“Latest Stem Cells News”

British regulators have given Moorfields approval to begin trials using retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

Twelve patients with Stargardt’s disease will have the cells injected into the eye. You can read more about the trial here.
Although there is great excitement about the trial, Julia knows that the initial phase will simply check safety (…)

“It would be marvellous if I could get some of my sight-loss reversed”, said Julia. “Even if it simply halts the deterioration, that would be great. And the real benefit would be for children. It could mean they don’t need to lose any sight and have normal vision.”

But doctors are urging caution. They are aware that there has been a lot of hype surrounding human embryonic stem cells, because of their potential to turn into any of the 200 or so cell types in the body (…)

It is always worth pointing out that other forms of stem cell treatments have been used successfully for many years.
Bone marrow transplantation is a well-established and proven technology.
More recently, stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow have been used to help create them a new windpipe.

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Ciaran Finn-Lynch, who became the first child in the world to undergo a groundbreaking trachea transplant in March this year, is set to return home to Northern Ireland.

Ciaran underwent the transplant, which involved the removal of his own trachea replaced by a donor windpipe, at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Doctors then used Ciaran’s own stem cells from inside his body to build up the donor windpipe and ensure the organ was not rejected.

Four weeks ago, doctors were able to describe the transplant as a success for the first time after proving vascular supply had returned to the trachea.

Colleen and Paul, Ciaran’s parents, said: “We cannot thank all the staff involved in Ciaran’s transplant enough. When they initially suggested the procedure we agreed to it, knowing it would be the first time it had been tried in a child, as we have 100 per cent faith in them and the work they do. They were the best people in the world to treat our son.

“Ciaran has undergone some major operations in his life, even prior to this transplant in March. He is resilient and has kept his spirits up throughout. Two weeks ago he had a music lesson while he was on the intensive care unit, he played on the drums and he absolutely loved it. Ciaran’s spirit has never waned.

“We are obviously also incredibly grateful and indebted to Ciaran’s donor and are aware of the heartbreak that family went through in losing someone. They have displayed courage and selflessness and we would like to use this opportunity to urge people to think about signing up to the organ donor register.”

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Breast milk, long revered for the nutritional advantages it gives a newborn, could be just as vital in terms of infant development, a leading scientist will claim this week. Up to three different types of stem cells have been discovered in breast milk, according to revolutionary new research.

Dr Mark Cregan, medical director at the Swiss healthcare and baby equipment company Medela, believes the existence of stem cells means breast milk could help a child “fulfil its genetic destiny”, with a mother’s mammary glands taking over from her placenta to guide infant development once her child is born.

“Breast milk is the only adult tissue where more than one type of stem cell has been discovered. That is very unique and implies a lot about the impressive bioactivity of breast milk and the consequential benefits to the breastfed infant,” said Dr Cregan, who is speaking at Unicef’s Baby Friendly Initiative conference this week. His research has isolated adult stem cells of epithelial (mammary) and immune origin, with “very preliminary evidence” that breast milk also contains stem cells that promotes the growth of muscle and bone tissue.

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Dean Third used to look forward to weekends spent refereeing local football matches, and outings with his young family. But now even walking to the end of the road can leave him breathless and exhausted.

For the past four years, the father of four has suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease of the heart muscle which causes it to enlarge, affecting its ability to pump blood to the arteries.
The condition afflicts 12,000 people in the UK, and for most sufferers the cause is unknown. If uncontrolled it can be fatal, and patients must adhere strictly to a regime of medication.

For Dean, a mature student from Brightlingsea, Essex, the only chance of a normal life is a heart transplant. But he says: ‘I am way down the list because there are so few. I may die before one becomes available.’
Dean, 39, also has to live with the knowledge that he may have given the disease to his children. Although his wife, Cathy, 40, does not have it, there is a 50 per cent chance he could have given it to Nadine, 16, William, 14, Ross, 12, and Charlotte Rose, nine.

They will have to be monitored for the rest of their lives.
However, Dean has just taken part in a BBC Horizon TV programme where he discovered that medics are on the brink of a major breakthrough, meaning conditions such as his could be cured by making new hearts from the patient’s own stem cells.

Often referred to as the body’s ‘building blocks’, stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing without limit to replenish other cells as they die out.

When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the ability either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialised function, such as a brain cell, a red blood cell or, as Dean learnt, healthy heart cells.
The documentary team examined the cases of three patients with chronic conditions to discover whether, within their lifetimes, they might be cured.

Dean visited Dr Anthony Mathur, from University College London, to witness the world’s first trial using stem cells taken from bone marrow. The cells are injected into the muscles of the heart to regenerate damaged tissue.
He also travelled to Minnesota in America to visit laboratories carrying out research to produce new hearts using stem cells (…)

But the prospect of creating new functioning hearts from a patient’s own tissue is now a real possibility. While researchers have yet to get results in human subjects, scientists at the University of Minnesota have produced new working hearts using rats’ and pigs’ stem cells.

Dr Doris Taylor, of the Centre for Cardiovascular Repair, has taken a heart from a dead rat and drained it of all its stem cells so that it is nothing more than a lump of protein, a process called whole-organ decellularisation.
She then took stem cells from a live rat and injected them into the inert heart. The stem cells are able to recognise it is a heart and begin working to form new cells, producing a new organ (…)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1222671/Well-soon-building-new-hearts-order-just-24-hours-say-stem-cell-scientists.html

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After much hope and controversy, for the first time stem cells have proven to have the ability to cure a disease. The news comes from a study on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) of the retina, the most common cause of blindness in individuals over the age of 50. The Sunday Times reports that the treatment was developed by a group of British researchers, who say that in the next six to seven years the treatment will become a routine operation, which will not last more than an hour. The treatment involves the replacement of a layer of degenerated cells with new cells created using embryonic stem cells, primitive cells that are able to transform into any type of human tissue.

AMD strikes the central area of the retina, the macula, which progressively deteriorates. Cloned retina cells are placed on an artificial membrane inserted into the posterior retina. The research was conducted by the department of ophthalmology of the University College of London and Morfields Hospital. Ethical controversy is inevitable because in order to create this type of stem cells embryos are used, which is explicitly allowed by British legislation. American pharmaceutical group Pfizer, said the Times, is supporting the study.

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Embryonic stem cells (ESC) can survive even when inserted into chains of polymers, in a process in which they are “weaved” into artificial and flexible tissues able to adapt to various types of transplants. In an innovative technique, stem cells could be used in the future to produce artificial organs, say researchers at University College London.

The technique was described in a study, published in Integrative Biology. It implements other research to shape living cells into engineered tissues, including a technique which would print a live tissue using an ink printer, which would substitute normal ink with a biological ink made up of cells.

This technique has already underwent various changes to minimize damage to biological tissue. With this technology it has been possible to ‘weave’ a network of threads containing live brain cells. In this new research, Suwan Jayasinghe and her colleagues have demonstrated that this is possible with a similar technique, to create embryonic stem cell ‘threads’.

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