“Latest Stem Cells News”

Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. today announced that it has begun enrolling patients in the U.S. for a Phase I clinical trial with its unmatched placenta-derived stem cell product, PLX-PAD, the Company`s leading product candidate for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), the end-stage of peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Enrollment began at the Center for Therapeutic Angiogenesis in Birmingham, Ala., one of two clinical sites in the U.S. Duke University Medical Center will also be screening patients for the trial. The initiation of this study follows the approval of the Company`s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to begin clinical trials with PLX-PAD by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The Phase I study is designed to evaluate the safety of PLX-PAD in patients with CLI. A total of up to 12 adults with the disease will be included in this dose escalating trial (…)

from http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS125367+10-Sep-2009+BW20090910

Incoming search terms:

Scientists in the U.S. have made history as they have found a brand new, safer way to create embryonic stem cells.
Washington (dbTechno) – Scientists in the U.S. have made history as they have found a brand new, safer way to create embryonic stem cells.
There has been a great debate over the years due to safety concerns in regards to the development of embryonic stem cells, seen by many as the future of medicine.

This debate may now be put to rest though thanks to this new research announced this week.

Incoming search terms:

Stem Cell Research Brings About Another Miracle

Korean doctors have apparently regrown a patient’s jawbone using the patient’s own Adult Stem Cells in yet another amazing miracle that Adult Stem Cell research has brought us.

An 18 year old Korean boy who had to have most of his jawbone and his teeth removed due to a tumor was the lucky recipient of this fantastic stem cell research victory.

The young man, who had been suffering confidence problems due to his appearance (missing his jawbone and teeth) is very happy now after the Adult Stem Cells worked their magic and regrew his jawbone so he looks normal in appearance now.

Process of Stem Cells

1. Adult Stem Cells were taken from the man’s bone marrow
2. They were then multiplied and “coached” into becoming an osteoblast- a cell responsible for bone formation
3. The new Adult Stem Cells were injected into the “damaged” area around the man’s jaw
4. 6 months-1 year the stem cells grow new bone to fill in the gap left when the jawbone and teeth were removed
5. Man’s looks better, has more confidence, happier

Stem Cell Case Study Presented at Conference

The results of the trial were published in the British medical journal BMC Medicine and it was also presented at the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons annual meeting (Those silly Maxillofacial surgeons must have forgotten my invitation)

Another Case of Adult Stem Cell Research Working Magic

This is just another instance in which the patient’s own stem cells were used to help. The patient had nothing to lose (no side effects because they were his own stem cells), and everything to gain. And gain he did with this miracle.

This reminds me of an amazing story in Germany a few years back in which they actually used a man’s back as an incubator and grew him a new jawbone

Click here to read the whole stem cell article

from Don Margolis

Incoming search terms:

New hope in treating Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, an incurable neurological disease, which is particularly frequent in former soccer players, may come from stem cells. Nicholas Maragakis and his colleagues from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore in the United States, have successfully conducted an important experiment in mice. In a study published in the online edition of ‘Nature Neuroscience’, the American researchers transplanted precursor cells called astrocytes, which function as support cells for neurons, into the mice with ALS. This allow the mice to survive for much longer.

ALS, pointed out the authors, is caused by the degeneration and death of so-called motor neurons, which are nervous cells that send signals to muscles to move. Recent research has demonstrated that astrocytes, belonging to the family of glial support cells, could be struck by the disease. Based on this concept, Maragakis’ team tried to treat an animal with ALS by transplanting early astrocytes.

The cells managed to survive in the spinal cord and the mice, although they did not heal completely, were able to survive much longer than normal. The beneficial effects, specified the scientists, require the presence of a particular transport protein in the precursor astrocytes: a scavenger protein able to remove excess glutamated neurotransmitters, a substance that is involved in the development of ALS, from motor neurons tied to astrocytes.

Incoming search terms:

A stem cell injection bound to create a stir is about to take place. For the first time ever the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (the United States government agency regulating scientific research) has authorized a company to transfer embryonic stem cells to patients paralyzed by spinal trauma. It will be the first procedure of its kind after newly inaugurated President Barack Obama promised to remove limits on financing for embryonic stem cell research imposed by George Bush in 2001.

The details of the initiative are beginning to take form, explained Thomas Okarma, President and CEO of Geron Corporation, the biotechnology company that was given the go ahead by the FDA, speaking in a CNN interview, explaining that volunteer testing will already begin this summer. Eight or ten patients with recent damage to their spinal cord and completely paralyzed from their third to tenth vertebra will be injected with embryonic stem cells. Using totipotent cells manipulated in the lab, researchers have developed cells called oligodendrocytes which play an important role in nerve transmission and are able to rebuild myelin, a protective sheath that covers nerves.

Incoming search terms:

A team of John Hopkins University undergraduates say they have found a way to quickly and easily embed a person’s stem cells into surgical thread, a procedure they believe may help improve healing and prevent re-injury.
The 10 biomedical engineering students developed the procedure as part of a contest sponsored by a medical technology company trying to patent the concept as a way to help patients recover from major orthopedic injuries, such as ruptured ligaments and tendons.

“Using sutures that carry stems cells to the injury site would not change the way surgeons repair the injury,” student team leader Matt Rubashkin, who will be a senior in the fall, said in a university news release. “But we believe the stem cells will significantly speed up and improve the healing process. And because the stem cells will come from the patient, there should be no rejection problems.”

In concept, stem cells from bone marrow drawn from a patient’s hip would be quickly woven into surgical thread using the students’ machine. The stem cell thread would then be used, as in conventional surgery, to stitch the ruptured tendon or other injury. The stem cells should eventually evolve into tendon or cartilage that blends into their setting while releasing growth factor proteins that hasten healing and reduce inflammation along the way.

The students, with help from orthopedists and sponsor, Bioactive Surgical Inc. of Maryland, are testing the machine and procedure on animals. Early test results show the stem cells remaining intact and attached to the sutures.
“The students exceeded all expectations. They have probably cut at least a year off of the development time of this technology, and they are definitely advancing the science in this emerging area,” the inventor of the technology, Dr. Lew Schon, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,said in the news release.

According to the students’ research, about 46,000 people in the United States undergo Achilles tendon repair surgery every year. The procedure and post-surgical treatment cost about $40,000, and recovery takes up to a year.
The Baltimore students have also applied for grants to study how the embedded surgical thread could be used in other orthopedic surgeries or even cardiology and obstetrics.

from ajc

Incoming search terms: