Stem Cell Clinic

Stem Cell Doctor at Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute Now Offering Regenerative Procedures for Achilles Tendonitis …

By Stem Cell Treatment

Beverly Hills, CA (PRWEB) June 16, 2014

The top stem cell doctors at Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute are now offering regenerative medicine procedures for Achilles tendonitis and tears. The procedures include options for several types of stem cell procedures that can provide pain relief and help patients avoid surgery. Call (310) 438-5343 for more information and scheduling.

Achilles tendonitis or tears may bother patients for many months and not respond well to traditional treatments. This may include NSAIDS, bracing and steroid injections. While surgery for these conditions may be extremely successful, there is often a considerable rehabilitation and potential surgery complications.

Stem cell injections for Achilles tears or tendonitis have been a revolutionary treatment. This may include bone marrow derived injections, or amniotic derived stem cell procedures. Both offer exceptional concentrations of stem cells, growth factors and additional reparative materials.

The procedures are performed as an outpatient, with the amniotic derived material coming from consenting donors after scheduled c-sections. There is no fetal material used, negating any ethical concerns.

Dr. Raj at Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute is a Double Board Certified orthopedic doctor. He treats patients from weekend warriors to amateur and professional athletes, along with celebrities, executives, manual laborers and grandparents.

For more information and scheduling, call (310) 438-5343.

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Stem Cell Doctor at Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute Now Offering Regenerative Procedures for Achilles Tendonitis ...

Systematic review

By Stem Cell Treatment

Background

Relapsed multiple myeloma has no standard treatment, and the role of autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) has not been fully defined. We aimed to compare high-dose melphalan plus salvage ASCT with cyclophosphamide in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma who had previously undergone ASCT.

Between April 16, 2008, and Nov 19, 2012, 297 patients were registered, of whom 293 received PAD re-induction therapy. Between Aug 26, 2008, and Nov 16, 2012, 174 patients with sufficient PBSCs were randomised to salvage ASCT (n=89) or cyclophosphamide (n=85). After a median follow-up of 31 months (IQR 1942), median time to progression was significantly longer in the salvage ASCT than in the cyclophosphamide group (19 months [95% CI 1625] vs 11 months [912]; hazard ratio 036 [95% CI 025053]; p<00001). Frequently reported (in >10% of patients) grade 34 adverse events with PAD induction, salvage ASCT, and cyclophosphamide were: neutropenia (125 [43%] of 293 patients after PAD, and 63 [76%] of 83 patients in the salvage ASCT group vs 11 [13%] of 84 patients in the cyclophosphamide group), thrombocytopenia (150 [51%] after PAD, and 60 [72%] vs four [5%], respectively), and peripheral neuropathy (35 [12%] after PAD, and none vs none, respectively).

This study provides evidence for the improved efficacy of high-dose melphalan plus salvage ASCT when compared with cyclophosphamide in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma eligible for intensive therapy, which might help to guide clinical decisions regarding the management of such patients.

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Systematic review

KC area company developing stem cell treatments for pooches – Tucson News Now

By Stem Cell Treatment

KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -

A KCK company is developing a stem cell treatment to help dogs deal with crippling pain from arthritis.

Aratana Therapeutics is working to treat osteoarthritis in pets via the stem cell treatment.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves, it would be the first treatment of its kind.

The treatment wouldn't provide a cure but would give much-needed relief.

"They're still able to move better but they can't do the things they did when they were younger," dog owner Rachel Thieme said.

Osteoarthritis can be quite debilitating for canines.

"It's really tough because may be there are other areas of quality of life that are fine. They are eating fine. They have that motivation but they just can't physically do anything, so sometimes you have to euthanize them," Thieme said.

The only way to cure the condition is to conduct a total joint replacement.

But the stem cell procedure hopefully will reduce the need for medications and therapies, said Kara Forsee, a veterinary surgeon for BluePearl Veterinary Partners.

