“Latest Stem Cells News”

A new experimental therapy to treat diabetes, which involves transplanting embryonic pig stem cells into the diseased tissue, is currently being researched. Experiments have been done on primates, but the results that have been obtained indicate that in the future the same technique could be applied to human beings. For many years, pig organs have been considered the most best match to be used in human transplants, but strong immune reactions and powerful combinations of anti-rejection drugs have always represented an important obstacle in their clinical use.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that embryonic tissue from pigs, if transplanted, can form a complete pancreas in the host organism. Yair Reisner and his colleagues say that using an embryonic pancreas in place of an adult pancreas in a transplant encourages the development of the organ and the network of blood vessels that supply and nourish the organ, helping reduce the intensity of the immune response against foreign tissues.

For now, researchers have transplanted embryonic pig pancreases into two groups of monkeys with diabetes, which caused the death of the animals in the first group. An analysis demonstrated that the dose of drugs administered to the first group to suppress the immune response was too high and was lowered in the second group of monkeys. This group survived for almost one year after the transplant.

The key result of this study, say researchers, is that they now understand that the monkeys that received the transplants did not need any insulin for at least four months after the operation. Differently from adult pancreatic tissues, embryonic Langerhans cells have a greater ability to tolerate stress and to regenerate.

Incoming search terms:

In a recent published clinical stem cell research study, adult stem cells were shown to help delay Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) progression and improve an ALS patient’s quality of life. This research study was believed to be the first published study comparing ALS patients who had their own stem cells injected into their brain vs a control group.

Thank you very much to ALS Worldwide for providing us with this exciting stem cell research breakthrough in humans- not mice! Any clinical studies like this in the United States? I can’t hear you….

Without further ado- here is the published stem cell research study on ALS: Stem-cell transplantation into the frontal motor cortex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Summary of Adult Stem Cell Therapy for ALS Study

This summary is provided by the good people at ALS Worldwide as well as they went to observe this tremendous stem cell treatment using Adult Stem Cells!

HOSPITAL SAN JOSE TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY STEM CELL PROCEDURE

The initial two year clinical test study results of the stem cell procedure instituted by Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey, was published in Cytotherapy, February, 2009. Positive results were confirmed through both clinical observation and MRI tractography. It is considered by many within the international neurological community to be the foremost procedure available for minimizing or abrogating ALS symptoms and extending the lifespan of ALS patients. The procedure is a state of the art use of autologous CD-133 (+) stem cells injected into the frontal cortices for the effective replacement of motor neurons.

Representing the ALS WORLDWIDE patient community, we were at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico from June 6-14 to observe the hospitalization and procedures for the first two international patients being provided this stem cell therapy. In a sentence, the official message delivered is clear: “This stem cell procedure is not a cure. We offer nothing more than the promise of stability and extended life expectancy. The opportunity, however, exists for improvement. “

Process of Stem Cells for Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The stem cell preparation procedure is sophisticated and complicated but in the simplest terms, the patient’s blood is purified, extracted and cleansed. Stem cells are extracted and then the one kind of stem cell that can be best coaxed into becoming a neuron is injected into two places in the brain. The patient experiences no pain and very little discomfort during the procedure. A mild sedative is provided and within hours, the patient is back in his or her room, enjoying dinner.

The team effort at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey embraces a cooperative spirit that pervades every aspect of their efforts. Patients and their families are treated with the highest level of concern, respect and support. The hospital itself resembles the finest hotel and provides exemplary care. A more detailed, scientific explanation of the Monterrey experience is currently being prepared and will be posted to ALS WORLDWIDE within the next week.

I hope to post these updates on this breakthrough in stem cell research as well.

original post by Don Margolis

Incoming search terms:

(CBS) This week, British researchers announced another extraordinary breakthrough in medical research. They have taken stem cells from an embryo and created human sperm.

It’s very exciting, said the man who led the team. They have heads, they have tails, and they move. They have all the essential qualities for creating life. The aim, we are told, is to revolutionize the treatment of infertility.

But this discovery has created some interesting dilemmas. Sperm could be produced from female stem cells. That would mean women would no longer need men to create babies. It could also be theoretically used to produce an unlimited supply of babies from one stem cell line — millions of babies who are exactly the same. Will it happen? Probably not. Could it happen? Almost certainly, yes.

One of the opponents of this kind of research called it an example of man at his maddest. There are those who doubt the claims made by these researchers, but the truth is, it is only one of a remarkable series of medical breakthroughs involving stem cells. What these and other researchers are doing is ripping up the codes of law and morality by which we conduct our lives. The pace of discovery has left our legislators floundering.

And to make the whole matter more alarming, the pace of that change is increasing. Take these fine shining teeth, for instance — currently being rebuilt by a top man down the road with the aid of bone implants and titanium bolts. High tech – I said to my dental surgeon. It will soon be out of date, he replied. In future we will grow you nice new teeth from stem cells.

In fact, he said, some people are already trying it. But the rats they are using tend to grow the right teeth in the wrong places. So not quite suitable for me yet.

