“Latest Stem Cells News”

Alan Lewis of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation distinguishes type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and continues to explain how stem cells are being used today to develop new treatments for type 1 diabetes (a.k.a. juvenile diabetes). Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are being differentiated to the beta (insulin producing) cells that type 1 diabetics lack, and are being transplanted , in animal models. Since type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease, the transplanted cells must be protect from destruction by the immune system. Currently, researchers are working towards that goal with encapsulating technologies and a “gentle” immuno-modulation. In order to treat a diabetic patient, access to an unlimited number of cells is necessary. Alan compares embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and iPS as source of cells. And finally, in a future outlook, Alan comments on the FDA’s concern for safety, the risk of creating a tumor, artificial pancreas (as an alternative approach), and cell therapy‘s potential to CURE diseases

from http://biobusiness.tv/videos/223

A new experimental therapy to treat diabetes, which involves transplanting embryonic pig stem cells into the diseased tissue, is currently being researched. Experiments have been done on primates, but the results that have been obtained indicate that in the future the same technique could be applied to human beings. For many years, pig organs have been considered the most best match to be used in human transplants, but strong immune reactions and powerful combinations of anti-rejection drugs have always represented an important obstacle in their clinical use.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that embryonic tissue from pigs, if transplanted, can form a complete pancreas in the host organism. Yair Reisner and his colleagues say that using an embryonic pancreas in place of an adult pancreas in a transplant encourages the development of the organ and the network of blood vessels that supply and nourish the organ, helping reduce the intensity of the immune response against foreign tissues.

For now, researchers have transplanted embryonic pig pancreases into two groups of monkeys with diabetes, which caused the death of the animals in the first group. An analysis demonstrated that the dose of drugs administered to the first group to suppress the immune response was too high and was lowered in the second group of monkeys. This group survived for almost one year after the transplant.

The key result of this study, say researchers, is that they now understand that the monkeys that received the transplants did not need any insulin for at least four months after the operation. Differently from adult pancreatic tissues, embryonic Langerhans cells have a greater ability to tolerate stress and to regenerate.

A DRUG said to cure diabetes could mean that sufferers will no longer need to take daily insulin injections.
The treatment uses stem cells made from human bone marrow and has been tested on patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes – which affects about 900,000 people in Britain.

Diabetes causes the immune system to attack the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, which then controls blood-sugar levels.
Sufferers must take insulin injections to stay alive because if blood-sugar levels are allowed to rise too high or get too low, they could fall into a coma and die.
But early trials by American scientists have shown that the drug Prochymal can stop the immune system destroying the pancreas.
It is hoped the drug could be on the market in less than two years.

Professor Aaron Vinik, a hormone specialist in Norfolk, Virginia, said the cure could change diabetes sufferers’ lives.
He said: “This is a very exciting discovery.
Shock “When people get told they have diabetes, it comes as a tremendous shock.
“They have to live with having to take insulin injections for the rest of their lives.

“In future, we will have a cure that will stop the disease in its tracks.”
Prochymal has proved effective because stem cells in the drug form a barrier to protect the pancreas from attack. This allows the organ to recover and to continue making insulin.
The stem cells are taken from volunteers and then multiplied in the lab to produce hundreds of millions of cells.
In early tests, patients have been given three infusions of the cells into their bloodstream over 60 days.

It has been tested on 60 patients with early diabetes.
Those already on insulin were able to reduce the amount as the stem cells started saving the pancreas.
Prof Vinik said most patients would still need insulin at first but would probably be off it “in a matter of months”.

from Daily record

Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina is scheduled to present a stem cell research study in which he helped improve Diabetes Type 2 patients with their own Adult Stem Cells and followed up on them for 3 years! The stem cell treatment and therapy was a great success. The results are below.

Stem Cell Pioneer and Doctor to Present Adult Stem Cell Study At ISSCR Meeting

Dr. Fernandez Vina will present the following abstract at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in Barcelona in July 2009.  This is another milestone in Adult Stem Cell research as Dr. Fernandez-Vina has probably been the world’s foremost stem cell doctor in helping patients with their own stem cells.

FIRST REPORT FROM ARGENTINA OF FIRST THREE YEARS FOLLOW UP OF AUTOLOGOUS STEM CELLS IMPLANT IN DIABETES TYPE 2

Objectives: To evaluate the long time performance of Stem cells implant in pancreas in Diabetes Type 2 patients The adults stem cells CD34(+)CD38(-) have demonstrated the capacity to differentiate into functional cells in the endocrine pancreas.

Method: After three years on cell therapy for diabetes,patients the conclusions are optimistic. In this study were observed the evolution of 58 patients Diabetic type 2, 37 male, 21 female, 29- 71 years old. 29 patients were under insulin therapy, and 20 patients using Sulphonylureas + Biguanides. For the transplantation, we harvested bone marrow from the iliac crest by aspiration. The sample was processed using a density gradient separation method, obtaining 120ml (±95) of CD34(+)CD38(-) solution. For the implant was procedure a catheterization through Splenic Artery. No complications or further events were observed during or after the procedure. The patients were subjected to clinical and blood samples control during the 36 months following the implant.

Conclusions: the implant of mononuclear CD34+CD38- ( stem cells) from autologous bone marrow improve pancreatic function in patients with type 2 diabetes, in a safe form and is maintained after 3 years at least

Stem Cell Treatment Now Available, But Not In the United States

Dr. Fernandez Vina from Argentina now is treating patients with their own stem cells in Argentina as well as El Salvador (a short flight from Houston) for conditions such as Spinal Cord Injury, Heart Disease, Lung Diseases (COPD and Emphysema) Diabetes Type 1 and Diabetes Type 2 as well as many other conditions.

If you are further interested in this Adult Stem Cell treatment, please go to our Repair Stem Cell Institute website and fill out this stem cell treatment request form and we will assist you in receiving more stem cell therapy information regarding Dr. Fernandez Vina

original post by Don Margolis

Stem cells are providing more than just hope against diabetes. The first patients treated with adult stem cells are no longer taking anti-diabetic drugs, while ‘extraordinary results have been obtained in mice with embryonic stem cells,’ said Senator Ignazio Marino yesterday in Rome at the Changing Diabetes Barometer forum.

‘Embryonic stem cells are something that we must keep in mind,’ said Marino referring to the first encouraging results obtained in the United States, where last year, the first data on the possibility of controlling diabetes in mice was published as well as the possibility of using embryonic stem cells to replace insulin producing cells. While this objective is still a long way away in humans, a therapy based on adult stem cells is much closer.

Results published two years ago in a magazine of American medical association, Jama, relative to the first 15 patients treated with adult stem cells, showed that some of the patients were able to stop insulin-based therapy. ‘Results like these,’ concluded Marino, ‘must stimulate further investments in this field.’

Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from hereditary diabetes, a condition that destroys cells in the pancreas and leaves the body unable to regulate blood sugar levels.
Sufferers are forced to inject themselves with insulin everyday and adopt special diets to cope with the irreversible condition.

But now scientists claim a cure could be developed after cells in the liver were converted to insulin producers in research on mice.
They believe the process, described in the journal Developmental Cell, could one day lead to a permanent one-off cure for the disease.