“Latest Stem Cells News”

Scientists have taken the first steps toward producing the “heart patch,” a design for a medical implement used to repair damage from heart disease, a new study suggests.

Last week, researchers from Duke University presented the results of a study which, using mouse embryonic stem cells, examined the way these cells develop into heart muscle, HealthDay News reports (…)

from http://www.privatemdlabs.com/news/Heart_Health_and_Cholesterol/Mouse-stem-cell-study-examines-heart-repair$19405309.php

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new understanding of the genes that make muscle cells may change the way researchers think about stem cell transplants for muscular dystrophy and muscle injuries, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

In a surprise finding, they said genes important for forming muscle cells in embryos and newborns are not normally active in adult stem cells.
And researchers hoping to use muscle stem cells in stem-cell transplant therapies should not assume genes that control early muscle development serve the same purpose in repairing adult muscle, Christoph Lepper and colleagues at the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore reported in the journal Nature.

Earlier studies have shown that two genes — Pax3 and Pax7 — control cells that give rise muscle in embryos, and Pax7 also helps build muscle in newborn mice.
To get a better understanding of their function, Lepper and colleagues studied these genes at various stages of development in live mice.

“I thought that if they are so important in the embryo, they must be important for adult muscle stem cells,” Lepper said in a statement.
The team used genetic engineering to suppress both the Pax3 and Pax7 genes in adult muscle stem cells, and they found that adult stem cells were still able to function normally.

“I was totally surprised to find that the muscle stem cells are normal without them,” Lepper said
The researchers then looked at whether the same was true in injured muscles, when muscle stem cells go to work making new muscle tissue.

To study this, they injured mouse leg muscles between the knee and ankle, and found the muscle stem cells were able to make new muscle, even without the two key embryonic muscle stem cell genes.
The team said the embryonic muscle cell genes appear to only be active in mice within the first three weeks after birth. After that, they believe the genes go quiet and allow a different set of genes to take over.

Finding those genes will be important as scientists pursue new treatments for diseases like muscular dystrophy, a genetic, degenerative disease that affects voluntary muscles, they said.
And they said teams should look at other types of stem cells to see how age might affect their properties, and they should take age of stem cells into account in transplant-based treatments.

from Reuters

Scientists at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa have discovered a powerful new way to stimulate muscle regeneration, paving the way for new treatments for debilitating conditions such as muscular dystrophy.

The research, to be published in the June 5 issue of Cell Stem Cell, shows for the first time that a protein called Wnt7a increases the number of stem cells in muscle tissue, leading to accelerated growth and repair of skeletal muscle.

“This discovery shows us that by targeting stem cells to boost their numbers, we can improve the body’s ability to repair muscle tissue,” said senior author Dr. Michael Rudnicki. Dr. Rudnicki is the Scientific Director of Canada’s Stem Cell Network and a Senior Scientist at OHRI and Director of OHRI’s Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research, as well as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Stem cells give rise to every tissue and organ in the body. Satellite stem cells are specialized muscle stem cells that live in adult skeletal muscle tissue and have the ability to both replicate and differentiate into various types of muscle cells. Dr. Rudnicki’s team found that the Wnt7a protein, when introduced into mouse muscle tissue, significantly increased the population of these satellite stem cells and fueled the regeneration process, creating bigger and stronger muscles. Muscle tissue mass was increased by nearly 20 per cent in the study.

“Our findings point the way to the development of new therapeutic treatment for muscular diseases such as muscular dystrophy, sarcopenia and muscle wasting conditions resulting from extended hospital stays and surgeries,” said Dr. Rudnicki.

from physorg

While the debate on stem cell research rages on, Donald Cecil couldn’t afford to wait for research. Donald badly needed treatment for his heart which was damaged by a series of heart attacks. Luckily, he found a stem cell treatment, Vescell in Thailand by using his own Adult Stem Cells to heal his ailing heart disease.

Heart Attacks Damaged His Heart Muscle

In 2006, Donald had difficulty walking as multiple heart attacks had damaged his heart so his ejection fraction was only at 15%. Doctors didn’t have much hope for Don to repair his heart disease. However, one doctor did mention a stem cell research and therapy in Thailand which uses the patient’s own stem cells to fix the heart muscle.

Adult Stem Cell Treatment Company for Heart Disease

Don got on the internet and he found that company Theravitae, who use the Vescell adult stem cell process in Thailand and contacted them in hopes to repair his heart muscle. Don sent in his medical records and the doctors in Thailand said yes, the stem cell therapy could possibly help him.

The Adult Stem Cells did help him. In 2006, Don went to Thailand for the heart disease stem cell treatment using his own stem cells.

From Don’s stem cell website:

His Doctors Back Home We’re Shocked

After the stem cell heart treatment, his doctors literally watched his heart regenerate from 15% blood ejection, to a normal working condition for someone his age! Some even admitted they have never seen anything like that before.

Don’s story is wonderful in that it shows that stem cell therapy can indeed give people hope TODAY!  Don didn’t want  to wait for a bunch of scientists doing stem cell research in some lab in the middle of nowhere to isolate some cells in rats to change them into this and that.   Adult Stem Cells are helping people now!

original post by Don Margolis

In a genetic engineering breakthrough that could help everyone from bed-ridden patients to elite athletes, a team of American researchers—including 2007 Nobel Prize winner Mario R. Capecchi—have created a “switch” that allows mutations or light signals to be turned on in muscle stem cells to monitor muscle regeneration in a living mammal. For humans, this work could lead to a genetic switch, or drug, that allows people to grow new muscle cells to replace those that are damaged, worn out, or not working for other reasons (e.g., muscular dystrophy). In addition, this same discovery also gives researchers a new tool for the study of difficult-to-treat muscle cancers. The full report containing details of this advance is available online in The FASEB Journal.

A biodegradable tissue to repair hearts after a heart attacks or to cure congenital malformations. A tissue that acts like a porous, accordion-like medium onto which cardiac stem cells are ‘implanted’ has been created by scientists from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston (MIT). This “bioscaffolding” integrates perfectly with cardiac tissue and creates a biological “band-aid” that is slowly reabsorbed and repairs cardiac muscle.

Compared to similar previous attempts, explained George Engelmayr in “Nature Materials” magazine, the advantage of the “bioscaffolding” is that it faithfully mirrors cardiac tissue structurally and mechanically, and therefore integrates well with it. Cardiac cells all have a certain orientation that allows them to transmit an electrical impulse that makes the heart beat.

The experts, using a laser similar to the kind used to cure short-sightedness, constructed this tissue “scaffolding” and then “implanted” neonatal cardiac cells from mice into it. They then electrically stimulated the tissue just like in the heart, and the cells oriented in the same direction, just as they do in the human body. “We have followed nature’s lessons as closely as possible and have created tissue very similar to the body’s own tissue, and therefore something truly useful for future therapeutic applications.”