“Latest Stem Cells News”

About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT’s Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion of genes into living cells for the treatment of disease. Sawicki was working on treating ovarian cancer by delivering — through viruses — the gene for the diphtheria toxin, which kills tumor cells (…)

MIT engineers have boosted stem cells’ ability to regenerate vascular tissue (such as blood vessels) by equipping them with genes that produce extra growth factors (naturally occurring compounds that stimulate tissue growth). In a study in mice, the researchers found that the stem cells successfully generated blood vessels near the site of an injury, allowing damaged tissue to survive.

Why it matters: Stem cells hold great potential as a way to promote tissue regeneration. However, this approach has been limited because stem cells don’t produce enough growth factors after transplantation. The researchers’ new super-charged stem cells could be used to treat an infarction (death of tissue caused by blockage of the blood supply, by a clot or another obstruction), or to induce blood supply for engineered tissues.

(…) Three months ago the world’s first cosmetic stem-cell facelift was carried out on Pauline Wills, 55, an office manager from South London, by Dr Aamer Khan from the Harley Street Medical Skin Clinic. It cost £7,500, took nearly six hours under local anaesthetic and Pauline had the added bonus of losing an inch from her tummy.

And because the procedure uses the body’s own stem cells – which makes it a living tissue graft – you grow into your own facelift during the six months afterwards (…)

Stem cells are present throughout the body and one of their functions is to repair damaged tissue and regenerate muscles, nerves, blood vessels and skin cells. The body has a reserve of these cells in the bone marrow, although there are a thousand times more stem cells in our fat stores (…)

Don’t worry about your child’s loss of teeth or if they have immature ones as doctors at AIIMS can regrow them using stem cell technique by just making a minute slit in their root.
“We at AIIMS are treating children with infected, immature teeth as a result of traumatic injuries, by using locally available indigenous stem cells,” Dr Naseem Shah, Chief of the Centre for Dental Education and Research, AIIMS said.

She explained that the root forms the most important part of the tooth. It anchors the tooth within the bone and houses the pulp (tiny blood vessels and nerves) which extends to the underlying bone and helps to nourish and give feeling to the tooth.
Any trauma to the teeth may lead to infection and death of the pulp, infection in the bone and arrest of the root development. Such roots are very fragile and may fracture, ultimately leading to loss of tooth.

Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D.

Blood vessel blockage, a common condition in old age or diabetes, leads to low blood flow and results in low oxygen, which can kill cells and tissues. Such blockages can require amputation resulting in loss of limbs. Now, using mice as their model, researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed therapies that increase blood flow, improve movement and decrease tissue death and the need for amputation. The findings, published online last week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hold promise for developing clinical therapies.

“In a young, healthy individual, hypoxia — low oxygen levels — triggers the body to make factors that help coordinate the growth of new blood vessels but this process doesn’t work as well as we age,” says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and genetic medicine and director of the vascular biology program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering. “Now, with the help of gene therapy and stem cells we can help reactivate the body’s response to hypoxia and save limbs.”

Previously, Semenza’s team generated a virus that carries the gene encoding an active form of the HIF-1 protein, which turns on genes necessary for building new blood vessels. When injected into the hind legs of otherwise healthy mice and rabbits that had been treated to reduce blood flow, the HIF-1 virus treatment partially restored blood flow.

People with diabetes have a 40 times higher risk of losing a limb to amputation, says Semenza. To find out if HIF-1 gene therapy could improve blood flow in a diabetic animal, the team then tested the same virus in diabetic and non-diabetic mice that had blood flow cut off to one hind leg. Twenty-one days after treatment, the HIF-1 virus-treated mice had 85 percent recovery of blood flow compared with 24 percent in the mock-treated mice. And, treated, diabetic mice had much less tissue damage compared to the untreated diabetic mice. These results were reported in the Nov. 3 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

MIAMI, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Some are calling it the next big frontier in cardiac treatment — injecting stem cells to regenerate the heart. But the experimental procedure means major surgery. Doctors are opening the door for heart patients who want to test the benefits of stem cells — without an operation.

One heart attack behind him, Max Eaton is now struggling with heart failure. He’s hoping stem cells are the answer to heal his ailing heart. “I happened to run into this article, which was the second or third time I heard about this stem cell research, and decided nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Eaton told Ivanhoe.

Instead of surgery, where the chest is opened and stem cells are injected into the heart, Alan W. Helman, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at the University of Miami, delivers the cells through a catheter that’s threaded through the groin. The spiral-shaped needle at the tip is screwed into the heart.

“We can now inject the cells exactly where we want to in the inside part of the heart, and we can do it in multiple different locations,” Joshua Hare, M.D., a cardiologist at the University of Miami, told Ivanhoe.
Doctors say it’s a more efficient way of delivering stem cells (…) Now, Eaton is hoping his wager on stem cells will pay off.

Doctors say Eaton is responding well to his stem cell treatment. All of the stem cells being used in this trial are adult stem cells. Studies have shown injecting heart attack patients with adult stem cells can increase the pumping power of the heart. However, it is not an approved treatment for re-growing heart tissue.

Full-length interview with Dr. Hare

from http://ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=22514