Stem Cell Clinic

MS patients given stem cells improve

By Stem Cell Treatment

Stem cell therapy may have helped patients with a form of multiple sclerosis, according to a preliminary study.

Patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis showed signs of improvement after being treated with their own, or autologous "nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cells," a class of blood-forming stem cells, the study found. It was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Half, or 41 patients, tested two years after treatment experienced significant improvement on the Expanded Disability Status Scale, a measure of disability. And of patients tested at 4 years, 23, or 64 percent, showed significant improvement. Four-year relapse-free survival was 80 percent and progression-free survival was 87 percent.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of significant and sustained improvement in the EDSS score following any treatment for MS," stated the study. It was led by Dr. Richard K. Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago.

However, only limited conclusions can be drawn from the uncontrolled study, according to scientists who examined the results. While the therapy was associated with improvement, the stem cell transplant may not have been key. A conditioning regimen that partially depleted the stem cells before transplantation may have been responsible, said Dr. Stephen L. Hauser in a JAMA article accompanying the study.

"According to Carl Sagan, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,' a standard that is not always met in this report, and not claimed by the authors. Even though the authors appropriately acknowledge many of the limitations associated with their case series, their statement that 'to our knowledge, this is the first report of significant and sustained improvement in the EDSS score following any treatment for MS' could be challenged," Hauser wrote.

Jeanne Loring, a stem cell researcher who studies multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, agreed that the results are far from conclusive.

"Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the patients' own immune cells attack their own nervous systems," Loring said by email after examining the study. "The authors of the JAMA article treated MS patients with their own blood stem cells in the hope that these cells would replace some of the self-destructive immune cells."

However, the uneven course of MS makes it hard to draw conclusions, wrote Loring, who heads the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.

"Most patients with MS have attacks, followed by recovery, followed by another attack. In a few of these patients, the blood stem cell treatment seemed to extend their time between attacks. It's important to understand that other treatments, including drugs, have shown similar modest improvements, so it's too soon to celebrate a stem cell therapy."

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MS patients given stem cells improve

Health researchers digging into own pockets to bridge gap in funding

By Stem Cell Doctors

Later this month, Torontos University Health Network is planning to enroll a dozen patients with arthritis-wracked knees in a clinical trial of a stem-cell treatment that researchers hope could one day make artificial joint replacements obsolete.

The trial, a Canadian first, wont be cheap, despite the small number of recruits. To cover the estimated $500,000 cost, the researchers turned to an unconventional source of funding: 10 orthopedic surgeons at UHNs Toronto Western site who donated a total of $1.25-million of their own money beginning five years ago to kick-start the networks research into a cure for arthritis.

The orthopedic surgeons decision to raid their own bank accounts to help pay for research is a rare but not unheard-of move in Canada, one that was driven in part by how much harder it has become to score publicly funded medical research grants in this country.

We felt very strongly that in order to go to anybody and say, Would you please give me support for this idea? we had to have our own commitment beyond just the time and effort we would all have to put in, said Nizar Mahomed, director of the UNH arthritis program and one of the surgeons who donated $125,000 over five years. We needed to make a commitment of actual dollars and put skin in the game.

The doctors gift prompted a philanthropic avalanche from grateful patients toward a campaign that has now raised $38-million to combat osteoarthritis, a disease that affects 4.6 million Canadians but does not traditionally have the fundraising pull of cancer or heart disease. The upcoming stem-cell experiment is the first human trial to be funded by the campaign.

In 2011, the neurosurgery team of 14 doctors at UHN, a network of four downtown Toronto hospitals, followed the lead of the orthopedic surgeons and made a collective $1-million donation to brain research. Last year, a group of eight orthopedic surgeons in Thunder Bay announced a $2-million personal donation over 10 years to a research project aimed at reducing diabetic limb amputations in Ontarios remote northern communities. And it is not uncommon for doctors and other health-care workers to give to the charitable foundations that support their hospitals.

What all these physicians have in common is the challenging research-funding climate in which they are operating.

I think its pretty clear that the accessibility to funds has never been more competitive, said Jim Woodgett, director of research at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Torontos Mount Sinai Hospital.

To give one telling example, the success rate for applications to the Canadian Institutes of Health Researchs open operating grant program the federal agencys largest pot of money, which accounts for a little over half of all the funding it doles out fell to 18 per cent for 2014-2015, down from 33 per cent less than a decade earlier.

Part of the explanation for the low success rate for the 2014-2015 granting year was an unusual spike in applications as investigators scrambled to submit proposals before an administrative revamp takes full effect at CIHR.

