“Latest Stem Cells News”

All those who have suffered ligament damage could benefit from artificial ligaments built biologically. But, experimentation on artificial ligaments, which could come from stem cells and naturally replace damaged tissue, will not continue. Speaking about the issue was Luigi Ambrosio, one of the researchers of the Institute of Technology of Composite Material of the National Research Council (CNR) in Naples, who contributed to the realization of this biological ligament. Two solutions were proposed by the Neapolitan laboratory.

One solution was to build a biodegradable structure out of hyaluronic acid, one of the components of ligament tissue that repairs or replaces the damaged parts of the ligament. The more efficient result was obtained by building an artificial ligament from adult stem cells, which grow and differentiate into tissue. Despite the good results obtained in animals in lab experiments, human experiments will not be done due to a lack of funds, even if the solution proposed by the CNR in Naples could help maintain a good physical condition for a longer time.

The alternative today is to replace damaged ligaments with ligaments from other parts of the body or replacing the damaged tissue with artificial materials, mainly polymers that mimic their structure. However, these techniques, chosen mainly for athletes who must recover quickly, can create long-term problems. As Ambrosio said, “various structures, especially polymers, have been constructed, but none have given the results hoped for and have almost all been abandoned. The material developed by our laboratories,” concluded the researcher “could help people overcome problems with an important improvement in the quality of life and a reduction in costs for the patient”.

Incoming search terms:

Dr. Amit Patel of the University of Utah is reporting that 3 out of 3 heart disease patients have improved in the initial stages of his stem cell research trial in which the cardiomyopathy patients had their own Adult Stem Cells injected back into their heart in a minimally invasive surgical procedure.

Dr. Patel presented the initial data at the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) annual meeting in San Diego, California.  The clinical research trial is treating heart patients with both ischemic cardiomyopathy and non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy and then injecting them with their own Adult Stem Cells.  There is a control group in the study as well. Translation-  some patients are not getting the benefit of the stem cells and receive a placebo.

Initial Data of Patients Treated with Adult Stem Cells

Here are the results so far (from the stem cell article)-

• 3 cardiomyopathy patients who received their own stem cells were followed up at 3 months.  They all improved on their New York Heart Failure Classes- all 3 going from a Class III to a Class II.  In contrast 2 out of the 3 who didn’t get stem cells , did NOT improve.
• Overall quality of life scores (Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire) improved in all 3 patients who received the stem cell therapy.  The physical and emotional well-being of all the patients who received the treatment also improved.  There was no consistent trend in the control group (the group that didn’t get the stem cells)

Millions Would Benefit With Use of Own Stem Cells

While these are positive results and I am happy for these patients, there are thousands of cardiomyopathy patients who are not able to receive this stem cell treatment.  Dr. Kit Arom of Vescell in Thailand, a former associate of Dr. Patel, is now treating these exact same patients with their own stem cells and none of these dilated cardiomyopathy and heart attack patients are in a “control” group ie. they are getting the exact same procedure and getting their own Adult Stem Cells that Dr. Patel’s trial is doing (sucessfully).

Dr. Kit Arom has been treating heart disease patients in Thailand since 2005 with this exact same procedure- and the USA has just done 3??? Is something wrong here?

The Debate on Stem Cell Research – A Smokescreen?

While there is the endless debate on Embryonic Stem Cell research vs. Adult Stem Cell research, is the debate just some  clever smokescreen thrown up by the drug companies, FDA, and cardiologists, none of whom will benefit from heart (or name your disease)  patients using their own Adult Stem Cells to help themselves?  Is this stem cell debate just a means to slow down the use of the patient’s own cells?  Remember, there are no side effects from using your own stem cells, either they help (most of the time) or they don’t (no harm done).

Are people getting so caught up on the stem cell research issue that we are ignoring the patients who are in need of help right now?  Are we so intent on 100% “cures” that we ignore stem cell treatments that are not “cures”, but do indeed help improve the quality of lives of the majority of patients right NOW.   I’m sure the patients who improved in the stem cell heart study above are very happy with their results.  Are their hearts 100% perfect now?  No,  it wasn’t a “cure”.  Does that mean it isn’t good enough?

