The Year of the Stem Cell

Yes, this year will surely go down in history as probably the most significant year for stem cell research (so far) – and it had nothing to do with creating or destroying human embryos. From Discovery News:

Dec. 26, 2007 — It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease appears to be fast on the way to being realized.

Researchers in November announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues.

Then just earlier this month a different team announced it had cured sickle cell anemia in mice using stem cells derived from adult mouse skin…

The new technique, while far from perfected, is so promising that the man who managed to clone the world’s first sheep, Dolly, is giving up his work cloning embryos to focus on studying stem cells derived from skin cells.

“The fact that (the) introduction of a small number of proteins into adult human cells could produce cells that are equivalent to embryo stem cells takes us into an entirely new era of stem cell biology,” said Ian Wilmut, the Scottish researcher who first created a viable clone by transferring a cell nucleus into a new embryo.

One of the greatest advantages of the new technique is its simplicity: it takes just four genes to turn the skin cell back into a stem cell.

This, unlike the complex and expensive process developed by Wilmut, can be done in a standard biological lab. And skin cells are much easier to harvest than embryos.

“It’s an explosion of resources,” said Konrad Hochedlinger, of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

This is not a perfect system yet, to be sure. More research is needed for this method to be available for patients, but there’s no doubt that this discovery will have a major impact on the future of stem cell research.

This New Year, why not celebrate the Year of the Stem Cell with a bottle of BOGO Wine and help support this important and innovative research?

Another Team Reverts Skin Cells!

According to Reuters, another team of researchers has successfully turned skin cells into embryonic like cells. This time it’s Dr. George Daley of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston and his colleagues:

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – A third team of researchers has found a way to convert an ordinary skin cell into valued embryonic-like stem cells, with the potential to grow batches of cells that can be directed to form any kind of tissue.

Their study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature, shows the approach is not a rare fluke but in fact something that might make its way into everyday use.

Scientists hope they are starting an age of regenerative medicine, in which people can get tailor-made treatments for injuries, diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes, and in which scientists can study disease far better than before.

Of course the story wouldn’t be complete without the researcher’s insistence that embryonic stem cell research must still go forward, but it’s good news, nonetheless.

The Hits Just Keep on Comin
Skin Cell-to-Stem Cell Pioneer Driven by Ethical Concerns

A Christmas Stem Cell Miracle

Several months ago I mentioned six year old Rylea Bartlett, blind from birth, who was treated with umbilical cord stem cells in China and now has very limited vision. This year young Rylea had a Christmas like no other:

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Rylea Barlett has had Christmas trees in her home before. But this year is different.

Rylea, a totally blind child whose vision was restored by a stem-cell transplant, can do more than feel her tree now. She can see it.

“She never paid any attention to the trees we have had before,” said her mother, Dawn Barlett. “Now, when she comes home from school, she stands in front of the tree for a couple of hours every night.

“She touches the tree, and is fascinated by the lights and ornaments.”

Her tree has been rigged to turn slowly. Different ornaments and sparkling lights pass by her as the tree turns. She touches the ornaments and describes her favorites.

“This one is a ginger-bread man,” Rylea said last week as she stood close to the tree. “This one is a star. This is one with someone’s picture in it. I like this one of the baby in the moon.”

Find out more about this sweet little girl on her website, No More Darkness. Shamefully her story has progressed no further than the local media in Joplin MO.

Rejoice, Rejoice!

First, if you don’t visit over these few remaining days of Advent, we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a beautiful and holy Christmas season. We have so much to celebrate in the very Incarnation and birth of Christ our Savior! Truly, let us REJOICE!

Second, we have great news to share with you! Our friend and sponsor Bill Schneeberger’s Christmas gift was delivered a little early . . . and the mission behind this blog is truly beginning to unfold as hoped. Bill has been working for a long time to secure a Presidential Proclamation designating June as Adult Stem Cell Awareness Month. Finally, Alabama Governor Bob Riley has sponsored and drafted the request letter,  and is sending it to President Bush as I write.  Senator Sam Brownback’s office and, in particular, his Chief of Staff, Robert K. Wasinger, will be following the request closely and assisting  with the proclamation process.

If President Bush does indeed designate June as Adult Stem Cell Awareness Month, so much can be done on the federal level to help educate Americans about the real hope and real cures that come from adult stem cell research and therapies. Awareness campaign proclamations really work – skeptical? Think pink . . . or red . . .

We’ll follow up after the new year to suggest ways that you can help bring about Adult Stem Cell Awareness Month - stay stuned. And most of all, have a happy and grace-filled Christmas!

Amniotic stem cells still got it going on

I wondered what the buzz was when I saw some bloggers and others reporting on Dr. Anthony Atala and amniotic fluid stem cells - researchers have known for a long time that stem cells from amniotic fluid are a real treasure with many regenerative applications. Well, the buzz is this, from December, 07 Cell Proliferation: 

application, for kidney regeneration, of a novel non-genetically modified stem cell, derived from human amniotic fluid. We show that these pluripotent cells can develop and differentiate into de novo kidney structures during organogenesis in vitro.

