“Latest Stem Cells News”

Dr. Robert Harman is a veterinarian, stem cell specialist and biotechnology entrepreneur

It may seem surprising, but more than 1,700 dogs in the USA with arthritis have already been treated with their own stem cells.

Remember the saying “Patient Heal Thyself?” We all — human and animals — carry around a stem cell repair kit that is used every day in helping heal the minor bumps, bruises, cuts and more serious injuries.

These stem cells are called “adult” stem cells and are found throughout the body. They sit there waiting for the signal that they are needed and they rush to the scene of the injury and begin the healing process.

So we really do heal ourselves with our own supply of stem cells (…)

How stem cell therapy works

So how does stem cell therapy really work in these conditions? The key appears to be getting a higher number of active stem cells placed at the injury site all at once.

To do that you need to collect stem cells from somewhere in the body, concentrate or expand them to obtain adequate numbers, and then inject them into the area of injury or disease (…)

Stem cell therapy on dogs and horses

In the U.S., more than 1,700 dogs and 3,600 horses have been treated for tendon, ligament and joint problems over the last six years with their stem cells from fat.

It’s not approved for us in humans yet, however we all carry around an enormous supply of stem cells in our storage tissue, fat. This is not an editorial on how fat our pets have become, but a scientific statement on the very large concentration of stem cells in fat.

This was discovered at the University of Pittsburgh in the late 1990’s and now in human clinical trials all over the world. Just Google “fat stem cell” and you will find thousands of articles on the research and clinical use of these incredible cells for treating joints, multiple sclerosis, and many other conditions.

The published results in dogs and horses indicate that more 70 percent of these pets have significant benefit and improved quality of life. This means they can return to running, jumping, swimming, or whatever their normal lifestyle might demand.

San Diego is a hotbed of stem cell research in this category. Cytori Therapeutics is already in clinical trials using stem cells from fat in humans to treat heart disease, liver failure, and in plastic surgery!

The Burnham Institute and UC San Diego are deeply involved in the basic research of the use of stem cells in a wide array of diseases such as spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease and heart disease.

NovoCell, another San Diego star, is making progress in using stem cells to treat diabetes. This is an amazing consortium striving to bring this technology into the clinics and to begin treating real patients.

Vet-Stem, the veterinary stem cell company in Poway, is helping move the field ahead by sharing its data and experiences in treating real diseases in our animals.

For now, we know that our beloved pets with bad arthritis can be treated with their own stem cells. Your veterinarian may already be credentialed to offer this service or they can become credentialed through a training course.

Until next time, do your online homework and learn more about adult stem cells at the McGowan Institute and the Adult Stem Cell Research Network.

Read full article on SDNN

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For the first time in the United States, stem cells have been directly injected into the spinal cord of a patient, researchers announced Thursday.

Doctors injected stem cells from 8-week-old fetal tissue into the spine of a man in his early 60s who has advanced ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It was part of a clinical trial designed to determine whether it is safe to inject stem cells into the spinal cord and whether the cells themselves are safe (…)

An experimental drug currently being tested against breast and lung cancer shows promise in fighting the brain cancer glioblastoma and prostate cancer, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in two preclinical studies.

The drug’s actions, observed in isolated human cells in one trial and in rodents in the other, are especially encouraging because they attacked not only the bulk of the tumor cells but also the rare cancer stem cells that are believed to be responsible for most of a cancer’s growth, said Dr. Jerry Shay, professor of cell biology and a senior co-author of both papers. The glioblastoma study appears in the January issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The prostate cancer study is available online in the International Journal of Cancer.

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Stem cell therapies – treatments that involve the transplantation of stem cells, organs, or other cells into patients to improve the function of diseased or damaged tissues or organs – is a field that has been steadily advancing. Perhaps more than any other industry, stem cell therapies is poised to make a significant near-term impact on worldwide public health, and many individuals living today may experience stem cell-related therapies.

