“Latest Stem Cells News”

An extremely valuable source of eggs has been discovered in female mice. The discovery was described as a potentially infinite source of female fertility, or germline stem cells, which can continue producing new egg cells in adults, which could be a cure for sterility and menopause.
The discovery was made by Ji Wu of the University of Shanghai Jiao Tong and contradicts previous research on the female reproductive system, possibly paving the way for new prospects to treat sterility and revolutionize female reproduction, which after menopause could make use of germline stem cells that were previously isolated and frozen to result in future pregnancies.

According to reports in Nature Cell Biology Magazine, stem cells isolated from the ovaries of adult mice were implanted into the ovaries of mice that were previously sterile, which later became pregnant and gave birth to healthy offspring.

According to what scientists have learned, a woman’s reproductive potential is decided and limited at birth with the formation of a fixed number of eggs, which activate during puberty and result in menopause when consumed. While in males, it was discovered that the testicles have a double line of male germ cells that constantly produce new sperm. However, no observation of this type has ever been made in females.

Chinese researchers now say that they have isolated female germline stem cells in the ovaries of mice just after birth (5 days) and in adult mice.

When their ovaries are injected with thousands of these stem cells, the mice stopped being fertile and naturally gave birth to healthy offspring. The female germline stem cells were first frozen, and then were thawed and implanted into the ovaries of sterile mice, a procedure adopted in order to simulate a therapy that could be performed to combat female sterility in the future.

Hypothetically, if similar germline stem cells were also found in women, they could be removed, frozen and used when needed. Each woman could store her own germline cells in special banks. This could eventually help women who have undergone chemotherapy making them sterile, and restore their fertility. The same procedure could be adopted for women who want to have more children after menopause.

Obviously this is only a future possibility. First, it will be necessary to demonstrate that female germline cells are present in humans and can be isolated from human ovaries. Then tests will have to be done to show that these cells are able to produce more eggs that can be fertilized to produce healthy offspring. This discovery could lead to new and exciting scenarios for female reproduction.

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Patients before and after Regenexx stem cell procedure educational video showing how it is done and patient’s results for knees and hips…

Local News does story on stem cell patient who received the regenexx procedure…

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Christopher J. Centeno, M.D.

A leading adult stem cell therapy organization is warning the public that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has teamed up with the pharmaceutical industry to declare a person’s own stem cells to be a “drug” which can be regulated, thus slowing down the progress of these promising therapies by requiring years of clinical trials before use.
Dr. Christopher Centeno, of Regenerative Science, Inc. of Broomfield, Colo., realized what was happening when he was contacted by the FDA last summer about his work using a patient’s own stem cells to regenerate bone and cartilage.

“The FDA contends that if one cultures stem cells at all, regardless of the use of those cells, then it’s a prescription drug,” said Dr. Centeno.
By declaring adult stem cells to be a drug means subjecting each application to 7-10 years of clinical trials before approved use.

“So while your doctor could do all of this safely in a physician-run lab and begin treating a host of diseases, you have to wait 5-20 years for access to your own stem cells (as a drug),” Dr. Centeno said. (…)

“If we can treat your heart failure with your stem cells, send them to the lab down the street where they’ll process them, and we’ll put the cells back into you — that would dramatically and negatively compete with the big pharma embryonic stem cell business model,” he said.
Dr. Centeno, who established an organization to define guidelines and standards for adult stem cell research called The American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA), hired a team of lawyers last summer to challenge the FDA’s assertion.

It was during this process that they discovered a critical change had been made in 2005 to the agency’s definition of human cell tissue or tissue based products, known as HCT/P’s. This change is what now allows adult stem cells to fall into the category of a biological drug. (…)

By changing one simple phrase, the agency has given itself sweeping new powers to regulate stem cells as biological drugs. But this change is problematic for the FDA because it amounts to a new regulation, something they are not authorized to make without notifying the public and offering the public the opportunity to comment. (…)

“First, the FDA has itself acknowledged that there exists a low risk of the spread of communicable disease when adult stem cells are taken from the patient and re-implanted into that same patient. Moreover, if the FDA asserted its jurisdiction over any product or procedure which involved the slightest possibility of contamination, the FDA would thereby regulate every hospital and doctor’s office in the country. The sorts of contamination to which Ms. Peper refers are commonly called ‘infections.’ An infection is a medical complication, not a federal public health issue.”

