Stem Cell Clinic

Cell Therapy Company Joins Forces with Biotech in New Transplantation Research Alliance – Pharmaceutical Processing

By adminMay 3, 2017Uncategorized

Be The Match BioTherapies announces collaboration agreement with Magenta Therapeutics.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 2, 2017 Be The Match BioTherapiesSM, an organization offering solutions for delivering autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Magenta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing therapies to improve and expand the use of curative stem cell transplantation. The collaboration is intended to support efforts to improve transplant outcomes and expand the application of stem cell transplantation into disease indications that include autoimmunity, serious inherited immune and metabolic disorders, blood defects and blood cancers. Be The Match BioTherapies also announced today that it is participating in Magentas Series B financing round, its first equity investment as an organization.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Be The Match BioTherapies and Magenta will explore opportunities to work together across Magentas discovery, clinical development and product delivery efforts. The collaboration leverages a wide range of Be The Match BioTherapies research assets and services, including the National Marrow Donor Program(NMDP)/Be The Match marrow registry, the largest in the world with nearly 16 million volunteer marrow donors. Magenta may also collaborate with Be The Match BioTherapies in the design of clinical trials and of its cell therapy delivery platform and services.

Partnering with Magenta in its efforts to revolutionize the current state of stem cell transplantation aligns with our core mission to help organizations deliver cellular therapies that save more lives and improve the quality of life for patients, said Amy Ronneberg, President of Be The Match BioTherapies. Our collaboration with Magenta exemplifies how cell and gene therapy companies can benefit from our robust network of products and services regardless of where they are in the development life cycle. We look forward to lending our expertise in cellular therapy and leveraging our deep-rooted relationships, partnerships and global infrastructure to support the development of powerful treatment options with great potential to improve patient outcomes in a range of disease areas.

Jason Gardner, D. Phil., Chief Executive Officer, President, and Cofounder of Magenta, added: We believe that Be The Match BioTherapies extensive experience and network in stem cell transplant medicine, coupled with Magentas work in patient conditioning and stem cell harvesting and growth, could accelerate our development path and ability to positively impact patients lives.

Be The Match BioTherapies launched in 2016 as a subsidiary of NMDP/Be The Match, the national organization with a 30-year history of connecting patients with their donor match for a life-saving bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. As experts in providing services and expertise to organizations pursuing life-saving treatments in the cellular therapy space, Be The Match BioTherapies aims to help critically ill patients who can benefit from these treatments.

(Source:Business Wire)

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Cell Therapy Company Joins Forces with Biotech in New Transplantation Research Alliance - Pharmaceutical Processing

CIRM California’s stem cell research funding agency to lose … – San Francisco Business Times

By adminMay 3, 2017Stell Cell Research

Xconomy

CIRM California's stem cell research funding agency to lose ...
San Francisco Business Times
Randy Mills, who came in to right California's semi-public stem cell research funding agency, is leaving to head the National Marrow Donor Program. Mills three ...
CA Stem Cell Agency Chief Randy Mills to Leave After Three Years ...Xconomy
Be the Match names CEO to succeed retiring Chell - Minneapolis ...Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

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CIRM California's stem cell research funding agency to lose ... - San Francisco Business Times

StemCONN Symposium Shows Connecticut is Leader in Stem Cell Research – Wesleyan Connection (blog)

By adminMay 3, 2017Stell Cell Research

Wesleyan Connection (blog)

StemCONN Symposium Shows Connecticut is Leader in Stem Cell Research
Wesleyan Connection (blog)
Stem cell research continues to be an exciting and fast-paced field with new discoveries fueling prospects for new therapies based on regenerative medicine for a range of debilitating medical conditions, and Connecticut is at the leading edge of this ...

Triggering Stem Cells for Accelerated Healing – Anti Aging News

By adminMay 3, 2017Stell Cell Research

Recent research, led by assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the University of South Carolina Joseph T. Rodgers, has found a way to increase the bodys ability to heal after injury. The study was published in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Funding was also secured from the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation, Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study was co-sponsored by the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford. Clinical Research

In previous research, Rodgers proved that adult stem cells enter an alert state when the body sustains an injury. Alert stem cells have greater ability to heal and repair damaged tissues.

