Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury by Dr Alok Sharma Mumbai India
Improvement seen in just 6 months after Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury by Dr Alok Sharma, Mumbai, India. After Stem Cell Therapy 1. Can f...
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Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury by Dr Alok Sharma Mumbai India - Video
Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Peripheral Neuropathy by Dr Alok Sharma Mumbai India
Improvement seen in just 5 day after Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Peripheral Neuropathy by Dr Alok Sharma, Mumbai, India. After Stem Cell Therapy 1. Cramp...
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Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Peripheral Neuropathy by Dr Alok Sharma Mumbai India - Video
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeremy Walter Jeremy.Walter@tuhs.temple.edu 215-707-7882 Temple University Health System
(Philadelphia, PA) - Many people who survive a heart attack find themselves back in the hospital with a failing heart just years later. And the outcome often is unfavorable, owing to limited treatment options. But scientists at Temple University School of Medicine's Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) recently found hope in an unlikely source stem cells in cortical, or compact, bone. In a new study, they show that when it comes to the regeneration of heart tissue, these novel bone-derived cells do a better job than the heart's own stem cells.
According to the study's senior investigator, Steven R. Houser, Ph.D., FAHA, Chairperson of Temple's Department of Physiology and Director of the CVRC, it is early days for cortical bone-derived stem cells (CBSCs). Nonetheless, his team's findings, featured on the cover of the August 16th issue of Circulation Research, have considerable implications for stem cell therapy for the heart.
A major challenge in the treatment of heart attack is early intervention, which is key to reducing the chances for long-term complications, such as heart failure. When it comes to stem cells, Houser said, "The strategy is to inject the cells right after [a heart attack]." Currently, though, that approach works only in animal studies. To make it work in humans, Houser explained, "we need cells right off the rack and ready to go clinically."
CBSCs could be those cells. Stem cells are youthful by degrees, and CBSCs are considered some of the most pluripotent like human newborns, nave and ready to become anything. But while CBSCs and similarly pluripotent stem cells retain the ability to develop into any cell type needed by the body and sometimes bring their youthful energy to the aid of mature cells making them especially appealing for therapeutics they also have the potential to wander off course, possibly landing themselves in unintended tissues. Cardiac stem cells, on the other hand, are a little more capable and a little more set in their ways, like toddlers. While they may need some coaxing into action, they are more likely to stay in their resident tissue.
To figure out how CBSCs might behave in the heart in the first place, Houser's team, led by Temple graduate student Jason Duran, began by collecting the cells from mouse tibias. The particular mice used had been engineered with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which meant that the CBSCs carried a green marker to allow for their later identification. The cells were then expanded in petri dishes in the laboratory before being injected directly into the hearts of non-GFP mice that had suffered heart attacks. Some mice received cardiac stem cells instead of CBSCs.
In the following weeks, as the team monitored the progress of the mice, they found that the youthfulness of the CBSCs had prevailed. The cells had triggered the growth of new blood vessels in the injured tissue, and six weeks after injection, they had differentiated, or matured, into heart muscle cells. While generally smaller than native heart cells, the new cells had the same functional capabilities, and overall they had improved survival and heart function. Similar improvements were not observed in the subset of mice treated with cardiac stem cells. Nor was there evidence in those mice that the cardiac cells had undergone differentiation.
The findings challenge the general assumption that cardiac stem cells, because they reside in the heart, are the cells most capable of repairing damaged heart tissue. For that reason, according to Houser, the new paper likely will be controversial.
"What we did generates as many questions as it does answers," he said. "Cell therapy attempts to repopulate the heart with new heart cells. But which cells should be used, and when they should be put into the heart are among many unanswered questions."
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Youthful stem cells from bone can heal the heart, Temple scientists report
Public release date: 3-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shaun Mason smason@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles
Four researchers from UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have received Early Translational Research Awards totaling approximately $13 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell agency. The UCLA researchers received four of the 12 total awards; no other institution received more than one.
The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, CIRM's governing body, announced at its Aug. 28 meeting in La Jolla, Calif., that grant recipients included Dr. Jerome Zack, professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics; Dr. Robert Reiter, Bing Professor of Urologic Research; Dr. Donald Kohn, professor of pediatrics and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the life sciences; and Dr. Gerald Lipshutz, associate professor-in-residence of surgery, urology and medicine.
The grants are part of CIRM's Early Translational Research Initiative, which aims to advance promising, innovative discoveries using stem cells. In this "early translation" phase, scientists are expected to do research that will result in the development of drugs or cellular therapies to be used in FDA-approved clinical trials, translating discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible.
"Our CIRM grants highlight the excellence of the UCLA bench-to-bedside research program," said Dr. Owen Witte, director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center.
