Start of stem-cell study offers hope to patients with spinal-cord injuries

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Friday, January 10, 2014 4:33PM EST Last Updated Friday, January 10, 2014 11:42PM EST

A team of doctors at the University of Calgary has, for the first time in North America, successfully performed a stem cell transplant in a spinal cord injury patient, a procedure that could offer a glimmer of hope to patients whose injuries have long been considered untreatable.

The doctors injected the neural stem cells into the spine of a 29-year-old paraplegic, who will now be monitored to determine whether implanting those cells is safe.

Later studies will look at whether it is possible to regenerate new tissue and repair the mans injury.

That is the goal, a cure, the University of Calgarys Dr. Steven Casha, who performed the procedure on Wednesday, told CTV News.

Stem cells have the potential to recreate lost tissue, he added, although that remains to be proven in humans with spinal cord injuries. The answer, he said, is a long way away.

The transplant is part of an ongoing clinical trial being conducted by StemCells Inc., which harvested the stem cells from the nervous system of a fetus. The company holds a patent on the cells.

Data from three patients in Europe who have already undergone a transplant suggests the procedure is safe.

We have not been seeing significant complications or adverse eventsand there have been a couple of patients who havemade very small gains in functionthat appear to be hopeful and that is very interesting, Dr. Michael Fehlings, head of the spinal program at Toronto Western Hospital and the lead investigator for the trial at the University of Toronto, told CTV.

Fehlings cautioned that the results are very preliminary.

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Start of stem-cell study offers hope to patients with spinal-cord injuries

Artificial Bone Marrow Created By German Scientists, Could Be Used To Treat Leukemia Someday

Bone marrow nurtures both red blood cells and white blood cells, with healthy people producing more than 500 billion red- and-white blood cells every day. But when bone marrow is damaged by a disease like leukemia, or by radiation or chemotherapy drugs, the supply of blood cells drops, leaving a person at risk for fatal infections.

Leukemia and other types of bone-marrow diseases are often treated by transplanting healthy hematopoietic stem cells, which can develop into various kinds of blood cells, from another person. The donor cells can be taken from another persons bone marrow or bloodstream, or from preserved umbilical cords and placentas. But finding a matching donor can be difficult, and the amount of stem cells harvested from the donor may not always be enough to meet the needs of the patient.

One thing that doctors want to be able to do is to find a way to cultivate a bumper crop of stem cells. But blood stem cells thrive in a very specific environment inside bone marrow. And bone marrow has a very complex architecture, like a tiny sponge that contains many sizes of pores, and special docking proteins for stem cells.

"We assume that stem cells [do] not only notice the chemical composition of their surroundings., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology researcher and co-author of the study Cornelia Lee-Thedieck told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. They can probably also feel if their environment is soft or hard, rough or smooth.

Lee-Thedieck and colleagues used a simple, porous polymer to mimic a sponge-like structure for the base of their artificial bone marrow. They added proteins similar to ones found in bone marrow to act as docking points for the blood stem cells, and added other cells to help ferry necessary molecular messages and materials back and forth.

When hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood were introduced to the artificial environment, they thrived much better than in standard 2-dimensional cell-culture systems. But the authors guess that it will be at least another 15 years before most patients will be able to benefit from this invention.

"Producing artificial bone marrow for culturing and multiplying blood stem cells is a potentially interesting application," Martin Bornhuser, a researcher from the University Hospital Dresden unaffiliated with the current paper, told DW. "It would make it possible to generate a sufficient number of stem cells from a small amount to transplant into an adult patient.

SOURCE: Raic et al. Biomimetic macroporous PEG hydrogels as 3D scaffolds for the multiplication of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Biomaterials 35: 929-940, January 2014.

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Artificial Bone Marrow Created By German Scientists, Could Be Used To Treat Leukemia Someday

Stem Cells In Use – Learn Genetics

In 1968, doctors performed the first successful bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow contains somatic stem cells that can produce all of the different cell types that make up our blood. It is transplanted routinely to treat a variety of blood and bone marrow diseases, blood cancers, and immune disorders. More recently, stem cells from the blood stream (called peripheral blood stem cells) and umbilical cord stem cells have been used to treat some of the same blood-based diseases.

Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells, or leukocytes. Like other blood cells, leukocytes develop from somatic stem cells. Mature leukocytes are released into the bloodstream, where they work to fight off infections in our bodies.

