“Latest Stem Cells News”

Limbus stem cell transplants (a layer of adult stem cells surrounding the cornea responsible for restoring corneal epithelium naturally during life) rebuild the ocular surface when damaged due to chemical and physical agents (like lime). They also repair “injuries” due to improper use of contact lenses. Vincenzo Sarnicola, a cornea and stem cell transplant expert, leading ocular surface specialist in Grosseto, Professor of Ocular Surface Surgery at the University of Siena, and President of the Italian Stem Cell and Ocular Surface Society (SICSSO) explained, “When the ocular surface loses its stem cells it is unable to defend itself and make repairs, it then loses transparency and develops soars, which become infected and result in anatomical loss. Restoring the deficient surface with limbus stem cell transplants means giving hope to these eyes and to those patients who are in serious condition often due to work related accidents.

A research group at Imperial College London has designed a new treatment able to significantly improve the body’s capacity to repair damage caused by a heart attack or bone fracture. The new therapy, described in Cell Stem Cell, ‘fools’ the spinal cord inducing it to ’overproduce’ stem cells which repair damaged tissues in the body. Researchers hope to test the treatment on animals by the end of the year. If testing is successful, the next step will be to experiment on human beings attempting to induce them to use their own stem cells to regenerate damaged or infected organs.

Although a growing number of people today are stricken with cancer – the leading cause of death in France since 2004 – their risk of succumbing to this disease is dropping. Nationwide mortality rates continue to vary, most notably on a regional level, as was demonstrated in the distinguished Atlas de la mortalité par cancer en France metropolitaine [Atlas of cancer death in mainland France (excluding overseas territories)], published on January 28. On a generalized basis, the numbers for Northern and Central France clearly point to hypermortality while death rates in the southern portion of the country were lower than the national average.

In a couple of months, the first test to verify if embryonic stem cells directly injected inside patients’ brain plagued by stroke can regenerate damaged areas, will start in Scotland.
A team from Southern General Hospital of Glasgow selected 4 groups of 3 patients that will be treated during the next 2 years.
Firstly patients will take a dose of 2 millions embryonic stem cells. The amount will be gradually increased to 20 millions of stem cells, which is what doctors think patients need to start the re-creating processes.

From stem cells comes a ray of light for those who lives in the dark. A new surgical operation anti-blindness is under examimation by a team of Scottish scientists from Edinburgh and Glasgow, ready to start a study about using adult stem cells on 20 patients suffering of cornea blindness: this disease plague over than 80% of the senior citizens.

“We can note 2 or 3 new cases of cornea blindness every month; it’s a big problem” says Bal Dhillow from Princess Alexandra Eye Pavillon of Edinburgh.

The experimental technique contemplate using of adult stem cells taken from a corpse, which will be raised and then transplanted on the patient’s cornea’s surface. Dhillow says he’s proud to be part of the project.

A stem cell injection bound to create a stir is about to take place. For the first time ever the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (the United States government agency regulating scientific research) has authorized a company to transfer embryonic stem cells to patients paralyzed by spinal trauma. It will be the first procedure of its kind after newly inaugurated President Barack Obama promised to remove limits on financing for embryonic stem cell research imposed by George Bush in 2001.

The details of the initiative are beginning to take form, explained Thomas Okarma, President and CEO of Geron Corporation, the biotechnology company that was given the go ahead by the FDA, speaking in a CNN interview, explaining that volunteer testing will already begin this summer. Eight or ten patients with recent damage to their spinal cord and completely paralyzed from their third to tenth vertebra will be injected with embryonic stem cells. Using totipotent cells manipulated in the lab, researchers have developed cells called oligodendrocytes which play an important role in nerve transmission and are able to rebuild myelin, a protective sheath that covers nerves.