Stem Cell Clinic

Lung Center defends DAP-funded stem cell program

By Stem Cell Treatment

PCP: Stem cell therapy untested, expensive, and experimental

MANILA - The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) defended the P70 million it received as funding from the Disbursement Acceleration Program for a stem cell research project.

LCP Executive Director Jose Luis J. Danguilan admitted receiving P105 million in total allocations from the DAP, which he said was spent wisely. He said P35 million was spent for the LCP's pediatric unit while the rest went to stem cell research.

The stem cell research program was listed as the 15th item in the Department of Budget and Management list. It was named as the LCPs Bio-Regenerative Technology Program.

The project intends to "fund the Bio-Regenerative Program aimed at harnessing stem cell research and technology to reconstruct new healthy cells, replacing cancer or dead cells."

Danguilan said the equipment bought for both the stem cell and pediatric unit programs have other uses.

"To spend the money wisely, it was decided that pieces of equipment needed for the Bioregenerative Program and the Pediatric Unit could also be used by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory, the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Surgery, the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and the Department of Radiology," he said.

He also noted the money was used to purchase equipment and supplies for the LCP Molecular Diagnostics and Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory for research "mainly on dendritic cell vaccine for use in cancer treatment, specifically lung cancer."

"To place things in perspective, the LCP is a tertiary hospital for pulmonary and other chest diseases, and as far as I know, it is the only tertiary pulmonary specialty hospital in the Philippines. As such, it should take the lead, not only in cutting edge treatment but also in advocacies," he added.

On Tuesday, members of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) said the priorities of the government when it comes to funding projects under the DAP seem to be misplaced.

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Lung Center defends DAP-funded stem cell program

Experimental stem cell treatment causes woman to grow parts of a nose on her spine

By Stem Cell Treatment

Stem cells are seen as one of modern medicine's most promising magic bullets, but that doesn't mean that we understand them. A paralyzed woman from the US has learned this the hard way, after an experimental treatment caused her to grow a nose-like tumor on her back. The unnamed person took part in a trial whereby stem cells from her nose were applied to her spine in the hope that it could repair the nerve damage that led to her paralysis. Unfortunately, the treatment was unsuccessful and, eight years later, the subject found worsening pain in that same area. When surgeons operated, they found a tumor comprised of nasal tissue that was producing a thick substance that was remarkably close to mucus.

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Experimental stem cell treatment causes woman to grow parts of a nose on her spine

Stranger pays $128Gs for dying woman's treatment

By Stem Cell Doctors

OTTAWA -- She knows he's tall, slender and generous, but she does not know the name of the man who anonymously donated $128,000 so she can receive "life-saving" stem cell treatment in Chicago.

"We just can't believe it. The future is incredible right now," said Stephanie Headley, 47, who uses an oxygen tank due to damaged lungs.

The single mother of four was diagnosed in 2002 with an aggressive form of systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and organs.

Doctors didn't expect her to survive this long, but she credits a positive outlook and the support from her parents after her marriage fell apart.

Nonetheless, the disease is progressing and Headley was expecting to die sooner than later from heart failure.

Her family launched a fundraising campaign on youcaring.com, titled Please Save Our Mom, two months ago for a stem cell transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Headley was stunned when a man delivered a $128,000 bank draft on July 3.

"He's given me my life," said Headley.

"He's saved my kids enormous pain."

She said the man phoned and wanted to stop by with a donation.

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Stranger pays $128Gs for dying woman's treatment

Stranger pays for dying woman's treatment

By Stem Cell Doctors

OTTAWA -- She knows he's tall, slender and generous, but she does not know the name of the man who anonymously donated $128,000 so she can receive "life-saving" stem cell treatment in Chicago.

"We just can't believe it. The future is incredible right now," said Stephanie Headley, 47, who uses an oxygen tank due to damaged lungs.

The single mother of four was diagnosed in 2002 with an aggressive form of systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and organs.

Doctors didn't expect her to survive this long, but she credits a positive outlook and the support from her parents after her marriage fell apart.

Nonetheless, the disease is progressing and Headley was expecting to die sooner than later from heart failure.

Her family launched a fundraising campaign on youcaring.com, titled Please Save Our Mom, two months ago for a stem cell transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Headley was stunned when a man delivered a $128,000 bank draft on July 3.

