Stem Cell Clinic

Stem Cells Bring New Hope for Parry-Romberg Syndrome Patients

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In a landmark clinical study, scientists of the RNL Stem Cell Technology Institute have demonstrated that the transplant of patients' own ("autologous") stem cells can dramatically improve the ability of plastic surgeons to repair diseases. In the September 2012 issue of the prestigious international plastic surgery journal Annals of Plastic Surgery (69:3), researchers published their controlled study of the power of stem cells, describing a breakthrough with patients who have Parry-Romberg Syndrome. More than 200,000 have this tragic and debilitating disease in the U.S. alone. Their prognosis without treatment is the slow loss of control, then paralysis of the face and in some cases the mouth and even eyes. Most patients with Parry-Romberg begin to experience these symptoms between the age of five (5) and fifteen (15) years of age. There is, says the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, "no cure." To date, treatments have involved waiting until the disease slows and then transplanting fat into patients' faces, strengthening bones in their faces, and using microvascular surgery to "install" a free flap of skin.

However the only solution for patients with this disorder, and those with similar disorders, the grafting of fat, is at best a temporary solution, which alleviates none of the pain felt by these patients, and can in fact result in an increase in pain when fat grafts fail. So, plastic surgeons, engineers and others have searched for years for a solution with longer term effects, or even a way to fight the disease's symptoms in a sustained way.

Dr. Kyeung-Suk Ko and Dr. Jong-Woo Choi led a research team under Dr. Jeong-chan Ra of RNL Stem Cell Technology Institute that may have uncovered, for the first time, just such a tool for plastic surgeons: patients' own stem cells. In their controlled study, the team painlessly removed a few ounces of fat from one group Parry-Romberg Syndrome patients, harvesting stem cells from these patients' fat, cells that are genetically identical to the patient's cells throughout their body and that have well documented abilities to "home in" on inflammation and disease and have dramatic effects on patients' symptoms and even disease itself. In this study, those patients in the "treated" group received stem cells magnified into the millions (using the team's patented technology whose safety has been well published). These patients' outcomes, adding stem cells to standard-of-care therapies, were measured against traditional microfat grafts in the control group receiving no stem cells.

In what many have described as a revolutionary finding, the team found that those patients who received their own "adult" mesenchymal stem cells saw unprecedented improvement in the effectiveness of therapies. Fat grafts that are often "resorbed" into patients' skin shortly after they are placed were 50% less likely to disappear when provided alongside stem cells (20.59% vs 46.81%).

This study was approved by the Korea Food and Drug Administration, the institutional IRB of the Asan Medical Center, and peer-reviewed prior to acceptance in the renowned plastic surgery publication under the title: "Clinical application of human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells in progressive hemifacial atrophy (Parry-Romberg Disease) with microfat grafting techniques using three-dimensional computed tomography and three-dimensional camera." Authors and investigators included: Koh KS, Oh TS, Kim H, Chung IW, Lee KW, Lee HB, Park EJ, Chung JS, Shin IS, Ra JC, Choi JW. Media and others may access the article at http://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2012/09000/Clinical_Application_of_Human_Adipose.22.aspx. Its National Library of Medicine ID is PMID:22878516.

Dr. Ra, senior author, said, "We believe that this is a big step for Parry-Romberg Syndrome patients and expect to see autologous stem cell transplantation as standard of care for their treatment. The next step is to test the efficacy of the many ways in which stem cells from adults' own bodies will expand the quality of life and even identify cures for many rare diseases."

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Stem Cells Bring New Hope for Parry-Romberg Syndrome Patients

New stem cell treatment cuts costs, hospital stay

Published on Aug 29, 2012

Madam Purwati receiving a blood transfusion to treat her cancer. -- PHOTO: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CANCER INSTITUTE

When Madam Usdiati Endah Purwati, 52, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma earlier this year, she braced herself for a treatment that she knew could cost as much as $70,000.

After all, the stem cell transplant the school principal needs to treat the bone marrow cancer will keep her in the hospital for three weeks. But her bill ended up being half of that amount, and she did not have to be hospitalised at all.

This arrangement was possible because of a new treatment regimen introduced last year at the National University Cancer Institute that offers outpatient autologous stem cell transplants to multiple myeloma patients.

In such procedures, the patient's stem cells are taken and stored; and after chemotherapy - which destroys much of the blood-producing stem cells along with the cancer cells - the stem cells are transplanted back to the same patient to help the body produce blood at a normal rate again.

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New stem cell treatment cuts costs, hospital stay

PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep vital organs rejuvenated

PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep vital organs rejuvenated

Isang bihirang pagkakataon na nakausap uli ng PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) sa isang mahabang interview ang multi-awarded actress na si Lorna Tolentino.

