Stem Cell Clinic

New Valley Medical program collects umbilical cord blood

By Stem Cell Medical Center

UW Medicine/Valley Medical Center and Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC) have joined together in a program to collect umbilical cord blood from new mothers who have just given birth. Cord blood is an important source of stem cells that can be used in lifesaving cancer treatment and research.

At the birth center here at Valley Medical Center, we have always been dedicated to providing comprehensive, high quality healthcare for the community we serve, said Judy Roudebush, vice president of Womens and Childrens Services at Valley Medical Center, in a press release. This new partnership between Valley and PSBC will help us to continue to expand care options for our community.

Cord blood is the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of a baby. Once considered a waste product that was discarded, umbilical cord blood is now known to be rich in life-saving hematopoietic stem cells the parent cells of all blood cells. About 150 milliliters of cord blood can be collected from each placenta and umbilical cord.

This program provides new moms with an opportunity to save lives at the same time they are bringing a new life into the world, remarked Donna Russell, principal at Donna Russell Consulting, LLC and Cchair of the Valley Medical Center Board of Trustees.

Cord blood collection is a painless procedure that does not interfere with the birth, or with mother-and-child bonding following delivery. There is no risk to either the mother or baby, and no cost associated with the donation. Families interested in donating cord blood at Valley Medical Center have several options for enrollment, depending on the babys due date.

We welcome this opportunity to partner with healthcare providers at Valley Medical Center to introduce a new on-site cord blood collection program, said Dr. James P. AuBuchon, president and CEO of PSBC. Cord blood is an important source for stem cell transplants that can be used to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma and some metabolic or immune system disorders.

Families interested in donating cord blood should speak to their healthcare providers about how to make arrangements.

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New Valley Medical program collects umbilical cord blood

Human Stomach Made in the Lab Using Stem Cells

By Stem Cell Medical Center

Using pluripotent stem cells researchers have been able to build a mini stomach in the lab.REUTERS

In a first, a miniature stomach was created in the lab by scientists using stem cells.

Pluripotent stem cells that can grow into any cell type were used by scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to generate the artificial stomach.

The scientists identified the steps in stomach formation in the human embryo and by manipulating these in a petri dishwere able to coax the stem cells to form a mini stomachmeasuring 3 mm in diameter.

They then studied how h.pylori bacteria affected stomach tissues and spread rapidly. The bacteria is responsible for peptic ulcer and stomach cancer.

This first-time molecular generation of a 3D human stomach (called gastric organoid) presents new opportunities for drug discovery, modelling early stages of stomach cancer and studying some of the underpinnings of obesity related diabetes, according to Jim Wells, PhD, principal investigator and a scientist in the divisions of Developmental Biology and Endocrinology at Cincinnati Children's.

The work was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The discovery of how to promote formation of three-dimensional gastric tissue with complex architecture and cellular composition is important as mouse models are sometimes not the best fit when studying human ailments, the team said.

The human gastric organoids will be useful to identify biochemical processes in the gut that allow gastric-bypass patients to become diabetes-free soon after surgery before losing significant weight.

Obesity fuelled diabetes and metabolic syndrome are public health challenges, addressing which has been difficult due to lack of reliable laboratory modelling systems.

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Human Stomach Made in the Lab Using Stem Cells

First human stomach tissue grown in lab

By Stem Cell Medical Center

US researchers generated functional, three-dimensional human stomach tissue to create miniature stomachs using pluripotent stem cells in a laboratory.

Human pluripotent stem cells can transform into any cell type in the body.

"Until this study, no one had generated gastric cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)," said Jim Wells, principal investigator and a scientist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

"In addition, we discovered how to promote formation of three-dimensional gastric tissue with complex architecture and cellular composition," Wells added.

"This first-time molecular generation of 3D human gastric organoids (hGOs) presents new opportunities for drug discovery, modelling early stages of stomach cancer and studying some of the underpinnings of obesity related diabetes," Wells said.

Differences between species in the embryonic development and architecture of the adult stomach make mouse models less than optimal for studying human stomach development and disease, Wells pointed out.

The key to growing human gastric organoids was to identify the steps involved in normal stomach formation during embryonic development.

By manipulating these normal processes in a petri dish, the scientists were able to coax pluripotent stem cells into becoming stomach cells.

Over the course of a month, these steps resulted in the formation of 3D human gastric organoids that were about 3 mm (1/10th of an inch) in diameter.

The study appeared in the journal Nature.