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KC area company developing stem cell treatments for pooches - Tucson News Now

Cord blood infusion saves woman's life

By Stem Cell Doctors

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

Amanda Canale doesn't take time with her daughter and niece for granted. She's just happy to feel good.

"I've been in the hospital, and I've been sick my whole life," Amanda said.

Amanda was born with a rare blood disorder that required daily shots.

"Basically, I have no white blood cells," Amanda said. "I have no immune system at all."

At 23, she developed leukemia and was given two weeks to live. She desperately needed a bone marrow transplant, but family members weren't matches. Her doctor suggested an umbilical cord blood transplant.

"The cord was a perfect match and it was available, so it was the right solution for her," Edward Agura, MD, Medical Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, said.

Cord blood contains stem cells that regenerate. Mothers of newborns can save their child's own blood or donate it. More than 30,000 transplants have been performed worldwide. However, because the blood comes from a tiny newborn, there's not much of it.

"The cord blood is rare, precious and few, and yet is more potent in its ability to grow," Dr. Agura said.

Now, doctors at Baylor are treating patients by combining cord blood from multiple donors. They've found this increases the number of stem cells and provides faster recovery. Amanda's transfusion was from a baby whose mother donated six years earlier. The procedure completely cured her cancer and blood disorder.

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Cord blood infusion saves woman's life

Endonovo Therapeutics to Develop Next Generation, Off-The-Shelf, Cell Free Regenerative Products

By Stem Cell Medical Center

SOURCE: Endonovo Therapeutics, Inc.

Dr. Leonard Makowka, a Leading Authority in Hepatic Science, Joins Endonovo Therapeutics as Its Chief Medical Officer

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 11, 2014) - Endonovo Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCQB: ENDV) ("Endonovo" or the "Company"), a biotechnology company developing innovative regenerative therapies, announced today that it has created technologies to pursue the development and manufacturing of next generation regenerative products that no longer require the administration of stem cells. Endonovo's "Cell Free" products will harness the biological molecules secreted by cells to create truly "off-the-shelf" therapeutics that can be delivered to patients in a much timelier manner than is possible with autologous and allogeneic stem cell therapies.

There are currently more than 300 mesenchymal stem cell clinical trials underway to treat a wide range of pathological conditions listed on the ClinicalTrials.gov database. These clinical trials are still based on the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells. Endonovo is developing therapies that may mitigate many of the current drawbacks of cell-based therapies, such as the low survival and engraftment rate of transplanted stem cells, the risk of occlusion in microvasculature, and unregulated growth, such as hyper-innervation or ossification and/or calcification in the body.

"Cell Free" regenerative products may also mitigate many of the limitations to the commercialization of stem cell therapies, such as the manufacturing, storage and delivery of viable cells. "Cell Free" regenerative products are commercially more attractive because they are simpler to manufacture, easier to store and maintain their therapeutic potency for longer periods of time when compared to stem cells.

Additionally, Endonovo Therapeutics announced that it has appointed Dr. Leonard Makowka, M.D., Ph.D., to serve as the Company's Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Makowka was formerly the Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Director of Transplantation Services at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, and served as Professor of Surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine. He was also Executive Director of the Comprehensive Liver Disease Center, which used a multiple disciplinary approach to the treatment of liver disease, at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. He has published over 400 articles and chapters in both clinical and basic scientific research and has been regarded as a leading authority in hepatic science. Dr. Makowka has also served as a board member of various public and private healthcare and life science companies.

"We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Makowka to the Endonovo team," said Endonovo Therapeutics CEO, Alan Collier. "His experience and expertise will be a tremendous asset in the development of 'cell-free' therapeutics that can promote the regeneration of tissues without the need to inject stem cells into the body, which would result in safer, more effective therapies, lower costs and the saving of lives."

"I am excited to join Endonovo Therapeutics and help the company develop its 'cell-free' therapeutic platform," stated Dr. Leonard Makowka, Chief Medical Officer at Endonovo Therapeutics. "Although it is early in the developmental lifecycle, we are excited about the development of first-in-class, 'cell free' regenerative products that can protect and stimulate the regeneration of tissues. These products would be truly 'off-the-shelf' therapies that could be quickly administered following organ injuries, such as a heart attack, a stroke, acute and/or chronic liver disease and the 'aging' of organs, in order to protect the organ and begin healing it."

