“Latest Stem Cells News”

Scientists in Melbourne for the first time have created a human stem cell reserve in Australia using a technique that avoids destroying embryos, which was developed in Japan and the United States.

The team from the Monash medical research institute produced an induced pluripotent stem cell line (IpS) that acts like embryonic stem cells, but are derived from adult skin cells. The method used to reprogram adult stem cells developed last year in Japan and the United States allows for the production of IpSs, which are used to study degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s without having to deal with ethical objections.

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A new drug combination tested in mice may target the cells responsible for driving some pancreatic tumors. The combination of gemcitabine and the experimental drug tigatuzumab eliminated populations of cancer stem cells and reduced tumor growth in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center reported at the AACR annual meeting.

The results provide a rationale for testing the promising combination in patients with this deadly disease, Dr. Rajesh Kumar NV and his colleagues concluded.

Cancer stem cells are thought to self renew while giving rise to tumors, and they may resist conventional treatments. The researchers found that human pancreatic cancer stem cells overexpress a protein called death receptor-5 (DR-5), which is involved in programmed cell death (apoptosis). The protein is also the target of tigatuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody also known as CS-1008.

To evaluate the drug’s effects on these important cells, mice were given tigatuzumab alone, gemcitabine alone, or a combination. Although gemcitabine reduced tumor size, it increased levels of pancreatic cancer stem cells (as defined by the protein markers ALDH, CD24, and CD44), and all of the tumors recurred. The combination treatment, however, led to long-term remissions in half of the treated mice.

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Canon Andrew White

An English priest living in Baghdad, Iraq has had his own Adult Stem Cells used to treat his Multiple Sclerosis. Canon Andrew White, the vicar of St. George’s Church in Baghdad was the recipient of this stem cell therapy to treat MS.

No Ethical Issues to Use His Own Stem Cells for Multiple Sclerosis

Andrew has a medical background and had helped establish the Bone Marrow Transplant Centre in Baghdad in 2001. He was good friends with Dr. Majid, the director of the center who saw that Andrew was suffering from the effects of his Multiple Sclerosis and approached him about using his own Adult Stem Cells for treatment.  Andrew had no objections or ethical issues about using his own stem cells and agreed to the stem cell therapy.

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breastcancer.org

Stem Cell Research Provides Help for Breast Reconstruction

Irene MacKenzie had a lumpectomy for her early stage breast cancer leaving her with a hollow in her breast. The lumpectomy took care of the cancer, but what about her breast? Well, Irene was the first person in Britain to reap the benefits of Stem Cell research using Adult Stem Cells for breast reconstruction.

Feeling Self-Conscious After the Lumpectomy

After the lumpectomy, Irene didn’t feel good about the way her breast looked. She looked for options. A friend referred her to Eva Weiler-Mithoff who is a consultant plastic surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Dr. Weiler-Mithoff who had been approached with a new Adult Stem Cell process asked if Irene would be interested in becoming the first woman in Britain to receive this new stem cell treatment for breasts. Irene didn’t hesitate and said “YES!”

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Transplanting stem cells from one’s own bone marrow (autologous stem cell transplants) improves the symptoms of muscular sclerosis (MS), and in some cases the neurological disease actually regressed. These are the encouraging results obtained from a small study performed on 21 remittent MS patients by a group from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago and published in Lancet Neurology. “All of the patients,” said the neurologists, “witnessed an improvement in their conditions three years after the stem cell transplants were performed. Of these, 81pct benefited from visible progress, measured in terms of the scale of their disability.”

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