“Latest Stem Cells News”

“For centuries, scientists have known that certain animals can regenerate missing parts of their bodies. Humans actually share this ability with animals like the starfish and the newt. Although we can’t replace a missing leg or a finger, our bodies are constantly regenerating blood, skin, and other tissues.

The identity of the powerful cells that allow us to regenerate some tissues was first revealed when experiments with bone marrow in the 1950s established the existence of stem cells in our bodies and led to the development of bone marrow transplantation, a therapy now widely used in medicine.

This discovery raised hope in the medical potential of regeneration. For the first time in history, it became possible for physicians to regenerate a damaged tissue with a new supply of healthy cells by drawing on the unique ability of stem cells to create many of the body’s specialized cell types (…)”

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SANUWAVE Inc., an emerging medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of non-invasive, biological response activating devices in the regenerative medicine area, reported that scientific findings titled “Extracorporeal Shock Wave Stimulation of Osteoprogenitor Cells” were presented at the 2009 International Bone-Tissue-Engineering Congress (“Bone-Tec”) in Hannover, Germany, which was held October 9-11, 2009.

Dr. Myron Spector, PhD, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery (Biomaterials) at Harvard Medical School, Director of Orthopaedic Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Director of Tissue Engineering at VA Boston Healthcare System, was an invited guest speaker at the Conference. The Bone–Tec Congress featured an international scientific forum to discuss progresses in modern bone tissue regeneration and extended a worldwide network to exchange findings on the latest developments.

Dr. Spector’s team employed SANUWAVE’s Pulsed Acoustic Cellular Expression (PACE™) technology in preclinical research to create autogenous sources of stem cells for bone tissue engineering. Results support the proposition that PACE™ could be employed as a non-invasive technique to cause proliferation and thickening of the cambium layer of the femur’s periosteum for the subsequent intraoperative harvesting of progenitor stem cells days later for bone or cartilage regeneration.

PACE™ stimulated a dramatic proliferation and thickening (up to 10 fold) of osteoprogenitor stem cells, precursors to bone and cartilage cells, in the cambium layer of the periosteum in the femur of the adult rats within 4 days. Neovascularization and new bone formation within the thickened periosteum were also evident after 4 days.

Dr. Spector said, “This research has shown great potential. Through more study, this technology could further advance tissue engineering autologous transplant techniques towards clinical applications such as bone reconstruction and cartilage defect repair.” (…)

from http://www.sanuwave.com

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MIT engineers have boosted stem cells’ ability to regenerate vascular tissue (such as blood vessels) by equipping them with genes that produce extra growth factors (naturally occurring compounds that stimulate tissue growth). In a study in mice, the researchers found that the stem cells successfully generated blood vessels near the site of an injury, allowing damaged tissue to survive.

Why it matters: Stem cells hold great potential as a way to promote tissue regeneration. However, this approach has been limited because stem cells don’t produce enough growth factors after transplantation. The researchers’ new super-charged stem cells could be used to treat an infarction (death of tissue caused by blockage of the blood supply, by a clot or another obstruction), or to induce blood supply for engineered tissues.

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