Leukemia results when leukocytes begin to grow and function abnormally, becoming cancerous. These abnormal cells cannot fight off infection, and they interfere with the functions of other organs.

Successful treatment for leukemia depends on getting rid of all the abnormal leukocytes in the patient, allowing healthy ones to grow in their place. One way to do this is through chemotherapy, which uses potent drugs to target and kill the abnormal cells. When chemotherapy alone can't eliminate them all, physicians sometimes turn to bone marrow transplants.

In a bone marrow transplant, the patient's bone marrow stem cells are replaced with those from a healthy, matching donor. To do this, all of the patient's existing bone marrow and abnormal leukocytes are first killed using a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. Next, a sample of donor bone marrow containing healthy stem cells is introduced into the patient's bloodstream.

If the transplant is successful, the stem cells will migrate into the patient's bone marrow and begin producing new, healthy leukocytes to replace the abnormal cells.

New evidence suggests that bone marrow stem cells may be able to differentiate into cell types that make up tissues outside of the blood, such as liver and muscle. Scientists are exploring new uses for these stem cells that go beyond diseases of the blood.

While most blood stem cells reside in the bone marrow, a small number are present in the bloodstream. These peripheral blood stem cells, or PBSCs, can be used just like bone marrow stem cells to treat leukemia, other cancers and various blood disorders.

Since they can be obtained from drawn blood, PBSCs are easier to collect than bone marrow stem cells, which must be extracted from within bones. This makes PBSCs a less invasive treatment option than bone marrow stem cells. PBSCs are sparse in the bloodstream, however, so collecting enough to perform a transplant can pose a challenge.

Newborn infants no longer need their umbilical cords, so they have traditionally been discarded as a by-product of the birth process. In recent years, however, the stem-cellrich blood found in the umbilical cord has proven useful in treating the same types of health problems as those treated using bone marrow stem cells and PBSCs.

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Stem Cells In Use - Learn Genetics

B.C. Women’s Hospital’s umbilical cord blood bank offers gift of life

North Vancouver resident Hector Walker owes his life to stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood of a pair of wee strangers.

Walker, who is 62 and had leukemia, had no clue where his doctors at Vancouver General Hospital found the donor stem cells for his 2010 transplant. But hes grateful they did and thrilled that finding a match may become less cumbersome now that B.C. Womens Hospital will soon start asking expectant mothers to donate their newborn babies cord blood, a rich and versatile source of potentially healing stem cells.

At a news conference today, the biggest maternity hospital in the province will be named as a collection site for the new National Public Cord Blood Bank. It is the second hospital in the country to get that distinction (after Ottawa) and will serve as one of only four collection sites across the country.

Finding a bone marrow match was more of a problem for me because Im black. Even my brother wasnt a match, said Walker. Life is so unpredictable. People should understand they can save someones life by doing this.

The hospital was designated a collection site because so many babies are delivered there (7,000 annually) and the patient population is ethnically diverse.

Once a pilot phase of up to half a year is over, healthy, pregnant women giving birth at B.C. Womens will be able to donate the blood from the umbilical cords of their babies. Until now, most umbilical cords have been discarded, which is why Dr. Tanya Petraszko, a Canadian Blood Services (CBS) official, says: Our competition is the garbage can.

Canada has access to international sources but a public bank here should mean that Canadian doctors wont as often have to search the world for life-saving stem cells, especially for difficult-to-match, ethnically diverse patients like Walker (originally from Jamaica).

Because most registered blood and bone marrow donors are Caucasian, finding matches for minority groups is most challenging. In recent years, CBS has been trying to reach out to First Nations, Asian and other ethnic communities in a bid to boost that supply.

Only half of patients who need an unrelated stem cell transplant are able to find one and there are about 1,000 patients across Canada waiting for stem cell transplants. A stem cell transplant requires a DNA match between the donor and recipient, but cord blood cells are more adaptable so theres less chance of a rejection.

Canada is the last G8 country to establish a national bank. It was announced by federal and provincial governments nearly three years ago, after years of deliberations. Nearly $50 million was earmarked in start-up funds but CBS committed to forming a development group to raise another $12.5 million from philanthropic Canadians. (There is still $4 million left to raise).