The most obvious use of stem cells is in cell-replacement therapies, but they are also valuable in disease modeling, drug discovery, and drug toxicity assessment. Stem cell therapies are currently being applied to over 50 diseases including heart, lung, neurodegenerative, and eye disease, cancer, and HIV. Part of the reason for the successful progress in stem cell therapies is the longstanding multi-disciplinary integration of policy, science, industry, and patient advocacy.

Public health and drug development model is broken

Stem cell therapies could arrive just in time to help as new models for health care delivery are sorely needed. Care delivery costs continue to rise, worldwide populations are aging, and physician shortages are expected. The cost to bring a new drug to market has soared to $1.3 billion, and there are fewer drugs seeking approval (in 2011, the U.S. FDA had only 23 new drugs applications as compared with 45 in 1996). Also, new classes of drugs such as cellular and gene therapies will be even more costly and complicated than today’s already expensive small molecule drugs and biologics. Investors have been shrinking from the market, and at the national public health level, there could be a bleak period of care rationing.

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Stem-cell firm BioTime said this week that it will open a subsidiary in China called BioTime Asia to expand its stem cell therapeutics and research tools to the Asian market.

BioTime Asia will be based at the Nanshan Memorial Medical Institute, or NSMMI, and will clinically develop and market therapeutic stem cell products in China and market stem cell research products in China and other Asian countries (…)

BioTime and its US research tools subsidiary, Embryome Sciences, will license the rights to certain stem cell technology to BioTime Asia, and will sell the Chinese subsidiary stem cell products for therapeutic use and for resale as research products, BioTime said. Under the arrangement, BioTime Asia will license back to BioTime any new technology it might develop or acquire for use outside of China (…)

from http://www.genomeweb.com/print/924594

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In a stem cell research study at the University of Miami, Barry Brown has had his heart attack healed after receiving therapy using his own Adult Stem Cells. An unlikely candidate for heart disease, Barry was a 38 year old physical trainer in the Air Force when he had his heart attack.

Stem Cell Treatment in Addition to a Bypass Surgery

While receiving treatment at the VA hospital, Brown was approached by Dr. Juan Pablo Zambrano, a cardiologist at the University of Miami who have been conducting a clinical trial in which the heart disease patient is injected with their own Adult Stem Cells just after the completion of bypass surgery. In other words, while the chest is open, it is convenient for the heart surgeon to inject the stem cells into the heart muscle.

Process of Stem Cells for Heart Disease

Barry was accepted into the study and had some of his bone marrow extracted 4 weeks before his bypass surgery was scheduled. The Adult Stem Cells from his bone marrow were isolated and then cultivated so there was enough stem cells to help in the treatment. Then, after 4 weeks the stem cells were injected into the heart at the same time as Barry’s bypass surgery.

And how did it turn out? From the stem cell article:

Things have slowed down for Brown since those hectic first weeks at the VA, but things are speeding up in a different way now. Each week, he has been able to add a quarter-mile to his daily workout walk.

By spring he was up to three miles a day. Now, at 39, he is training to compete in a mini-triathlon.

”And I’m feeling no discomfort,” he said.

Although the initial case studies have been successful, the three doctors know they are facing an uphill battle. They have secured only 11 of the targeted 45 willing participants. Many who have heart damage are unwilling to wait a month for their stem cells to incubate without a guarantee that they will be in the treatment group.

”We are working with the FDA to try to guarantee that those who are in the placebo group do eventually get administered the treatment,” Hare said.

Working With the FDA? Waiting for the Cubs to Win the World Series Too?

In other words, Dr. Hare, who is conducting the study and is playing by the FDA rules, wants to give stem cells to the patients who received the placebo in his study -AFTER the study is completed. Why it would take more than 1 phone call to the FDA to guarantee that those in the placebo group receive the stem cell treatment (after the research is completed!)  is beyond my comprehension.  Not many have accused the FDA of having common sense and compassion.

Sarcasm aside, I am very happy that Dr. Hare is conducting the research study and helping heart disease patients improve their lives with the use of their own stem cells as treatment. Keep on going my friend.