"He's given me my life," said Headley.

"He's saved my kids enormous pain."

She said the man phoned and wanted to stop by with a donation.

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Stranger pays for dying woman's treatment

Zhichan decoction increases dopaminergic neurons from transplanted NSCs in PD

By Stem Cell Medicine

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research

There is an increasing interest in Parkinson's disease (PD) treatment by increasing dopamine content and reducing dopaminergic metabolites in the brain. Xuming Yang, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China and his team detected dopamine content and dopaminergic metabolites in the midbrain of PD rats, which were treated by neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation and Zhichan decoction administration, using high-performance liquid chromatography, and determined global optimization of dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and homovanillic acid levels using genetic algorithm. Results showed that NSC transplantation and Zhichan decoction administration increased dihydroxyphenylacetic acid levels up to 10-fold, while NSC transplantation alone resulted in a 3-fold increment. Homovanillic acid levels showed no apparent change. These findings indicate that after NSC transplantation in PD rats, Zhichan decoction can promote differentiation of NSCs into dopaminergic neurons. Related results were published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 9, 2014).

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Article: " Zhichan decoction induces differentiation of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease rats after neural stem cell transplantation," by Huifen Shi1, Jie Song2, Xuming Yang3 (1 Department of Neurology, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China; 2 Department of Encephalopathy, Liu'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Liu'an, Anhui Province, China; 3 College of Acupuncture and Massage, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China) Shi HF, Song J, Yang XM. Zhichan decoction induces differentiation of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease rats after neural stem cell transplantation. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(9):931-936.

Contact: Meng Zhao

eic@nrren.org

86-138-049-98773

Neural Regeneration Research

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Zhichan decoction increases dopaminergic neurons from transplanted NSCs in PD

BUSM study: Obesity may be impacted by stress

By Stem Cell Medicine

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Jenny Eriksen Leary jenny.eriksen@bmc.org 617-638-6841 Boston University Medical Center

Using experimental models, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) showed that adenosine, a metabolite released when the body is under stress or during an inflammatory response, stops the process of adipogenesis, when adipose (fat) stem cells differentiate into adult fat cells.

Previous studies have indicated adipogenesis plays a central role in maintaining healthy fat homeostasis by properly storing fat within cells so that it does not accumulate at high levels in the bloodstream. The current findings indicate that the body's response to stress, potentially stopping the production of fat cell development, might be doing more harm than good under conditions of obesity and/or high levels of circulating blood fat.

The process is halted due to a newly identified signaling from an adenosine receptor, the A2b adenosine receptor (A2bAR) to a stem cell factor, known as KLF4, which regulates stem cell maintenance. When A2bAR is expressed, KLF4 level is augmented, leading to inhibition of differentiation of fat stem cells. The correlation between these two factors leads to an interruption of fat cell development, which could result in issues with fat storage within the cells and it getting into the bloodstream.

While the majority of the study was carried out in experimental models, the group also showed that A2bAR activation inhibits adipogenesis in a human primary preadipocyte culture system. Finally, analysis of adipose tissue of obese subjects showed a strong association between A2bAR and KLF4 expression in both subcutaneous (under the skin) and visceral (internal organ) human fat.

"It may seem counterintuitive, but our body needs fat tissue in order to function properly, and certain biochemical cellular processes are necessary for this to happen," said Katya Ravid, DSc/PhD, professor of medicine and biochemistry at BUSM and director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research who led the study. "Our study indicates that a dysfunction resulting from stress or inflammation can disrupt the process of fat tissue development, which could have a negative impact on processes dependent on proper fat cell homeostasis."

This study is part of ongoing research interest and investigations by researchers in Ravid's lab examining the differentiation of bone marrow and tissue stem cells and the role of adenosine receptors in this process.

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BUSM study: Obesity may be impacted by stress

Large Study of Stem Cells for Autism Draws Criticism

By Stem Cell Clinic

Experts say a $15 million trial to explore stem cells from cord blood for treating autism is premature.

Cold comfort: Researchers are trying to find out whether stem cells taken from frozen cord blood can improve autism symptoms. Credit:Tbsdy lives via Wikimedia Commons

A team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is set to launch a $40 million clinical trial to explore stem cells from umbilical cord blood as a treatment for autism. But experts caution that the trial is premature.