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B.C. Women's Hospital's umbilical cord blood bank offers gift of life

Doctors use stem cell therapy to treat lung diseases | wtsp.com

Tampa, Florida --It's the third leading cause of death in the U.S.You've probably even seen ads for treating COPD, but you may not even know what it is.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a progressive lung disease likely caused by smoking, but air pollution can also be a factor. According to the American Lung Association, women are 37 percent more likely to have it than men and since there's no cure, people will do anything to breathe a little easier.

Doctors atthe Lung Institute in Tampa are using a lung patient's own stem cells to help treat COPD, emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis byrepairing damaged tissue. Like most patients seeking help, 70-year-old Daniel Odulio depends on an oxygen tank. He flew here all the way from The Philippines to improve his life.

The Lung Institute told 10 News the doctorsuse thelatest FDA-approved commercially available equipment for collecting and isolating stem cells using patients' own blood and adipose fat. They say theinnovative stem cell therapy won't be rejected because the doctors use the patients' own cells.In some cases, patients are able to get rid of their oxygen tanks altogether.

10 News

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Doctors use stem cell therapy to treat lung diseases | wtsp.com

Exclusive: Doctors Skirt FDA To Provide Human Stem Cell …

The FDA has yet to approve stem cell therapies for general use in medicine, but that hasnt stopped doctors in Colorado from providing them anyway. Chris Centeno and John Schultz have boldly formed Regenerative Sciences Inc. in Broomfield, Colorado. RSI provides its patients with the Regenexx procedure, an adult stem cell transplant that uses your own cells (autologous) to treat joint injuries and bone damage. Theres no surgery needed. A needle extracts bone marrow, RSI isolates the stem cells and cultures them in your own blood, and then these cells are injected into the area where they are needed. Theyve treated 348+ patients with 800+ injections and show no signs of slowing down. According to RSIs own surveys, 89% of their knee patients showed marked improvement, as did 75% of their hip patients! Within months some patients can walk or run in ways they havent been able to in years. Weve seen these kinds of results from stem cell treatments before, but only in horses and dogs. Thats because human stem cell therapies like this one arent approved by the FDA. How can Centeno and Schultz flaunt the lack of federal approval? They claim that Regenexx is solely used as a part of their medical practice, only within the state of Colorado, and as such is no more regulated by the FDA than it would be by the FAA or the Department of Motor Vehicles. I had a chance to talk with Dr. Centeno over the phone and learn more about Regenexx and RSI. For hundreds of patients, he and his team are providing a remarkable hope. Theyve brought lab-cultured medical stem cell therapies to the US. Finally.

Stem cells have been a focal point for hype and hope for years now. Besides healing horses and dogs, they have promising effects on diabetes, corneal blindness, even HIV. Its pretty clear that theyre also the future of organ transplants. Just the news of a stem cell related development or patent will cause a biotech companys stocks to soar. The FDA, which regulates all interstate drug sales and related clinical trials is not trying to keep Americans from these miraculous cures, its simply trying to make sure they are safe first. Apparently, thats taking too long. Medical tourism agencies are starting to cater to those seeking stem cell treatments. Whether or not they are ready for widespread medical use, stem cell therapies are in high demand, not just in the US but around the world. Its no longer a question of when we will have access to these treatments, its a question of how.

Patients interested in the Regenexx procedure face what seems to be a fairly standard experience for autologous stem cell transplants. It takes 20-40 minutes to extract the cells from hip bone marrow with limited anesthesia, and blood is also taken. Over a month RSIs lab will isolate mesenchymal (multipotent) adult stem cells and multiply them until they have 1 to 10 million. Typically, a patient will receive an injection into the treated area once a month for three months. Positive results are sometimes seen quickly (in 1 to 3 months) but will hopefully develop within 6 to 9 months. Importantly, theres no down time as a result of the procedure. Patients can leave the clinic and go home after each injection. A round of Regenexx (extraction, cultivation, and 3 injections) costs $7000-$8500. Those who produce exceptional numbers of stem cells can use subsequent injections (even in other parts of the body) for around $3500. Most insurances will not cover the treatment.