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First human stomach tissue grown in lab

Seminar on Regenerative Medicine Open to Public

By Stem Cell Clinic

JACKSON, Tenn. (PRWEB) October 30, 2014

Dr. Roy Schmidt and the staff of the Pain Specialist Center will host a free seminar and question-and-answer session about regenerative medicine on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. Held at the clinic at 15 Stonebridge Blvd. in Jackson, the hour-long event will allow attendees to ask questions about stem cell therapy and platelet rich plasma therapy in a relaxed atmosphere. Guests also will have the chance to talk to individuals who have received regenerative medicine treatments, which focus on helping patients relieve pain by supporting the healing process.

Stem cell therapy focuses on delivering the patients own stem cells to parts of the body that are in need. After adipose tissue (comprised of fat cells) is taken from the patients body, it is made into a stem cell concentrate. That concentrate is injected at the focal point of pain or area that needs healing. Schmidt, who is certified to administer stem cell therapy, was trained by Bioheart Chief Scientific Officer Kristin Comella. Comella has been recognized as a national leader in stem cell therapy.

Platelet rich plasma (PRP) or platelet concentrates have been studied extensively since the 1990s. While similar products previously used in medicine (fibrin glue) were very expensive, PRP provides a cost-effective alternative. Plasma concentrates seek to help the body continue the healing process and strengthen the weakened tissue. It is often used for tendon problems, in addition to issues with ligaments, muscles, meniscus, cartilage, bone, wound and intervertebral discs. The supplemental role of hyperbaric oxygen therapy will be discussed at the event, also.

A board certified anesthesiologist, Schmidt has practiced pain management in the Jackson area for two decades. The Pain Specialist Center provides consultation and pain management services to patients suffering from chronic pain syndromes and terminal cancer pain. Individuals can learn more by going online to http://beyondpills.com, http://nopainmd.com and http://hyperbaricoxygentherapies.com, calling 731-660-2056 or e-mailing info(at)beyondpills(dot)com. Event information is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PainSpecialistCenter.

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Seminar on Regenerative Medicine Open to Public

Mechanism that allows differentiated cell to reactivate as a stem cell revealed

By Uncategorized

One kind of stem cell, those referred to as 'facultative', form part -- together with other cells -- of tissues and organs. There is apparently nothing that differentiates these cells from the others. However, they have a very special characteristic, namely they retain the capacity to become stem cells again. This phenomenon is something that happens in the liver, an organ that hosts cells that stimulate tissue growth, thus allowing the regeneration of the organ in the case of a transplant. Knowledge of the underlying mechanism that allows these cells to retain this capacity is a key issue in regenerative medicine.

Headed by Jordi Casanova, research professor at the Instituto de Biologa Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB) of the CSIC and at IRB Barcelona, and by Xavier Franch-Marro, CSIC tenured scientist at the Instituto de Biologa Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), a study published in the journal Cell Reports reveals a mechanism that could explain this capacity. Working with larval tracheal cells of Drosophila melanogaster, these authors report that the key feature of these cells is that they have not entered the endocycle, a modified cell cycle through which a cell reproduces its genome several times without dividing.

"The function of endocycle in living organisms is not fully understood," comments Xavier Franch-Marro. "One of the theories is that endoreplication contributes to enlarge the cell and confers the production of high amounts of protein." This is the case of almost all larval cells of Drosophila.

The scientists have observed that the cells that enter the endocycle lose the capacity to reactivate as stem cells. "The endocycle is linked to an irreversible change of gene expression in the cell," explains Jordi Casanova, "We have seen that inhibition of endocycle entry confers the cells the capacity to reactivate as stem cells."

Cell entry into the endocycle is associated with the expression of the Fzr gene. The researchers have found that inhibition of this gene prevents this entry, which in turn leads to the conversion of the cell into an adult progenitor that retains the capacity to reactivate as a stem cell. Therefore, this gene acts as a switch that determines whether a cell will enter mitosis (the normal division of a cell) or the endocycle, the latter triggering a totally different genetic program with a distinct outcome regarding the capacity of a cell to reactivate as a stem cell.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Mechanism that allows differentiated cell to reactivate as a stem cell revealed

Riordan-McKenna Institute Founders, Neil Riordan, PhD and Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Wade McKenna Present at the Mid …

By Uncategorized

Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) October 30, 2014

On October 26th at the Mid American Regenerative and Cellular Medicine Showcase in Chicago, leading applied stem cell research scientist Neil Riordan, PhD and Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Wade McKenna presented talks on New Techniques for Enhancing Stem Cell Therapy Effectiveness and Orthopedic Surgical Applications For Stem Cells.