Rodgers theorized that blood from an injured person could produce a state of alert in another persons stem cells. Using lab mice, he and his team injected healthy mice with blood from their injured counterparts. The stem cells of the healthy mice were observed to adopt the state of alert.

The team was able to expose the chemical mechanism used to signal cells to enter an alert state as the enzyme Hepatocyte Growth Factor Activator (HGFA). HGFA is always present in the bloodstream but does not activate until the body experiences an injury. Once an injury occurs, the enzyme signals adult stem cells to enter the alert state.

Implications for Repair Response in the Injured Body

Once these findings were discovered, Rodgers team decided to investigate what would happen if an injury was sustained while the adult stem cells were already in a state of alert.

HGFA was injected into healthy mice. Several days later, the mice were given skin or muscle injuries. Test subjects were observed to heal faster, regrow missing fur, and return to running on exercise wheels sooner.

This research supports the idea that the presence of HGFA in the bloodstream prepares the body to respond more quickly and efficiently to injury. Similar to the way vaccines prepare the body to fight specific diseases, HGFA readies cells to respond to tissue damage.

Future Applications

In the future, people may be able to use HGFA before they engage in activities that could result in injury, like sports, surgery, or battle. HGFA could also be used in a therapeutic capacity for those with compromised healing abilities, like diabetes patients or senior citizens.

Forthcoming studies will explore how HGFA affects declines in the ability to heal, and how to use it to restore normal healing abilities.

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Triggering Stem Cells for Accelerated Healing - Anti Aging News

Auto pioneer’s family turns tragedy into discovery with $5 million commitment to bipolar research – Medical Xpress

By adminMay 1, 2017Stem Cell Medical Center

May 1, 2017 Stem cells derived from skin cells donated by people with and without bipolar disorder are helping researchers make discoveries about the condition at the most basic level. Credit: University of Michigan

Fifty years ago this spring, entrepreneur Heinz Prechter moved his company to Detroit, to answer car buyers' fast-growing demand for sunroofs. But even as his products brought light into more than a million vehicles, he fought darkness in his own life.

He struggled to keep his bipolar disorder hidden, until his suicide in July 2001 shocked the automotive industry.

Heinz's wife, Waltraud "Wally" Prechter, resolved to fight the stigma that led her husband to hide his mental illness, and to address the lack of scientific understanding about the condition and how best to treat it. She channeled her energy into helping the University of Michigan Depression Center do both, by donating and raising money for a U-M bipolar research fund in her husband's name.

Today, U-M named its entire bipolar disorder research program for Heinz Prechter, in honor of a new gift commitment of up to $5 million by the World Heritage Foundation - Prechter Family Fund.

But the gift comes with a challenge to others who care about bipolar disorder: The Prechter family will match every dollar given to U-M bipolar disease research up to $5 million. This will double the value of every donation, and the Prechter family gift will be available to researchers faster, if others step in to support the cause.

Once the challenge is met, the Prechter family's total giving to U-M bipolar research since Heinz Prechter's death will be well over $10 million. Philanthropic gifts, including individual, foundation and corporate gifts, are critical to the effort and account for more than half of the research funding in any given year. The Prechter family set up this gift as a match to encourage more philanthropic support of research into bipolar disorder.

"I think that if you canif you truly believe in somethingyou owe it to yourself to help, to give, and to make a difference. Because ultimately, that is all you leave behind," says Wally Prechter.

Says U-M president Mark Schlissel, M.D., Ph.D., "I deeply appreciate Wally Prechter's commitment to advancing bipolar disease research that will give hope to millions of people around the world. The Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program will enhance the University of Michigan's longstanding research initiatives and drive new medical discoveries to combat this devastating disorder."

Building new innovation and advancing bipolar science

"When we lost Heinz to his disease, it took Wally's bravery and generosity to help us create incredible good out of such a tragic loss," says John Greden, M.D., who was working with Heinz and Wally Prechter to create the U-M Depression Center at the time of Heinz's death. Greden is the Depression Center's director and a professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine, the U-M academic medical center.