The fact that RSI isolates and cultures (multiplies) the cells is a big difference from other clinics that offer stem cell therapies. That process allows the lab to create enough mesenchymal stem cells to really have an effect on the area in which they are injected. Many clinics around the world will take blood, marrow, or tissue and then spin out the stem cells in a centrifuge, injecting them back in on the same day. That style of therapy could possibly be effective, but it is far less likely than with a dose of millions of multipotent stem cells. There are several doctors around the US that will provide such single-visit stem cell therapies, but as far as I know RSI is the only that offers the lab cultured mesenchymal therapy in the US. Dr. Centeno has confirmed that hes the only one, that he knows of, openly using this particular procedure in the US.

In the past, I have been very skeptical of stem cell treatment centers in other countries. Id like to turn that same critical eye to Regenexx. Its only fair. First, lets look at the success RSI is selling. Autologous transplants are offered in the hands, hips, knees, shoulders, back (non-spinal cord injury), ankles, and bone fractures. For each of these procedures you can find many ardent and exceptionally encouraging patient testimonials on their website, or their YouTube channel, along with a flood of supportive media. Heres a clip from a local news Channel which is pretty indicative of the rest:

Overall, RSI is claiming around 80% patient satisfaction according to its own surveys. Thats incredible, especially when you see some of their patients walking and running again on joints that have experienced years of chronic damage. It also seems Centeno and Schultz have the documented evidence to back up the claims for Regenexxs success. RSI provides case studies for each of its treatments as well as published scientific research. According to my conversation with Centeno, RSI is currently working on a comprehensive statistical analysis of their more popular treatments so they can publish quantitative results in a peer review journal. In other words, theyll soon publish the hard numbers X% of patients feel Y% better Z months after the procedure.

Importantly, RSI seems to be upfront with patients about the limits of their own technique. The website FAQ clearly states that not all results will be like the testimonials, and they even have a dedicated page explaining that stem cell therapies wont work for everyone. Furthermore, RSI has published the largest study of risks and complications associated with stem cell treatments yet produced in the US (N=227). That paper demonstrates the very low harm associated with stem cell therapies much lower than the alternative surgery(published in Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy). Centeno told me that if were really worried that autologous stem cell therapies are going to hurt someone, this paper pretty much shows they wont.

The concerns most people have with RSI are not medical, theyre political. Many applaud Centeno and Schultz for supplying the public with the cutting edge technology they demand, but worry about the manner in which it has been accomplished. Skirting FDA approval for a technique through the arguments they use opens the gate to a host of problems. If RSI can provide Regenexx because it is a doctors procedure not involved in interstate commerce, does that mean someone else can do the same for another treatment? What are the limits of such procedures? How does a patient know if a doctors therapy is safe, or effective, if it hasnt undergone peer review and government inspection?

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Exclusive: Doctors Skirt FDA To Provide Human Stem Cell ...

A miracle and a clarion call for more

A Vietnamese girl adopted by a Swiss family underwent a stem cell transplant last Friday, months after she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Joon Gremillet, 18, is under special care at the Geneva General Hospital with visits restricted to protect her from infections, given that her immune system drops close to zero, according to a post on the blog site Help Joon, which was opened to look for a matching donor by her adoptive father Patrick Gremillet, a senior program coordinator at the United Nations Development Program.

Patrick received Joon from a maternity hospital in Hai Phong in northern Vietnam and she has grown up with the family, traveling through Laos, Thailand, US, Austria and France.

Joon, who started her university studies last year in Geneva, was diagnosed with leukemia last May.

She was hospitalized immediately and received chemotherapy before the search began for a bone marrow donor that considerably increases chances of survival.

The father said a donor was a stressful issue as Joon was adopted and there was little chance of finding a matching donor in her current community.

He said there are also few Asians, and Vietnamese in particular, who are enrolled in the international stem cell donor registry.

Fortunately, a compatible donor was found in November, although details are being kept confidential.

Patrick said the donors stem cells were infused into his daughter in a process that lasted nearly two hours.

He said Joon will have to wait for between ten to 30 days before the transplanted cells begin to circulate in her bones and gradually resume production of bone marrow and blood cells. If things go well, she can regain immunity after three months.

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A miracle and a clarion call for more

Search is on for donor to save Hannah Day

Hannah Day's family are searching for a matching donor to provide the four-year-old cancer patient with a stem cell transplant.

image credit: Submitted photo

Langfords Hannah Day, 4, and her family are desperately searching for a stem cell transplant match as Hannah faces the second cancer diagnosis of her young life.