About Endonovo Therapeutics

Endonovo Therapeutics, Inc. is a publicly traded biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf, cell free regenerative products and non-invasive, bioelectronic therapies designed to extend and enhance the human life by regenerating tissues and organs that have become injured or damaged due to disease and age. The Company is developing therapies for various inflammatory, autoimmune and degenerative diseases using biomolecules secreted from cells and Time-Varying Electromagnetic Fields (TVEMF).

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Endonovo Therapeutics to Develop Next Generation, Off-The-Shelf, Cell Free Regenerative Products

Umbilical cord transplants saving lives

By Stem Cell Medical Center

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

Amanda Canale doesn't take time with her daughter and niece for granted. She's just happy to feel good.

"I've been in the hospital, and I've been sick my whole life," Amanda said.

Amanda was born with a rare blood disorder that required daily shots.

"Basically, I have no white blood cells," Amanda said. "I have no immune system at all."

At 23, she developed leukemia and was given two weeks to live. She desperately needed a bone marrow transplant, but family members weren't matches. Her doctor suggested an umbilical cord blood transplant.

"The cord was a perfect match and it was available, so it was the right solution for her," Edward Agura, MD, Medical Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, said.

Cord blood contains stem cells that regenerate. Mothers of newborns can save their child's own blood or donate it. More than 30,000 transplants have been performed worldwide. However, because the blood comes from a tiny newborn, there's not much of it.

"The cord blood is rare, precious and few, and yet is more potent in its ability to grow," Dr. Agura said.

Now, doctors at Baylor are treating patients by combining cord blood from multiple donors. They've found this increases the number of stem cells and provides faster recovery. Amanda's transfusion was from a baby whose mother donated six years earlier. The procedure completely cured her cancer and blood disorder.

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Umbilical cord transplants saving lives

Saved by his cat, heart attack survivor is first Toronto patient in a groundbreaking cell therapy trial

By Stem Cell Clinic

Nurses called him a celebrity, but Robert Clark said, Nah. He wasnt interested in fame or anticipating fortune, but he gladly took the free cab ride home from the hospital.

After a severe heart attack five weeks ago, the 67-year-old has become the first Toronto patient to enter a groundbreaking cell therapy trial led by researchers at St. Michaels Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

In a world first, the Canadian study uses genetically enhanced stem cells to repair damaged muscle in heart attack survivors. The souped-up cells are the patients own, made young and healthy again fountain-of-youth style in a laboratory. Cell therapy researchers across the globe are monitoring the study, cautiously optimistic that it could lead to a breakthrough the field has long been waiting for.

We all have, circulating in our blood, stem cells that have the potential to repair and regenerate damaged tissues. In people with risk factors for heart disease or in patients who have suffered a heart attack, these cells dont have the same healing capacity, says Dr. Michael Kutryk, a cardiologist at St. Michaels and principal investigator on the study.

The strategy we are using is to restore the bodys own mechanisms to help fix the heart.

The trials first Toronto patient was having a little rest on his couch on April 28 when he started to feel funny.

OK, so I was petting my cat, Clark recalls, and all of a sudden she went meow, meow, meow, and jumped right on my chest, right?

As he tells the story in his 5th-floor Upper Beach apartment, Clark gets down on his hands and knees and yanks Geisha the cat out from under a small cot. Shes a beautiful tabby with saucer eyes as bright and clear a shade of green as her owners are blue.

Clark is not saying the cat gave him a heart attack. Quite the opposite, actually.

She was warning me that something was wrong, he says solemnly, cradling Geisha in his skinny, tattoo-covered arms. (These are older than you are, he says of the faded green ink blots, and its true.)