Naganap ang panayam noong nakaraang Huwebes, August 23, sa faculty office ng Central Colleges of the Philippines (CCP), kung saan ginanap ang taping ng weekly supernatural mystery drama series naThird Eye ng TV5.

During dinner break, nabanggit ni Lorna ang tungkol sa pinsang si Zsa Zsa Padilla, who was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer of the kidney.

"Ka-text ko si Zsa Zsa. Four weeks daw siya doon, tapos saka babalik dito.

Four weeks after the operation, hindi pa siya puwedeng mag-work.

August 27 ang naiulat noon na schedule ng operasyon ni Zsa Zsa sa Cedars-Sinai Medical Center sa Los Angeles, California.

Sixteen hours and delay ng oras ng U.S. sa Pilipinas, kayat malamang na ngayong araw na ang operasyon ni Zsa Zsa.

Tatanggalin ang mala-golf ball sa laking namuong laman sa kanyang kidney.

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PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep vital organs rejuvenated

PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep her vital organs rejuvenated

PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep vital organs rejuvenated

Isang bihirang pagkakataon na nakausap uli ng PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) sa isang mahabang interview ang multi-awarded actress na si Lorna Tolentino.

Naganap ang panayam noong nakaraang Huwebes, August 23, sa faculty office ng Central Colleges of the Philippines (CCP), kung saan ginanap ang taping ng weekly supernatural mystery drama series naThird Eye ng TV5.

During dinner break, nabanggit ni Lorna ang tungkol sa pinsang si Zsa Zsa Padilla, who was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer of the kidney.

"Ka-text ko si Zsa Zsa. Four weeks daw siya doon, tapos saka babalik dito.

Four weeks after the operation, hindi pa siya puwedeng mag-work.

August 27 ang naiulat noon na schedule ng operasyon ni Zsa Zsa sa Cedars-Sinai Medical Center sa Los Angeles, California.

Sixteen hours and delay ng oras ng U.S. sa Pilipinas, kayat malamang na ngayong araw na ang operasyon ni Zsa Zsa.

Tatanggalin ang mala-golf ball sa laking namuong laman sa kanyang kidney.

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PART 1: Lorna Tolentino admits undergoing stem cell treatment to keep her vital organs rejuvenated

Neuralstem Completes Phase I ALS Stem Cell Trial

ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE MKT: CUR) announced the completion of the Phase I trial of its NSI-566 spinal cord neural stem cells for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), with the eighteenth patient treated. This patient, the third to return to the trial for an additional set of injections, is also the last in the Phase I portion of the trial as it is currently designed, which is scheduled to conclude six months after this final surgery.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20061221/DCTH007LOGO )

"We are delighted to have completed Phase I in this groundbreaking trial, the first approved by the FDA to test neural stem cells in patients with ALS," said Karl Johe, PhD, Chairman of Neuralstem's Board of Directors and Chief Scientific Officer.

"There have been many firsts in this trial, including the first lumbar intraspinal injections, the first cervical region intraspinal injections, and the first cohort of patients to receive both," said Jonathan D. Glass, MD, Director of the Emory ALS Center. "This has required incredible effort from the Emory medical and support team and I wish to express my thanks to all of them, as well as to acknowledge the generosity and courage of the patients and their families."

"We have found the procedure to be extremely safe," said Eva Feldman, MD, PhD, Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute and Director of Research of the ALS Clinic at the University of Michigan Health System. "In some patients, it appears that the disease is no longer progressing, but it is too early to know if the result from that small number of patients is meaningful." Dr. Feldman is the principal investigator (PI) of the trial and an unpaid consultant to Neuralstem.

About the Trial

The Phase I trial to assess the safety of Neuralstem's NSI-566 spinal cord neural stem cells and intraspinal transplantation method in ALS patients has been underway since January 2010. The trial was designed to enroll up to 18 patients, the last of which was just treated. The first 12 patients were each transplanted in the lumbar (lower back) region of the spine, beginning with non-ambulatory and advancing to ambulatory cohorts.

The trial then advanced to transplantation in the cervical (upper back) region of the spine. The first cohort of three was treated in the cervical region only. The last cohort of threereceived injections in both the cervical and lumbar regions of the spinal cord. In an amendment to the trial design, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the return of previously treated patients to this cohort. The entire 18-patient trial concludes six months after the final surgery.

About Neuralstem

Neuralstem's patented technology enables the ability to produce neural stem cells of the human brain and spinal cord in commercial quantities, and the ability to control the differentiation of these cells constitutively into mature, physiologically relevant human neurons and glia. Neuralstem is in an FDA-approved Phase I safety clinical trial for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, and has been awarded orphan status designation by the FDA.