"Without Wally Prechter's leadership over the past decade, we would not have been able to develop the world's first bipolar-specific stem cell lines, discover new genetic links, explore environmental factors or bring experts worldwide together as we have," says Melvin McInnis, M.D., who is the Thomas B. and Nancy Upjohn Woodworth Professor of Bipolar Disorder, professor of psychiatry, and director of the newly named Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program.

The Prechter family is committed to increasing scientific understanding and treatment options that will enable people with bipolar disorder to lead healthy and productive lives. The new gift will grow the endowment that provides for the continuation of the Prechter Longitudinal Study of Bipolar Disorder, which has been ongoing for 11 years.

The Longitudinal Study allows researchers to track symptoms, response to treatment and overall health over time like never before. Already, more than 1,200 dedicated individuals have partnered with the research team to track personal and medical information for this long-term study.

"Our participants are the real heroes," says Wally Prechter. "The goal of the Prechter Program is to identify effective solutions for people with bipolar disorder."

Volunteers can also donate samples of their blood, giving scientists the chance to study tiny differences in DNA that may play a role in how the disorder develops, why it runs in families, how it affects people over time and what makes people vary in their response to treatment.

The "bank" of DNA from hundreds of research participants over the last decade is called the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Genetics Repository, and it is the nation's largest privately funded bipolar genetics repository.

"We look forward to fueling new discoveries, and involving hundreds more people with bipolar and their families in the search for better treatments. The new funding, from the Prechters and others who believe in our work, will allow us to accelerate our pace of discovery," says McInnis.

The Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program will be the umbrella program over the Longitudinal Study of Bipolar Disorder and other bipolar research studies.

About bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a devastating, chronic mental illness with recurring episodes of mania (highs) and depression (lows). The illness causes unusual and dramatic shifts in mood, energy and behavior. Presently, 30 percent of individuals with bipolar disorder attempt suicide during their lives, and 20 percent die by suicide.

Although the direct cause of bipolar disorder is unclear, it has long been understood that genetic, biochemical and environmental factors play a role. Bipolar disorder runs in families, tends to recur throughout the life span and is affected by genes and life experiences.

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Auto pioneer's family turns tragedy into discovery with $5 million commitment to bipolar research - Medical Xpress

Protein that kick-starts gene expression in developing embryos. – Science Daily

By adminMay 1, 2017Embryonic Stem Cells

Protein that kick-starts gene expression in developing embryos.
Science Daily
Next, they looked at mouse embryonic stem cells, which contain the mouse version of the DUX4 gene (called simply DUX). When in culture, a small fraction of these cells exhibit a any given time the gene expression pattern of 2-cell stage embryos, before ...

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Protein that kick-starts gene expression in developing embryos. - Science Daily

Stem Cells in Culture Have Tendency to Develop Cancer-Linked Mutations – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

By adminMay 1, 2017Uncategorized

Stem cells that are grown in the lab are known to acquire mutations, but whether these mutations are particularly numerous or risky remains unclear. Mutations acquired in stem cell culture, it is feared, would complicate efforts to deploy stem cells in regenerative medicine. At the least, lab-grown stem cells may need to be screened for deleterious mutations, with special attention devoted to vulnerable portions of the genome or flaws that could lead to dire consequences, such as cancer.

To characterize the mutations that may arise among stem cells in vitro, scientists have been introducing gene-sequencing tests. For example, in a recent study, scientists based at Harvard have determined that human pluripotent stem cells are prone to develop mutations in the TP53 gene, which ordinarily helps suppress cancer. The mutated versions of the TP53 found by the Harvard team, however, tend to drive cancer development.

