“Latest Stem Cells News”

Even Superman needed to retire to a phone booth for a quick change. But now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in the ultimate switch: transforming mouse skin cells in a laboratory dish directly into functional nerve cells with the application of just three genes. The cells make the change without first becoming a pluripotent type of stem cell — a step long thought to be required for cells to acquire new identities.

The finding could revolutionize the future of human stem cell therapy and recast our understanding of how cells choose and maintain their specialties in the body.

“We actively and directly induced one cell type to become a completely different cell type,” said Marius Wernig, MD, assistant professor of pathology and a member of Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. “These are fully functional neurons. They can do all the principal things that neurons in the brain do.” That includes making connections with and signaling to other nerve cells — critical functions if the cells are eventually to be used as therapy for Parkinson’s disease or other disorders.

Warnings are being issued by experts of the dangers of medical tourism saying that unproven stem cell therapy overseas could leave patients worse off.

Signing up for stem cell therapy is worth the risk for many people who are suffering with conditions like spinal injury, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron or Parkinson’s disease.

A medical journal reported earlier this year that an Israeli teenager developed brain tumors after experimental injections at a Russian clinic.

There are alternate reports also of patients contracting meningitis after treatments in China.

A handbook will be released by the Australian Stem Cell Centre to help patients analyze radial stem cell treatments abroad.

Experts, however, are warning patients against taking the risk with radical treatments abroad.

The Australian Stem Cell Centre Clinical adviser Dr Kirsten Herbert says that three patients contracted meningitis after stem cell treatment in China because of spinal cord injuries.

He also adds that cancer too is a possible side-effect although the likelihood is very rare.

It is important to not demoralize people who are seeking these cures but they must be helped in finding the right advice.

from http://topnews.us/content/28514-warning-issued-against-stem-cell-tourism-experts

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a gene that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing nerve cells called neurons. The research is a significant advance in understanding the development of the nervous system, which is essential to addressing conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

The bulk of neuron production in the central nervous system takes place before birth, and comes to a halt by birth. But scientists have identified specific regions in the core of the brain that retain stem cells into adulthood and continue to produce new neurons.

NC State researchers, investigating the subventricular zone, one of the regions that retains stem cells, have identified a gene that acts as a switch – transforming some embryonic stem cells into adult cells that can no longer produce new neurons. The research was done using mice. These cells form a layer of cells that support adult stem cells. The gene, called FoxJ1, increases its activity near the time of birth, when neural development slows down. However, the FoxJ1 gene is not activated in most of the stem cells in the subventricular zone – where new neurons continue to be produced into adulthood.

“Research into why and how some stem cells in the subventricular zone continue to produce new neurons is important because a biological understanding of how these cells function can contribute to new treatments to replace damaged or diseased brain tissue, hopefully in regions that cannot do this by themselves,” says Dr. Troy Ghashghaei, an assistant professor of neurobiology at NC State and the senior author of the research. “This research helps us understand brain development itself, which is key to identifying novel approaches for treatment of many neurological disorders.”

When the FoxJ1 gene is activated, it produces a protein that functions as a transcription factor. Transcription factors swim through the nucleus of a cell turning other genes on and off, turning the embryonic stem cell into an adult cell. Some of the adult cells will function as stem cells, creating new neurons, but most will not – instead serving to support the adult stem cells by forming a stem cell “niche.” This niche has a complex cellular architecture that allows adult stem cells to remain active in the subventricular zone.

Ghashghaei’s lab is now moving forward with new research to determine what activates the FoxJ1 gene and how the FoxJ1 protein regulates the expression of other genes. This understanding will reveal how the activation and inactivation of genes controlled by FoxJ1 orchestrates the development of the adult stem cell niche. Ghashghaei’s laboratory is a recent recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health to support this line of research (…)

from http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmsghasghaeifoxj1/

William H. Frey

Scientists have pioneered a unique delivery system to administer therapeutic stem cells to the brain, by way of a simple nasal spray. Once the droplets containing the stem cells are snorted through the nose, the solution breaks through the blood-brain barrier, seeding the brain with the stem cells (…)

Scientists from the University of Minnesota and the University Hospital of Tuebingen, Germany conducted the research. The researchers administered the nasal spray containing rat stem cells to mice and within an hour, the rat stem cells were visible in the mice brains. The researchers then repeated the experiment using human stem cells and they also penetrated the blood-brain barrier within an hour.

It’s believed the stem cells enter the brain through the olfactory nerves through small holes in the cribriform plate, which is a thin horizontal part of the skull at the base of the brain.

The researchers further found that administering an enzyme called hyaluronidase, to the mice before having them snort the stem cells, enabled greater amounts of stem cells to travel to the brain.
The nasal delivery system has obvious benefits over drilling into a patient’s skull to administer the stem cells, which can cause inflammation and infection.

