“Latest Stem Cells News”

South Korea’s government drug agency cleared the way Thursday for commercial sales of what it called the world’s first approved medicine using stem cells collected from other people.

Cartistem, developed by Seoul-based Medipost, will help regenerate knee cartilage using stem cells developed from newborns’ umbilical cord blood, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said.

“Cartistem is… the world’s first approved allogeneic (taken from different individuals of the same species) stem cell drug, that can offer new opportunity for treatment of patients with degenerative arthritis,” the administration said in a statement.

Medipost said 27 billion won ($23.8 million) from private investors and government funds had been invested to develop Cartistem since 2001. The drug can be injected into a patient’s knees via surgery.

Clinical trials have been under way in the United States since last year, the statement said.

Two of the world’s top 10 drugmakers are in talks to seek a worldwide licence to make the drug, a Medipost spokesman told AFP, adding that final trials involving a large number of people would likely begin in the US in 2015 (…)

Cartistem, developed by Seoul-based Medipost, will help regenerate knee cartilage using stem cells developed from newborns’ umbilical cord blood, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said.

“Cartistem is… the world’s first approved allogeneic (taken from different individuals of the same species) stem cell drug, that can offer new opportunity for treatment of patients with degenerative arthritis,” the administration said in a statement (…)

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Surgeons in Sweden have replaced the cancerous windpipe of a Maryland man with one made in a laboratory and seeded with the man’s cells.

The windpipe, or trachea, made from minuscule plastic fibers and covered in stem cells taken from the man’s bone marrow, was implanted in November.

The patient, Christopher Lyles, 30, whose tracheal cancer had progressed to the point where it was considered inoperable, arrived home in Baltimore on Wednesday. It was the second procedure of its kind and the first for an American.

“I’m feeling good,” Lyles said in a telephone interview. “I’m just thankful for a second chance at life.” He said he hoped to resume his job, as an electrical engineer as soon as he regained full strength.

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OHSU research demonstrates not all embryonic stem cells are equal; produces the world’s first primate chimeric offspring

Newly published research by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University provides significant new information about how early embryonic stem cells develop and take part in formation of the primate species. The research, which took place at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center, has also resulted in the first successful birth of chimeric monkeys — monkeys developed from stem cells taken from two separate embryos. The research will be published this week in the online edition of the journal Cell and will be published in a future printed copy of the journal.

The research was conducted to gain a better understanding of the differences between natural stem cells residing in early embryos and their cultured counterparts called embryonic stem cells. This study also determined that stem cell functions and abilities are different between primates and rodents.

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Inability to control autoimmunity is the primary barrier to developing a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Evidence that human cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells (CB-SCs) can control autoimmune responses by altering regulatory T cells (Tregs) and human islet beta cell-specific T cell clones offers promise for a new approach to overcome the autoimmunity underlying T1D.

Methods

We developed a procedure for Stem Cell Educator therapy in which a patient’s blood is circulated through a closed-loop system that separate lymphocytes from the whole blood and briefly co-cultures them with adherent CB-SCs before returning them to the patient’s circulation. In an open-label, phase1/phase 2 study, patients (n = 15) with T1D received one treatment with the Stem Cell Educator. Median age was 29 years (range, 15 to 41), and median diabetic history was 8 years (range, 1 to 21).

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The use of human embryos for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it is patentable, but their use for purposes of scientific research is not patentable

Mr Oliver Brüstle is the holder of a patent, filed on 19 December 1997, which concerns isolated and purified neural precursor1 cells produced from human embryonic stem cells used to treat neurological diseases. According to the information supplied by Mr Brüstle, there are already clinical applications, particularly for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

On application by Greenpeace e.V., the Bundespatentgericht (Federal Patent Court, Germany) ruled that Mr Brüstle’s patent was invalid in so far as it covers processes for obtaining precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells.
The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, Germany), hearing Mr Brüstle’s appeal, decided to refer questions to the Court of Justice concerning the interpretation of, in particular, the concept of ‘human embryo’ which is not defined in Directive 98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions2.

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Stem Cell researchers at Cambridge and Edinburgh have discovered a promising stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis. While much work is still needed to translate the discovery into an effective treatment, this breakthrough provides a promising road map towards a cure.

A video story featuring the SCI’s Robin Franklin can be viewed on the BBC News website.

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