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Saved by his cat, heart attack survivor is first Toronto patient in a groundbreaking cell therapy trial

Scientists find trigger to decode the genome

By Uncategorized

Scientists from The University of Manchester have identified an important trigger that dictates how cells change their identity and gain specialized functions.

And the research, published in Cell Reports, has brought them a step closer to being able to decode the genome.

The scientists have found out how embryonic stem cell fate is controlled which will lead to future research into how cells can be artificially manipulated.

Lead author Andrew Sharrocks, Professor in Molecular Biology at The University of Manchester, said: "Understanding how to manipulate cells is crucial in the field of regenerative medicine which aims to repair or replace damaged or diseased human cells or tissues to restore normal function."

During the research the team focused on the part of the cellular genome that gives a gene its expression known as the 'enhancer'. This controls the conversion of DNA from genes into useful information that provides the building blocks that determine the structure and function of our cells.

Different enhancers are active in different cell types, allowing the production of distinct gene products and hence a range of alternative cell types. In the current study, the team have determined how these enhancers become active.

Professor Sharrocks said: "All of us develop into complex human beings containing millions of cells from a single cell created by fertilization of an egg. To transit from this single cell state, cells must divide and eventually change their identity and gain specialised functions. For example we need specific types of cells to populate our brains, and our recent work has uncovered the early steps in the creation of these types of cells.

"One of the most exciting areas of regenerative medicine is the newly acquired ability to be able to manipulate cell fate and derive new cells to replace those which might be damaged or lost, either through old age or injury. To do this, we need to use molecular techniques to manipulate stem cells which have the potential to turn into any cell in our bodies."

But one of the current drawbacks in the field of regenerative medicine is that the approaches are relatively inefficient, partly because scientists do not fully understand the basic principles which control cell fate determination.

"We believe that our research will help to make regenerative medicine more effective and reliable because we'll be able to gain control and manipulate cells -- thus our understanding of the regulatory events within a cell shed light on how to decode the genome," concluded Professor Sharrocks.

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Scientists find trigger to decode the genome

Jordans stem-cell law can guide the Middle East

By Uncategorized

In January, Jordan passed a law to control research and therapy using human stem cells derived from embryos the first such regulation in the Arab and Islamic region. I was part of the group headed by Abdalla Awidi Abbadi, director of the Cell Therapy Center at the University of Jordan in Amman, that initiated the call for the law and later drafted it. Stem-cell research is a hot topic for Jordan because of the kingdoms status as a health-care hub that draws patients from abroad. It is already one of few countries in the Middle East with regulations for protecting people who participate in clinical trials. This latest law should serve as an example to other countries in the region.

The new rules ban private companies from using human embryonic stem (ES) cells in research or therapies. Such work will be allowed only in government organizations or publicly funded academic institutions in Jordan, which have higher levels of transparency than private firms and are supervised by the health ministry and a specialized committee. The law also bans payment for donations of stem cells and eggs, and says that modified and manipulated cells are not to be used for human reproduction. There is no current research on human ES cells in Jordan; this is a pre-emptive step.

Much of the controversy and disagreement over work on stem cells worldwide arises from the different views of the major religions on the earliest stages of life. Although the use of human ES cells is opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations, it is generally supported by the Jewish community and accepted in many Muslim countries. There is no consensus on when human embryonic life begins, but the majority of Muslim scholars consider it to start 40120 days after conception and therefore hold the view that a fertilized egg up to 5days old has no soul it is not human life but biological life. So for many, there is no ethical problem in the Islamic faith with using an early embryo to produce stem cells.

All our discussions in Jordan have concluded that stem-cell research is permissible in Islam.

Such conclusions are not easy to reach. Many Muslim countries consider legislation and bioethics principles to be based on three pillars of Islamic law. The first is the Quran. The second is Sunnah, or the legislative decisions of the Prophet Muhammad. The third is ijmaa the consensus of Muslim scholars and ijtihad, the concept that every adequately qualified scholar has the right to independently solve problems. On the basis of these pillars, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia have drawn up guidelines on stem-cell research, but they are not legally binding.