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Health researchers digging into own pockets to bridge gap in funding

Stem Cell Study | Perlmutter Health Center

By Stem Cell Medical Center

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, (http://ajpheart.physiology.org) hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by 800% the number of stem cells circulating in a patients body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells, are important players in repairing the body after injury and in tissue regeneration. Stem cells exist in the bone marrow and are capable of changing their characteristics to become part of many different organs and tissues. When a body part is injured, stem cells are mobilized and provide the cells necessary for the healing process to occur. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) provides an important trigger or stimulus for this mobilization.It is for this reason that HBOT was utilized and likely responsible, at least in part, for the remarkable recovery Randal McCloy Jr., the only survivor of the recent of Sago Mineaccident.

CHEST: Hyperbaric Oxygen Credited for Miners Recovery CME Teaching Brief MedPage Today

This is the safest way clinically to increase stem cell circulation, far safer than any of the pharmaceutical options, said Stephen Thom, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, lead author of the study. This study provides information on the fundamental mechanisms for hyperbaric oxygen and offers a new theoretical therapeutic option for mobilizing stem cells We reproduced the observations from humans in animals in order to identify the mechanism for the hyperbaric oxygeneffect.

So, in addition to increasing blood supply and reducing the damaging effects of free radicals, this is yet another mechanism explaining the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a variety of brain disorders including head trauma, stroke, multiple sclerosis, hypoxic brain injury, Parkinsons disease, cerebral palsy and vasculardementia.

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Stem Cell Study | Perlmutter Health Center

I've been 'scammed': doctor

By Stem Cell Clinic

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

By: Mary Agnes Welch and Melissa Martin

Posted: 01/18/2015 10:42 PM | Comments:

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Medical researcher Doug Broeksas firm, Regenetek, is located at 1213 Chevrier Blvd. in Winnipeg. A family physician who worked with him says she is shocked by revelations he inflated his credentials. Photo Store

The Winnipeg physician who worked closely with a now-discredited medical researcher says she was "duped" by Doug Broeska and is shocked by recent revelations.

"Scammed, yes. Duped, yes," said Susan Hauch, a physician and associate professor at the University of Manitoba medical school. "Weve all been duped."

She said shes shocked by news Broeska inflated his credentials, overstated the effects of the stem cell treatment and was asked recently by an Indian ethics committee to resign as the studys principal investigator because he put patient safety at risk. "Its very unfortunate things had to come out this way because its shattered a lot of lives," Hauch said by phone Sunday. "This has been a very shocking situation."

For the last three years, patients with multiple sclerosis and, more recently, Lou Gehrigs disease, have paid Broeskas Winnipeg company, Regenetek Research, as much as $45,000 to travel to Pune, India, for stem cell treatment. Thats despite ethics rules that bar doctors from charging patients to be part of clinical trials.

While many Regenetek patients saw their MS symptoms shrink, many others did not, and began raising questions about Broeska and his treatment.

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I've been 'scammed': doctor

Optimism on stem cells, ahead of reality

By Stem Cell Treatment

Illustration: John Spooner

One of the joys for those who work in the health services area is bringing relief to patients from chronic conditions.

And as the level of desperation rises, some patients will pay over the odds for treatment, pursing unproven options in the hope of some improvement in their condition. And where there is unmet demand, supply soon steps in to fill the gap.

Last year, there was intense global media attention on stem cell treatments following a paralysed patient in Poland who walked after a cell transplant, a project involving Polish and UK researchers.

Stem cells may well offer significant potential promise for patients in a range of treatments. But to date, much of that optimism has run well ahead of the reality.

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Clinical trials to ensure the efficacy and safety of medical treatments is slow and laborious, taking several years, at the very least, to verify the merits of a treatment before then seeking approvals to offer the treatment to patients.

But for those searching for a stem cell treatment in Australia, there is a loophole: a referral from your doctor is often all it takes to get access, even though there is scant proof that the patient benefits.

Clearly, some patients so badly want to believe the treatment is good for them that this will override the necessary caution.

Much of this activity is taking place in private clinics, although sharemarket investors, too, have stem cell groups they can invest in.

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Stem cell treatment has California researchers a step closer to HIV cure

By Stem Cell Treatment

DAVIS, CA (KOVR) - Researchers at UC Davis say they are one step closer to finding a cure for HIV in a breakthrough study for millions around the world living with the virus.

At 60 years old, Paul Curtis looks like the picture of health.

I exercise, eat well get a lot of rest, he said.

But 30 years ago, Curtis was diagnosed as HIV-positive. Doctors told him he might have a year to live, but he's proven them wrong.

With this disease, it's imperative that you take the medications consistently, Curtis said.

He relies on medication daily. At one point he took more than 40 pills a day. And he can't miss a dose.

The virus mutates rapidly when you miss doses, he said.

He's one of millions worldwide waiting for a cure. Previous studies have come close, but none have proven to fight off the virus with stem cell therapy.

Dr. Joe Anderson says he has developed genetically modified human stem cells, which have resisted infection in mice.

When we infected the mice that had these HIV-resistant that had these HIV-resistant immune cells in them, we saw that HIV infection was blocked, he said.

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Stem cell treatment has California researchers a step closer to HIV cure

Shin splints/muscle atrophy three months after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. – Video

By Uncategorized


Shin splints/muscle atrophy three months after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Angela is a life-long triathlete. Ten years ago she developed severe shin splints in her left leg that resulted in atrophy of her lower leg muscles. Here, sh...

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Shin splints/muscle atrophy three months after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. - Video

Winnipeg company offering stem cell therapy is fraudulent, MS sufferer alleges

By Uncategorized

A Winnipeg-based company that has touted its ability to improve the lives of Multiple Sclerosis patients through stem cell therapy is now under the microscope after allegations of fraud from a client.

The CEO of Regenetek Research Inc. has been collecting thousands of dollars from Canadian patients looking for help. Some of the patients are now questioning the research and credentials of the man they know as Dr. Doug.

One of them is Lee Chuckry, 47. He has been living with MS for nearly two decades.

MS just keeps progressing, thats what it does. Hopefully I could stop it. That was my ultimate goal, Chuckry said in an interview with CTV News.

His efforts led him to Regenetek, and its CEO: Doug Broeska.

In testimonials, MS patients attributed miraculous medical improvement to experimental stem cell therapy. For $35,000, Regenetek patients were flown to India for the procedure.

Chuckry was one of the participants. But when he returned home, he says his symptoms worsened.

When he started digging deeper, he said, he found the doctor hed put his faith in wasnt what he claimed to be.

Im going to call Doug a con artist, Chuckry said. You are preying on people who are desperate. They are looking for hope of any sort.

Chuckry and at least one other patient have gone to the RCMP. They allege Broeska, who claims to hold a PhD and a Bachelor of Science, is a fraud who is operating as a medical researcher without proper credentials.

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Winnipeg company offering stem cell therapy is fraudulent, MS sufferer alleges

Bone stem cells shown to regenerate bones, cartilage in adult mice

By Stem Cell Medicine

A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported today in the online issue of the journal Cell.

The cells, called osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells, were discovered by tracking a protein expressed by the cells. Using this marker, the researchers found that OCR cells self-renew and generate key bone and cartilage cells, including osteoblasts and chondrocytes. Researchers also showed that OCR stem cells, when transplanted to a fracture site, contribute to bone repair.

"We are now trying to figure out whether we can persuade these cells to specifically regenerate after injury. If you make a fracture in the mouse, these cells will come alive again, generate both bone and cartilage in the mouse--and repair the fracture. The question is, could this happen in humans," says Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at CUMC and a senior author of the study.

The researchers believe that OCR stem cells will be found in human bone tissue, as mice and humans have similar bone biology. Further study could provide greater understanding of how to prevent and treat osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or bone fractures.

"Our findings raise the possibility that drugs or other therapies can be developed to stimulate the production of OCR stem cells and improve the body's ability to repair bone injury--a process that declines significantly in old age," says Timothy C. Wang, MD, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at CUMC, who initiated this research. Previously, Dr. Wang found an analogous stem cell in the intestinal tract and observed that it was also abundant in the bone.

"These cells are particularly active during development, but they also increase in number in adulthood after bone injury," says Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development, chair of the Department of Genetics & Development, and a member of the research team.

The study also showed that the adult OCRs are distinct from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which play a role in bone generation during development and adulthood. Researchers presumed that MSCs were the origin of all bone, cartilage, and fat, but recent studies have shown that these cells do not generate young bone and cartilage. The CUMC study suggests that OCR stem cells actually fill this function and that both OCR stems cells and MSCs contribute to bone maintenance and repair in adults.

The researchers also suspect that OCR cells may play a role in soft tissue cancers.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Columbia University Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Bone stem cells shown to regenerate bones, cartilage in adult mice

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