“Latest Stem Cells News”

While applications of induced pluripotent stem cells in stem cell therapy may be limited to a few diseases, its applications in drug discovery are wide-ranging, and many more diseases can be targeted, Shinya Yamanaka, Director, Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application, Japan, has said.

The Japanese scientist, whose breakthrough was the creation of embryonic-like stem cells from adult skin cells, believes that the best chance for stem cell therapy lies in offering hope to those suffering from a few conditions, among them, macular disease, Type 1 Diabetes, and spinal cord injuries.

On the other hand, there were multiple possibilities with drug discovery for a range of diseases, and Prof. Yamanaka was hopeful that more scientists would continue to use iPS for studying this potential.

He currently serves as the Director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and as Professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University. He is also a Senior Investigator at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) – affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes.

An invited speaker of the CellPress-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series, co-sponsored by Cell Press and TNQ Books and Journals, Prof. Yamanaka spoke to a Chennai audience on Tuesday evening about those “immortal” cells, that he originally thought would take “forever” to create, but actually took only six years.

“My fixed vision for my research team was to re-programme adult cells to function like embryonic-like stem cells. I knew it could be done, but just didn’t know how to do it,” Prof. Yamanaka said.

Embryonic stem cells are important because they are pluripotent, or possess the ability to differentiate into any other type of cell, and are capable of rapid proliferation. However, despite the immense possibilities of that, embryonic cells are a mixed blessing: there are issues with post-transplant rejection (since they cannot be used from a patient’s own cells), and many countries of the world do not allow the use of human embryos.

Dr. Yamanaka’s solution would scale these challenges if only he and his team could find a way to endow non-embryonic cells with those two key characteristics of embryonic stem cells.

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A team of doctors of haematology department of Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital performed a blood stem cell transplantation on a patient wherein they successfully re-infused blood stem cells into a patient’s bloodstream on 30 January. The patient is suffering from a type of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma.
Mrs Bela Samanta, a resident of Burdwan, has been a patient of leukaemia for past one year. On 16 December she was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition. Doctors examined her and said there was a need for this transplantation, if the patient wanted to lead a stable life at least for the next five to seven years.

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Scientists seeking new ways to fight maladies ranging from arthritis and osteoporosis to broken bones that won’t heal have cleared a formidable hurdle, pinpointing and controlling a key molecular player to keep stem cells in a sort of extended infancy. It’s a step that makes treatment with the cells in the future more likely for patients.

Controlling and delaying development of the cells, known as mesenchymal (pronounced meh-ZINK-a-mill) stem cells, is a long-sought goal for researchers. It’s a necessary step for doctors who would like to expand the number of true skeletal stem cells available for a procedure before the cells start becoming specific types of cells that may – or may not – be needed in a patient with, say, weak bones from osteoporosis, or an old knee injury.

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Stroke-damaged brains could be repaired within 5-10 years using adult stem cells from teeth, according to one of Australia’s leading stroke physicians who is pioneering new research in this field.

Associate Professor Simon Koblar from the University of Adelaide and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is leading a research project that shows dental pulp stem cells extracted from teeth may prove far more beneficial for brain repair than other types of stem cells.

His research involving adult stem cells is the first of its kind in Australia and will be explained at a free public lecture at the University of Adelaide tomorrow night as part of the University’s highly successful Research Tuesdays monthly seminar series.

Stroke is the leading cause of disability in Australia, with 60,000 people suffering a stroke every year and approximately 30% of them losing their lives.

Assoc. Prof. Koblar says dental pulp stem cells have a natural ability to produce and repair neurones (nerve cells). Because they are in teeth, they can also be easily extracted and don’t pose rejection issues for patients.

In 2007 Assoc. Prof. Koblar was awarded $100,000 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney for a collaborative pilot study on adult stem cells with Associate Professor Stan Gronthos from SA Pathology. Stroke SA also provided additional financial support for this project in 2009.

The two scientists are senior members of the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Robinson Institute.

“We have some very promising data from trials involving stroke-affected rats, who have shown an improvement in mobility when transplanted with dental pulp stem cells,” he says.

Assoc. Prof. Koblar says more research needs to be done to prove the benefit in animal models before it can be trialled in humans.

The Robinson Institute is currently working with University of Adelaide graduate and stroke victim Peter Couche to set up a Stem Cell for Stroke Foundation in his name.

“Like all research, what we can achieve will depend on how much money can be raised,” Assoc. Prof. Koblar says.

“Stem cell research has great potential to affect stroke patients and benefit the Australian community as a whole, because its impact in this country is enormous. Even if all we can do is to get someone’s hand function to improve, that would be a magnificent advance.”

An inaugural $75,000 collaborative research grant from the Centre for Stem Cell Research has been awarded to Associate Professors Koblar and Gronthos to continue their research into adult stem cell therapy for stroke patients.

from http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news37182.html

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Patients suffering from blindness now need not wait for donors as doctors have found a way to treat many with the stem cells derived from the cornea of a dead body.
Doctors at the AIIMS and a private clinic in the national capital are using corneal surface stem cells from a cadaver’s (dead person) eye for curing corneal injuries in many.

“We have used the corneal surface stem cells of cadaver’s eye for patients with corneal injury and have been able to correct many vision,” Dr Radhika Tandon, Associate Professor, Department of Opthalmology, AIIMS said, adding “this has been done on over more than 100 patients of corneal injury.” Usually, the standard practice has been a corneal transplant from human cadaver. But due to shortage of donors, doctors have become more specific in their mode of treatment.

The technique has come as a divine blessing to many patients, Tandon said.
“Instead of a whole cornea for one patient, we check the level of injury and use stem cells instead. This way we can help even four patients with one cornea,” Dr Asim Kumar Kandar, Consultant, Centre for Sight, said.
Stem cells exist in various regions of the eye but so far, they can be found at the outer edges of the cornea, he said.

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