“Latest Stem Cells News”

Scientists have made a breakthrough in stem cell research which raises the prospect of regrowing damaged sections of a person’s liver, pancreas or even their brain.
Researchers at the University of NSW have found a way to improve the lifespan and competitiveness of stem cells, overcoming a problem which otherwise saw their regenerative powers fade in about an hour.

Adult stem cells were given a gene to make them resistant to chemotherapy, handing them an “advantage” when used to treat damaged tissue in conjunction with the cancer-fighting treatment.
University of NSW Professor Peter Gunning said as the chemotherapy cleaned out damaged cells, resistant stem cells were left behind to complete their amazing process of turning into healthy replacements thereby restoring the tissue.

“What has been the realm of science fiction is looking more and more like the medicine of the future,” Prof Gunning said.
“The beauty of this technique is that chemotherapy makes space for stem cells coming into muscle and also gives the stem cells an advantage over the locals.

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Alessandra Sacco

A study on mice directed by Alessandra Sacco of Stanford University has shown that once inserted into a diseased muscle, just one adult muscular stem cell can reproduce to form an entire ‘family’ of cells and restore lost muscular function. In a leg muscle with no muscular stem cells that has been irreversibly damaged, a single adult stem cell can take root and multiply, restoring muscular function.

The study was presented today in the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology
(ASCB) in San Francisco. The muscular stem cells in this case are called ‘satellite cells’, which normally repair muscular tissue when it is damaged. In many degenerative muscular diseases however, this ‘natural repair’ is lacking and the muscular fibers degrade slowly. The validity of stem cell transplants into diseased muscle has been demonstrated on more than one occasion, but this is the first time that a single cell transplant has been performed.
The stem cell family born from the single cell was able to repair the muscle and restore its function, another step forward in stem cell research to cure degenerative muscular diseases.

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Muscle wasting linked to old age might one day be treated using stem cells, claim US scientists.

A University of Colorado team transplanted cells into mice and saw the muscle more than double in size - staying that way even into old age.

They say their work, reported in Science Translational Medicine, may have promise in treating muscle-wasting conditions such as muscular dystrophy.
A UK expert said producing a human treatment might be difficult.
Stem cells are cells found in the body which can divide and become a variety of different types of tissue.

Scientists believe they could potentially help treat a large number of problems by helping to re-populate areas of tissue damaged by disease or injury.

A common problem in older people is muscle weakness, linked to a loss of muscle mass in the arms and legs.
This can lead to a swift fall in the quality of life for older people and in some cases increase the need for extra care and support.

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A new research has suggested that cardiac stem cells - even in elderly and sick patients – could generate new heart muscle and vessel tissue and be used to treat heart failure.

Scientists surgically removed tissue from the muscular wall of the heart’s chambers in 21 patients.

They then isolated and multiplied the cardiac stem cells (CSCs) found there.

Most of the patients had ischemic cardiomyopathy (enlarged and weakened muscle due to coronary artery disease). Eleven also had diabetes. The average age of patients was about 65.

“Regardless of the gender or age of the patient, or of diabetes, we were able to isolate in all of them a pool of functional cardiac stem cells that we can potentially use to rescue the decompensated human heart,” said Domenico D’Amario, author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Harvard, Boston, Mass.

The study has been presented at the American Heart Association‘s Scientific Sessions 2010. (ANI)

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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

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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

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