Stem cells, he said, can grow into anything — not just your teeth, but any failing organ. Think of it. Heart attack? Have a new heart. Kidneys in trouble? Here’s some more. Maybe when the treatments are perfected I will be able to live forever, as will you. Me — here — forever? I suspect for you the proposition does not attract. As a matter of fact it does not do much for me either.

from CBS

Incoming search terms:

Kim and Jay Case with their dog, Shiloh, at Citizen's Lake Campground in Monmouth on Wednesday morning. Kim won her battle with cancer because of an adult stem cell transplant

When Kim Case was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, doctors told her she had little chance of survival.

Months later when she was recovering from the disease, they changed their tune.

“The doctors called me their miracle patient,” Case said.

Case, who lives in Gaston, Ore. with her husband, Jay — who’s originally from Monmouth — was diagnosed in August 2004 with a rare form of cancer called NK T-cell lymphoma.

“I’m the only caucasian American to have had it,” said Case, a secretary and former substitute teacher.

The form of cancer is more common in Asia and the survival rate is minimal.

After radiation treatment and three rounds of chemotherapy, Case said the only option left was a stem cell transplant.

“I was willing to do anything,” Case, 48, said.

Stem cells serve “as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

After a spinal tap that was testing a mini transplant with her own stem cells, doctors found the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. An adult stem cell donation was the next option.
Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissues, according to the NIH. They can remain dormant for long period of time, “until they are activated by a normal need for more cells to maintain tissues, or by disease or tissue injury.”

The biggest worry for Kim and her family was finding a donor.

“These things usually take six months to a year,” she said. “I had found a donor within a week.”
Doug Cokinis, a 42-year-old married father from North Aurora, had seen a sign asking for donations and was a 100 percent match for Kim.

Kim, Jay and her caregiver, her 21-year-old son Bobby, had to move to Seattle, Wash. for the transplant.

She stayed at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington Hospital for 52 days.

Jay, a semi-retired contractor, bought a new truck and was making the three and a half hour trip back and forth from Oregon to Seattle every weekend for a three-month period.

“I put about 12,000 miles on the truck during that time,” he said.

After another chemotherapy session, the stem cell transplant took place in October 2004.

It took about a month before Kim re-gained some strength.

“It was a gradual, slow process,” she said. “I had to walk three or four times around my room without stopping before being allowed to leave the hospital.”

Able to leave the hospital after 52 days, Kim stayed in Seattle to go back in for occasional tests.

“They gave her a list of things she’d have problems with for the rest of her life,” Jay said.

So, the short period of time after that was nothing short of remarkable.

She was able to return home in February 2005, cancer free. She regularly had blood draws to make sure the cancer had not returned.

By June 2005, she was able to stop taking medication for side effects from cancer. She hasn’t taken any medication since then – something unheard of in cancer patients.

Kim maintained a positive attitude during her fight to conquer the disease.

“I really didn’t feel sick … I wasn’t ready to die,” she said.

The attitude had an effect on the nurses taking care of her as well.

A nurse brought her gifts one day because she “was always smiling.”

Kim and Jay encourage people to donate adult stem cells if they’re able. They said the process is easy. Those interested in donating should contact the main chapter of Red Cross (800) 733-2767.

“It’s an easy process,” Kim said. “They take blood to test for diseases. Once that’s clear, they put you on a list. Once they find a match, they give you shots to take for the cells to reproduce at a faster rate … most don’t know what to an adult stem cell transplant is, it’s not like a bone marrow transplant.”

Though adult stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells, Kim was supportive of embryonic stem cell research.

“I think the research is helping,” she said. “It’s amazing what it could do.”

She was also able to meet her donor recently.

“He started e-mailing me and we talked on the Internet for awhile,” she said. “We finally met in person. His daughter calls me Aunt Kim … he and his family are planning to visit us in Oregon sometime, too,” she said.

Considering all that had happened to her, Kim took no time in answering whether or not she thought her experience was, in fact, a miracle.

“One hundred percent miracle,” she said.

from Review atlas

Incoming search terms:

The Pisa University Hospital has become part of the international network of hematopoietic stem cell transplant facilities (meaning they produce various blood components). The hospital was recently accredited by the Italian registry of bone marrow donors, which is part of the international network.

Pisa has become an important center for bone marrow collection for all potential donors in northwestern Italy.
On 20 April 2009, the first donation was carried out for a patient at the Udine University Hospital, and a second donation is being organized for a patient being treated at the Montpellier Hospital (France).

The hospital in Pisa received the prestigious recognition thanks to the positive results they have obtained over the past years in the hematology and oncology- hematology units.

Incoming search terms:

On May 6, France’s Council of State (the highest administrative court and legal advisor to the executive branch) declared that it was against the practice of “renting out one’s uterus” and in favor of the permanent authorization regulations for embryo research and embryonic stem cell research under certain conditions. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon had asked the court for its opinion, in a reexamination of a 2004 bioethics law.

-Considering the interest of the child and the mother carrying the child and basic underlying principles of the present ban, we hereby recommend to not legalize the practice of using a surrogate mother.

To provide a solution to the current situation, documentation of the paternal relationship and the request of a written authorization for the mother “of intention” to agree upon the actual parental authority are recommended.

-Regarding research on the embryo and embryonic stem cell research, we suggest the creation of a “permanent authorization regulations”, under defined conditions, which specify how the possibility of authorization is a power and therefore the right of authorization need not be provided.

Incoming search terms: