“Latest Stem Cells News”

An ‘antenna’ molecule, which is capable of guiding blood stem cells to their natural ‘home’, the bone marrow, has been discovered. The discovery could improve the efficiency of umbilical cord stem cell transplants. This type of transplant is not efficient when there are not many umbilical cord stem cells present, since few of them are able to reach the bone marrow from the blood.
Reported by Nature magazine, the discovery was made by David Scadden of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston. The stem cells, which normally renew the population of blood cells in the body (red and white blood cells and platelets), are found in the bone marrow, but continuously move throughout blood in circulation, and eventually end up back in the bone marrow.

This is the reason why blood stem cells transplants are never highly efficient. In fact, the injected stem cells are not always able to make it back to the bone marrow, where they need to be present in order to function. These researchers have discovered a guide molecule, a protein called ‘GSA’, which is like an antenna placed on the surface of the cells, which guides them back to the marrow. Researchers have demonstrated in mice that have received stem cell transplants, that with drugs that activate GSA, the injected stem cells easily find their way to the bone marrow and the transplant functions more efficiently.

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‘Yet again the Lazio region risks missing a chance to be at the cutting edge in the country for the therapeutic use of hematopoietic stem cells, a technique that is scientifically tested and proven in terms of its efficiency,’ said Luigi Canai, the President of the Lazio Health Commission, in a statement.

‘For days the media has been reporting important progress achieved in this field of research both abroad and in Italy. Regarding this subject, a year ago on February 19 2009, the commission chaired by me approved a unified text for a law that was later approved by the budget commission to promote the use in our region of this revolutionary therapeutic tool, which is particularly important in treating various rare infant diseases. The proposal, which calls for the creation of a regional bank to preserve hematopoietic stem cells taken from the placenta and umbilical cord of women in labour, was unanimously approved, but from that time on, we are awaiting the final vote of the council, a step that is necessary to implement the plan in the interest of the health of the citizens of our region.’

‘I must firmly ask the presidents of the council groups and the president of the assembly to honor this debt as soon as possible, which we all have towards our constituents, and we must hold a debate immediately. I do not want to believe,’ concluded Canali, ‘that the unanimity that was witnessed earlier has already dissolved for other considerations, such as the permanent electoral campaign in our country.’

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The subject of producing artificial blood from stem cells has become a hot topic in Italy. “Italy is close to reaching the same objective announced by British researchers, on a similar timeframe,” therefore possibly in three years, “but using adult stem cells. Certainly, it is one thing to say that in three years we will begin the experimental phase, it’s another thing to speak about industrial production. It needs to be specified that the procedure to produce artificial blood is very expensive. Therefore this would be a complementary solution, which will not replace donations,” Said Welfare Undersecretary Ferruccio Fazio, shortly after an announcement of a British study, during a meeting on blood transfusion by the Health Observatory in Rome.

“I would like to calm the enthusiasm after the announcement of the British study,” said Fazio. “There are Italian research groups that are doing very advanced projects on adult stem cells to produce artificial blood. The Italian way was also chosen by the US Armed Forces,” he specified. “We are working on adult stem cells also for long-term sustainability. There is also a collaboration in place between the Mayo Clinic in America and researchers of the Superior Institute of Health (ISS),” he added. “Therefore Italy is not behind in this sector. “This is a very expensive procedure though, which will never substitute donation,” confirmed Fazio.

Furthermore, the upcoming conference of the federal government and the regions should examine a provision “that proposes financing in all of the Italian regions for umbilical cord biobanks starting in 2009. This is something,” pointed out Fazio, “that will aid in research on blood from adult stem cells”. While labs in Italy have worked for years, Giuliano Graziani, the director of the national blood centre pointed out that “the production of artificial plasma will be extremely expensive. We are not disputing the importance of donating blood. Research like the British study is ongoing throughout the world. There are important studies,” he said, “whose results are not right around the corner, and which will never replace the key role of donations”.

“In addition to unacceptable ethical implications, this research has not demonstrated anything yet,” commented geneticist Bruno Dallapiccola regarding the announcement of several British researchers, published recently on the online edition of the Independent regarding the possibility of producing blood by using embryonic stem cells.

“There are no official results yet,” said the scientist in an interview with Vatican Radio, “and none of this research has been transferred to patients. Then,” he added, “rather than reading these results in the Independent, it would be appropriate to see them published in a scientific journal with critical revisers able to judge their basis.”