Lead researcher William Frey, an adjunct professor of pharmaceutics at Minnesota noted, “When you cut into the brain, that leads to an inflammatory response,” says Frey. “We’re hoping this will help. We didn’t see evidence that intranasal stem cell treatment caused inflammation.” (…)

A notice for 8 million euros in funding for stem cell projects, a line of research that promises important results for ocular diseases, Parkinson’s, heart diseases, and the fight against tumors was announced by deputy health minister Ferruccio Fazio, who while speaking to the AGI press agency underlined “the importance of regenerative medicine, one of the great hopes for the future, as well as biotechnologies for new treatments altering molecular systems”.

The notification will expire on July 20 and is intended for universities, the National Research Council (CNR), and other private and public research groups. Three independent judges, one of whom will be from abroad, will evaluate the projects that are presented. The research topics eligible for funding include innovative strategies for experimental models (cellular and animal), risk/benefit analysis for pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments and epidemiology research.

An allocation of three million euros for the next three years is planned to finance projects on rare diseases. No referral to embryonic stem cells, which are considered by many experts to be more promising in research because they are totipotent, or potentially able to become any type of cell, was made in the notice. “This was a choice,” specified Fazio, “that the Federal and Regional government conference made, which asked for a change to the original announcement, which was open also to stem cells.

Not mentioning them was a not a political choice by the health ministry, but a decision made by the federal and regional governments”. In any case, explained the deputy minister, “studying adult stem cells and their differentiation is more interesting to me and I believe that it is more advantageous”. There are numerous possibilities for treatments: “Not only ocular and cardiac diseases, Parkinson’s and rare diseases,” explained Fazio, “but also new possibilities to fight tumors.

Some researchers believe that tumor stem cells are the most aggressive stem cells of the tumor, and somehow determine the spread of the tumor. Tumor stem cell research could help understand the evolution of tumors and prevent their growth by striking their stem cells”. Financing, assured Fazio, “is in line with previous funding and in 2009 there will be funding for general research, open to all lines of research, therefore there will be funds available for stem cells.”

Dr. Robert Harman is a veterinarian, stem cell specialist and biotechnology entrepreneur

It may seem surprising, but more than 1,700 dogs in the USA with arthritis have already been treated with their own stem cells.

Remember the saying “Patient Heal Thyself?” We all — human and animals — carry around a stem cell repair kit that is used every day in helping heal the minor bumps, bruises, cuts and more serious injuries.

These stem cells are called “adult” stem cells and are found throughout the body. They sit there waiting for the signal that they are needed and they rush to the scene of the injury and begin the healing process.

So we really do heal ourselves with our own supply of stem cells (…)

How stem cell therapy works

So how does stem cell therapy really work in these conditions? The key appears to be getting a higher number of active stem cells placed at the injury site all at once.

To do that you need to collect stem cells from somewhere in the body, concentrate or expand them to obtain adequate numbers, and then inject them into the area of injury or disease (…)

Stem cell therapy on dogs and horses

In the U.S., more than 1,700 dogs and 3,600 horses have been treated for tendon, ligament and joint problems over the last six years with their stem cells from fat.

It’s not approved for us in humans yet, however we all carry around an enormous supply of stem cells in our storage tissue, fat. This is not an editorial on how fat our pets have become, but a scientific statement on the very large concentration of stem cells in fat.

This was discovered at the University of Pittsburgh in the late 1990’s and now in human clinical trials all over the world. Just Google “fat stem cell” and you will find thousands of articles on the research and clinical use of these incredible cells for treating joints, multiple sclerosis, and many other conditions.

The published results in dogs and horses indicate that more 70 percent of these pets have significant benefit and improved quality of life. This means they can return to running, jumping, swimming, or whatever their normal lifestyle might demand.

San Diego is a hotbed of stem cell research in this category. Cytori Therapeutics is already in clinical trials using stem cells from fat in humans to treat heart disease, liver failure, and in plastic surgery!

The Burnham Institute and UC San Diego are deeply involved in the basic research of the use of stem cells in a wide array of diseases such as spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease and heart disease.

NovoCell, another San Diego star, is making progress in using stem cells to treat diabetes. This is an amazing consortium striving to bring this technology into the clinics and to begin treating real patients.

Vet-Stem, the veterinary stem cell company in Poway, is helping move the field ahead by sharing its data and experiences in treating real diseases in our animals.

For now, we know that our beloved pets with bad arthritis can be treated with their own stem cells. Your veterinarian may already be credentialed to offer this service or they can become credentialed through a training course.

Until next time, do your online homework and learn more about adult stem cells at the McGowan Institute and the Adult Stem Cell Research Network.

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