Why do we have to go for the homerun on every at bat, when a patient would be grateful for a single or double?  Would Michael J Fox be happy if his Parkinson’s symptoms subsided for 5 years like this gentleman?  Or, I’m sure the heart patients are pleased that instead of getting short of breath from getting the mail, that they are probably now able to walk around their local mall with their loved ones.

I see endless articles and letters to the editor that support this research or that research, but rarely do I see an article or letter promoting USING the only treatment that works now- Adult Stem Cells.  In the end, with all this hoopla, we end up forgetting about what should be the reasons for the debates and research in the first place- the patients.

Incoming search terms:

After the decision of the United States to remove the ban preventing stem cell researchers from using public funding for experiments, legislators in South Korea have been put under pressure by scientists who have been aspiring to do experiments on stem cells from cloned human embryos.

Up until a few weeks ago the National Bioethics Committee continued to postpone a decision on the matter, but now thanks to the American president, it is increasingly probable that at most, by the end of April, researchers of the Cha Medical Institute of Seoul will be able to resume experiments on stem cells generated by cloned human embryos.

Incoming search terms:

Helen Blau

Scientists have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells and muscle cells like skin cells.
The fickleness of the cells, and the relative ease with which they make the switch, provide a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to become something it’s not.

“We’d all like to understand what happens inside the black box (cell),” said Helen Blau, professor and member of Stanford University‘s Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Institute and co-author of a new study on the subject.
Harnessing these genetic makeovers will allow scientists to better understand how to induce specialised adult cells to revert to a stem-cell-like state in a process called induced pluripotency (iPS).

But Blau’s experiments suggest an intriguing alternative to iPS: that of enticing specialised adult cells to switch identities without requiring a dip into the stem cell pool.
Blau, who heads the Baxter Lab at Stanford University and her lab members fused mouse muscle cells with human skin cells, to create hybrids called heterokaryons.

Incoming search terms:

Hayley Pelletier had been legally blind since birth due to her Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. However, thanks to the wonders of stem cell research using Adult Stem Cells, these days Hayley can now see and in the words of her mother “Basically, her whole quality of life was just bumped up 110 percent.”

No Medications, No Treatments, Nowhere To Go

Before the stem cell research that changed her life occurred, Hayley was learning how to read Braille and how to get around with a cane due to the Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, a leading cause of blindness in children where the optic nerve fails to develop.

Until an amazing new  stem cell treatment developed in China using cord blood stem cells, there was no drugs, no treatments that could improve Optic Nerve Hypoplasia.

Cord Blood Stem Cells- Only Treatment Available

Hayley and her mother Heather went to China for the stem cell treatment in November 2008.  And the results have been amazing.  Before, Hayley could barely only make out the difference between light and dark, but now-

1. She can now draw pictures of people on paper
2. She can identify colors easily
3. She can watch television from 3 feet away.

From the stem cell article:

“It’s been incredible,” Pelletier said. “Basically, her whole quality of life was just bumped up 110 percent. She’s so much happier.”

Her self confidence has soared, too. Pelletier managed to say a few words at a Lions Club banquet, but she admits she was intimidated by the hundreds of people in the room. Hayley wasn’t.

“I brought a different child home from China. She stood on a chair and told them all about her experiences there,” said Pelletier, astonished. “Then she thanked them for honoring her with their support.”

Incoming search terms:

Progress has been made against strokes thanks to stem cells. British researchers, thanks to these cells, have managed to repair brain tissue damaged by a stroke. The study, financed by the research council on biological and biotechnological sciences of the United Kingdom, was published in Nature Biomaterials. The team from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of Nottingham, used a biodegradable polymer called Plga to build a scaffold for neural cells.

Using these they filled the cavity left by a stroke. This allows, explained Mike Modo, psychiatrist at King’s College in London and coordinator of the study, “stem cells to create connections with the other cells, contributing to the re-stabilization of the damaged tissue”. One of the main obstacles for scientists has been overcome in this way: normally, stem cells do not find any support in the cerebral area affected

Incoming search terms: