“Latest Stem Cells News”

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.

Dr. Robert Johnson, MD, of Neurosurgical Associates of San Antonio, is presenting at the 5th Annual Stem Cell Summit in New York on February 16, 2010. Dr. Johnson will be presenting his most recent data proving the efficacy of point of care adult stem cell therapies in spine surgery. Point of care technology utilizes the patient’s own cells derived from bone marrow to inhibit bone growth in spinal fusion procedures. Dr. Johnson believes promoting cell therapy utilizing the patient’s own cells will change the future landscape of medicine.

“The use of autologous stem cells is revolutionizing medical care in both the prevention and treatment of spinal disorders,” said Johnson.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Medical College of Georgia researchers are conducting the first FDA-approved clinical trial to determine whether an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood can improve the quality of life for children with cerebral palsy.

The study will include 40 children age 2-12 whose parents have stored cord blood at the Cord Blood Registry in Tucson, Ariz.
Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells, which can divide and morph into different types of cells throughout the body, said Dr. James Carroll, professor and chief of pediatric neurology in MCG School of Medicine and principal investigator on the study.

Cerebral palsy, caused by a brain injury or lack of oxygen in the brain before birth or during the first few years of life, can impair movement, learning, hearing, vision and cognitive skills. Two to 3 children in 1,000 are affected by it, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Animal studies indicate that infused stem cells help injured brain cells recover and replace brain cells that have died, Dr. Carroll said.

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BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi spoke with The Radcliffe & Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2 this week about his recent hand injury. “We’re just taking a break now,” Iommi says about the brief HEAVEN AND HELL hiatus – the band also featuring singer Ronnie James Dio, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Vinnie Appice.

“I’ve had this problem with my hand and I’m having stem cell treatment on it,” Iommi continues. “I have to wear a guard on my hand to prevent me from banging it. But it’s coming along good. The cartilage went out on the joints, so the joints were rubbing on the joints. It was bone on bone and it was getting a bit painful. I’ve had pain for about 18 months and have been taking anti-inflammatories and pain killers. But I wanted to stop doing it because it upsets your stomach. This is the latest thing, so we’ll see if it works.”

Iommi also chats about the band’s vital OZZY OSBOURNE-era catalog reissues that are currently out in the UK. Iommi says that “everything will come out” as a deluxe edition at some point in time.

Regarding the 30th Anniversary of the Heaven & Hell album in 2010, Iommi promises more shows next year.

from http://www.bravewords.com/news/124701

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Stem Cell Research Press Release

I released this press release on the Real Cost of Embryonic Stem Cell Research earlier this week and I just wanted to make sure you all saw it- the title was this:
Repair Stem Cell Institute Warns About Real Cost of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

RSCI’s Chairman expressed his concern that since few people can afford to travel outside the country for medical treatments, America needs to put more focus on approving ultra safe adult stem cell treatments to alleviate the suffering of millions diagnosed with so-called untreatable diseases.

Don Margolis, founder of the world’s first stem cell treatment company and chairman of the Repair Stem Cell Institute, today issued a statement which took strong exception to Washington’s emphasis on embryonic stem cells over both Repair (Adult) Stem Cells and induced Pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

Margolis said, “This leads to one key question which no one in America seems to ask: Why is the FDA, which indiscriminately rushes unproven deadly drugs to AIDS patients, forbidding six million dying heart patients access to long-proven SAFE stem cell therapy?” Is it because heart patients don’t count in politics while AIDS patients do? Or is there another reason why they allow drugs such as Vioxx and forbid risk-free stem cells?

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In the beginning, one cell becomes two, and two become four. Being fruitful, they multiply into a ball of many cells, a shimmering sphere of human potential. Scientists have long dreamed of plucking those naive cells from a young human embryo and coaxing them to perform, in sterile isolation, the everyday miracle they perform in wombs: transforming into all the 200 or so kinds of cells that constitute a human body. Liver cells. Brain cells. Skin, bone, and nerve.

James A. Thomson

The dream is to launch a medical revolution in which ailing organs and tissues might be repaired—not with crude mechanical devices like insulin pumps and titanium joints but with living, homegrown replacements. It would be the dawn of a new era of regenerative medicine, one of the holy grails of modern biology.

Revolutions, alas, are almost always messy. So when James Thomson, a soft-spoken scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, reported in November 1998 that he had succeeded in removing cells from spare embryos at fertility clinics and establishing the world’s first human embryonic stem cell line, he and other scientists got a lot more than they bargained for. It was the kind of discovery that under most circumstances would have blossomed into a major federal research enterprise. Instead the discovery was quickly engulfed in the turbulent waters of religion and politics. In church pews, congressional hearing rooms, and finally the Oval Office, people wanted to know: Where were the needed embryos going to come from, and how many would have to be destroyed to treat the millions of patients who might be helped? Before long, countries around the world were embroiled in the debate.

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