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Neuralstem Completes Phase I ALS Stem Cell Trial

AMERICA STEM CELL, INC. Initiates a Phase I/II Trial of ASC-101 in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies Undergoing …

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

America Stem Cell, Inc. announced today the initiation of a single-center study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center evaluating ASC-101 in dual-umbilical cord transplantation in patients with hematologic malignancies.

There is a significant unmet medical need to improve stem cell engraftment into bone marrow for patients undergoing umbilical cord transplantation, and America Stem Cell is committed to filling that need, said Dr. Linda Paradiso, Chief Development Officer at America Stem Cell. ASC-101 is a novel enzyme treatment that will potentially transform hematopoietic stem cell transplantation by accelerating patient immune system and platelet recovery, reducing opportunistic infections and other co-morbidities, and improving patient survival.

Enhancing umbilical cord stem cell engraftment into bone marrow in the dual cord transplant setting will improve clinical outcomes for patients with serious, life-threatening cancers and other disorders for which hematopoietic stem cell transplant is prescribed, said, Dr. Elizabeth Shpall, MD, Medical Director, Cell Therapy Laboratory and Director, Cord Blood Bank at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Principal Investigator on the ASC-101 Phase I/II clinical trial. The MD Anderson study has enrolled and dosed its first patient in this Phase I/II study designed to study the safety of ASC-101 in the hematopoietic stem cell transplant setting and gather preliminary data on potential clinical benefit.

ASC was founded with the vision to make stem cell transplants safer and more efficacious for patients undergoing cell therapy. The start of this trial using ASC-101 in cancer patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation is a major step forward in advancing the ASC clinical pipeline, said Lynnet Koh-LeMaire, Chief Executive Officer/Founder of America Stem Cell.

About America Stem Cell, Inc.

ASC is a privately held biotechnology company based in San Antonio, TX, with offices in San Diego, CA. It is focused on the development and commercialization of its novel enzyme technology platforms (ASC-101 and ASC-102) to improve the homing and engraftment of stem cells to target organs and increase their therapeutic potential for patients in need of stem cell transplantation. The initial focus of ASC is to transform clinical efficacy outcomes for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with ASC-101. Additionally, these platforms have the potential to enhance efficacy outcomes for stem cell treatment of inflammation from chemotherapy/radiation, solid tumors, autoimmune diseases, and ischemic diseases including myocardial infarction and stroke. ASC has collaborations/partnerships with medical research institutions including The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, the Sanford-Burnham Institute, Indiana University, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Spectrum Health Innovations as well as a corporate partnership with Kyowa Hakko Kirin. For additional information, please contact Lynnet Koh-LeMaire at (210) 410-6427, or view http://www.americastemcell.com.

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AMERICA STEM CELL, INC. Initiates a Phase I/II Trial of ASC-101 in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies Undergoing ...

Beanie Baby billionaire's stem cell gift

Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner has donated $19,000 to a woman with kidney failure (Jennifer Vasilakos, inset) to pay for a stem cell treatment she hopes will save her life. Source: Supplied

A WOMAN who gave driving directions to a lost traveller ended up with a $US20,000 cheque to pay for life-saving medical treatment.

Jennifer Vasilakos wrote in her blog that she was sitting at her stall by the side of the road in Santa Barbara California, trying to raise money for an operation.

Ms Vasilakos has kidney failure but does not qualify for a transplant because of the removal of a small spot of melanoma from her back last year.

She was seeking donations towards the cost of a stem cell treatment which she hoped could repair her kidneys, but which was not available in the US.

Then one day a stranger rolled up in a nondescript car.

"He was lost and needed directions, Ms Vasilakos blogged. "I often get asked by random strangers for directions. Not one to miss an opportunity, I handed him my flyer and he made a fifty dollar donation. As he drove off, I thought that was the end of our encounter."

But an hour later he came back and introduced himself as Ty Warner, the billionaire founder of the company that made the hit 1990s stuffed toys called Beanie Babies.

He said her "fundraising was done", went back to his office and sent her a cheque for $US20,000 ($19,200), to cover the operation, travel and accommodation.

Ms Vasilakos said the cheque arrived in a cream envelope with a handwritten letter she described as "genuine and heartfelt - the kind of letter you keep forever".

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Beanie Baby billionaire's stem cell gift

The Post published Bristol hospital to carry out world stem cell first

PATIENTS are due to undergo a pioneering stem cell treatment to repair knee cartilage as a world first is trialled at a Bristol hospital.

