“Latest Stem Cells News”

CHENNAI -  The country’s first public stem cell bank, which would store stem cells extracted from a newborn’s umbilical cord for common use, was inaugurated here on Thursday. The cells, which are collected from the blood from umbilical cord soon after childbirth, are preserved at -196 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen.

While mothers can store the blood for private use for a cost, they would be charged nothing if they donate it to the public bank. These cells are capable of developing into different kinds of cells and tissues, offering new treatment methods for serious disorders including blood cancer.

Member of parliament Kanimozhi inaugurate , a unit of Jeevan Blood Bank. “Stem cells have a shelf life of 21 years. As of now, there is 80% cure from stem cell therapy for diseases like blood cancer and Thalassemia. In the future, it may be possible to use these cells to grow damaged tissues or organs. It has a potential of curing more than 70 medical conditions,” said Dr P Srinivasan, managing trustee, Jeevan Blood Bank.

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Stem Cell Research Brings About Another Miracle

Korean doctors have apparently regrown a patient’s jawbone using the patient’s own Adult Stem Cells in yet another amazing miracle that Adult Stem Cell research has brought us.

An 18 year old Korean boy who had to have most of his jawbone and his teeth removed due to a tumor was the lucky recipient of this fantastic stem cell research victory.

The young man, who had been suffering confidence problems due to his appearance (missing his jawbone and teeth) is very happy now after the Adult Stem Cells worked their magic and regrew his jawbone so he looks normal in appearance now.

Process of Stem Cells

1. Adult Stem Cells were taken from the man’s bone marrow
2. They were then multiplied and “coached” into becoming an osteoblast- a cell responsible for bone formation
3. The new Adult Stem Cells were injected into the “damaged” area around the man’s jaw
4. 6 months-1 year the stem cells grow new bone to fill in the gap left when the jawbone and teeth were removed
5. Man’s looks better, has more confidence, happier

Stem Cell Case Study Presented at Conference

The results of the trial were published in the British medical journal BMC Medicine and it was also presented at the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons annual meeting (Those silly Maxillofacial surgeons must have forgotten my invitation)

Another Case of Adult Stem Cell Research Working Magic

This is just another instance in which the patient’s own stem cells were used to help. The patient had nothing to lose (no side effects because they were his own stem cells), and everything to gain. And gain he did with this miracle.

This reminds me of an amazing story in Germany a few years back in which they actually used a man’s back as an incubator and grew him a new jawbone

Click here to read the whole stem cell article

from Don Margolis

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Scientists at the University of California have found a potential new use for human embryonic stem cells: helping cancer patients recover the cognitive function lost when their brains are treated with radiation.

People with tumors in their head or neck often undergo radiation therapy after the cancer is surgically removed. Radiation helps kill malignant cells left behind. But it also can debilitate the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning, memory and processing of spatial information.

The researchers wondered whether embryonic stem cells could pick up the slack.

So they radiated the heads of 18 rats. Two days later, six of those rats got two injections of human embryonic stem cells directly into the hippocampus. After four months, the researchers measured the rats’ cognitive abilities. They placed the rats in an arena with two Lego blocks and let them explore. When they were done, the researchers took the rats out of the arena and moved one block. Five minutes later, the rats went back in.

All of the animals studied both of the blocks, but the rats that were treated with stem cells spent far more time nosing around the one that had been moved. And the radiated rats that didn’t get stem cells lost half of their cognitive function, according to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The results suggest that embryonic stem cells could spare cancer patients much of the short-term memory loss from cranial radiation.

from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-stem-cells-1113-1114nov16,0,4526555.story

Madison, Wisconsin – More than a decade of laboratory research at the University of Wisconsin has proven that a single chemical compound may both detect and treat malignant tumors and certain cancer stem cells.
In three posters presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Chicago, March 31-April 4, UW-Madison researchers describe exciting advances involving CLR1404, described as a “diapeutic” agent that can both image and destroy a wide range of malignant tumors and the one type of cancer stem cells examined so far.

The presentations are based on basic research in the lab of Dr. Jamey Weichert, associate professor of radiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) and a member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center (CCC).
Clinicians at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and elsewhere are interested in assessing CLR1404′s potential. Several clinical trials evaluating both the cancer imaging and therapeutic capabilities of CLR1404 are under way at the Carbone Cancer Center, with more scheduled to begin soon.

Dr. John Kuo, director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program at UW Hospital and Clinics and a cancer stem-cell scientist at the School of Medicine and Public Health, is studying the possibility of using CLR1404 to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly form of brain cancer, by targeting GBM stem cells.
In one of the American Association for Cancer Research posters (#3495), Kuo and Weichert describe how CLR1404 decreases glioblastoma stem cell activity, suppresses GBM growth and improves animal survival.

In a fresh demonstration of science’s newfound ability to alter the basic units of human life, researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have turned the cells in human skin into those in the liver, work that opens new avenues for treating diseases of the liver without relying on organ transplants.

Professor and stem cell researcher Stephen A. Duncan and other scientists in his lab reported this week in the journal Hepatology that they have created reprogrammed mouse liver cells that were identical to those grown in nature and were able to integrate and grow alongside those in a mouse liver.

Duncan and his fellow researchers also showed that human liver cells made through reprogramming are virtually the same as those grown from embryonic stem cells, though both appear to differ from adult liver cells in one respect. Those grown with reprogrammed or embryonic stem cells in the lab had fewer of the enzymes that fulfill the liver’s function of filtering out toxins than adult liver cells that have developed in the body.

from http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/63820732.html

(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

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