Read more on The Bulletin

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For some the stress of every day life can prove to be too much actually causing their hair to fall out. But now there’s an experimental treatment in the Bay area that may help your hair grow back regardless of why it fell out.

Russell Gibson is hoping it will work for him. Under the hot Florida sun each day he wears a black knit stocking cap pulled down low over his ears and his eyebrows. He spends hours working outside because he owns “Momma Gibbs Top Notch Boat Detail.” Seeing see him dressed in a t-shirt and shorts with a cap on his head makes most people look twice.

He says when customers or friends ask him why he’s wearing it he tries to quickly change the subject. In nearly three years hardly anyone has seen Gibson without a cap. “Nobody really knows that I have this problem except for two or three people I’ve actually told.”

In his garage in private when his roommate is gone and no one else is home is the only time he will remove it. He shaves away the short black clumps of hair so you won’t notice the circular areas of hair that have fallen out.

Gibson has alopecia areata which is an auto-immune disease where white blood cells attack the hair follicle which stops hair growth on the scalp and on the body. Gibson’s eyebrows and lashes have fallen out. There is no cure.

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Scientists are one step closer to creating a gene therapy/stem cell combination to combat genetic diseases. With work, this research may lead to not only curing the disease, but also repairing the damage left behind.

While gene therapy is a burgeoning field that has shown great results in treating genetic disorders, many of those diseases leave behind heavily damaged tissue that the body is unable to repair. So even if the disease is completely eradicated, quality of life may not necessarily improve, and without help, health can still continue to deteriorate.

Since stem cell research began, there has been a hope that use of those cells may help alleviate some of the trauma left behind by genetic diseases. While the theory has been shown to work in mice, this is the first time a human cell line has confirmed that it is possible the therapy will work for humans as well.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, chose to focus on Fanconi anemia (FA), a genetic disorder that is characterized by short stature, bone marrow failure, irregularities in blood cells that can lead to clotting, and an increased risk of leukemia. Even after gene therapy and “bone marrow transplants to correct the hematological [blood] problems, patients remain at high risk of developing cancer and other serious health conditions.”

The Nature-published technique employed by Juan-Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte’s team was two-fold. First, they collected hair and skin cells from those suffering from FA. These types of cells are known as somatic cells, and can be used to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Once a hair cell has been transformed into an iPS cell, it can be coaxed to differentiate into virtually any cell in the human body.

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The University of Minnesota is proceeding with embryonic stem cell research, despite an anti-abortion group’s claim that it is illegal under a new ban on the use of state tax dollars for human cloning.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life called on the university Tuesday to “cease its pursuit of human cloning and to end its violation of state law through its ongoing destruction of human embryos.” The organization cited the new cloning ban, along with legislative testimony from a U executive that the ban would stifle “ongoing” research if passed.

University spokeswoman Mary Koppel said the executive’s comments referred to earlier versions of the bill that were broader in scope. The ban doesn’t apply, she added, because the university is not using state tax dollars for any cloning or creation of new embryonic stem cell lines. Koppel said the university already has an internal policy against the use of state tax funds for such purposes.

“This just sort of codifies what we already have in place,” she said.

The ban was a key issue in the final days of budget negotiations between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature. Pawlenty was prepared to fight a higher education budget bill unless it included the ban, which state Senate and House leaders agreed to add in final conference sessions.

The term cloning evokes images of creating a whole new person. And while the funding ban certainly covers this form of “reproductive cloning,” it also applies to “therapeutic” cloning, the process of copying human cells by transferring a person’s DNA into an unfertilized human egg.

The university is conducting research with stem cell lines that were created years ago — research that is eligible for taxpayer funding. Diabetes researcher Meri Firpo is also using private funds to create new stem cell lines out of embryos that are left over from fertility procedures. However, she said this process doesn’t involve cloning, nor does university policy even allow this type of cloning.

She said it was nonetheless “worrisome” to see a political body dictate what type of research can take place.

Abortion opponents are also against the creation of new stem cell lines from human embryos, because potential human lives are destroyed in the process.

U researchers counter that embryonic cells may unlock treatments for diabetes and cancer.

The university’s Stem Cell Institute is engaged in a variety of stem cell research, including treatments that use the cells from a patient’s own body. U researchers have also replicated a Japanese study in which ordinary skin cells were reprogrammed into an embryonic state.

from Twincities

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