Dr. Jerome Zack, who has dedicated his career to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS, received a grant of approximately $5.3 million. His team is working to engineer blood-producing stem cells that will create T-cells, the foot soldiers of the immune system, which recognize and attack HIV. The engineered T-cells are to be given to patients through a bone marrow transplant, a one-time treatment that will provide an inexhaustible source of immune system cells capable of eliminating HIV-infected cells. This treatment would serve as a functional HIV cure with minimal adverse effects, a great improvement over the current standard of care with expensive, regularly given drug cocktails.
Dr. Robert Reiter, a prominent prostate cancer researcher, received approximately $4 million for his research in developing a type of drug called a monoclonal antibody to target castration-resistant prostate cancer stem cells. Castration-resistant prostate cancer is an aggressive, recurrent form of the disease. This potentially transformative treatment for cancer patients could eliminate the cancer stem cells responsible for recurrent disease and lead to long-term remissions.
Dr. Donald Kohn, whom CIRM president Alan Trounson acknowledged as a world leader in gene therapy, received approximately $1.8 million for his project to treat sickle cell disease, a genetic disorder in which red blood cells "sickle," causing pain crises and organ failure. Currently, the only effective treatment for sickle cell disease is a bone marrow transplant from a matched sibling donor. Kohn's team developed a gene editing technology to correct the sickle gene defect in the blood-forming stem cells. After collecting the patient's stem cells from the bone marrow, Kohn and his team will genetically modify the cells using the gene editing technology and transplant the corrected cells back into the patient. It is hoped that the new blood-forming stem cells will create healthy red blood cells that do not sickle, effectively curing the disease.
Dr. Gerald Lipshutz, a leading transplant surgeon, received approximately $1.8 million for his project to develop a treatment for a condition called arginase deficiency. This rare genetic disorder of the liver causes ammonia and an amino acid called arginine to accumulate gradually in the blood. The disease causes stiffness and muscle spasticity, slower than normal growth, developmental delay and eventually tremors, seizures and intellectual disability. Dr. Lipshutz and his team are seeking to develop a source of gene-corrected liver-like cells for treating patients with this disease. They will attempt to correct the genetic defect by using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) that they develop from the skin cells of patients. They then drive the iPS cells to become liver cells with the corrected gene and give the modified cells back to the patient. This treatment would eliminate the organ rejection problems of liver transplant, the current standard treatment, and could be used for other diseases besides arginase deficiency that are treatable with liver transplants.
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4 UCLA stem cell researchers receive CIRM Early Translational grants
Sep. 4, 2013 Many people who survive a heart attack find themselves back in the hospital with a failing heart just years later. And the outcome often is unfavorable, owing to limited treatment options. But scientists at Temple University School of Medicine's Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) recently found hope in an unlikely source -- stem cells in cortical, or compact, bone. In a new study, they show that when it comes to the regeneration of heart tissue, these novel bone-derived cells do a better job than the heart's own stem cells.
According to the study's senior investigator, Steven R. Houser, Ph.D., FAHA, Chairperson of Temple's Department of Physiology and Director of the CVRC, it is early days for cortical bone-derived stem cells (CBSCs). Nonetheless, his team's findings, featured on the cover of the August 16th issue of Circulation Research, have considerable implications for stem cell therapy for the heart.
A major challenge in the treatment of heart attack is early intervention, which is key to reducing the chances for long-term complications, such as heart failure. When it comes to stem cells, Houser said, "The strategy is to inject the cells right after [a heart attack]." Currently, though, that approach works only in animal studies. To make it work in humans, Houser explained, "we need cells right off the rack and ready to go clinically."
CBSCs could be those cells. Stem cells are youthful by degrees, and CBSCs are considered some of the most pluripotent -- like human newborns, nave and ready to become anything. But while CBSCs and similarly pluripotent stem cells retain the ability to develop into any cell type needed by the body and sometimes bring their youthful energy to the aid of mature cells -- making them especially appealing for therapeutics -- they also have the potential to wander off course, possibly landing themselves in unintended tissues. Cardiac stem cells, on the other hand, are a little more capable and a little more set in their ways, like toddlers. While they may need some coaxing into action, they are more likely to stay in their resident tissue.
To figure out how CBSCs might behave in the heart in the first place, Houser's team, led by Temple graduate student Jason Duran, began by collecting the cells from mouse tibias. The particular mice used had been engineered with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which meant that the CBSCs carried a green marker to allow for their later identification. The cells were then expanded in petri dishes in the laboratory before being injected directly into the hearts of non-GFP mice that had suffered heart attacks. Some mice received cardiac stem cells instead of CBSCs.
In the following weeks, as the team monitored the progress of the mice, they found that the youthfulness of the CBSCs had prevailed. The cells had triggered the growth of new blood vessels in the injured tissue, and six weeks after injection, they had differentiated, or matured, into heart muscle cells. While generally smaller than native heart cells, the new cells had the same functional capabilities, and overall they had improved survival and heart function. Similar improvements were not observed in the subset of mice treated with cardiac stem cells. Nor was there evidence in those mice that the cardiac cells had undergone differentiation.
