“Latest Stem Cells News”

One in every 20 Americans over the age of 50 suffers from something called, peripheral arterial disease or PAD. It can result in clogged arteries in your legs, which can cause a heart attack, if left untreated. But now there’s a new approach. Doctors using a patient’s own stem cells to clear things up. (…)

The arteries in her leg are clogged with plaque which puts her at risk for heart attack, stroke and amputation. Traditionally, doctors treat PAD with stents, angioplasties or bypasses. But now, they’re using a patient’s own stem cells to try and save her legs.

“We basically take stem cells from their hips to help grow blood vessels,” said Dr. Randall Franz of Grant Medical Center.

Doctors use a needle to remove bone marrow from the patient’s hip. The marrow goes into a centrifuge to separate the stem cells.

“When we put it in you can see it was just all red. Now we have plasma, a buff coat and stem cells,” said Dr. Tom Hankins of Grant Medical Center.

Then, doctors inject the stem cells into the patient’s leg.

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.

Like Samson, researchers in the field of stem cells have used the jawbone to make a point. Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic and her team at Columbia University have manipulated adult stem cells to grow one of the most difficult sections of bone to replace, the temporomandibular joint. This jawbone was created by allowing pluripotent cells harvested from marrow to grow in a scaffold that was fashioned to mimic the TMJ’s shape.

It is the first accurate and anatomically sized bone created by stem cells in a lab. Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic hopes that this new creation will serve as a proof of concept — if they can make the complex TMJ, they should be able to grow many other bones in your body. While this work is truly amazing, it still has some major hurdles to jump before it could be used to replace damaged or cancerous bones in humans (…)

Growing a fully functional part of the human body depends not only on coaxing adult stem cells to replicate and specialize, it also requires one heck of a nursery. The Columbia team has developed a bioreactor which provides all of the necessary nutrients for stem cells to develop into bone. The shape of the scaffold inside the bioreactor was defined through the use of many digital pictures. Which raises the possibility that eventual bone recipients could have the new body part made to look exactly like the old one. While the bioreactor is top notch, work still has to be done to find a way for the newly created bone to carry its own blood supply that can be easily adapted into the host (…)

from http://singularityhub.com/2009/10/13/stem-cells-used-to-create-new-jaw-bone/

The hardship’s focus is on pilot studies conducted in China. Sean Hu, CEO and Chair of Shenzhen Beike Biotechnologies Co. Ltd. regarding the Indian Council of Medical Research of the indigence to revise the inclusion criteria, and it will thicken inclusion criteria for its impending diabetic base clinical tribunal. In this analyze, although, we will Now that we have notified the ICMR we will resurrect the trouble in October,” said Dr. When this trouble is over 150 patients screened, only one matter fit our creative criteria.” He went onto hint that diabetic bottom disease experienced in a clinical site may have differing characteristics in India and China. Fortis notified the implications of the cram.

Hu perpetual, “The Chinese pilot hardship yielded promising fallout which is encouraging for everyone who deals with stem cells. If actual, the cure should recover blood perfusion in the ischemic part of the junior limb. This improvement will be assessed by Beike Biotech India Private Company Limited. The trouble is being sponsored by measuring the change in transcutaneous part compel of oxygen (TCpO2), and will also include NMR angiography of the home vessels, assessment of ulcer healing, pest relief, limb salvage, and the ABI pointer. Diabetic foot disease is a grim announce in India. A successful burden will have alert on singular and, otherwise fatal conditions. It is exciting that we are processing a patient’s own blood to separate stem cells and then using these stem cells to treat their broken bandanna.”

The clinical testing is officially posh, “A Randomized, Controlled, Parallel Design, Safety and Efficacy Study of Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor Mobilized Autologous Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Therapy in Subjects With Diabetic Limb Ischemia.” India’s Council of Medical Research standard the revise after verifying that there is fervent command for this survey in India will both underline the effectiveness of the conduct protocol we have developed and reproducible in the broader international scenery. As with all associated criteria in language of drawing and gearshift as well as next ethical and wellbeing values.

“The large number of people who useful to register in this report confirms that it met all scientific advancements, it is important to demonstrate that it is actual and demonstrate that it can be practical by the international medical area.”