Details of this work appeared April 26 in the journal Nature, in an article entitled, Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Recurrently Acquire and Expand Dominant Negative P53 Mutations. This article describes how the Harvard team sequenced the protein-coding genes of 140 human embryonic stem cell (hES) cell lines26 of which were developed for therapeutic purposes using Good Manufacturing Practices, a quality control standard set by regulatory agencies in multiple countries. The remaining 114 human pluripotent stem cell lines were listed on the NIH registry of human pluripotent stem cells. This gene-sequencing exercise was followed by computational work that allowed the scientists to identify mutations present in a subset of cells in each cell line.

[We] identified five unrelated hES cell lines that carried six mutations in the TP53 gene that encodes the tumour suppressor P53, wrote the articles authors. The TP53 mutations we observed are dominant negative and are the mutations most commonly seen in human cancers. We found that the TP53 mutant allelic fraction increased with passage number under standard culture conditions, suggesting that the P53 mutations confer selective advantage.

The scientists also mined published RNA sequencing data from 117 human pluripotent stem cell lines, and observed another nine TP53 mutations, all resulting in coding changes in the DNA-binding domain of P53. In three lines, the authors of the Nature paper detailed, the allelic fraction exceeded 50%, suggesting additional selective advantage resulting from the loss of heterozygosity at the TP53 locus.

These findings suggest that cell lines should be screened for mutations at various stages of development as well as immediately before transplantation.

"Our results underscore the need for the field of regenerative medicine to proceed with care," said the study's co-corresponding author Kevin Eggan, Ph.D. "[They] indicate that an additional series of quality control checks should be implemented during the production of stem cells and their downstream use in developing therapies. Fortunately, these genetic checks can be readily performed with precise, sensitive, and increasingly inexpensive sequencing methods."

"Cells in the lab, like cells in the body, acquire mutations all the time," added Steve McCarroll, Ph.D., co-corresponding author. "Mutations in most genes have little impact on the larger tissue or cell line. But cells with a pro-growth mutation can outcompete other cells, become very numerous, and 'take over' a tissue. We found that this process of clonal selectionthe basis of cancer formation in the bodyis also routinely happening in laboratories."

Although the Harvard scientists expected to find some mutations in stem cell lines, they were surprised to find that about 5% of the stem cell lines they analyzed had acquired mutations the TP53 gene, which encodes the tumor suppressor protein P53.

Nicknamed the "guardian of the genome," P53 controls cell growth and cell death. People who inherit p53 mutations develop a rare disorder called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, which confers a near 100% risk of developing cancer in a wide range of tissue types.

The specific mutations that the researchers observed are "dominant negative" mutations, meaning, when present on even one copy of P53, they are able to compromise the function of the normal protein, whose components are made from both gene copies. The exact same dominant negative mutations are among the most commonly observed mutations in human cancers.

The researchers performed a sophisticated set of DNA analyses to rule out the possibility that these mutations had been inherited rather than acquired as the cells grew in the lab. In subsequent experiments, the Harvard scientists found that P53 mutant cells outperformed and outcompeted nonmutant cells in the lab dish. In other words, a culture with a million healthy cells and one P53 mutant cell, said Dr. Eggan, could quickly become a culture of only mutant cells.

"The spectrum of tissues at risk for transformation when harboring a P53 mutation include many of those that we would like to target for repair with regenerative medicine using human pluripotent stem cells," noted Dr. Eggan. Those organs include the pancreas, brain, blood, bone, skin, liver, and lungs.

However, Drs. Eggan and McCarroll emphasized that now that this phenomenon has been found, inexpensive gene-sequencing tests will allow researchers to identify and remove from the production line cell cultures with concerning mutations that might prove dangerous after transplantation.

The researchers point out in their paper that screening approaches to identify these P53 mutations and others that confer cancer risk already exist and are used in cancer diagnostics. In fact, in an ongoing clinical trial that is transplanting cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, gene sequencing is used to ensure the transplanted cell products are free of dangerous mutations.

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Stem Cells in Culture Have Tendency to Develop Cancer-Linked Mutations - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Stem cell therapy relieves pain, restores joints – The Herald-News

By adminMay 1, 2017Uncategorized

The 360+ joints in the human body link bones and keep our bodies flexible. Until they become painful. Physical discomfort, where bones meet to form a joint, can be mild to intensely agonizing when the joints cartilage, ligaments, tendons, or muscles become inflamed and sore. Pain in one joint may be the result of an injury, or a condition such as tendonitis. Pain in multiple joints may indicate arthritis or gout.

