Stem Cell Clinic

Belgian clinic repairs bones with new ground-breaking stem cell technique

By Stem Cell Clinic

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian medical researchers have succeeded in repairing bones using stem cells from fatty tissue, with a new technique they believe could become a benchmark for treating a range of bone disorders.

The team at the Saint Luc university clinic hospital in Brussels have treated 11 patients, eight of them children, with fractures or bone defects that their bodies could not repair, and a spin-off is seeking investors to commercialize the discovery.

Doctors have for years harvested stem cells from bone marrow at the top of the pelvis and injected them back into the body to repair bone.

The ground-breaking stem cell technique of Saint Luc's centre for tissue and cellular therapy is to remove a sugar cube sized piece of fatty tissue from the patient, a less invasive process than pushing a needle into the pelvis and with a stem cell concentration they say is some 500 times higher.

The stem cells are then isolated and used to grow bone in the laboratory. Unlike some technologies, they are also not attached to a solid and separate 'scaffold'.

"Normally you transplant only cells and you cross your fingers that it functions," the centre's coordinator Denis Dufrane told Reuters television.

His work has been published in Biomaterials journal and was presented at an annual meeting of the International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS) in New York in November.

BONE FORMATION

"It is complete bone tissue that we recreate in the bottle and therefore when we do transplants in a bone defect or a bone hole...you have a higher chance of bone formation."

The new material in a lab dish resembles more plasticine than bone, but can be molded to fill a fracture, rather like a dentist's filling in a tooth, hardening in the body.

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Belgian clinic repairs bones with new ground-breaking stem cell technique

Cell Medicine – Cognizant Communication Corp

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Aims & Scope

The importance of translatingoriginal, peer-reviewed research and review articles on the subject of cell therapy and its application to human diseases to societyhas led to the formation ofthe journalCell Medicine. To ensure high-quality contributions from all areas of transplantation, the same rigorous peer review will be applied to articles published in Cell Medicine. Articles may deal with a wide range of topics including physiological, medical, preclinical, tissue engineering, and device-oriented aspects of transplantation of nervous system, endocrine, growth factor-secreting, bone marrow, epithelial, endothelial, and genetically engineered cells, and stem cells, among others. Basic clinical studies and immunological research papers may also be featured if they have a translational interest. To provide complete coverage of this revolutionary field, Cell Medicine will report on relevant technological advances and their potential for translational medicine. Cell Medicine will be a purely online Open Access journal. There will therefore be an inexpensive publication charge, which is dependent on the number of pages, in addition to the charge for color figures. This will allow your work to be disseminated to a wider audience and also entitle you to a free PDF, as well as prepublication of an unedited version of your manuscript.

Cell Medicine features:

Original Contributions: Peer-reviewed, high-quality research investigations that represent new and significant contributions to science. Review Articles: Reviews of major areas in cellular transplantation. These may be of any length and are peer reviewed. Brief Communications: Timely and brief peer-reviewed studies. Letters to the Editor: Readers' comments on journal articles and other matters of interest to transplant researchers. Announcements and News: Notices of upcoming meetings, conferences, seminars, and other events of interest to those in the field.

Submission Requirements: From the beginning of November 2009, authors are requested to submit the original manuscript (and revised manuscript if needed) via our ManuscriptCentral websiteat http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cogcom-ct.

Please include a cover letter, specifying your intent to submit to Cell Medicine, as well as containing the name, address, telephone, and fax number, and electronic mail address of the author responsible for correspondence. Follow the General Form guidelines below to prepare the manuscript, figures, and tables.

At the time of submission you will be asked to confirm that you will pay the relatively inexpensive open access fees ($900 for less than 5 pages, $1800 for 5-12 pages and +$75 for each additional page) when billed. In addition, there are sections for detailing any conflicts of interest and financial support and that you (as corresponding/submitting author) have the permission of the other authors to submit the manuscript. You will be given the option of which section of the editorial office to submit to. Here you would select Cell Medicine.

There will also be a $105 submission fee.

On receipt of your manuscript, it will be checked to ensure that it is correctly formatted.

When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) will be required to provide two hard copies of the manuscript, two high-quality copies of all artwork, and a CD or disk (no zip disks) (see Final Accepted Manuscript/Disk below). Information on where to mail the final hard copy, figures, and CD/disk will be provided in an acceptance letter. Manuscripts are accepted for consideration with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere except in abstract form and are not concurrently under review elsewhere.

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Stem cell therapy following meniscus knee surgery may reduce pain, restore meniscus

By Stem Cell Treatment

Jan. 16, 2014 A single stem cell injection following meniscus knee surgery may provide pain relief and aid in meniscus regrowth, according to a novel study appearing in the January issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS).

More than one million knee arthroscopy procedures are performed each year in the U.S. primarily for the treatment of tears to the meniscus -- the wedge-shaped pieces of cartilage that act as "shock absorbers" between the thighbone and shinbone in the knee joint.

In the first-of-its-kind study, "Adult Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) Delivered via Intra-Articular Injection to the Knee, Following Partial Medial Meniscectomy," most patients who received a single injection of adult stem cells following the surgical removal of all or part of a torn meniscus, reported a significant reduction in pain. Some patients?24 percent of one MSC group and 6 percent of another?experienced at least a 15 percent increase in meniscal volume at one year. There was no additional increase in meniscal volume at year two.

"The results demonstrated that high doses of mesenchymal stem cells can be safely delivered in a concentrated manner to a knee joint without abnormal tissue formation," said lead study author C. Thomas Vangsness, Jr., MD. "No one has ever done that before." In addition, "the patients with arthritis got strong improvement in pain" and some experienced meniscal regrowth.

Specific Study Details The study involved 55 patients, ages 18 to 60, who underwent a partial medial meniscectomy (the surgical removal of all or part of a torn meniscus) at seven medical institutions. Patients were randomly placed in one of three treatment groups: Group A patients (18) received a "low-dose" injection of 50 million stem cells within seven to 10 days after meniscus surgery; Group B patients (18), a higher dose of 100 million stem cells; and the "control group (19)," sodium hyaluronate only. Patients were assessed to evaluate safety, meniscus regeneration through MRI and X-ray images, overall condition of the knee joint and clinical outcomes through two years. While most of the patients had some arthritis, patients with severe (level three or four) arthritis, in the same compartment as the meniscectomy, were excluded from the study.

Key Study Findings

"The results of this study suggest that mesenchymal stem cells have the potential to improve the overall condition of the knee joint," said Dr. Vangsness. "I am very excited and encouraged" by the results. With the success of a single injection, "it begs the question: What if we give a series of injections?"

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Stem cell therapy following meniscus knee surgery may reduce pain, restore meniscus

Pros And Cons Of Stem Cell Research – AllAboutPopularIssues.org

By Stell Cell Research

You are here: Popular Issues >> Pros And Cons Of Stem Cell Research

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - What are Stem Cells? There has been much controversy in the press recently about the pros and cons of stem cell research. What is the controversy all about? "Stem" cells can be contrasted with "differentiated" cells. They offer much hope for medical advancement because of their ability to grow into almost any kind of cell. For instance, neural cells in the brain and spinal cord that have been damaged can be replaced by stem cells. In the treatment of cancer, cells destroyed by radiation or chemotherapy can be replaced with new healthy stem cells that adapt to the affected area, whether it be part of the brain, heart, liver, lungs, or wherever. Dead cells of almost any kind, no matter the type of injury or disease, can be replaced with new healthy cells thanks to the amazing flexibility of stem cells. As a result, billions of dollars are being poured into this new field.

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - Where Do They Come From? To understand the pros and cons of stem cell research, one must first understand where stem cells come from. There are three main sources for obtaining stem cells - adult cells, cord cells, and embryonic cells. Adult stem cells can be extracted either from bone marrow or from the peripheral system. Bone marrow is a rich source of stem cells. However, some painful destruction of the bone marrow results from this procedure. Peripheral stem cells can be extracted without damage to bones, but the process takes more time. And with health issues, time is often of the essence. Although difficult to extract, since they are taken from the patient's own body, adult stem cells are superior to both umbilical cord and embryonic stem cells. They are plentiful. There is always an exact DNA match so the body's immune system never rejects them. And as we might expect, results have been both profound and promising.