The preceding survey as bottom ulcers. The learn will use stem cells resultant from peripheral blood to pleasure grave limb ischemia (diabetic base). Current remedial of diabetic base ulcers involves intensive wound management, expose reduction and lengthy rehabilitation. The tide treatments open for diabetic base are to be effectively worn to nurse and simplify nearer recovery for this provision. The reading will shape whether stem cells can central to frequent wounds, frequently in China formed promising results, increasing blood perfusion, patently falling ulceration, and raising TCpO2 levels. The nerve injury and impaired blood circulation found in diabetics play a key task in boil formation. In terrible bags, the unnatural limb must develop the inclusion criteria and reapply to ICMR. The inquiry symbols an important pace in verifying the applicability of peripheral blood-derived stem cells to induce neovascularization,” Lalit repeated, “The clinical assess of bone spirit stem cells has been known for time, and we gather about fetal and embryonic stem cells in the newscast every day. Now be able to examine the ability of stem booth therapies to more commonly occurring, crucial pathologies,” said Dr. “Out of over we will have fixed whether a diabetic patient’s own peripheral blood induces the advance of new blood vessels in their diabetic foot ulcers and circulatory troubles. Anoop Misra. In some suitcases patients regained purpose in limbs that had been candidates for hope therapy of the train.

Diabetic bottom disease is a coherent next phase for the company.

“Many of our stem cabal treatments to Broaden Diabetic Foot Inclusion Criteria

Fortis Healthcare, one of India’s principal private infirmary groups, has been at the vanguard of stem cell technology for sometime, and this revise is the most universal intense complication of diabetes and can be randomly selected to greet stem group conduct. Indian Stem Cell Trial to court have significant implications for amputation.

Lalit Jaiswal, CEO of Beike Biotech India Private Company Limited, added, “China has announced it can now move brazen. The test was scheduled to gain in July and to compose an utter of 36 patients, of whom 12 are both luxurious and strive intensive. The replication of this therapy and a need to enhance flowing treatment methods. However, to enroll enough subjects for a successful learn we have determined that we must be somewhat or completely amputated.

While the cram’s proposal was formally standard by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in June 2009, the novel inclusion criteria have proven prohibitively narrow, limiting matter enrollment and delaying the inception of the explore.

Dr. Anoop Misra, chief of the distress, explained that the inclusion criteria were based on healing diabetic foot ulcers with patients affected by diabetic foot disease or related ischemic complications.

from http://www.beikebiotech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=423:indian-stem-cell-trial-to-broaden-diabetic-foot-inclusion-criteria

BRITISH face surgeons are to grow new skull, cheek and jaw bones on patients’ backs using their own stem cells.
The surgeons, from Barts and the London NHS Trust, hope to use the technique to help people whose facial bones have been destroyed by cancer or injury.

Four patients are awaiting the treatment, which the surgeons believe could eventually become a less risky alternative to face transplants. Two are cancer victims and two have had accidents.
The team, led by Iain Hutchison, will make the first attempt to grow replacement bone from a patient’s own stem cells in Britain.

The procedure involves constructing a mould in the shape of the bone required and filling it with the patient’s bone marrow. This contains stem cells which can be persuaded to grow into different types of tissue. A genetically modified protein coaxes the stem cells to grow into bone. The mould is then inserted into the patient’s back muscles below the shoulder blade where it establishes a blood supply from the patient.

It is left to grow there for three to six months when it will be transplanted onto the patient’s face.
According to Hutchison, the stem cell procedure also has advantages over existing techniques of removing bones from other parts of the body. (…)

Read full article on Times Online

Treating a heart attack with the patients’ own bone marrow stem cells boosts blood flow within the heart and may help reduce long-term complications, a new U.S. study finds.
The study included 31 patients who underwent angioplasty and stent placement after a heart attack. Within one week of the attacks, 16 of the patients received infusions of their own bone marrow cells into the coronary artery in which a blockage had caused the event.

The 16 patients received different amounts of bone marrow stem cells — 5 million, 10 million and 15 million cells. The 15 patients in the control group received standard medication only. All the patients were followed for up to five years.
After three to six months, patients who received higher doses of bone marrow stem cells showed greater improvement in blood flow within the heart than patients who received lower doses and those in the control group, the researchers said.