The findings challenge the general assumption that cardiac stem cells, because they reside in the heart, are the cells most capable of repairing damaged heart tissue. For that reason, according to Houser, the new paper likely will be controversial.
"What we did generates as many questions as it does answers," he said. "Cell therapy attempts to repopulate the heart with new heart cells. But which cells should be used, and when they should be put into the heart are among many unanswered questions."
To address at least some of those questions, Houser's team plans next to investigate CBSCs in a large-animal heart attack model. If that study yields similar results as the first, the cells could be ushered into a small-scale clinical trial of human patients. In humans, CBSCs would be collected from bone using techniques akin to those employed for bone marrow aspiration, a much simpler process than that used to isolate cardiac stem cells. While the cells would originate from a different person, raising the risk of rejection by the patient's immune system, it may be possible to have them at the ready in hospital settings, allowing for their injection immediately after a heart attack.
The cell therapy work by Houser's team represents just one of several forms of heart therapy being explored at Temple's CVRC. According to Houser, "Temple has made a commitment to cardiovascular research, with a clinical enterprise focused on treating patients. We're trying anything and everything to repair the heart [safely]." Other avenues of research include gene therapy, drug therapy, and the use of novel biomaterials to more effectively deliver drugs.
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Youthful stem cells from bone can heal the heart
Economic regeneration is the name of the game for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and cellular regeneration is one way to play it.
The government is pushing through bills to fast-track regulatory approval for cell-based products and set new research guidelines. Its also funding a $1.12 billion study of a type of stem cell free from ethical concerns over embryo harvesting that have dogged the science for more than a decade.
Abe aims to cement Japans leadership in a field of research that last year garnered the nations first Nobel Prize for medicine in a quarter of a century. Not only academic bragging rights are at stake: the government wants new industries to wean the worlds third-biggest economy from its dependence on autos and estimates stem cells potential to rejuvenate worn-out body parts or reverse degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers may yield $380 billion in sales by 2050.
Lawmakers will debate legislation as early as this month to make the approval process for cell therapies faster than in the U.S. and U.K. That marks a sea-change from the kind of conservative regime that held back Japanese scientists from research into cells derived from human embryos, said Alan Colman, executive director at Singapore Stem Cell Consortium.
They dont want to repeat that for the innovation Japan was totally responsible for, said Coleman, who helped pioneer cloning techniques that created Dolly the sheep in 1996. They are trying to reinvent themselves and show themselves to be progressive and sensible and not inhibitory.
Investor optimism at the prospects for Japans cell technology can be seen in some stocks. Japan Tissue Engineering Co. (7774), which makes cultured cartilage and skin tissue, has soared more than five-fold this year. ReproCell Inc. (4978), the first company licensed to make iPS cells, is almost three times higher than its initial public offering price in June.
In July, the Health Ministry gave the go-ahead for the worlds first clinical trial on humans with stem cells made using the Nobel Prize-winning technique of Shinya Yamanaka.
In an embryos early stages, stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they can become any type of tissue in the body. As the embryo develops, they begin to specialize, or differentiate, into building blocks for the bodys different structures.
Yamanaka showed how these later-stage cells in mice can be reprogrammed into what are termed induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
While New York-based Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (ACTC) of Marlborough, Massachusetts, are already conducting trials on humans, these use cells harvested from embryos. As well as sidestepping ethical issues this raises, the Japanese technique reduces risks that immune systems will reject implanted cells because they are taken from patients own bodies.
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Abe Funds Stem Cells to Help Cure Japan Wasting Disease
Five years ago, Katy Thies was pregnant. She was tired. She bruised easily.
These days, she's pregnant again -- this time with twins. But the bruising and exhaustion are gone, thanks to a stem cell transplant for aplastic anemia, discovered while she was in labor with her 4-year-old son, Logan.
Ms. Thies, 26, of Natrona Heights in Harrison, is the first patient her doctors have heard of to have a child after a stem cell transplant for aplastic anemia, a disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells.
The disease is not a cancer, but the treatment for it can be similar.
But the issue of fertility during and after treatments for cancer is becoming more common, as women delay having children until later in life and cancer treatment becomes more effective, lengthening lives after treatment.
"It's a big topic for young women, that's for sure," said Jane Raymond, interim division director for medical oncology at Allegheny Health Network. "For patients in their 20s who haven't completed their families yet, it's a huge issue."
In October 2008, Ms. Thies was in labor with her son, undergoing a routine blood test before she could receive an epidural. And then another blood test, after doctors assumed that the platelet count in her first test was in error.
Eventually, doctors realized that the platelet count was correct -- and Ms. Thies was in need of blood.
