“Latest Stem Cells News”

Two scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have been awarded $16.7 million for stem cell research projects.
Dr. Irwin Bernstein and Beverly Torok-Storb received the federal funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Their award is part of a $170 million effort divided among 18 scientific teams.

Torok-Storb will work with Dr. Mortimer Poncz of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to develop molecular and cell-based therapies for a range of blood diseases, using an $8.2 million grant.
Bernstein will work with Edward Morrisey of the University of Pennsylvania to study how biochemical reactions inside cells affect cell development, using an $8.5 million grant.

from http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/10/05/daily41.html

With veterinarians across the country training to use stem cells for tendon and ligament repair, a professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) wants to take the technology a step further by applying them to chronic, cell-based diseases.

Richard Vulliet, DVM, is very early into the work. But he is optimistic about the evidence as it exists, of course, and he may have had a success.

Vulliet has treated four dogs with degenerative myelopathy with their own stem cells, which he prefers to call mesenchymal stem cells or pluripotent marrow stromal cells. The terminology has evolved and those names are more descriptive, he says (…)

Vulliet says he got interested in treating these conditions because he was working with mesenchymal stem cells and their interaction with connective tissue, and it was boring. Then he came across two papers.

In one of the papers, Japanese researchers described treating induced cardiomyopathy in experimental rats (Circulation 2005;112:1128-35). They reported that when the cells were injected into the myocardium, function improved, and there was evidence that the cells formed new vascular structures and produced collagen.

In the other paper, researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans induced spine injuries in experimental rats and treated them with mesenchymal stem cells. When they treated the animals immediately after the injury was induced, there was no apparent effect. However, when they waited one week before treating, they found that at five weeks, seven rats out of 12 could lift their trunks with their hind legs. By comparison, none of the 10 rats that were not treated showed similar signs of improvement.

Vulliet says notions of how mesenchymal stem cells might enhance the healing process have expanded beyond the idea that the cells migrate to a site of injury, differentiate into the proper type of cell and incorporate into the tissue. They might modulate immune response as well (…)

Stem cells are an ideal entrée into real-animal research, Vulliet explains. Experiments with human subjects and stem cells are not generally allowed, and federal regulators are unclear about whether they have the authority to regulate such research, since the cells are not drugs and usually are autologous tissue (…)

from http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=14031

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(…) Since 2006, according to NECBB records, the number of banked units used in transplants has doubled. The company attributes this increase in cord blood usage to the ever evolving research surrounding cord blood stem cells.

“We have always reminded parents that stem cell therapies are advancing very quickly and it is difficult to know what the possibilities are. The fact that more parents are using cells they stored suggests that the scope of treatments available is encouraging,” said Dr. David Matzilevich, Chief Scientific Officer of NECBB. “We are confident that the cells found in cord blood are extremely valuable and will only prove to be more so as time goes on.”

Over 80 diseases can be treated with the use of cord blood, including some types of juvenile diabetes and chronic leukemia. Cord blood collection poses no threat to the baby and therefore, circumvents the ethical issues of embryonic stem cells. The cells are taken from the cord after it is cut from the mother and baby.

For over 20 years, cord blood transplants have produced positive results. In 1988, a three-year- old girl received a cord blood transplant to treat Fanconi’s anemia. In 1991, another child was treated for myelogenous leukemia with cord blood stem cells and the transplant was a success. Since then, two-thirds of cord blood transplants performed have been for malignant conditions and overall have shown a high rate of success. The rising numbers of transplants reported by NECBB proves further that the achievements of cord blood banking will only grow (…)

from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165571.php