Stem cells taken from the umbilical cord are a second very rich source of stem cells. Umbilical cells can also offer a perfect match where a family has planned ahead. Cord cells are extracted during pregnancy and stored in cryogenic cell banks as a type of insurance policy for future use on behalf of the newborn. Cord cells can also be used by the mother, the father or others. The more distant the relationship, the more likely it is that the cells will be rejected by the immune system's antibodies. However, there are a number of common cell types just as there are common blood types so matching is always possible especially where there are numerous donors. The donation and storage process is similar to blood banking. Donation of umbilical cells is highly encouraged. Compared to adult cells and embryonic cells, the umbilical cord is by far the richest source of stem cells, and cells can be stored up in advance so they are available when needed. Further, even where there is not an exact DNA match between donor and recipient, scientists have developed methods to increase transferability and reduce risk.

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - Embryonic Cells The pros and cons of stem cell research come to the surface when we examine the third source of stem cells - embryonic cells. Embryonic stem cells are extracted directly from an embryo before the embryo's cells begin to differentiate. At this stage the embryo is referred to as a "blastocyst." There are about 100 cells in a blastocyst, a very large percentage of which are stem cells, which can be kept alive indefinitely, grown in cultures, where the stem cells continue to double in number every 2-3 days. A replicating set of stem cells from a single blastocyst is called a "stem cell line" because the genetic material all comes from the same fertilized human egg that started it. President Bush authorized federal funding for research on the 15 stem cell lines available in August 2001. Other stem cell lines are also available for research but without the coveted assistance of federal funding.

So what is the controversy all about? Those who value human life from the point of conception, oppose embryonic stem cell research because the extraction of stem cells from this type of an embryo requires its destruction. In other words, it requires that a human life be killed. Some believe this to be the same as murder. Against this, embryonic research advocates argue that the tiny blastocyst has no human features. Further, new stem cell lines already exist due to the common practice of in vitro fertilization. Research advocates conclude that many fertilized human cells have already been banked, but are not being made available for research. Advocates of embryonic stem cell research claim new human lives will not be created for the sole purpose of experimentation.

Others argue against such research on medical grounds. Mice treated for Parkinson's with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors in as much as 20% of cases.1 Embryonic stem cells stored over time have been shown to create the type of chromosomal anomalies that create cancer cells.2 Looking at it from a more pragmatic standpoint, funds devoted to embryonic stem cell research are funds being taken away from the other two more promising and less controversial types of stem cell research mentioned above.

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Footnotes 1 The Real Promise of Stem Cell Research Dr. David Prentice, HealthNewsDigest.com 2 Derivation of Human Stem-Cell Lines from Human Blastocysts, C. A. Cowan and others. March 25, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, p.1355 with secondary reference to footnotes 13-17 p.1356.

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‘Blazin’ a trail’

By Stem Cell Doctors

Four-year-old Rikky Foresman is having a lot of firsts.

Last week, Rikky, his parents and three older siblings traveled to a women and children's hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, for stem cell therapy to treat his spina bifida myelomeningocele.

"This hospital has this 'beacon factor,' " said Rikky's father, Rik Foresman, of Old Lycoming Township, as he described the process to a room full of friends and family at the DuBoistown VFW Sunday at a homecoming for the youngster.

RASHELLE CAREY/Sun-Gazette Rikky Foresman, 4, of Old Lycoming Township, recently underwent stem cell therapy for spina bifida myelomeningocele and almost immediately displayed improvements to his feet and legs.

RASHELLE CAREY/Sun-Gazette Rikky Foresman and his party guests watch videos and photos on a computer screen on Sunday.

At the hospital, Foresman said, a doctor injects the beacon factor into the cells that need repaired. The beacon factor acts as a red flag, making the cells "yell for help."

Doctors then inject stem cells from the umbilical cords and placenta of healthy babies, which quickly target the cells yelling for help and begin treating them, Foresman said.

