Breakthrough in cloning stem cells – Stem Cell Cafe

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(CNN) A human embryo, containing about a couple hundred cells, is smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Scientists need strong microscopes to see these precursors to life, and to take from them stem cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the body.

Earlier this week a breakthrough in this field was announced. A group of researchers published in the journal Cell proof that they had created embryonic stem cells through cloning. The scientists produced embryos using human skin cells, and then used the embryos to produce stem cell lines.

It is an incredibly powerful approach with potential to generate almost any tissue in the body, genetically identical to the patient, said Jeff Karp, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at the Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.

Creating an embryo just from an egg and a skin cell seems like magic, but just how practical would the subsequent stem cells be? And does it actually amount to cloning?

What they did

Normally, an embryo is created when sperm enters the egg and it starts to divide. But, in the Cell study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University began with skin cells from an 8-month-old baby that had a genetic disease. They did not use sperm.

To create each embryo, they took the DNA out of an egg, so that it was hollow, and replaced it with the skin cells DNA instead. The babys DNA was the only genetic material being used.

With the help of chemicals, the egg started to divide just like a normal fertilized egg would. Then, within several days, embryos genetically identical to the baby were created, from which stem cells were derived.

Embryonic stems research is inherently controversial because in order to use the stem cells for science, the embryo, which is a collection of cells that could develop into a fully formed human, is destroyed, even though embryos in these procedures are left over from in vitro fertilization.

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Breakthrough in cloning stem cells – Stem Cell Cafe

Embryonic stem cells made from skin – Stem Cell Cafe

US researchers have reported a breakthrough in stem cell research, describing how they have turned human skin cells into embyronic stem cells for the first time.

The method described by Oregon State University scientists on Wednesday in the journal Cell, would not likely be able to create human clones, said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, senior scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre.

But it is an important step in research because it does not require the use of embryos in creating the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of cell in the body.

The technique involves transplanting an individuals DNA into an egg cell that has been stripped of genetic material, a variation of a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer.

A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells, said Mitalipov.

He added that since the reprogrammed cells use genetic material from the patient, there is no concern about transplant rejection.

While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine, Mitalipov said.

Years of research on monkey cells using the same technique have not successfully produced any monkey clones.

Since the human cells used in the study appeared even more fragile, researchers said it was unlikely clones could be made.

While nuclear transfer breakthroughs often lead to a public discussion about the ethics of human cloning, this is not our focus, nor do we believe our findings might be used by others to advance the possibility of human reproductive cloning, they said.

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Embryonic stem cells made from skin – Stem Cell Cafe

Time to legislate on stem cells – Stem Cell Cafe

May 20

The news of another breakthrough in Oregon in stem-cell technology the cloning of embryos using human tissues and then the ability to harvest stem cells from them opens up new possibilities in the personalisation of therapeutic cloning. But, closer to home, it serves to draw attention once again to the lacunae in Irish law that have left most of a field of fast-developing research and the whole area of assisted reproduction unregulated, Irish scientists unable to pursue cutting edge science, funding withheld, and potential patients vulnerable to unscrupulous scientists.

Ironically the breakthrough comes as our legislators battle with abortion legislation. Both issues, tied up as they are with thorny ethical issues around where life begins and when and how embryos acquire rights, are equally politically toxic. Both have also been the subject of urgent injunctions from the frustrated courts to politicians to fulfil their responsibility to legislate. Both, crucially, also require a willingness and courage on the part of politicians to move beyond absolutist moral positions to a new legislative ethics based on pluralist values and real social needs .

Having grasped one nettle, abortion legislation, is it too much to ask our politicians to do the same with bioethics stem cell research and provision for assisted reproduction, specifically in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)? Two reports, from the Government- appointed Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction and from the Irish Council for Bioethics, the first going back to 2005, proposed practical, conservative, guidelines for legislation that respect most of the sensitivities around ethical concerns over the production of embryos for research purposes. Crucially, they would limit researchers to using embryos that are surplus to requirements in the IVF process and which would otherwise be discarded/destroyed.