Jordans stem-cell law is the product of years of discussions by committees comprising scientists, physicians, Arabic-language experts, lawyers and Muslim and Christian theologians. The issues that arose confusion between stem cells and embryonic stem cells, for instance were discussed and resolved. We consulted with both the National Committee for Science and Technology Ethics and the education ministry. The final law was approved by the council of Muslim scholars, the Majlis Al-Iftaa.

The council agreed with a 2003 decision (fatwa) by Muslim scholars that allows the use of human ES cells from permissible sources including legally produced excess fertilized eggs from invitro fertilization. The decision to ban private companies from using these cells was driven by concerns that the work would encourage termination of pregnancies, which is illegal in Jordan unless the mothers life or health is at risk. The council was clear that the new law must forbid human reproductive cloning and should not allow embryos to be created from the sperm and eggs of unmarried couples.

The distinction drawn between the various sources of stem cells earlier in the discussion process allowed the Majlis Al-Iftaa to take a more permissive approach to techniques using stem cells that are not derived from human embryos. For example, somatic-cell nuclear transfer (in which a patients DNA is transplanted into an unfertilized human egg that has no nucleus) and induced pluripotent stem cells, which are made from adult cells, can be worked on by the private sector under the new rules.

The therapeutic use of bone-marrow transplantation including transplants of blood-forming stem cells is well established in Jordan. Such procedures are already regulated by existing laws on medical practice, so the new law makes a clear distinction between these techniques and human ES-cell therapy.

The legislation not only covers all current aspects of stem-cell research and use, but also leaves room for later modification. It mandates the creation of a national committee that, among other things, will take responsibility for laying out specific regulations for stem-cell banking in accordance with international standards.

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Jordans stem-cell law can guide the Middle East

Fetal-cell revival for Parkinsons

By Stem Cell Treatment

ANIMATED HEALTHCARE LTD/SPL

Defective brain neurons are responsible for the mobility problems seen in people with Parkinsons disease.

A neurosurgery team will next month transplant cells from aborted human fetuses into the brain of a person with Parkinsons disease. The operation breaks a decade-long international moratorium on the controversial therapy that was imposed after many patients failed to benefit and no one could work out why.

But the trial comes just as other sources of replacement cells derived from human stem cells are rapidly approaching the clinic. And this time, scientists want to make sure that things go better. So the teams involved in all the planned trials have formed a working group to standardize their research and clinical protocols in the hope that their results will be more easily interpretable.

People with Parkinsons disease suffer from a degeneration of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is crucial for normal movement. This often leaves patients with severe mobility problems. Standard treatment includes the drug l-dopa, which replaces dopamine in the brain but can cause side effects. The cellular therapies aim to replace the missing neurons with dopamine-producing (dopaminergic) cells from fetal brains or with those derived from human stem cells.

The moratorium on replacement-therapy trials was introduced in 2003 because the early fetal-cell studies had produced varying results that were impossible to interpret.

We want to avoid a repeat of this situation, says neurologist Roger Barker at the University of Cambridge, UK, who helped to organize the working groups inaugural meeting in London last month. The group, known as the Parkinsons Disease Global Force, includes scientists from the European, US and Japanese teams about to embark on the trials. At the meeting, they pledged to share their knowledge and experiences.

The first human transplantation of fetal brain cells took place in 1987 at Lund University in Sweden, where the technique was pioneered. Surgical teams took immature fetal cells destined to become dopaminergic neurons from the midbrain of aborted fetuses and transplanted them into the striatum of patients brains, the area of greatest dopamine loss in Parkinsons disease.

More than 100 patients worldwide received the therapy as part of clinical trials before the moratorium. But centres used different procedures and protocols it was impossible to work out why some patients did very well and others didnt benefit at all, says Barker.

In 2006, Barker, together with neuroscientist Anders Bjrklund at Lund University, set up a network to bring together the original seven teams that had performed the transplants, to assess all protocol details and patient data retrospectively.

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Fetal-cell revival for Parkinsons

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