,000 patients in 11 European countries, should show whether the treatment can cut death rates and repair damaged tissue after a heart attack.

All the patients will have standard treatment to widen their narrowed arteries, which involves inserting a small tube called a stent. In addition, half the patients will have stem cells taken from their bone marrow and injected into their heart.

This will happen within days of them suffering a heart attack.

"It's fantastic to be part of this," said Neal Grainger, 54, from Essex, who was the first patient in the UK to be treated.

UK's biggest killer

He had an infusion of his bone marrow stem cells at the London Chest Hospital just days after his heart attack last month.

"It's strange having something taken out of you and then put back, but I hope it helps me and a lot of others."

Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the UK.

During a heart attack, a fatty plaque causes a blood clot inside an artery, starving heart muscle of oxygen and leaving scar tissue.

Although more and more patients are surviving heart attacks, they can be left considerably weaker because heart muscle has been permanently damaged.

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