Her labor was stopped and she received two platelet transfusions before it was restarted. She gave birth to a healthy boy and started a monthslong odyssey to figure out what was wrong with her blood.
Eventually, once her red and white blood cell counts began to drop as well, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia.
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Issue of fertility during and after cancer treatments a growing concern for women
EXETER One crisp autumn day nearly nine years ago, Bryan Dan Bomboy was helping a 90-year-old woman by cleaning her rain gutters when he slipped on a piece of moss on her roof and fell, landing on his head.
Bomboy, of Exeter, was flown to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, where he was put on life support, flat lined several times and, after coming out of a coma, was told he would never again move anything except for his eyes.
Some intense physical therapy enabled him to regain some movement in his left arm. But that was the most progress Bomboy, now 50, made until last October, when he flew to California and received stem cell injections.
Im moving my right arm now for the first time in seven years. I can rub my eye or scratch an itch, I can swat away a fly. You cant imagine eight and a half years of not being able to do those things, Bomboy said.
Bomboy received his first round of injections at the California Stem Cell Treatment Center on Oct. 17, 2012. Stem cells were taken from his back in the love handles area and injected into his spine at his neck and lower back.
Bomboy was injected with his own stem cells, becoming the first quadriplegic to receive this treatment. His doctors were skeptical about the potential for success but are amazed by his progress, he said.
In addition to the doctors at the treatment center, Bomboy expressed gratitude to Tom Swartwood and Georgia Cwynski, his occupational therapists; Daria Palka, his nurse; and his family and friends for their prayers and support.
Swartwood, Bomboys occupational therapist for the last three years, was amazed at his progress. Its been nothing short of remarkable, he said. This is really plowing new ground.
One of the most immediate benefits of the therapy that Swartwood noticed was Bomboys improved ability to retain body heat. This guy used to be bundled up all the time. That changed immediately. Today, hes wearing a t-shirt and has a fan blowing on him.
Bomboy still doesnt have any movement in his fingers or below his chest, but he hopes another trip to California will change that.
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Rare stem cell therapy aids area man
MIAMI -
Each year, 700,000 people suffer a stroke in the United States. Until now, the only recovery for paralysis brought on by the stroke was lengthy rehabilitation.
Now, a new stem cell therapy is helping stroke patients move again.
James Anderson is a triathlete and physical education teacher who was visiting Florida from Maine when suddenly, "I started to feel a little dizzy a little tingling in my right hand and ah I ended up having a stroke," he said.
Anderson did not respond to clot-busting medication or blockage treatments. So, he became paralyzed on the left side of his body.
Dr. Dileep R. Yavatal, a neurologist, treated him as part of a clinical trial in which some of the patients were treated with their own stem cells.
While Anderson doesnt know if he was injected with his own stem cells, two months after treatment, Anderson said, "I have had more movement and strength in my legs."
For the clinical trial, stem cells must be injected into the brain no later than two weeks after the stroke occurs.
Anderson is now able to move around with a walker during rehab and hopes to be able to compete in a triathlon again.
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Health Beat: Stem cells and stroke
Sep. 1, 2013 Stem cell therapy used to regenerate injured tissue in the heart restores synchronous pumping, shows research published today [1 September] in The Journal of Physiology. The study proposes a novel strategy of 'biological resynchronisation' in which stem cells repair heart muscle damage to reestablish correct cardiac motion.
Heart attacks limit local oxygen, which can kill areas of cardiac tissue -- called 'infarcted' areas -- and also leave scarring. This damage leads to a lack of synchrony in the heart beat motion.
Current therapies use pacing devices, but these require healthy tissue for optimal outcome, meaning a third of patients do not respond well to this treatment. However, this new approach discovered by a team at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA overcomes this limitation as stem cells actually form functional cardiac tissue and reconstruct heart muscle.
Professor Andre Terzic, who led the study, explains the importance of this potential new therapy: "Heart chambers must beat in synchrony to ensure proper pumping performance. Damage to the heart can generate inconsistent wall motion, leading to life-threatening organ failure.
"The heart is vulnerable to injury due to a limited capacity for self-repair. Current therapies are unable to repair damaged cardiac tissue. This proof-of-principle study provides evidence that a stem cell-based regenerative intervention may prove effective in synchronizing failing hearts, extending the reach of currently available therapies."
Doctor Satsuki Yamada, first author of the study, further explains how the research was carried out:
"Stem cells, with a capacity of generating new heart muscle, were engineered from ordinary tissue. These engineered stem cells were injected into damaged hearts of mice. The impact on cardiac resynchronization was documented using high-resolution imaging."
The observed benefit, in the absence of adverse effects, will need to be validated in additional pre-clinical studies prior to clinical translation.
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Harmonizing a broken heart: Stem cells keep cardiac beat in synchrony