The entire procedure takes 30 to 45 minutes. The Tijuana facility is the only hospital with the capability to do the procedure, Foresman said.

Rikky suffers from spina bifida myelomeningocele. The condition has caused him to have no control over his bladder or bowels and he has no feeling from the knees down.

When doctors asked his parents which areas the stem cells should focus on, they listed, in order, his bladder, then his bowel, his hip and then his legs.

Continued here:
'Blazin' a trail'

Quitting top medical researcher lambasted by authorities

By Stem Cell Medical Center

Both the Catalan and central governments have vigorously defended their commitment to the Barcelona Regenerative Medicine Center (CMRB) in the wake of the decision of its director, Juan Carlos Izpisa, to resign.

Izpisa, one of the worlds pre-eminent stem cell researchers, handed in his notice due to government cutbacks in the sciences - the CMRB has lost 16.8 percent of its budget in the last four years. But the Catalonia regional economy chief, Andreu Mas-Colell, told EL PAS that the budget, which is 1.7 million euros annually, will be maintained in 2014 and for the foreseeable future.

Both administrations coincided in accusing Izpisa of lacking dedication to the CMRB in favor of his post at the Salk Institute in California, where all the researchers patents are held.

Government lawyers have been mobilized to examine the intellectual property of the CMRB. Izpisa intends to take 18 of the 21 projects running at the CMRB with him to California, as he considers them his own ideas and initiatives. The administrations will play all their legal cards to prevent this emptying of the Barcelona center, which will, in any case, remain open.

Mas-Colell, who was one of the prime movers in setting up the CMRB, admitted that Izpisa was a great scientist and a key figure in the beginnings of regenerative medicine in Spain. But he underlined two reasons that led the board to withdraw its support. It is not quite correct to say that Spain has lost a great scientist, because the truth is he wasnt in Spain very much; Izipisa first link was with the Salk and the Barcelona center was a research group linked to the Salk.

In the current circumstances a research center in Spain requires a commitment of 100 percent from the director, with both feet rooted in the center, he continued.

The board has chosen ngel Raya, a former postdoctoral researcher for Izpisa, to replace the outgoing director. Raya is a notable researcher in the field [and] he is going to fulfill the condition we require, Mas-Colell said.

The second issue concerns the intellectual property rights relating to the investigations. The mere fact that Izipisa is going to take 18 of the 21 research projects at the CMRB reveals what I said before: that this was not a strong center for Spanish science.

Regarding the patents, Izipisa said: They insinuated that I was benefiting the Salk, but it was more like the other way around, since the Salk had to do all the administration work and pay for the management and the application for the patents, and even like that it shares them with the CMRB in proportion to the scientific contribution of each center. So where is the benefit for the Salk?

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Quitting top medical researcher lambasted by authorities

Belgian researchers use groundbreaking surgery to repair bones

By Stem Cell Clinic

Belgian medical researchers have succeeded in repairing bones using stem cells from fatty tissue, with a new technique they believe could become a benchmark for treating a range of bone disorders.

The team at the Saint Luc university clinic hospital in Brussels have treated 11 patients, eight of them children, with fractures or bone defects that their bodies could not repair, and a spin-off is seeking investors to commercialize the discovery.

Doctors have for years harvested stem cells from bone marrow at the top of the pelvis and injected them back into the body to repair bone.

The ground-breaking technique of Saint Luc's centre for tissue and cellular therapy is to remove a sugar cube sized piece of fatty tissue from the patient, a less invasive process than pushing a needle into the pelvis and with a stem cell concentration they say is some 500 times higher.

The stem cells are then isolated and used to grow bone in the laboratory. Unlike some technologies, they are also not attached to a solid and separate 'scaffold'.

"Normally you transplant only cells and you cross your fingers that it functions," the centre's coordinator Denis Dufrane told Reuters television.

His work has been published in Biomaterials journal and was presented at an annual meeting of the International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS) in New York in November.

BONE FORMATION

"It is complete bone tissue that we recreate in the bottle and therefore when we do transplants in a bone defect or a bone hole...you have a higher chance of bone formation."