Dr. Riordan focused on historical medical uses of amniotic membrane and the properties of AlphaGEMS that include: wound healing; inflammation and pain reduction; fibrosis risk reduction; growth factor source; adhesion reduction; regeneration support and stem cell enhancement, specifically regarding the mesenchymal stem cells contained within BMAC.

Dr. McKenna discussed the latest applications of BMAC stem cells in orthopedic surgeries like anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and how BMAC injections can virtually eliminate infection risk, reduce complications, increase graft strength, reduce post-surgical inflammation and significantly reduce recovery time. Dr. McKenna also talked about how bone marrow can now be safely and relatively painlessly harvested using his patented BioMAC catheter under local, not general anesthesia.

Dr. Riordan and Dr. McKenna are co-founders of the Riordan-McKenna Institute (RMI), which will be opening soon in Southlake, Texas. RMI will specialize in regenerative orthopedics including non-surgical stem cell therapy and stem cell-enhanced surgery using bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) and AlphaGEMS amniotic tissue product.

Other noteworthy speakers in attendance included: Paolo Macchiarini, MD-PhD, Arnold Caplan, PhD and Mark Holterman, MD-PhD. Dr. Macchiarini and Dr. Holterman are well known for their work on the first stem cell trachea transplant. Dr. Caplan discovered the mesenchymal stem cell and is commonly referred to as the father of the mesenchymal stem cell.

About Neil Riordan PhD

Dr. Riordan is the co-founder of the Riordan-McKenna Institute (RMI), which will be opening soon in Southlake, Texas. RMI will specialize in regenerative orthopedics including non-surgical stem cell therapy and stem cell-enhanced surgery using bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) and AlphaGEMS amniotic tissue product.

Dr. Riordan is founder and chief scientific officer of Amniotic Therapies Inc. (ATI). ATI specializes in amniotic tissue research and development. Its current product line includes AlphaGEMS and AlphaPATCH amniotic tissue-based products.

Dr. Riordan is the founder and chairman of Medistem Panama, Inc., (MPI) a leading stem cell laboratory and research facility located in the Technology Park at the prestigious City of Knowledge in Panama City, Panama. Founded in 2007, MPI stands at the forefront of applied research on adult stem cells for several chronic diseases. MPI's stem cell laboratory is ISO 9001 certified and fully licensed by the Panamanian Ministry of Health. Dr. Riordan is the founder of Stem Cell Institute (SCI) in Panama City, Panama (est. 2007).

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Riordan-McKenna Institute Founders, Neil Riordan, PhD and Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Wade McKenna Present at the Mid ...

Cellular alchemy turns skin cells into brain cells

By Stem Cell Medicine

Move over stem cells. A different kind of cellular alchemy is allowing cells to be converted directly into other tissues to treat disease or mend injuries.

Stem cells have long been touted as the future of regenerative medicine as they can multiply indefinitely and be turned into many different cell types. Ideally, this would take a personal approach a patient's own cells would be converted into whatever type of cell is required to fix their injury or treat their symptoms. Earlier this year, for instance, people with age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the West, had retinal cells made from their own stem cells injected into their eyes.

Mature cells can be converted into stem cells by exposing them to a cocktail of chemicals that reverts them back to an embryonic-like state. Another set of chemicals is then used to turn the cells into the desired tissue type.

Skipping the stem cell stage would be more efficient, says Andrew Yoo of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and would reduce the chance that the new tissue could grow into a tumour a risk with stem cells because of their capacity to regenerate.

Yoo has now managed to do just that, using a process known as "transdifferentiation". His team have turned human skin cells into medium spiny neurons, the cells that go wrong in Huntington's disease.

To the skin cells, the team added two short snippets of genetic material called microRNAs. MicroRNAs are signalling molecules and the two they picked turn on genes in brain cells during embryonic development. They also added four transcription factors another kind of signalling molecule to turn on genes normally active in medium spiny neurons.

Within four weeks the skin cells had changed into MSNs. When put into the brains of mice, the cells survived for at least six months and made connections with the native tissue. "This is a very cool result," says Ronald McKay of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore.

The team's next step is to transplant the cells into mice with a version of Huntington's to see if the new neurons reduce their symptoms.