Many joint pain problems in the knees, hips, and shoulders can be relieved with stem cell injection therapy, according to Dr. Frank Ostir, Director, Ostir Physical Medicine in Joliet. He explains that stem cells have anti-inflammatory properties plus growth factors. They relieve pain and rebuild damaged joints by regenerating into new tissue and cartilage. Stem cells can also heal torn ligaments.

They speed up the bodys own healing abilities. Theres no risk of tissue rejection, and no toxic substances or side effects. This regenerative treatment gives the best results in the shortest amount of time, Ostir says.

This phenomenal advancement in regenerative medicine makes it possible for patients to be pain-free and possibly avoid surgery through a minimally invasive procedure performed in the office. The actual procedure takes about 15 minutes. We used guided imaging from fluoroscopy and ultrasound technology to inject the stem cells to the exact site of affliction. The stem cells are mixed with a local anesthetic and injected through a small needle, to minimize any discomfort.

Ostir continues, The patient usually rests on the day of the injection, and resumes regular activity afterwards. About 80 percent of healing occurs in the first two months of treatment, due to the rate of stem cells replicating. Its our hope that this truly amazing therapy will eliminate the need for drugs and surgery.

For more information, contact Ostir Physical Medicine, (815) 729-2022, or visit http://www.ostirphysicalmed.com.

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Stem cell therapy relieves pain, restores joints - The Herald-News

Combination therapy could provide new treatment option for ovarian cancer – Medical Xpress

By adminMay 1, 2017Stem Cell Treatment

May 1, 2017 Ovarian cancer tumors with higher percentages of cIAP-expressing cells, shown in red at left, were more sensitive to a potential combination therapy than tumor cells without cIAP-expressing cells. Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center

Researchers have been trying to understand why up to 85 percent of women experience recurrence of high-grade serous ovarian cancerthe most common subtype of ovarian cancerafter standard treatment with the chemotherapy drug carboplatin.

Preclinical research from Dr. Sanaz Memarzadeh, who is a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, has potentially solved this mystery and pinpointed a combination therapy that may be effective for up to 50 percent of women with ovarian cancer.

Memarzadeh's research, published in the journal Precision Oncology, shows a new combination therapy of carboplatin and an experimental drug called birinapant can improve survival in mice with ovarian cancer tumors. Additional findings reveal that testing for a specific protein could identify ovarian tumors for which the treatment could be effective. Importantly, the treatment could also target cancers that affect other parts of the body, including the bladder, cervix, colon and lung cancer.

In 2015, Memarzadeh and her team uncovered and isolated carboplatin-resistant ovarian cancer stem cells. These cells have high levels of proteins called cIAPs, which prevent cell death after chemotherapy. Since the cancer stem cells survive carboplatin treatment, they regenerate the tumor; with each recurrence of ovarian cancer, treatment options become more limited. Memarzadeh showed that birinapant, which degrades cIAPs, can make carboplatin more effective against some ovarian cancer tumors.

"I've been treating women with ovarian cancer for about two decades and have seen firsthand that ovarian cancer treatment options are not always as effective as they should be," said Memarzadeh, director of the G.O. Discovery Lab and member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Our previous research was promising, but we still had questions about what percentage of tumors could be targeted with the birinapant and carboplatin combination therapy, and whether this combination could improve overall survival by eradicating chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer tumors."

In this new study, the research team first tested whether the combination therapy could improve survival in mice. Half of the mice tested had carboplatin-resistant human ovarian cancer tumors and the other half had carboplatin-sensitive tumors. The team administered birinapant or carboplatin as well as the two drugs combined and then monitored the mice over time. While birinapant or carboplatin alone had minimal effect, the combination therapy doubled overall survival in half of the mice regardless of whether they had carboplatin-resistant or carboplatin-sensitive tumors.

