“Latest Stem Cells News”

(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 It will soon be out of date, he replied.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

Research in Italy, in the coming years, will suffer much more compared to research in other countries, because, explained a study on the future of biomedical research in Italy described yesterday in Siena by Stefano Palumbo, “the national debate on bioethical issues will continue to be affected by pre-established ideological positions, and often, will be aimed at imposing limits on scientific research”.

Due to the overwhelming “majority of Catholic members in the National Bioethics Committee, Italy will be,” according to the study, “the most conservative country in the world regarding stem cells,” which will result in great delays in finding treatments for serious diseases like “diabetes, Parkinson’s, cancer, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s”.

Between 2009 and 2015, Italian research will be affected by the economic crisis, and, according to the study, which was financed by the MPS Foundation and Siena Biotech, “will also be affected by the crisis in the pharmaceutical sector, resulting from the expiration of patents and the inability to replace products whose patents have expired with new products”. According to the experts, Italian research groups will be increasingly dependent on international financing.

As Aaditya watches a cartoon show on television, his right hand wavering to caress soft toys (SpongeBob SquarePants and Noddy) tucked next to him in bed, the boy has no clue that researchers and doctors across the world are watching his recovery with bated breath.

That’s because this frail boy, who is set to turn eight next month, is the first ever to receive a stem cell transplant for a rare and destructive illness — called Childhood Alzheimer’s (medical term: Niemann-Pick Type C or NPC), which causes neurological degeneration and seizures — for which there is no conventional treatment. Stem cells are cells that can, when provided the right stimulus, change themselves into specialised cells and, thus, develop into and replace malfunctioning or damaged body organs.

The operation was carried out at the BGS Global Hospital, Bangalore, on December 18 by Dr N.K. Venkataramana, Vice Chairman & Chief Neurosurgeon of the hospital.

Aaditya has recovered significantly after the stem cell transplant therapy. Now, his gaze shifts when people move in his bedroom, his head does not droop and the fingers of his right hand move to touch soft toys placed next to him. He could not do any of these earlier.

“The child’s deterioration has stopped and there’s some improvement (following the surgery). Next, he has to become active, but we cannot say how long it will take (for him to recover completely),” said Dr Venkataramana.

His recovery will bring cheer not only to his kin, but also to those in various corners of the world suffering from this disease.

Aaditya’s affliction has spawn a global network of researchers, parents and philanthropists who are not only exchanging information on this ailment but are also raising $200,000 to support research on NPC and to evolve an effective treatment for children struck by it.

This group, led by Aaditya’s aunt, Duriya Lakdawala, a banker based in Detroit, US, has already raised $10,000 during Christmas 2008. “We would like to see more kids benefit from this treatment,” says Tasneem, the boy’s mother.

Looking back, Tasneem says it took doctors nearly two years to accurately diagnose Aaditya’s affliction. The family got to know about NPC only after doctors at Gangaram Hospital, New Delhi, requested a skin biopsy in a laboratory in The Netherlands. Next, it was another journey to find treatment, but none existed, not even in the United States. Her sister Duriya learnt about the Stem Cell transplant approach from Dr Marc Patterson, an expert on NPC, and later on got to know about Stempeutics, a Stem Cells bank in Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. Subsequently, they met Dr Venkataramana at BGS Global Hospital, who agreed to carry out the procedure.

According to Dr Venkataramana, his team had to get an approval from the local ethics committee (at his hospital) according to guidelines set by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). “I had to submit the entire protocol involved and make a presentation to the committee prior to the transplant. The entire process took about two months,” he said.

Researchers believe that they can produce new eggs in infertile women even if the ovaries are damaged or the woman has passed the usual age of conception.

The technique involves transplanting stem cells into the ovaries and could work on the one in 10 women who suffer from infertility as well as those who want children late in life.

Until recently it was assumed that a woman was born with a finite lifetime store of around two million egg-producing follicles and no more could be produced.
By puberty this number has already fallen to about 400,000, and at the menopause too few eggs remain to permit fertility.

But four years ago scientists in the USA showed it was possible to obtain stem cells from the ovaries of adult women that could be grown into mature egg cells.

There’s a medical breakthrough for the deaf.
Scientists at United Kingdom’s Sheffield University have created stem cells from embryos to replace damaged cells in the inner ear — reversing hearing loss.

The embryonic stem cells could be converted into workable hearing cells for people born with inherited hearing problems and who’ve suffered damage to their ear cells during their lifetime, according to the scientists.
The breakthrough stem-cell discovery is “incredibly promising” and “opens up exciting possibilities,” Dr. Ralph Holme, a biomedical researcher, told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

But the stem-cell research could be halted by critics who argue that the controversial process destroys embryos in the name of science – a debate that’s raged since stem-cell studies began years ago.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama lifted the ban on embryonic stem-cell research, reinforcing the science world’s belief that studying embryonic cells is necessary for the development of new medical treatments.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have created the complex hair cells and the neurons needed for hearing from human stem cells.
They found they could encourage stem cells from the inner ears of human foetuses to grow into these highly specialised hearing cells.
The scientists hope they will eventually be able to use the cells to perform cell transplants in deaf patients to replace the hair cells and neurons that are damaged in a form of deafness known as sensorineural hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss one of the most common forms of deafness, accounting for 90 per cent of cases and affecting more than 6 million people.