Adult Stem Cells Treating Patients…Again

Here a 50 year old man awaiting a heart transplant was treated with muscle stem cells taken out of his thigh:

After the treatment, the patient’s heart functions, including pulse rate and quantity of blood pumped, all improved rapidly. On Sept. 5, or 98 days after the treatment, it became possible to remove the pacemaker. According to the hospital, the man’s heart functions have almost fully recovered, and he is able to lead a normal daily life.

This is not the first time a heart patient has been treated with ASCs either.

According to a Japanese study, doctors have used stem cells from liposuctioned fat to fix breast defects in women after they have undergone breast cancer surgery. (HT for both stories: Wesley Smith)

An Arizona boy was treated for severe scoliosis with stem cells from his own bone marrow:

(Dr. Mark) Flood straightened and bolstered Matthew’s spine with a series of rods and pins _ a typical surgical treatment for severe scoliosis. Then the surgeon combined Matthew’s own stem cells, which had been concentrated to pack about 10 times more cells than the traditional method, with crushed bone from the hospital bone bank.

He injected the puttylike mixture into the upper-middle section of Matthew’s spine, between the rods, where the mixture will grow into bone and protect the spine against further curvature.

“What’s revolutionary is the use of the concentrated stem cells,” Flood said before the surgery. “We can avoid the pain of taking bone, and increase fusion.”

(HT: Jivin Jehoshaphat)

I always get these stories second hand…probably because they don’t get very wide media coverage. However, Wesley Smith seems to think that the adult stem cell “news blockade” is starting to crumble. In light of recent advancements in the field, I should hope so.

Illinois – time to stand up against embryonic stem cell research

Great article in the Catholic Explorer today:

Catholics move to end Illinois funds for embryonic stem-cell research

By Mark Indreika
Catholic News Service

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (CNS) — In light of new scientific evidence demonstrating how primitive stem cells can be created without destroying human embryos, the Catholic Conference of Illinois is pushing for new legislation to end state-sanctioned funding of embryonic stem-cell research through the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute.

“Human embryos should not be used in any type of research, and that should be in the law,” said Zach Wichmann, associate director of education for the conference, the public policy arm for the state’s Catholic bishops.

In addition to being immoral, he said, there is no scientific reason to continue using embryos.

“We think now that science has progressed to a point where it seems that embryonic stem-cell research is no longer necessary — that we can ban that procedure,” Wichmann told the Catholic Explorer, Joliet diocesan newspaper, in a telephone interview from his Springfield office.

Recently two research studies independently confirmed that ordinary skin cells can be genetically reprogrammed to work as effectively as embryonic stem cells. Wichmann said the new research poses no moral conflict since human embryos are not needed.

Dr. Patrick Stiff, director of Loyola’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center in Maywood, said genetically manipulating a patient’s own skin cells to regenerate new tissues eliminates any chance of rejection or the need for powerful anti-rejection drugs.

Speaking with the Explorer on the telephone, he said, “It’s the ideal way of getting enough cells for anybody.” Stiff, a parishioner at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Naperville, has done extensive work using adult stem cells from umbilical-cord blood to successfully treat cancer. continue

More stem cell optimism

Wesley Smith blogs about the influence of policy that reflects the sanctity of human life. President Bush’s stem cell policy, he says – and a point I think many of us believe is clearly true – expedited last month’s iPSC breakthroughs. Smith brings up Thomson’s reservations about using embryos and an interesting quote from Yamanaka expressing as much.

Here is where I think there is a bit too much optimism:

Yamanaka has said that some ES cells will continue to be needed for basic research. But that means the Bush approved lines should be up to the job.

Nope.  As along as we have Thomson and Yamanaka calling for continued embryonic stem cell research, I think we can be certain that we will need more embryos.

Mitt, Mitt, Mitt, where is your commitment?

Jill Stanek blogs on Mitt Romney’s interview with Katie Couric, when he admits the use of “surplus” ivf embryos, with consent from the “parents”, is acceptable. Even Katie Couric, hardly a proponent of any morally respectable position on embryonic stem cell research, could sniff out the inconsistency of Mitt’s . . . lack of commitment to an authentically pro-life position toward all embryos.

Bone marrow stem cell therapy used to treat spinal injury

It’s called Trinity and it’s been FDA approved since 2005.  Dr Pasquale Montesano, pictured above, has high praise for this therapy, “Trinity works as well as other, costlier options and is especially useful in patients . . . , whose prior spine fusion surgery failed.” Demand for Trinity, he says, exceeds supply.

Somehow . . . don’t you just know what that’s going to mean to some scientists, somewhere? That’s right, We need more embryonic stem cell lines! Of course!

Read more here and go over to Secondhand Smoke where this story plus commentary is blogged.