“Latest Stem Cells News”

In a ray of hope for millions of leukaemia patients, American scientists have claimed to have developed a technique which multiplies the small number of stem cells in the donor blood, making it much more potent for the treatment of the fatal disease.

It also eliminates the need for a matching donor, whose bone marrow is usually transplanted to the patient, according to a study which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine. Traditionally, there was always a risk that the patient’s body may reject the new cells from a donor.

CordLife, Asia Pacific’s largest network of stem cell banks, on Wednesday launched the most advanced umbilical cord banking technology in the country. The technology has the ability to isolate two cell types that help in hastening the healing process of diabetic foot ulcers.

The patented technology allows access epithelial stem cells that can rejuvenate skin and mucus membranes for treating non-healing wounds as is seen in diabetic ulcer patients, said Steven Fang, group CEO, CordLife. With over 4 crore people in the country diagnosed with diabetes and 1 in every 6 estimated to have an ulcer during the lifetime, CordLife expects the new umbilical cord banking technology to help harvest the right and important stem cells that may prevent amputations, Fang said.

“Typically, diabteic ulcers are very difficult to heal. With epithelial stem cells, the ulcers can be healed within 45 days,” said Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, MD, CordLife Sciences India. The company has shelled out Rs 10 crore to put in place its first cord blood storage facility near Kolkata.

from http://www.mydigitalfc.com/good-living/new-stem-cell-banking-technology-cordlife-735

CordLife, one of the leading stem cell banking groups in the Asia Pacific region, is targeting expansion of its network in India and China, considering the huge birth rate in these two Asian nations, a top official said Wednesday.
“We’re looking at India and China as two big markets in terms of our stem cell business in the Asia Pacific region – keeping in mind the huge birth rate in these two countries,” CordLife group chief executive Steven Fang told IANS Wednesday on the sidelines of a press conference here.

“We’re presently in talks with a large number of big government and private hospitals across India to tie up with them for stem cell therapy treatment.”
He said the company was growing at a rate of 70 percent in terms of its client base, and also registered 30 percent growth in its net profit last year.

When others of her age played with dolls, eight-year-old Thamirabharani was taking blood transfusions.
Born with thalassaemia, she has, however, found hope. She was detected with the disease when she was a year and a half and has been undergoing regular blood transfusions since.

Haematologist Revathy Raj and his team from Apollo Gleneagles hospital in Chennai gave a new lease of life to the little girl from Coimbatore through stem cell transplantation. Doctors said she is now fully cured and has not needed a single transfusion since March.

Doctors claimed this is the first success story in India using the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of a sibling.
When her father Senthil Kumar, a carpenter, came to know of stem cell transfusion and Life Cell and its process of banking stem cells from umbilical cord blood, they decided to have another child.

When Thamirabharani was two years old, her mother conceived again but the foetus was also diagnosed with Thalassae-mia. They had it terminated and tried again.
During the second attempt, doctors found the foetus was a Thalassaemia carrier but not affected by it. They collected the blood from the umbilical cord, cultivated the stem cells during delivery of the baby boy and asked Life Cell to preserve it for a year.

In March, Raj and his team started working on the transplantation process.
“The first step was to destroy all the existing bone marrow cells using chemotherapy. Next came transplanting stem cells from the donor,” said Raj.

from http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/454758.aspx

Italy is ranked among the top countries in Europe for the number of bone marrow transplants performed. This is one of the elements that emerged on the first day of the 3rd GITMO conference (Italian group for bone marrow transplants), which began today in Florence.

Italy plays a leading role for bone marrow transplants, said a statement, demonstrated by the fact that our country is one of the top contributors to the number of transplants performed in Europe. The European Bone Marrow Transplant Group (EMBT) collects and stores data regarding transplants performed in various countries, and Italy is ranked 3rd/4th place for the total number of transplants it performs. This is an indication of the important work performed in Italy by GITMO and demonstrates that Italian transplant centers make use of top-level expertise and technology.

This is encouraging data because it opens up possibilities for the future, with important implications for patients suffering from neoplastic diseases, for which stem cells could play a key role in future treatments.

The procedure of stem cell transplants is very invasive for the patient and not all individuals are able to adequately tolerate the procedure, especially older patients. In the past, it was not possible to perform a transplant in an individual over the age of 40, then the age was raised to 50, while today 60 could be an important objective. In the past 10 years, transplant technologies for family and non-family donors have been developed with the use of so-called reduced intensity transplants, meaning a transplant that uses technology to make the procedure tolerable for patients who are not able to undergo the traditional procedure.

