“Latest Stem Cells News”

Stem cell transplantation in a 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia has wiped out the virus from his body, the doctor of Berlin Charité Hospital confirms.
“The patient is fine,” said Dr. Gero Hutter, a haematologist at the Berlin Charité Hospital. “Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication.”

The doctor observed that using the stem cells from a donor who carries a unique gene mutation i.e. delta 32 ccr5 along with a tissue match, could now cure the patient from the HIV virus. Delta 32 ccr5 makes the cells resistant to HIV virus and this mutation is found in a little more than 1 percent of Caucasians.
Dr. Hutter told, “When the recipient got the new bone marrow, his cells could now block out the HIV, and, in effect, he was cured. Bone marrow transplants are high risk, so only lymphoma and leukemia patients take the risk to possibly cure their cancer.”

The study is published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Mandi Schwartz ’11 completed a crucial step in her battle with leukemia Wednesday afternoon.

The women’s hockey player received a long-awaited stem cell transplant at about 3:30 p.m. local time at the inpatient transplant unit of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at the University of Washington Medical Center. The procedure took 32 minutes and there were no complications, said Dean Forbes, a spokesman for the cancer center.

Schwartz, a native of Saskatchewan, Canada has been in and out of chemotherapy for more than 20 months since first being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in December 2008. After months of searching for an adequate bone marrow or stem cell donor, two “five-out-of-six” stem cell matches were located and Schwartz’s transplant was slated for Aug. 27, as she was declared in remission on June 9. But the timeline changed when Schwartz learned on Aug. 11 that her cancer had returned for a third time.

On Aug. 31, Schwartz entered remission once again after completing additional chemotherapy. She underwent a daily pair of hour-long radiation sessions between Sept. 15 and 17, and had another two days of chemotherapy on Sunday and Monday to prepare for the transplant.

Now, with the procedure completed at last, Schwartz will wait to see if the stem cells engraft. Forbes said it will take about three weeks to determine whether the transplant was successful. Schwartz will remain in the hospital during that stretch of time because her immune system is still weak.

The King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh is getting ready to open a stem cell bank harvested from the umbilical cord. The procedure will be done in laboratories and specially equipped rooms to draw the cells from umbilical cord blood and separate them using a special device.

Then they will be stored in labs for a period from 15 to 20 years after examining them and making sure they are free of contagious and genetic diseases. In addition, a team will be prepared for coordinating, marketing and research within this field.

In a ray of hope for millions of leukaemia patients, American scientists have claimed to have developed a technique which multiplies the small number of stem cells in the donor blood, making it much more potent for the treatment of the fatal disease.

It also eliminates the need for a matching donor, whose bone marrow is usually transplanted to the patient, according to a study which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine. Traditionally, there was always a risk that the patient’s body may reject the new cells from a donor.

A breakthrough was achieved recently in the case of an 18 year old boy, a case of advanced stage of Aplastic anemia where stem cells of not one but three donors were used to treat him. This spectacular feat was achieved by the doctors at The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute (NSCBCRI) Kolkata.

18 year old Aman, student of class 12, fainted in school. He was diagnosed for Aplastic Anemia, a disorder where the bone marrow stops producing red blood cells and platelets. He was treated in many hospitals, but no amount of blood transfusions or ‘immuno-suppressant’ medication could help.

Dejected and depressed, Aman’s parents had almost lost their son when they happened to read a news report by chance. The doctors at NSCBCRI had successfully conducted an SCT to treat Aplastic anemia. . “I wanted to live on, and my parents saw a ray of hope, ”said Aman.
With recent advances in medicine the use of stem cells have been very effective in treating Diabetes milletus, Parkinson’s diseases, cancer, leukemia and Aplastic anemia .

They have been very effective in Bone marrow transplantation
Aman was rushed to Kolkata, but by then his condition had deteriorated. The doctors realized that only a multiple- unit SCT could save him. Overruling the risks they conducted the transplant which took three days.

With 50% chances of risk involved in a single unit SCT, the doctors had a bigger risk at hand, but a similar case conducted successfully in Seattle gave them the courage.
Today Aman Khandelwal is recouping. Thanks to the courage, confidence and competence of the doctors who treated upon him.

from http://www.beviga.com/1401/stem-cell-transplant-a-miracle/

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Mesenchymal stem cells are present in placental blood and could represent the new frontier for tissue and organ regeneration. The cells were identified at the cell factory at Milan’s Policlinico Hospital and will be the subject of a meeting on mesenchymal stem cells organized by the Milan hospital.

Isolated and preserved in the Milan biobank for the first time for use in future treatments, the cells come from blood that is collected at birth. Plasma that has been used for transplants in patients with serious diseases like leukemia and lymphoma and represent a potential reserve of mesenchymal stem cells, which are the foundation of regenerative medicine.
The purification procedure, developed by researchers from the research and development lab of the ‘Franco Calori’ Cell Factory at the Policlinico Hospital, led by Lorenza Lazzari, requires placental blood donations to be processed within hours of collection. Purified and cultivated mesenchymal stem cells are then tested further with various animal tissue regeneration models.

These cells have been used experimentally on acute kidney damage in collaboration with Giuseppe Remuzzi’s group of the Mario Negri Institute in Bergamo. “With placental blood,” says Lazzari, “we hope to be able to repair bone, regenerate livers and kidneys, and operate in complex repair processes for other important organs and systems like the heart and nervous system.”
At the meeting, FIRST (the forum of Italian researchers on mesenchymal and stromal stem cells), the Italian group on mesenchymal stem cells, chaired by Lazzari with Massimo Dominici of the University of Modena as Vice-President, will be presented.

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