A $15 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, a philanthropic funding organization based in Atlanta, will bankroll the first two years of the five-year trial, which also plans to test stem cell therapy for stroke and cerebral palsy. The autism arm of the trial aims to enroll 390 children and adults.

Joanne Kurtzberg, the trials lead investigator, has extensive experience studying the effectiveness of cord blood transplants for treating various disorders, such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia. Most recently, she showed that cord blood transplants can improve the odds of survival for babies deprived of oxygen at birth. A randomized trial of the approach for this condition is underway.

To really sort out if [stem] cells can treat these children, we need to do randomized, controlled trials that are well designed and well controlled, and thats what we intend to do, says Kurtzberg, professor of pediatrics and pathology at Duke. We firmly believe we should be moving ahead in the clinic.

Early animal studies have shown that stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood can stimulate cells in the spinal cord to regrow their myelin layers, and in doing so help restore connections with surrounding cells. Autism is thought to result from impaired connectivity in the brain. Because of this, some groups of children with the disorder may benefit from a stem cell transplant, Kurtzberg says.

But others are skeptical of the approach. Autism is a complex disorder with many possible causes. Also, its unclear how stem cells derived from cord blood can improve connections in the brain. Given these important caveats, its too soon to conduct a test of this scale and investment, some experts say.

Its probably premature to run large trials without evidence that they have a therapeutic effect that [we] understand, cautions Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Pilot trials In June, Kurtzberg launched the first phase of the trial, with 20 children between 2 and 5 years of age. Her team plans to infuse the children with a single dose of their own cord blood cells, banked at birth and preserved by freezing.

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Large Study of Stem Cells for Autism Draws Criticism

Failed stem cell treatment causes nasal growth on woman's spine

By Stem Cell Treatment

A woman who received stem cell treatment for paralysis needed a growth of nasal tissue removed from her spine eight years later.

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We're still learning about stem cells and what they can and can't do, so it's unsurprising that there will be a few strange accidents. One such accident happened to a woman who underwent stem cell treatment for paralysis.

Eight years ago, the anonymous woman, a US citizen, was treated at Hospital de Egas Moniz in Lisbon, Portugal, according to New Scientist. Doctors took stem cells from her nose and implanted them into her spine, hoping that the olfactory cells would develop into neural cells to help repair spinal nerve damage.

The operation was part of an early stage clinical trial exploring the potential of nasal cells in treating paralysis. Other researchers usually remove and isolate the cells, cultivating them in the lab before transplanting them, but the Lisbon team skipped this step and transplanted the cells directly.

The cells did grow -- but they remained olfactory cells, and the woman's pain worsened. Last year, surgeons removed a three-centimetre growth of nasal tissue, bone and nerve branches from the site; but it wasn't causing the pain by itself. The tissue was also producing mucus, which was pressing on her spine.

"It is sobering," Harvard Medical School stem cell researcher George Daley. "It speaks directly to how primitive our state of knowledge is about how cells integrate and divide and expand."

The Lisbon team published a paper in 2010 detailing the effects of the trial on 20 patients. Of those 20 -- out of an estimated 140 given the treatment to date -- eleven experienced improvement in their condition, one patient's condition worsened, one developed meningitis, and four others had minor adverse reactions.

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Failed stem cell treatment causes nasal growth on woman's spine

News Canada

By Stem Cell Treatment

OTTAWA -- She knows he's tall, slender and generous, but she does not know the name of the man who anonymously donated $128,000 so she can receive "life-saving" stem cell treatment in Chicago.

"We just can't believe it. The future is incredible right now," said Stephanie Headley, 47, who uses an oxygen tank due to damaged lungs.

The single mother of four was diagnosed in 2002 with an aggressive form of systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and organs.

Doctors didn't expect her to survive this long, but she credits a positive outlook and the support from her parents after her marriage fell apart.

Nonetheless, the disease is progressing and Headley was expecting to die sooner than later from heart failure.

Her family launched a fundraising campaign on youcaring.com, titled Please Save Our Mom, two months ago for a stem cell transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Headley was stunned when a man delivered a $128,000 bank draft on July 3.

"He's given me my life," said Headley.

"He's saved my kids enormous pain."

She said the man phoned and wanted to stop by with a donation.

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News Canada

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