Initially, this technique developed slowly, while today many transplant centers have adopted the procedure, which has substantially increased the number of people who are eligible to receive this type of treatment. For some diseases, like acute myeloid leukemia, donor stem cell transplants represent our most promising weapon, and since these diseases are most common in elderly individuals, in cases where the patient is in good condition and they are under 60 years old, it is possible to use this type of treatment.

Future prospects. Today stem cells can be obtained from various sources. While in the past family donors were used, now the use of non-family donors has become more widespread thanks to international donor banks. Furthermore, alternative sources are available, like umbilical cord stem cells, which have been collected in many EU and non-EU countries for about 15 years in special umbilical cord blood banks. They are also present in Italy and this expands the offer and possibility to quickly find a source of stem cells to be used in transplants.

Getting information and advice in the pharmacy to collect and store umbilical cord stem cells abroad: this is the service provided by the Clic-care system, a brand managed by a company operating in the home assistance sector, and already present in pharmacies in Milan. The company recently issued a statement presenting the service. A service in which each pregnant woman, according to the company’s website www.clic-care.it, can request directly at the pharmacy to reserve a free consultation appointment for information on storing umbilical cord stem cells. Storage which, according to Italian law, can only be done in public stem cell banks for public use, not in private banks.

After a free telephone interview in which women can learn and understand the procedure to store stem cells, the company promises that it will take care of all of the paperwork required by Italian law as well as practical aspects of the process. After birth, the cells are handed over to specialized technicians in the hospital who will send them to the United Kingdom, where the cells will be deposited and stored in a private center. Periodically, the family will be informed about new goals and available cures. The president of the Italian National Federation of Pharmacy Owners (Federfarma), Anna Rosa Racca, said, “currently, Federfarma is collecting information on the initiative to assess the various aspect”.

Exporting umbilical cords abroad to be stored and collecting umbilical cord stem cells for autologous use “is possible if done according to Italian law. It is necessary to evaluate whether the other services offered by private companies in Italy respect all of the laws,” said Alessandro Nanni Costa, the director of the National Transplant Center (CNT) said regarding clic-care.

In Italy, said Nanni Costa, “collecting stem cells for autologous use and private banks to store them is not allowed. For exports abroad, we offer counseling to inform pregnant women about collection methods, storage, and use. The women must fill out a form about autologous collection on the CNT website”. Then they must obtain the necessary certification from the regional Health Department, and then must ask for authorization from the Health Ministry.

When this procedure has concluded, the umbilical cord can be sent abroad. “If all of these regulations are satisfied, along with all of the other requirements, like those for health-related advertisements, the service offered by these private companies is legal. But it is necessary to assess whether the information is correct and to understand exactly what they offer and how. If the information is not correct, then we will evaluate the timetable and methods to intervene”.

Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano

Methods to provide safer stem cell transplants to individuals who are not completely compatible with the donor are being developed. Encouraging results have come from a post-transplant cellular therapy, which strengthens the immune system against viral infections and tumors, developed for the first time at the National Tumor Institute (INT) in Milan. The INT conducted the first phase I-II study in the world, published in ‘Blood’, whose main objective was to assess the use of a low dose radiochemotherapy, followed by low dose post-transplant infusions CD8-depleted donor lymphocytes after a 50% compatible hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

The objective of the study was to reduce transplant toxicity and improve immune system function after the transplant to reduce mortality due to infections and relapses. Stem cell transplants from fully compatible donors (HLA-identical) are an option for many individuals with blood-borne cancers. However, only 50-60% of these patients are able to find a fully compatible donor in their families or on the international donor registry. For leukemia and lymphoma patients with a high risk for early relapse who are not able to find an identical donor, the only concrete alternative is a transplant from a 50% compatible family donor (haploidentical donor) or umbilical cord stem cell transplants for child or low weight patients.

In the past, the use of partially compatible donors was prevented by severe side effects. New strategies to improve results are increasingly necessary. Twenty-eight adult patients affected by advanced hematological neoplasias who had no other alternative treatment in order to survive took part in the study. Twenty-four of the patients were suffering from lymphoma and four from acute leukemia.

Transplant-related mortality after two years was reduced from 40-50% to 25%. The two-year global survival rate was 44% with a better result for patients with chemosensitive diseases (2-year survival rate of 75%).
On the whole, 54 CD8 depleted donor lymphocyte infusions were performed on 23 patients, using three different doses of cells with the objective of defining which dose favored an efficient reconstitution of immunity against infective agents and residual tumor cells, reducing the probability of inducing aggressive immune responses against the recipient. The infusions were well tolerated by the patients and did not reduce the transplant from taking root and did not induce acute toxicity.