“Latest Stem Cells News”

Scientists have for the first time succeeded in extracting vital stem cells from sections of vein removed for heart bypass surgery. Researchers funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) found that these stem cells can stimulate new blood vessels to grow, which could potentially help repair damaged heart muscle after a heart attack.

The research, by Paolo Madeddu, Professor of Experimental Cardiovascluar Medicine and his team in the Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) at the University of Bristol, is published in the leading journal Circulation.

In a world first in children, British and Italian doctors have transplanted a new airway (trachea) into a child and used the child’s own stem cells, in the body, to rebuild it.

The donated trachea was stripped of the donor’s old cells, down to the inert collagen. The child recipient’s bone marrow stem cells were collected, and applied to the graft in situ in the body, to rebuild the cellular component of the trachea. Thus the child’s own cells will be used to make the new airway sealed and effective.

This is the first time that this has been performed in a child. It is also the first time the entire length of the trachea has been transplanted.

The application of this technology should reduce greatly the risk of rejection of the new trachea, as the child’s stem cells will not generate any immune response.

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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.

(…) Three months ago the world’s first cosmetic stem-cell facelift was carried out on Pauline Wills, 55, an office manager from South London, by Dr Aamer Khan from the Harley Street Medical Skin Clinic. It cost £7,500, took nearly six hours under local anaesthetic and Pauline had the added bonus of losing an inch from her tummy.

And because the procedure uses the body’s own stem cells – which makes it a living tissue graft – you grow into your own facelift during the six months afterwards (…)

Stem cells are present throughout the body and one of their functions is to repair damaged tissue and regenerate muscles, nerves, blood vessels and skin cells. The body has a reserve of these cells in the bone marrow, although there are a thousand times more stem cells in our fat stores (…)

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, known for “miracle” surgeries, has completed a medically historic procedure where doctors used stem cells taken from the fat tissue of a 14-year-old boy and combined them with growth protein and donor tissue to grow viable cheek bones in the teen.

Brad Guilkey, 15, suffers from a rare kind of genetic disorder known as Treacher Collins Syndrome, where the bones and other tissues are prevented to develop in the face (…)

The medical team implanted cadaver bone into Brad’s face in May, and then they injected his own stem cells into the donor bone to fill in the gaps (…)

from http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/2009/10/13/doctors-use-stem-cells-to-grow-bone-in-boys-cheek/

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“Stem cells are no longer only the future of aesthetic surgery, they are the present,” said Alessandro Gennai, an associate plastic surgeon at the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery (EAFPS). For the past year, Gennai has been using a modified technique used to preserve stem cells in lipofilling procedures. “I have already performed numerous operations, with excellent results and without side-effects,” said the surgeon from Bologna, “therefore I can say that lipofilling is the best solution for someone who wants to eliminate wrinkles before the summer. The procedure lasts 30 minutes, it is done under local anesthesia, recovery occurs in two to three days time, and the procedure does not have contraindications.”

Lipofilling, which can be performed alone of together with an endoscopic lifting, consists of removing adipose tissue from one part of the body with a very thin cannula to prepare it in order to avoid breaking the adipocytes, and to guarantee the preservation of the stem cells. Then, with another cannula the cells are injected into the face to restore volume and tone.
“The addition of stem cells regenerates the skin, making it more beautiful and vital, especially before the summer, the time of year when the epidermis is more stressed due to prolonged exposure to the sun,” explained Doctor Gennai. There are numerous stem cells present in adipose tissue, which are able to differentiate into adipocytes or other types of cells if necessary. About a year ago, we modified a facial transplant technique to preserve these extremely delicate cells. We avoid centrifuging and manipulating them to reduce trauma and to keep as many alive as possible.

Various studies demonstrate that these stem cells normally present in adipose tissue make lipofilling more efficient, improving the rooting of adipose tissue in the implant site and the quality of facial skin, which appears smoother, shinier, and younger. Recent studies have advanced the idea that stem cells the only cells responsible for the filling effects of the lipofilling process, and that adipocytes are reabsorbed completely.
As demonstrated by Coleman, the ‘father’ of lipofilling, adipose tissue implants, after a short while, are indistinguishable from tissue that is normally present at the site of the implant, guaranteeing a physiological result that is impossible to obtain with other fillers.

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