In the interim the Supreme Court in Roche v Roche (2009) has facilitated such legislation by clarifying the point at which it views the foetus as acquiring constitutional protection implantation in the womb. Any earlier and embryonic stem cell research, IVF, and contraceptives based on preventing implantation, including the day-after pill, would have been prohibited. Of course, the absence of a constitutional protection for the early embryo does not mean an easy consensus will be reached. As the abortion debate has shown, many are only too willing to challenge and flatly deny the courts interpretations, but its thoughtful ruling in Roche can provide a coherent rationale for the emerging middle ground of legislators and for carefully limited legislative provision for stem cell research and assisted reproduction.

It understood that legislation is currently being drafted by the Department of Health. It is now long overdue.

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Time to legislate on stem cells – Stem Cell Cafe

Scientists clone human stem cells for the first time – Stem Cell Cafe

For all its promise, embryonic stem cell research has been slow going in the last few decades. Ethical quandaries and scientific difficulty have conspired to keep the next big advance just out of reach, but a new study published this week in the journal Cell could kick off a new age of interest in stem cell therapies. Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University have managed to clone human embryonic stem cells using unfertilized eggs and human skin cells.

The process is very similar to the method used over a decade ago to clone Dolly the sheep, but the aim here was not to produce a human clone. Rather, scientists wanted to make a line of stem cells that would not be rejected by a recipients own immune system, In fact, according to Professor Shoukhrat Mitalipov from Oregon Health & Science University, it is unlikely the embryos used in the study had any hope of developing into viable human clones.

To create these new stem cell lines, researchers removed the DNA from donated unfertilized human eggs. A skin cell from a different individual was then inserted into the egg cell. The trick that made this advance possible is in finding a way to entice that cell to begin dividing. Mitalipov and his team eventually found that exposure to precisely-timed electric pulses and a chemical bath with a bit of caffeine did the trick.

The result is a small bundle of embryonic stem cells that match the genotype of the skin cell donor, not the egg donor. Stem cells created in this process are known as pluripotent, because they can differentiate to become a wide variety of cell types. They could conceivably be turned into cardiac muscle, nerve cells, pancreatic cells, or any number of other tissues to treat disease.

Additionally, the maturation process is well established for the cells in this study. They actually appear to become functional adult cells when harvested. Researchers even managed to create cardiac cells that contract just like the real thing. Previous stem cell discoveries using only regressed skin cells come with many unanswered questions, thus the continued use of human embryos.

Having a way to manufacture stem cells that match a persons DNA is revolutionary in stem cell therapy. If you implant cells that dont match someones genotype, they are likely to be rejected. This is why transplant patients must take immunosuppressive drugs. This process could lead to treatments where doctors create new tissues to treat patients that are essentially their own cells.

Other researchers are anxious to attempt the process themselves, and hopefully confirm Mitalipovs results. The entire paper is online if you want to check it out.

Now read:Scientists end our dreams of cloning dinosaurs

Excerpt from: Scientists clone human stem cells for the first time

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Scientists clone human stem cells for the first time – Stem Cell Cafe

Researchers make embryonic stem cells from skin – Stem Cell Cafe

US researchers have reported a breakthrough in stem cell research, describing how they have turned human skin cells into embryonic stem cells for the first time.

The method described Wednesday by Oregon Health and Science University scientists in the journal Cell, would not likely be able to create human clones, said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, senior scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.

But it is an important step in research because it does not require the use of embryos in creating the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of cell in the body.

The technique involves transplanting an individuals DNA into an egg cell that has been stripped of genetic material, a variation of a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer.

A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells, said Mitalipov.

He added that since the reprogrammed cells use genetic material from the patient, there is no concern about transplant rejection.

While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine, Mitalipov said.

Another advantage of this approach is that it does not use fertilized embryos to obtain stem cells, a technique that raises major ethical issues because the embryo is destroyed.

Since the birth of the sheep Dolly in 1996 in the United Kingdom, the first cloned animal, researchers have cloned some 20 species including goats and rabbits, but never monkeys or primates whose biologies and reproduction is more complex.

Years of research on monkey cells using the same technique have not successfully produced any monkey clones.

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Researchers make embryonic stem cells from skin – Stem Cell Cafe

Stem Cell Therapy For Autism – Research – Transplant – Cure …

Stem Cell Therapy: A Great Promise For The Future of Molecular Medicine For Autism

Ongoing research into every avenue to treat autism or possibly cure it has brought some researchers to the threshold of stem cell therapy. Stem cell medicine is still in its infancy, and still is highly controversial. Moving beyond the fetal stem cell issues and focusing more on the possibility of stem cells from cord blood helps researchers examine the possibility of a molecular medicinal approach for children and adults with ASD.

