“Latest Stem Cells News”

New Jersey resident, Michael George feels “reborn” after having his own adult stem cells implanted in him to treat his scleroderma in a new stem cell treatment.  Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease which is mostly known as a skin disorder, but in it’s worst form, also attacks the internal organs of the patient.

Quality of Life Improved After Adult Stem Cell Therapy- No Restrictions

The stem cell therapy took place a little over 1 year ago on March 13th, 2008.  Since then, Michael has improved so much that doctors have removed all restrictions on Michael’s life so he can do anything he wants.

Stem Cell Therapy at Northwestern

The adult stem cells were implanted at Northwestern University in Chicago where presumably our American hero, Dr. Richard Burt was behind the scenes.

From the stem cell article:

The night he returned to Perth Amboy, George remembers being able to bend down to pick up the luggage from the trunk of the cab. These days his knees are giving him some trouble when he bends due to arthritis.

George said the procedure didn’t cure him, but it stopped the disease and reverses it to a certain extent.

“In April the doctor said “are you sure I didn’t give you a lung transplant, instead of a stem cell transplant,” he said, noting both his lungs and heart are now in good condition.

Michael followed in the footsteps of Bari Martz who also went to Northwestern for stem cell treatment for her scleroderma.  Martz also had great success with the adult stem cells-   For now, “I’m great,” she says. Her lung function jumped and is still improving, she can flex her hands again, and can even climb stairs, if slowly. “I’m continuing to get better.”

Stem Cell Treatment Isn’t Cheap in United States

A lot of overseas stem cell companies take a lot of flack for charging patients usually in the range of $20,000-30,000 dollar for the adult stem cell therapy that can improve patients’ lives.  However, we find out that stem cell treatment in the US isn’t cheap either at over $200,000 for an “experimental” treatment:

George said he really appreciates life and everyone at his church, the school district and city who wrote or e-mailed him and contributed toward his medical expenses, which were more than $200,000.

I don’t want money to be the main issue, as the important thing is Michael did improve his quality of life and you can’t put a price tag on that. However, those overseas stem cell therapy companies don’t look so bad after all when you compare them to the $200,000 + for adult stem cells in the United States for similar “unproven” treatments.

Transplanting stem cells from one’s own bone marrow (autologous stem cell transplants) improves the symptoms of muscular sclerosis (MS), and in some cases the neurological disease actually regressed. These are the encouraging results obtained from a small study performed on 21 remittent MS patients by a group from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago and published in Lancet Neurology. “All of the patients,” said the neurologists, “witnessed an improvement in their conditions three years after the stem cell transplants were performed. Of these, 81pct benefited from visible progress, measured in terms of the scale of their disability.”

With these “encouraging” results, the researchers decided to perform another study involving more patients, and compared their results with traditional treatments. The experiment involved the removal and freezing of bone marrow after treating the marrow with drugs to remove the lymphocytes of the immune system which are responsible for attacking nerve system fibers in MS patients.

Transplanting stem cells from one’s own bone marrow (autologous stem cell transplants) improves the symptoms of muscular sclerosis (MS), and in some cases the neurological disease actually regressed. These are the encouraging results obtained from a small study performed on 21 remittent MS patients by a group from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago and published in Lancet Neurology. “All of the patients,” said the neurologists, “witnessed an improvement in their conditions three years after the stem cell transplants were performed. Of these, 81pct benefited from visible progress, measured in terms of the scale of their disability.”

JAMA

Adult Stem Cell Research Shows that Diabetes Type 1 Can Be Helped

In a Stem Cell research study that is being published today in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), Adult Stem Cells have been used to help patients with Diabetes Type 1.

20 of 23 Patients Helped With Their Own Adult Stem Cells

23 patients who were newly diagnosed (within 6 weeks) with Diabetes Type 1 were first given chemotherapy to dampen their immune system, then they were given their own stem cells taken from their blood.

Of those 23 patients, 20 “reduced or ended dependence on insulin as their bodies took over production of the hormone.” Of those 20 patients, 12 of them were off insulin for a long period of time, while 8 relapsed and went back to taking small doses of insulin.

According to the stem cell abstract:

Conclusion After a mean follow-up of 29.8 months following autologous nonmyeloablative HSCT in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 DM, C-peptide levels increased significantly and the majority of patients achieved insulin independence with good glycemic control.

An estimated 400.000 Americans suffer from multiple sclerosis, but the findings of a new clinical trial shows promise in the fight to reverse symptoms of MS.
Researchers at Northwestern University conducted a trial using patients’ own stem cells to treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis, reports Early Show correspondent Debbye Turner Bell, and although the study group was small — only 21 patients participated in it — the findings are a huge breakthrough in the fight against MS.

Edwin McClure is strong and healthy now, but just four years ago, his life was very different.
“I would get fatigued. I couldn’t deal with the heat,” McClure said. “I had really bad balance.”
In his senior year of high school, the star football player came down with what he thought was a cold. Then his vision changed.
“It was kind of like somebody turned down a dimmer switch 30 degrees,” McClure said.
It was a neurologist who diagnosed what was happening to Edwin.
“He said, ‘You have the signs of multiple sclerosis,’” McClure said.

Bone marrow stem cells self transplant can reduce Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms, and make the disease regress in some cases.
These are the hopeful results from a research on 21 patients diseased by MS, made by the Chicago Northwestern University School of Medicine and published on Lancet Neurology. “Since 3 years from self transplant all the patients watch their conditions better.”

Since these results, doctors decided to make a bigger research involving more MS diseased people and comparing new therapy’s results with olds’ ones.
The experiment is about taking marrow stem cells and then treating them to remove ill lymphocytes which attack nerve fibers and then causing MS.

Stem cells are ready to create a ‘correct’ immune system and transplant begins after this process. “Time factor” is the nodal point for stem effectiveness because “operating soon we can make the most of the body’s self-regeneration, which can be lost in the long run”. Anyway scientists say also “it’s not the final cure to MS”.