The "bandage" which uses patients' own stem cells has been developed by a Bristol University spin-out company, Azellon Ltd, and will be implanted in their knee in a procedure at Southmead Hospital.

Professor Anthony Hollander with an appliance used to insert the pioneering stem cell 'bandage' into damaged knee cartilage; left, a close-up of how the knee operation is carried out

Patients with torn meniscal cartilage are now being recruited as part of the study.

In the initial phase ten patients will undergo the procedure.

Researchers have already established in laboratory tests that stem cells can be used to repair tears in cartilage, which is a common sports injury.

Anthony Hollander, who has led the research, was involved in the world's first windpipe transplant in 2008 and has used similar technology to create the stem cell bandage for patients with torn knee cartilage.

Patients who have been diagnosed with torn meniscal cartilage following an MRI scan will have a small operation to take the bone marrow from their hip.

The stem cells taken from the bone marrow will then be sent to the lab to grow them on the membrane, called a bio-scaffold, which forms the basis of the bandage. Two weeks later the bandage would be sent back to Southmead for an arthroscopy operation, using a small camera, to implant the bandage into the site of the injury.

Patients will be advised not to stand for a few weeks after the procedure. They will then be followed up on a regular basis for seven years.

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The Post published Bristol hospital to carry out world stem cell first

Undetectable stem cell treatment could be the wave of the performance-enhancement future

It was a good week for the drug police. Lance Armstrong dropped his fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and Oakland Athletics pitcher Bartolo Colon was banned 50 games by Major League Baseball for a positive testosterone test.

Bartolo Coln credits stem cell treatment for his return to Major League Baseball. (Getty)The enforcers should enjoy this moment while it lasts, because sports science is on the precipice of a potentially new era of performance enhancement: stem cell therapy, which could soon make testosterone injections as ancient as the typewriter and press enforcement agencies like USADA to play catch up once again.

"Sports medicine will definitely see a revolution in the next 10 to 50 years," says Allston Stubbs, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Health. "We'll go from traditional scalpel surgery to biologic surgery. Now we operate with a knife, but we'll move to cells or growth factors."

This is both thrilling and daunting in the performance-enhancement realm, because stem cell therapy is potentially both an avenue to better performance and a doorway to undetectable enhancement.

Colon is an example of how both, if the science advances as some in the field of stem cell research believe it will, are inevitable.

First, a short primer: Stem cell therapy is where fat and/or bone marrow (both of which contain stem cells) are drawn from the body. The stem cells are then separated out from the extracted fluid and re-injected into an injured area (i.e. Colon's elbow) to help stimulate the re-growth of healthy tissue.

In 2010, Colon underwent stem cell therapy for his injured elbow and shoulder. He credited the procedure for saving his career. And even more recently, Peyton Manning reportedly traveled to Germany for a stem cell procedure on his injured neck. He's gone from the brink of retirement to the new starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

Certain stem cell treatments are allowed in the Unites States (usage of embryonic stem cells is not legal in the U.S.). But the science here in the States is far behind the rest of the world, which has been dabbling in stem cell therapy for years. For this reason, athletes tend to travel abroad. Colon, 38, was one of them.

[Related: Bartolo Colon suspended 50 games for testing positive for synthetic testosterone]

But there was a murky side to the story: Colon worked with a Florida-based doctor named Joseph R. Purita, who told the New York Times he has used Human Growth Hormone (banned by Major League Baseball) for the procedure in the past. Purita insisted to the Times he did not use HGH in Colon's procedure, which was conducted in the Dominican Republic. MLB investigators questioned Purita, but nothing came of it.

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Undetectable stem cell treatment could be the wave of the performance-enhancement future

BIOTECH: Fate Therapeutics raises $9.2M for stem cell treatments

LA JOLLA ---- Fate Therapeutics Inc., a company developing stem-cell treatments, has raised $9.2 million in equity. The disclosure was made Tuesday ina regulatory filingwith the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fate's technology uses chemicals calledstem-cell modulators that guide the path, or "fate" of non-embryonic stem cells as they mature. Left to themselves, stem cells grow unpredictably. So methods to increase the efficiency of "reprogramming" the cells into the desired kind are much in demand.

The company's most advanced treatment, ProHema, guides development of hematopoietic, or blood-forming stem cells. It's in clinical trials for blood cancer patients who are getting stem-cell transplants.

Fate has attracted notable executive and scientific talent. Biotech and venture capital veteran William Rastetter serves as chairman and interim CEO. Scientific founders include stem-cell pioneers Sheng Ding of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiac Disease, formerly of The Scripps Research Institute, and Rudolf Jaenischof the Whitehead Institute.

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BIOTECH: Fate Therapeutics raises $9.2M for stem cell treatments