In the meanwhile, the geneticists said that embryonic stem cell research aimed at curing diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s “have not given any results yet”. A group of British researchers said that they will be able to obtain, within three years, an unlimited quantity of red blood cells from unused human embryos.

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Italian Welfare Undersecretary Ferruccio Fazio disapproves of private biobanks and is clearly in favor of the “allogenic” conservation of umbilical cord stem cells, meaning the conservation of stem cells saved for the exclusive use of the donor-patient. Speaking about a government report on “the appropriate use of umbilical cord stem cells”, Fazio outlined the government’s approach on the issue. A few weeks after a ministerial decree dictating new regulations for umbilical cord conservation, Fazio explained autologous donation, meaning conservation of stem cells for yourself, “is not only less useful, but also less efficient as science has demonstrated”.

The only exception allowed by the ministerial decree is “the conservation of umbilical cord blood to be used by families with children who are at risk for diseases that are genetically determined, which are scientifically proven and clinically approved to be treated with umbilical cord stem cells upon presenting clinical documentation released by a specialist”. From a scientific standpoint, underlined Fazio, “the use of hematopoietic stem cells for allogenic transplants creates another advantage because these stem cells eliminate diseased cells that remain after chemotherapy or radiotherapy, thanks the ability of special white blood cells from the donor to recognize them as foreign and destroy the residual diseased cells, performing an actual ‘cellular therapy’. This effect of hematopoietic stem cells transplants is known as ‘Graft versus Leukemia’.

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The Health Minister recently held a press conference to launch a program to strengthen the public biobank network, considering that currently on 20% of donations are completed successfully. An informative pamphlet was also distributed about “The appropriate use of umbilical cord stem cells“.

The StemWay Biotech company, through its Vice-President Dr. Paolo Rubini, in complete agreement with other biobanks in Italy, with great surprise and dismay, stressed that unfortunately, the measure seems to be more against the autologous conservation of stem cells rather than in favor of donation. As for the scientific statements contained in the informative pamphlet distributed by the ministry, Dr. Rubini said that “without getting into the scientific details, which should not be outlined in a mass communication to the public, the scientific world has already expressed itself in the appropriate ways and even the FIOG, the Italian Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has supported a biobank in the sector. It seems appropriate for me to highlight that based on internationally accepted scientific evidence, the Ministries of Health in the USA, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Holland, Norway, Dubai, India, Singapore, Switzerland, Hungary, and numerous other countries have adopted decisions that are completely different from those of the Italian Health Ministry, allowing private biobanks to operate and for the autologous conservation of stem cells.”

As for the possibility of gaining access to your own umbilical cord stem cells once you have decided to donate them as reported in the minister’s pamphlet, Dr. Rubini pointed out that: “if it is true that only about 20% of donations are successfully completed, it is evident that the 97% indicated by the Health Ministry can only be relative to these samples, and that the correct information to spread would be 97% of the 20% of the donors will have the possibility of accessing their own umbilical cord stem cells, and therefore in not more than 19.4% of the cases.” Finally, StemWay Biotech must emphasize that if the public biobank network is made up of about 100 facilities in the entire world, the choice to have 18 of them in Italy seems to be an anomaly in the use of public resources in the health sector, where it certainly cannot be said that it is a priority. “In this scenario,” said Dr. Rubini, “each citizen can easily make their own decisions regarding conservation and donation of umbilical cord stem cells and operate in the best way possible so this important biological asset is not lost in 95% of all births.”

from ADUC

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Banks are assisting families with financing so they can preserve umbilical cord stem cells that could be used to fight many diseases and malignant tumors like leukemia, neuroblastoma, and Hodgkin’s disease, and multiple myeloma. This has happened so far in Liguria and the Piedmont, where the Credito Cooperativo bank in Pianfei and Rocca de’ Baldi are present.

The project by an Italian bank in collaboration with Swiss company, Genico, calls of reduced financing rates for expenses related to the cryoconservation of umbilical cord stem cells. About 2,500 euros are needed to collect the cells, transport them to a biobank abroad, and preserve them for 30 years.

The cost will be covered in three years with a variable rate based on the three-month Euribor, and a spread of 1pct. The initiative, explained the bank, “is part of a broader project that calls for the distribution of credit with reduced rates and the development of a policy of responsibility, including many social interventions for people living in Italy.

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