The new material in a lab dish resembles more plasticine than bone, but can be molded to fill a fracture, rather like a dentist's filling in a tooth, hardening in the body.

Go here to read the rest:
Belgian researchers use groundbreaking surgery to repair bones

Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center Upcoming Public Lectures

By Stem Cell Treatment

(PRWEB) January 16, 2014

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida, announces a series of free public seminars on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief, and, Dr. Nia Smyrniotis, Medical Director.

The seminars will be held on January 18th and 19th. On January 18th, the seminar will be held at the Boca Raton Marriot, at Boca Town Center, 5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, Florida 33486, at 1 p.m.; and on January 19th at the Courtyard Marriot Aventura, 2825 NE 191st Street, Aventura, Florida 33180, at 1 p.m.

At the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, utilizing investigational protocols, adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be deployed to improve patients quality of life with a number of degenerative conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (also called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). Adipose tissue is exceptionally abundant in ADSCs. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15-minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and important Growth Factors that facilitate the stem cell process and promote their activity.

ADSCs are the body's natural healing cells - they are recruited by chemical signals emitted by damaged tissues to repair and regenerate the bodys damaged cells. The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center only uses autologous stem cells from a person's own fat no embryonic stem cells are used. Our current areas of study include: Heart Failure, Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and orthopedic joint injections. For more information, or if someone thinks they may be a candidate for one of the stem cell protocols offered by Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, they may contact Dr. Nia or Dr. Gionis directly at (561) 331-2999, or see a complete list of the Centers study areas at: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

About Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center is an affiliate of the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center (Irvine, California) and the Cell Surgical Network (CSN). We provide care for people suffering from diseases that may be alleviated by access to adult stem cell based regenerative treatment. We utilize a fat transfer surgical technology to isolate and implant the patients own stem cells from a small quantity of fat harvested by a mini-liposuction on the same day. The investigational protocols utilized by the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Research Protections; and the study is registered with http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information, contact: Miami(at)MiamiStemCellsUSA(dot)com or visit our website: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

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Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center Upcoming Public Lectures

Stem cell guru walks out on Spanish science

By Stem Cell Medicine

A world leader in stem cell research is leaving the cutting-edge center he helped create in Barcelona due to a lack of support from the authorities in both Catalonia and Spain.

Juan Carlos Izpisa, a Spanish biochemist who teaches at the Salk Institute in California and has earned numerous awards for his research into organ and tissue development, had helped found the Barcelona Regenerative Medicine Center (CMRB) in 2004, bringing Spain to the forefront of stem cell research.

But now Izpisa is resigning from his director's post due to a lack of financial and political support from his two major public sponsors, the government of Spain and the regional government of Catalonia.

Sources in the scientific community are blaming the move on "the cuts, political mediocrity and a lack of empathy from Madrid." They also note that Catalan premier Artur Mas met with Izpisa 18 months ago and assured him that he would put all available means at his disposal.

Sources in the scientific community are blaming the move on "the cuts, political mediocrity and a lack of empathy from Madrid"

According to sources familiar with the months-long negotiations, the decision to let Izpisa go originated in the Catalan government, although Madrid did nothing to stop it. The explanation supplied was that, as an undesirable effect of cutbacks, the government was no longer in a condition to keep funding the center "at the quality levels required" by its director.

While his departure will not bring about the immediate closure of the center, the CMRB will lose many of its lines of research, since 18 of the 21 scientific projects it is currently carrying out are the intellectual property of Izpisa, who will take them with him.

The move also underscores how the crisis has meant further cuts for scientific projects in Spain, which is seeing many researchers move abroad to find jobs and financial support.

Shortly after the crisis hit Spain in 2008, the then-Socialist government announced a shift away from construction as the basis of the countrys economic growth. But so far this has failed to translate into any significant investment in other fields.

Over the last decade, the CMRB has published more than 200 papers, including some seminal work in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. One of Izpisa's projects, the development of "micro-kidneys" from stem cells, was described by Science magazine as one of the great advances of 2013.

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Stem cell guru walks out on Spanish science

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