But that leads to an entirely new controversy unto itself. Most adults with autism, especially those who can communicate, do not want a cure or a medicine that alters who they are. They have identified that they are special people with special skill sets, and like the deaf community, they just arent interested in being cured. The flip side of that argument is for the children who are having so many difficulties with school, society and peers, and the children on the lower functioning end of the spectrum.

Parents who face the challenges of autism every day are met with mixed emotions on the subject as well. Some might say, Absolutely, I want the cure or the treatment for my child, while others would argue that its not for them and not for their children. The parents who would not choose it for their autistic children are not cold-hearted people, but people who see their children as endearing and uniquely special, and love them unconditionally. Its a hard road to take, knowing that a choice you could have made may have benefited your child, but it also means that other features and traits in your child with autism remain a part of them and a part of who they are.

As the battle rages on for or against a cure or treatment that would alleviate autism symptoms, scientists are charging onward in the labs. Parents now have the opportunity to harvest the umbilical cord and the cord blood at birth because the fetal stem cells in it could completely cure their child of any disease or illness in the future. With that in mind, scientists are asking parents to donate some or all of their cord blood to finding a cure or treatment for autism.

The cure or treatment developed would be delivered back into the child affected by autism when it begins to appear at age two. Families who agree to participate are screened based upon family history and the number of children and adults in extended family that have been diagnosed with autism. There certainly appears to be some genetic connection, as several families will have more than one child diagnosed with ASD over a couple of generations. Cord blood is gathered and sent to the participating research lab with each birth in that family. Some of it is used to look for genetic markers for ASD, and the rest is used to develop stem cell therapies that might work to counteract ASD, even when the cause is still relatively unknown.

The only FDA-approved stem cell therapy study currently undergoing research and development is out of Sacramento, CA, and the study wont be finished for another year. The children and their parents who have volunteered for the study did so only because they knew they had a child with autism and because they had harvested and saved the cord blood from their childs birth years before. Cord and cord blood banks deep freeze every patients sample, taking care to preserve the integrity of the cells found within. Even in children without autism, stell cell therapy from their own cord blood has had a more positive impact on them than any treatment for childhood cancers or other physical maladies.

It is based upon the positive effects of cord blood stem cell therapies for these unfortunate diseases that the scientists hope to prove that cord blood stem cells are also effective against preventing the brain from damage, or curing it after the damage, of autism. Essentially that is exactly what autism is; it is damage to specific areas of the brain, and that is why it can show up on an MRI/ neuroscan.

Other countries either claim to have the stem cell cure for autism already or are working on their own version of it. Parents need to be particularly wary of any South American country that claims it can give the stem cell shots to their child and cure them, because no known or published medical trials of this sort have occurred in any of the countries there. Additionally, these countries in South America claim that parents dont need a sample of their autistic childs cord blood for the treatment to work; on the contrary, that is exactly what is needed because only the childs own cells can be reintroduced into their blood stream by injection.

Some European countries are still working on the research, but their results and findings are much farther along than the U.S.s because they arent as squeamish about stem cell technology. In fact, Great Britain has been using cord blood stem cells to treat diseases in children for almost a decade now, and recording their results publicly in medical journals.

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Salk researchers chart epigenomics of stem cells that mimic early …

Public release date: 9-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andy Hoang ahoang@salk.edu 619-861-5811 Salk Institute

LA JOLLA, CA Scientists have long known that control mechanisms known collectively as epigenetics play a critical role in human development, but they did not know precisely how alterations in this extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA contribute to development.

Now, in the first comprehensive analysis of epigenetic changes that occur during development, a multi-institutional group of scientists, including several from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has discovered how modifications in key epigenetic markers influence human embryonic stem cells as they differentiate into specialized cells in the body. The findings were published May 9 in Cell.

Our findings help us to understand processes that occur during early human development and the differentiation of a stem cell into specialized cells, which ultimately form tissues in the body, says co-lead author Joseph R. Ecker, a professor and director of Salks Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory and holder of the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics.