"Our results suggest that the treatment is applicable in some, but not all, tumors," said Rachel Fujikawa, a fourth year undergraduate student in Memarzadeh's lab and co-first author of the study.

To assess the combination therapy's rate of effectiveness in tumors, the team went on to test 23 high-grade serous ovarian cancer tumors from independent patients. Some were from patients who had never been treated with carboplatin and some were from patients who had carboplatin-resistant cancer.

With these samples, the researchers generated ovarian cancer tumors utilizing a method called disease-in-a-dish modeling and tested the same treatments previously tested in mice. Once again, carboplatin or birinapant alone had some effect, while the combination of birinapant and carboplatin successfully eliminated the ovarian cancer tumors in approximately 50 percent of samples. Importantly, the combination therapy worked for both carboplatin-resistant and carboplatin-sensitive tumors.

The researchers also measured cIAPs (the target for the drug birinapant) in the tumors. They found a strong correlation between cancer stem cells with high levels of cIAP and a positive response to the combination therapy. Since elevated levels of cIAPs have been linked to chemotherapy resistance in other cancers, the researchers wondered if the combination therapy could effectively target those cancers as well.

The team created disease-in-a-dish models using human bladder, cervix, colon and lung cancer cells and tested the combination therapy. Similar to the ovarian cancer findings, 50 percent of the tumors were effectively targeted and high cIAP levels correlated with a positive response to the combination therapy.

"I believe that our research potentially points to a new treatment option. In the near future, I hope to initiate a phase 1/2 clinical trial for women with ovarian cancer tumors predicted to benefit from this combination therapy," said Memarzadeh, gynecologic oncology surgeon and professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Explore further: Combination therapy may be more effective against the most common ovarian cancer

More information: V. La et al, Birinapant sensitizes platinum-resistant carcinomas with high levels of cIAP to carboplatin therapy, npj Precision Oncology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41698-017-0008-z

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Combination therapy could provide new treatment option for ovarian cancer - Medical Xpress

Stem Cells 101, the Value Proposition – Live Trading News

By adminMay 1, 2017Stem Cell Treatment

Stem Cells 101, the Value Proposition

The Key purpose of stem cells is to maintain, heal and regenerate tissues wherever they reside in our body. This is a continuous process that occurs inside the human body throughout its life.

If we did not have stem cells, our lifespan would be about 1 hour, because there would be nothing to replace exhausted cells or damaged tissue. In addition, any time the body is exposed to any sort of toxin, the inflammatory process causes stem cells to swarm the area to repair the damage.

As an example: Say you went to the gym in the morning and did some squats. As a result of that, you would get tiny tears inside the muscle. The stem cells that reside beneath the muscle would come out and repair those little tears.

The reason that, if you continuously go to the gym, you would start to build new muscle, is because those stem cells, hard at work underneath your muscle, are helping to repair and build that new muscle. This would apply to all of the tissues inside your body.

Sure, it is easy to think of stem cell therapy as a magic bullet,but is wise to implement strategies that nourish and thereby help optimize the stem cells we already have in our body.

As noted by Kristin Comella, named # 1 on the Academy of Regenerative Practices list of Top 10 stem cell innovators, has been a stem cell researcher for nearly 20 years: You have to create an appropriate environment for these cells to function in. If you are putting garbage into your body and you are constantly burdening your body with toxins, your stem cells are getting too distracted trying to fight off those toxins.

By creating an appropriate environment, optimizing your diet and reducing exposure to toxins, that will allow the stem cells that were putting in to really home in and focus on the true issue that were trying to treat.

The other thing weve discovered over the years is that [stem cell therapy] is not the type of thing where you take one dose and youre cured forever. Our tissues are constantly getting damaged Youre going to have to repeat-dose and use those stem cells to your advantage.

When you think about a lizard that loses its tail, it takes two years to grow back the tail. Why would we put unrealistic expectations on the stem cells that were trying to apply to repair or replace damaged tissue? This is a very slow process. This is something that will occur over months and may require repeat dosing.

