“Latest Stem Cells News”

An Iranian scientist managed to develop a new method to propagate human spermatogonial stem cells from small testicular biopsies to obtain adequate number of cells for successful transplantation for 18000-fold in vitro, leading to protection of the fertility of immature boys suffering from cancer.

The research carried out jointly with Amsterdam University in Holland is the first developed method in the world.

Hooman Sadri-Ardekani, Ph.D in Reproductive Medicine and a Professor in Avicenna Institute-ACECR told ISNA, “Young boys treated with high-dose chemotherapy are often confronted with infertility once they reach adulthood and cryopreserving testicular tissue before chemotherapy and auto transplantation of spermatogonial stem cells at a later stage could theoretically allow for restoration of fertility.”

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Vet-Stem Inc. announced that over 8000 animals have now been treated with Vet-Stem cell therapy.

Vet-Stem began providing stem cells to veterinarians in 2004 and has now provided stem cells for the treatment of over 8,000 animals. Vet-Stem was the first company to introduce rapid turnaround stem cell services in the US.

After providing stem cells for thousands of horses, Vet-Stem pioneered stem cell therapy in dogs and cats and is now the world leader in Regenerative Veterinary Medicine. The rapid adoption of stem cell therapy by equine veterinarians and horse owners provided a springboard for use in small animal veterinary medicine.

Greater than 75% of horses treated with Vet-Stem cell therapy for tendon and ligament injuries are able to return to their previous level of performance. Dog owners report that greater than 80% of dogs treated with Vet-Stem cell therapy have an improved quality of life.

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Cells grown in culture are not alone: They are constantly communicating with one another by sending signals through their culture media that are picked up and transmitted by other cells in the media. When thousands of cells are cultured together in a dish, there are hundreds of thousands of these signals present every minute, all competing to be heard.

Scientists trying to direct cells to do useful things — like causing stem cells to turn into neurons or heart cells — typically try to overcome these signals by adding their own exogenous factors. These exogenous factors are often added at saturating concentrations, blanketing the cells with a particular growth factor or cytokine to activate specific pathways to produce a desired outcome, such as controlling stem cell differentiation. However, the constant din of cell communications is still present, causing alternate and perhaps opposing pathways to be stimulated.

This unstoppable secretion by cells in culture makes it difficult to determine the exact “recipe” of exogenous factors needed to elicit a specific phenotype, particularly in fast-growing cells like embryonic stem cells. MIT researchers Laralynne Przybyla, a graduate student in biology, and Joel Voldman, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, report in a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences how they were able to silence this din by using a microfluidic device to culture embryonic stem cells under continuous liquid flow (known as perfusion) such that factors secreted by the cells were removed before they could be transmitted to other cells. They used this device to investigate the influence of these factors on stem cells.

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A team of researchers at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures has developed a technique for using stem cells to deliver therapy that specifically targets the genetic abnormality found in Huntington’s disease, a hereditary brain disorder that causes progressive uncontrolled movements, dementia and death. The findings, now available online in the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, suggest a promising approach that might block the disease from advancing.

“For the first time, we have been able to successfully deliver inhibitory RNA sequences from stem cells directly into neurons, significantly decreasing the synthesis of the abnormal huntingtin protein,” said Jan A. Nolta, principal investigator of the study and director of the UC Davis stem cell program and the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures. “Our team has made a breakthrough that gives families affected by this disease hope that genetic therapy may one day become a reality.”

Huntington’s disease can be managed with medications, but currently there are no treatments for the physical, mental and behavioral decline of its victims. Nolta and other experts think the best chance to halt the disease’s progression will be to reduce or eliminate the mutant huntingtin (htt) protein found in the neurons of those with the disease. RNA interference (RNAi) technology has been shown to be highly effective at reducing htt protein levels and reversing disease symptoms in mouse models.

“Our challenge with RNA interference technology is to figure out how to deliver it into the human brain in a sustained, safe and effective manner,” said Nolta, whose lab recently received funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to develop an RNAi delivery system for Huntington’s disease. “We’re exploring how to use human stem cells to create RNAi production factories within the brain.”

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Parkinson’s Disease – Medical world has struggled in finding permanent cure for this condition that usually affects men over the age of 50 years, but now this maybe changing with the advent of stem cell based research in regenerative medicine. A significant clinical human trial using these technique now seems feasible in the near future.

Stem Cells and its Potential:

Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they 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. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Stem cell therapy in Parkinson’s disease:

The race to find permanent cure for Parkinson’s disease seems to be on with many exciting and rapid developments taking place in stem cell based regenerative research. However on a cautious note it remains to be shown whether stem cell-derived dopamine neurons can efficiently reinnervate the regions of the brain like the striatum and provide functional recovery in Parkinson’s patients.

The transplantation of the human foetal midbrain tissue in animals and humans has provided knowledge of a number of requirements for establishing a clinically competitive Stem Cell-based therapy in Parkinson’s disease.

The stem cell grafts should:

1. Exhibit a regulated release of dopamine and molecular, electrophysiological, and morphological properties similar to those of substantia nigra neurons(substantianigra lies in the midbrain immediately dorsal to the cerebral peduncles);
2. Enable survival of more than 100,000 dopamine neurons per human putamen(round structure located at the base of the forebrain);
3. Re-establish the dopamine network within the striatum and restore the functional connectivity with host extra-striatal neural circuitries;
4. Reverse the motor deficits resembling human symptoms in animal models of Parkinson’s disease and induce long-lasting andmajor symptomatic relief in patients;
5. Produce no adverse-effects such as tumor formation, immune reactions and gastric disorders.

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Howie Lindeman was facing the loss of his career and Neim Malo wasn’t supposed to see 2011. They were each treated for heart disease years ago using their own stem cells to repair their damaged heart tissue. Several years following treatment, both men continue to see improvement in their condition and quality of life.

Howie Lindeman, 60, had a heart attack at 39 years old that severely damaged his heart. He went through several procedures including having stents placed in his arteries and his physicians were considering open heart surgery for a quintuple bypass. He was in constant pain and struggled to walk just 25 feet, but when Zannos G. Grekos, MD, MAAC, FACC, chief medical officer of Regenocyte and a Florida-based pioneer in the field of adult stem cell therapy suggested he have the Regenocyte Adult Stem Cell procedure, he jumped at the opportunity. A normal ejection fraction (EF) is over 50 percent and Lindeman’s was down to a dangerous 22 percent before the adult stem cell procedure. Shortly after receiving treatment, his EF improved to a near-normal 47 percent, and is now at a stable 54 percent.

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