Scientists have established that the gene expression program encoded in DNA is carried out by proteins that bind to regulatory genes and modulate gene expression in response to environmental cues. Growing evidence now shows that maintenance of this process depends on epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation and chromatin modifications, biochemical processes that alter gene expression as cells divide and differentiate from embryonic stem cells into specific tissues. Epigenetic modificationscollectively known as the epigenomecontrol which genes are turned on or off without changing the letters of the DNA alphabet (A-T-C-G), providing cells with an additional tool to fine-tune how genes control the cellular machinery.

In their study, the Salk researchers and their collaborators from several prominent research institutions across the United States examined the beginning state of cells, before and after they developed into specific cell types. Starting with a single cell typethe H1 human embryonic stem cell, the most widely studied stem cell line to datethe team followed the cells epigenome from development to different cell states, looking at the dynamics in changes to epigenetic marks from one state to another. Were they methylated, an essential process for normal development, or unmethylated? What happened to the cells during development? What regulatory processes occurred in the cell lineage?

The scientists found sections of the DNA that activate regulatory genes, which in turn control the activity of other genes, tend to have different amounts of letters of the DNA alphabet, C and G specifically, depending on when these regulatory genes are turned on during development. Additionally, regulatory genes that control early development are often located on stretches of DNA called methylation valleys, or DMVs, that are generally CG rich and devoid of epigenetic chemical modifications known as methylation. Consequently, these genes have to be regulated by another epigenetic mechanism, which the authors found were chemical changes called chromatin modifications. Chromatin is the mass of materialDNA and proteinsin a cells nucleus that helps to control gene expression.

On the other hand, genes active in more mature cells whose tissue type is already determined tend to be CG poor and regulated by DNA methylation. The results suggest that distinct epigenetic mechanisms regulate early and late states of embryonic stem cell differentiation.

Epigenomic studies of how stem cells differentiate into distinct cell types are a great way to understand early development of animals, says Ecker, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator. If we understand how these cells lineages originate, we can understand if something goes right or wrong during differentiation. Its a very basic study, but there are implications for being able to produce good quality cell types for various therapies.

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Study reveals how the properties of embryonic stem cells are …

Published on May 3, 2013 at 9:12 AM

Scientists have made a fundamental discovery about how the properties of embryonic stem cells are controlled.

The study, which focuses on the process by which these cells renew and increase in number, could help research to find new treatments. Researchers have found that a protein, which switches on genes to allow embryonic stem cells to self-renew, works better when the natural occurring level of the protein is reduced. It was previously thought that once levels of this protein called Oct 4 were reduced the numbers of new stem cells being produced would also fall.The finding will inform stem cell research, which is looking to find treatments for conditions including Parkinsons, motor neurone, liver and heart disease.

During embryonic development, cells that have the capacity to become any cell type in the body called pluripotent stem cells can either renew themselves by multiplying in number or differentiate to become cells found in different parts of the body, for instance skin or liver.

This need for pluripotent cells to increase in number is important so that there is a sufficient supply of them to be differentiated into other cell types.

Scientists at the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh found that when there were lower levels of Oct 4, the protein bound much more tightly to key parts of DNA in cells.

The strong attraction of Oct 4 to these sections of DNA enabled the efficient switching on of key genes that caused pluripotent stem cells to renew.

The findings could help to improve the way in which stem cells are cultured in the laboratory, providing a better understanding of the processes needed for cells to divide and multiply or to generate different cell types.

The study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Human Frontier Science Programme

Source: University of Edinburgh

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Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez is Named President of World Stem Cells Clinic …

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) May 04, 2013

World Stem Cells Clinic in Cancun is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez to the position of President of their medical lab and treatment center. Dr. Gutierrez brings experience and intensity to his new position at World Stem Cells Clinic and promises he and his team of experts will provide the best medical care available in the world to improve their patients quality of life.

Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez is an extensively educated physician. He is a graduate from the Universidad Anhuac Norte, School of Medicine in Mexico City and additionally holds a Post-Graduate Degree in Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine from the Instituto Mexicano de Medicina Antienvejecimiento y Esttica, Guadalajara, Mexico. He holds active membership of both the Mexican College of Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine and the Age Management Medicine Group. Dr. Gutierrez has spent considerable time in additional training in the US, with rotations in both Florida and Nevada for two specialty organizations and is certified in Age Management Medicine by the Cenegenics Education and Research Foundation part of Cenegenics Medical Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada. His bilingual English and Spanish skills, both in medical and conversational applications, are excellent. Dr. Gutierrez is the perfect addition to the team given his thorough understanding of both the North and South American medical systems.

Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez explains how the clinic and laboratory at World Stem Cells Clinic in Cancun were designed, built and are operated under the stringent guidelines as established by The International Cellular Medical Society (ICMS) and the US Food and Drug Administrations Good Tissue Practice (cGTP) regulations for pharmaceutical, biologics and clinical laboratories. The strict adherence to these established guidelines and policies guarantees the highest quality of clinical care and stem cell treatment safety for the patient. At World Stem Cells Clinic they continually strive to improve the patients outcomes with breakthrough research and by creating new cells and protocols.

Both the US patient management team at World Stem Cells, LLC (http://worldstemcells.com/) and their Cancun patient management team at World Stem Cells Clinic (http://worldstemcellsclinic.com/) offer medical information on the stem cell treatments provided by the doctors, help patients arrange transportation to Cancun and within the city, hotels, medical records procurement, and basically ensure that their every need is met.

Dr. Gutierrez says, we will treat you like family!

Working under the guidelines set forth by ICMS, World Stem Cells Clinic (http://worldstemcellsclinic.com/) provides Stem Cell Treatment for Ankylosing Spondylitis, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT), Crohns Diseases, COPD, Fuchs disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Hashimotos Thryroiditis, ITP, Kidney Diseases, Macular Degeneration, Lupus (SLE), Multiple Sclerosis, PAD, Parkinsons disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma, Stroke, Ulcerative Colitis at its contract Clinics, GLP laboratory, doctors and hospitals in the beautiful resort area of Cancun. They endeavor to provide the best care possible at a competitive price while providing documentation of all treatments that can be used to provide better future care and scientific data to the medical industry. World Stem Cells Clinic is participating in ICMS (International Cellular Medical Society) Stem Cell Reimplantation Registry. They provide Stem Cell Treatments to patients in need.

More: Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez is Named President of World Stem Cells Clinic, a Stem Cell Research and Stem Cell Treatment

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Turning human stem cells into brain cells sheds light on neural …

May 2, 2013 Medical researchers have manipulated human stem cells into producing types of brain cells known to play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism. The new model cell system allows neuroscientists to investigate normal brain development, as well as to identify specific disruptions in biological signals that may contribute to neuropsychiatric diseases.

Scientists from The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research led a study team that described their research in the journal Cell Stem Cell, published online today.

The research harnesses human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which differentiate into a broad range of different cell types. In the current study, the scientists directed the stem cells into becoming cortical interneurons a class of brain cells that, by releasing the neurotransmitter GABA, controls electrical firing in brain circuits.

Interneurons act like an orchestra conductor, directing other excitatory brain cells to fire in synchrony, said study co-leader Stewart A. Anderson, M.D., a research psychiatrist at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. However, when interneurons malfunction, the synchrony is disrupted, and seizures or mental disorders can result.

Anderson and study co-leader Lorenz Studer, M.D., of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Sloan-Kettering, derived interneurons in a laboratory model that simulates how neurons normally develop in the human forebrain.

Unlike, say, liver diseases, in which researchers can biopsy a section of a patients liver, neuroscientists cannot biopsy a living patients brain tissue, said Anderson. Hence it is important to produce a cell culture model of brain tissue for studying neurological diseases. Significantly, the human-derived cells in the current study also wire up in circuits with other types of brain cells taken from mice, when cultured together. Those interactions, Anderson added, allowed the study team to observe cell-to-cell signaling that occurs during forebrain development.

In ongoing studies, Anderson explained, he and colleagues are using their cell model to better define molecular events that occur during brain development. By selectively manipulating genes in the interneurons, the researchers seek to better understand how gene abnormalities may disrupt brain circuitry and give rise to particular diseases. Ultimately, those studies could help inform drug development by identifying molecules that could offer therapeutic targets for more effective treatments of neuropsychiatric diseases.

In addition, Andersons laboratory is studying interneurons derived from stem cells made from skin samples of patients with chromosome 22q.11.2 deletion syndrome, a genetic disease which has long been studied at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. In this multisystem disorder, about one third of patients have autistic spectrum disorders, and a partially overlapping third of patients develop schizophrenia. Investigating the roles of genes and signaling pathways in their model cells may reveal specific genes that are crucial in those patients with this syndrome who have neurodevelopmental problems.

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