In the past, stem cells were isolated from bone marrow, and were used for bone marrow transplants for cancer patients since the 1930s. But, stem cells come from just about any tissue in the human body, as every tissue contains stem cells.

Human bone marrow has very low amounts of mesenchymal stem cells now believed to be the most important, from a therapeutic perspective.

Mesenchymal stem cells help trigger an immunomodulatory response or a paracrine effect, which means they send signals out to the rest of your body, calling cells to the area to help promote healing.

What researchers have discovered recently is that a more plentiful source of stem cells is actually your fat tissue. Body fat can contain up to 500X more cells than bone marrow, as far as these mesenchymal type stem cells go.

One thing that is also critically important when youre talking about isolating the cells is the number of other cells that are going to be part of that population.

When youre isolating a bone marrow sample, this actually is very high in white blood cells, which are pro-inflammatory.

White blood cells are part of your immune response. When an injury occurs, or a foreign body enters your system, white blood cells will attack. Unfortunately, white blood cells do not discriminate, and can create quite a bit of damage as they clean the area out, Ms. Comella says.

Stem cells, in particular the mesenchymal cells, quiet down the white blood cells and then start the regeneration phase, which leads to new tissue.

Bone marrow tends to be very high in white blood cells and low in the mesenchymal cells. Isolating stem cells from fat tissue is preferred not only because its easier on the patient, but fat also contains a higher population of mesenchymal cells and fewer white blood cells.

The benefit also of isolating [stem cells from] fat is that its a relatively simple procedure. Theres typically no shortage of fat tissue, especially in Americans.

Also, as you age, your bone marrow declines with regards to the number of cells in it, whereas the fat tissue maintains a pretty high number of stem cells, even in older individuals.

We can successfully harvest fat off of just about anyone, regardless of their age or how thin they are. The procedure is done under local [anesthesia], meaning that the patient stays awake. They dont have to go under general anesthesia. We can harvest as few as 15 cubic centimeters of fat, which is a very small amount of fat, and still get a very high number of stem cells, Ms. Comella says.

A stem cell procedure can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000, depending on what is being done, and rarely if ever will insurance cover it.

Still, when compared it to the cost of long-term medications or the out-of-pocket cost of getting a knee replacement, stem cell therapy may still be a less expensive alternative.

Also, a single extraction will typically yield enough stem cells for 20 to 25 future treatments, should one decide to store stem cells for future needs.

I think it is accessible for patients, Ms. Comella says. Its an out-patient procedure. One should plan to be in clinic for about 2 hours; no real limitations afterwards, just no submerging in water, no alcohol, no smoking for a week. But other than that, patients can resume their normal activities and go about their regular daily lives.

Interestingly, Ms. Comella notes that patients who eat a very healthy diet, focusing on Organic and grass fed meat, have body fat that is very hearty and almost sticky, yielding high amounts of very healthy stem cells.

We can grow much better and faster stem cells from that fat than [the fat from] somebody who eats a grain-based diet or is exposed to a lot of toxins in their diet, she says. Their fat tends to be very fluffy, buttery yellow. The cells that come out of that are not necessarily as good a quality. Its just been very interesting. And of note, patients that are cigarette smokers, their fat is actually gray-tinged in color. The stem cells do not grow well at all.

The beauty of stem cell therapy is that it mimics a process that is ongoing in the human body all the time. Our stem cells are continuously promoting healing, and they do not have to be manipulated in any way. The stem cells naturally know how to hone in on areas of inflammation and how to repair damaged tissue.

All we are doing is harnessing the cells from one location where theyre sitting dormant and relocating them to exactly where we want them and we need them to work, Ms.Comella says. Basically, anything inside your body that is inflamed, that is damaged in some way, that is lacking blood supply, the [stem] cells can successfully treat.

That means orthopedics, knee injections, shoulder injections, osteoarthritis, acute injuries, anterior cruciate ligament tears in your back back pain associated with degenerative disc disease or damaged tendons or ligaments, herniated and bulging discs. You can also use it in systemic issues, everything from diabetes, to cardiac, to lungs any tissue organ inside your body thats been damaged.