Hannah, 4, is back in Langford after spending Christmas in B.C. Childrens Hospital for treatment after she suffered a seizure at home. As a result of the seizure Hannah had gone pale and her lips were purple, prompting her mother to call 911, rushing her to the hospital.

Hannah was mostly not alert as doctors ran tests on her. When she started to develop jaundice Hannah was flown to Childrens Hospital in Vancouver.

I have been holding her hand for so long, just to see if shell squeeze back, Hannahs mother wrote to family friend and fundraising organizer Kim Roost.

Hannah eventually began to come around, talking and remaining awake for periods of time, though in pain. Roost said they never really determined what caused the seizure.

Meanwhile Hannahs cancer, a form of leukemia, is getting worse, though she is back in Langford and celebrated Christmas with her family at home on Dec. 28.

Hannahs only hope of curing her cancer is finding a match for a stem cell transplant, Roost said. Her best hope lay in her little sister, Hailey, but she proved to not be a 100 per cent match, which is necessary. The family received that news Christmas Eve.

Its kind of like one step forward, two steps back, Roost said. Its not how anyone wants to spend their Christmas.

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Search is on for donor to save Hannah Day

Local woman in need of donor

In 2013, doctors nationwide diagnosed 49,000 people with Leukemia. This past April, Cathy Habeeb Sheehan, of Boxford, was one of them.

Last June, she had a sibling stem cell transplant. However, it failed and her only other brother is not a match. Currently, there is no donor match in the National Register. She is in need of a second stem cell transplant.

Latitude Sports Club in Methuen is hosting a stem cell donor drive in January. Her friends and family are asking for people to volunteer to be tested as a possible donor match.

Sheehan is a mother of two daughters and a son. In her spare time, shes a spin instructor at Latitude Sports Club in Salisbury.

In the past Latitude has helped Sheehan with other stem cell donor drives but no match was found.

The family is beside themselves, family friend Ruth Ann LeHane said. LeHane has worked for Sheehans mother for more than 30 years.

The ideal match for Sheehan is someone in between 18 and 44 years old and is in good health.

To find out if you are a match for Sheehan is simple says LeHane.

It just takes a swab inside your cheek, she said. Its quick and painless.

People should be notified within a couple of weeks if they are a match.

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Local woman in need of donor

Cell Therapy – StemCell Doctors

Dr. Aidan R. Raney performs a checkup on heart attack patient Mark Athens, 52, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla. Athens received a stem cell treatment to help his heart recover as part of a clinical trial to determine the treatments safety and effectiveness.

A new stem cell treatment may help heart attack patients do something once thought medically impossible regenerate dead heart muscle.

Scripps Health in La Jolla is one of three centers testing the therapy from Capricor, a Los Angeles biotech company. The cardiac stem cells are meant to boost the hearts natural ability to perform minor repairs. If it works, scars should shrink and functional heart muscle should grow.

Capricor gets the cells from donor hearts, grows them into the amount needed for treatment, then sends them to doctors taking part in what is called the Allstar trial. Doctors inject the cells into the coronary artery, where they are expected to migrate to the heart and encourage muscle regrowth.

The trial has successfully completed Phase 1, which mainly evaluates safety. On Dec. 17, Capricor said it had received permission to begin Phase 2, which will examine efficacy in about 300 patients who will get the treatment or a placebo. More information can be found at clinicaltrials.gov under the identifier NCT01458405.

The Allstar trial is funded with a $19.7 million disease team grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, the states stem cell agency.

This is a highly significant announcement for us at CIRM as its the first time weve funded a therapy into a Phase 2 clinical trial, Chairman Jonathan Thomas said in a Dec. 23 statement.

About 600,000 Americans die of heart disease annually, making it the leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Even those surviving may be left permanently impaired, if the heart is severely damaged. These are the patients Capricor seeks to help.

Mark Athens received Capricors treatment on Sept. 25, about a month after having a moderate heart attack. The Encinitas resident was the last treated under Phase 1, said Scripps cardiologist Richard Schatz, who performed the procedure. It will take about six months to know whether the treatment worked, Schatz said.

Unlike many trials, Phase 1 was not placebo-controlled, so Athens knows he got the therapy. He appeared cheerful, smiling and bantering with his examining doctor during a Dec. 17 checkup at Scripps Green Hospital.

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Cell Therapy – StemCell Doctors