“Latest Stem Cells News”

Fat around the waist is commonly seen as a contributing factor to heart attack. Ironically, a company is now testing whether adult stem cells from fat could help prevent long-term damage after a heart attack.

A new medical team is now investigating whether adult stem cells harvested from a person’s own fat, delivered shortly after a heart attack, could prevent some of the cardiac muscle damage that results from blocked arteries.

During a heart attack, blood vessels that deliver blood to the heart muscle are blocked. The lack of oxygen slowly kills the tissue. San Diego-based Cytori Therapeutics has developed a treatment that aims to prevent much of that muscle damage before it starts.

The procedure involves injecting concentrated slurry of adult stem cells and other regenerative cells isolated from the patient’s body directly into the heart’s main artery within 24 hours after an attack.

“Time is muscle. The quicker you get in, the better,” Christopher Calhoun, Cytori’s chief executive officer says. “You can’t do anything about dead tissue, but tissue that’s bruised and damaged-that’s revitalizable. If you can get new blood flow in there, that tissue comes back to life.”

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Those suffering from a damaged heart can be treated with their own heart cells. According to a recent research, heart stem cells from children with congenital heart disease can rebuild the damaged heart in the laboratory. The findings apparently have great significance in the health zone.

While conducting the research, cells were achieved from patients ranging in age from a few days after birth to 13 years. These patients were previously subjected to routine congenital cardiac surgery. The number of heart stem cells appears greatest in neonates, that reduce with progression in age. Majority of the stem cells can be possibly found in the upper right chamber of the heart, or the right atrium. The cardiac stem cells seem to be functional and are capable to repair the damaged heart.

“Due to the advances in surgical and medical therapies, many children born with cardiomyopathy or other congenital heart defects are living longer but may eventually succumb to heart failure. This project has generated important pre-clinical laboratory data showing that we may be able to use the patient’s own heart stem cells to rebuild their hearts, allowing these children to potentially live longer and have more productive lives,” shared Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, surgeon in the Division of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Memorial Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, lead author of the research.

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A new research has suggested that cardiac stem cells - even in elderly and sick patients – could generate new heart muscle and vessel tissue and be used to treat heart failure.

Scientists surgically removed tissue from the muscular wall of the heart’s chambers in 21 patients.

They then isolated and multiplied the cardiac stem cells (CSCs) found there.

Most of the patients had ischemic cardiomyopathy (enlarged and weakened muscle due to coronary artery disease). Eleven also had diabetes. The average age of patients was about 65.

“Regardless of the gender or age of the patient, or of diabetes, we were able to isolate in all of them a pool of functional cardiac stem cells that we can potentially use to rescue the decompensated human heart,” said Domenico D’Amario, author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Harvard, Boston, Mass.

The study has been presented at the American Heart Association‘s Scientific Sessions 2010. (ANI)

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A technique that combines nanotechnology with adult stem cells appears to destroy atherosclerotic plaque and rejuvenate the arteries, according to a study reported at the American Heart Association‘s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2010 Scientific Sessions – Technological and Conceptual Advances in Cardiovascular Disease.

In the study, nanoparticles (microscopic particles with at least one dimension less than 80 nm) were infused into the heart of pigs along with adult stem cells. After the nanoparticles were heated by laser light, they burned away arterial plaque. However, nanoparticles were less effective at eliminating plaque if not combined with adult stem cells.

“This unique approach holds promise for use in humans for acute care and urgent restoration of blood flow,” said Alexandr Kharlamov, M.D., lead author and research manager at the Department of Internal Medicine and Research Center of Regenerative Medicine, Ural State Medical Academy in Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation. “Biophotonics (light therapy), plasmonics (plasma therapy), stem cell therapy and nanotechnology might someday offer a completely novel treatment to reduce artery plaque build-up.”

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Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. or the  wishes to announce the acceptance and publication of the paper entitled “The Beta-hCG + Erythropoietin in Acute Stroke (BETAS) Study” by the journal “Stroke”, on March 8, 2010.
This paper was authored by Dr. Steven C. Cramer, from the University of California, Irvine, Dr. David Brown at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, New Port Beach, Dr. Michael D. Hill of Foothills Hospital at the University of Calgary, and colleagues.

Dr. Allen Davidoff, VP of Product Development, commented as follows:

“The Stroke journal, published by the American Heart Association, is the top journal in the field of stroke research. Stem Cell Therapeutics is pleased to congratulate Dr. Steven C. Cramer, David Brown and Michael Hill for their efforts, acceptance and successful publication of this novel study by this highly respected, peer reviewed journal.

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