Autoimmune diseases [can also be treated]. The stem cells are naturally immunosuppressant, meaning they can help quiet down an over reactive immune system and help the immune system function in a more normal way. Neurological diseases, traumatic brain injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinsons. All of these have to do with tissue thats not functioning properly. The cells can be used to address that.

The list of different diseases that could benefit from this intervention is very impressive.

And one can dramatically improve the benefits of stem cell intervention by combining it with other healthy lifestyle factors that optimize mitochondrial function, such as eating a healthy Real Food diet, exercising, sleeping well, avoiding toxins and detoxifying from toxic influences.

Stem cells can be used as part of an anti-aging program. Ms. Comella has used stem cells on herself for several years, and report feeling better now than she did a decade ago.

The ability to reduce inflammation inside your body is basically making yourself live longer. Inflammation is what kills us all. Its what makes our telomeres shrink. Its what causes us pain and discomfort. Its what makes the tissues start to die. The ability to dose yourself with stem cells and bring down your inflammation, which is most likely caused by any sort of toxin that youve been exposed to breathing air is exposure to toxins this is going to lengthen your lifespan.

I typically will do a dose every 6 to 12 months, regardless of whats going on. If I have anything thats bothering me, if I tweak my knee at the gym, then I absolutely will come in and do an injection in my knee. I want to keep my tissue healthy for as long as possible.

I want to stay strong. I dont want to wait until something is wrong with me. I think that this is the future of medicine. This is what were going to start to see. People will begin to get their regular doses of [their own] stem cells and itll just be common practice.

Keep in mind there is a gradual and progressive decline in the quality and the number of stem cells as we age, so when considering this approach, it would be prudent and advantageous to extract and bank stem cells as early on as possible. There are stem cell banking services available.

Your stem cells are never as young as they are right now. Every minute that you live, your telomeres are shrinking. The ability to lock in the youth of your cells today can be very beneficial for you going forward, and for your health going forward. God forbid something happens. What if you have a heart attack? Youre not going to get clearance to get a mini-lipo aspirate procedure.

If you have your cells waiting in the bank, ready for you, it becomes very easy to pull a dose and do an IV delivery of cells. Its almost criminal that were not doing this for every single one of our cardiac patients. This should be standard practice. We should be having every single patient bank their stem cells at a young age and have them waiting, ready and available. The technology is there. We have it. Im not sure why this technology is not being made available to everyone,says.

I think stem cell therapy is very different than traditional medicine. Stem cell therapy may actually make it so that you dont have to be dependent on pharmaceutical medications. You can actually repair the tissue and thats it. This is a very different way of viewing medicine,Ms. Comella says.

The amniotic products available in the US are not so much stem cell products as they are growth factor products.

According to Ms. Comella, they can be useful in creating an immunomodulatory response, which can help to promote healing, but that differs from the living stem cell procedures that can be done by either isolating cells from body fat or bone marrow. As a general rule, clinical benefits are not achieved when using an amniotic product, primarily because they do not contain living stem cells.

I want to contrast that to what are called embryonic stem cells, Ms.Comella adds. The products obtained from cord blood, from women who are having babies, are not embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are when you are first bringing the egg and sperm together. Three days after that, you can isolate what is called an inner cell mass. This inner cell mass can be used to then grow cells in culture, or that inner cell mass could eventually lead to the formation of a baby.

Those are embryonic stem cells, and those are pluripotential, meaning that they have the ability to form an entire being, versus adult stem cells or stem cells that are present in amniotic tissue, [which] are multipotential, which only have the ability to form subsets of tissue.

When dealing with different diseases or damaged tissue or inflammation, mostly you want to repair tissue. If somebody has damage in their knee, they do nnot necessarily need embryonic cells because they do not need a baby in their knee. They need new cartilage in their knee.

Stem cell therapy is very different than traditional medicine. Stem cell therapy may actually make it so that we do have to depend on pharmaceutical medications. And we can actually repair the tissue and be done with it. This is a very different way of viewing medicine.

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Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of The Red Roadmasters Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.