"Being able to produce cells with medium spiny neuron characteristics directly without first having to generate stem cells is impressive," says Edward Wild of University College London. "Using this offers the tantalising prospect of cell replacement treatments."

Wild points out, however, that before this approach can be used on people with Huntington's, researchers would first have to correct the faulty genetic mutation in their skin cells. And while medium spiny neurons are the first to degenerate in the disease, other brain cells may also be affected. "When it comes to cell replacement we should probably be aiming for a cocktail of cells," says Wild.

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Cellular alchemy turns skin cells into brain cells

Mini-Stomachs Let Scientists Study Ulcers in a Lab Dish

By Stem Cell Medical Center

Scientists have grown miniature stomachs in a lab dish using stem cells, and are already using them to study stomach cancer. They hope they can grow patches to fix ulcers, find new drugs to treat and even prevent stomach cancer, and perhaps even grow replacement stomachs some day.

They discovered that the bacteria that cause stomach cancer begin doing their dirty work almost immediately, attaching to the stomach lining and causing tumors to start growing in response. Helicobacter pylori causes many, if not most, cases of stomach cancer, which affects more than 22,000 Americans a year and kills half of them. Stomach cancer is a major killer globally, affecting close to a million people a year and killing more than 70 percent of them.

And the team grew their mini-stomachs using two different types of stem cells human embryonic stem cells, grown from very early human embryos, but also induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells, which are made by tricking bits of skin or other tissue into acting like a stem cell.

In our hands they worked exactly the same, James Wells of Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, who led the research. Both were able to generate, in a petri dish, human stomach tissue.

Immunofluorescent image of human stomach tissue made using stem cells

Stem cells are the body's master cells. Embryonic stem cells and iPS cells are both pluripotent meaning they can give rise to any tissue in the body. They've been used to grow miniature human livers, retinas, brain tissue and have been injected into eyes to treat eye disease.

Growing anything close to a real stomach or even a patch for an ulcer is a long way off. The gastric organoids Wellss team made the name up are just about the size of a BB bullet.

Its not easy getting stem cells to do what you want them to do. Wells and his team, including graduate student Kyle McCracken, had to use various growth factors and chemicals, each introduced at precisely the right time, to coax the cells into becoming three-dimensional blobs of stomach tissue. The stomach is a complex organ, with layers of muscle cells, cells that make up the stomach lining and glands that secrete proteins and acid to digest food.

"The bacteria immediately know what to do and they behaved as if they were in the stomach.

But the process worked, and the mini-stomachs look just like stomach tissue, the team reports in this weeks issue of the journal Nature.

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Mini-Stomachs Let Scientists Study Ulcers in a Lab Dish

Scientists grow miniature human stomachs from stem cells

By Stem Cell Medical Center

A CT scan of a human abdomen with stomach cancer. Photograph: Bojan Fatur/Getty Images

Scientists have grown miniature human stomachs from stem cells as a way of studying gastric diseases such as ulcers and stomach cancer and in the future creating tissue to repair patients stomachs.

The mini-stomachs are grown in petri dishes from stem cells. Fully formed, they are the size of a pea and shaped like a rugby ball. They are hollow with an interior lining that is folded into glands and pits like a real stomach.

Crucially, the researchers found that the miniature stomachs, known as gastric organoids, respond to infection very much like ordinary human stomachs.

There hasnt been any good way to study human stomach disease before because animals just dont get the same diseases, said James Wells, director of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility, Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, who led the research which is published in Nature.

Human gastric diseases are associated with chronic infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Half the worlds population is infected with the bug, which can be picked up from food. Although most people do not show symptoms, once the infection is present up to 20% of carriers will develop gastric ulcers during their lifetimes. Around 2% will develop stomach cancer.

In developing countries, where H. pylori infection is more prevalent, gastric cancers are the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

Having grown the mini-stomachs, the researchers then injected them with H. pylori. In animals, H. pylori has little effect and disease does not follow but in the gastric organoid, the invading bacteria behaved as if it were a real human stomach.

The bacteria began injecting their proteins into the surrounding cells, and started to multiply. This is the hallmark of infection, said Wells. We can now very effectively study the bacteria and how it generates diseases. This has never been possible before with human tissue in vitro.

This is not the first time that miniature organs have been grown from stem cells. In 2013, scientists grew miniature kidneys and successfully transplanted into a rat. Replacement windpipes, grown from stem cells on lab-made scaffolds, have also been grown and transplanted into patients.

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Scientists grow miniature human stomachs from stem cells

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