Fat Stem Cells Used for Breast Reconstruction

From the story:

Adult fat stem cells are being used in pioneering research in a Madrid hospital to rebuild the breasts of five women after they had undergone minor surgery for cancer.

The stem cells are extracted from fat taken from the patient by liposuction.

The Gregorio Marañón Hospital in the Spanish capital has presented the first implants to be made from such cells, and announced that it has so far benefitted five patients.

It’s part of European research, with 40 patients in total from the United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium as well as Spain.

A Message for Obama Admin Appointees Tom Daschle and Alta Charo

Democrats for Life have stepped in and picked up the reigns to do whatever they can to influence policy in an Obama Administration. Who knows, maybe someone will notice:

Pro-Science and Pro-Life: The Most Promising Stem Cell Research Does NOT Require the Destruction of Human Embryos

 

See also: Charo Appointed to Obama Team as Patient’s Own Adult Stem Cells Make New Windpipe and Adult Stem Cells Save Woman’s Leg (a discussion about partisanship and words). Hmm, while we are at it, let’s put this on the list of good reads today, too: An Open Letter to Barack Obama: Repair Stem Cell Research

Adult Stem Cell Conference Starts Next Week!

Australia’s National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research will be welcoming delegates to the first ever Adult Stem Cell – Biology and Clinical Applications Conference from Nov. 26-28 at Griffith University:

The conference will bring together world leaders working with adult stem cells both through understanding their basic biology to exploring their clinical value and therapeutic potential for the treatment of such conditions as Parkinson’s Disease, Schizophrenia, Spinal Cord Injury and Burns.

Imagine, a stem cell conference where they can actually talk about successfully treating human patients! Read more and check out their program of events

Positive Results for Aldagen’s ALD-301 Clinical Trial

Aldagen announced some positive results for its multicenter Phase 1/2 clinical trial of ALD-301 for the treatment of critical limb ischemia.

In the 24-week Phase 1/2 trial, ALD-301 was well tolerated. Importantly, the study results also indicated that during the 12-week efficacy assessment period, there were improvements in overall clinical status as well as increased blood flow in the affected limb in the group of patients treated with ALD-301.

ALD-301 is the population of stem and progenitor cells that are produced using Aldagen’s proprietary technology to sort a specified quantity of bone marrow collected from the patient receiving the therapy. To produce ALD-301, Aldagen receives 150 milliliters of bone marrow extracted from the patient. At Aldagen’s manufacturing facility, Aldagen processes the bone marrow to isolate and capture the key stem and progenitor cells. Typically within 36 hours of receipt of the bone marrow, Aldagen delivers the resulting ALD-301 cells either to an interventional cardiologist or to a vascular surgeon, who then administers ALD-301 to the patient by intramuscular injection into the patient’s leg. Aldagen’s technology isolates specific populations of adult stem cells that express high levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH-bright cells). Preclinical studies conducted by leading research institutions and academic centers have shown that ALDH-bright cells from bone marrow promote the repair of ischemic tissue damage, which is tissue damage caused by inadequate blood flow resulting from the obstruction of blood vessels supplying blood to the tissue.

Read more

ASC Heart Failure Clinical Trial

University of Utah researchers are enrolling people into a new adult stem cell clinical trial to treat ischemic and non-ischemic heart failure:

The one-year Cardiac Repair Cell Treatment of Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy (IMPACT-DCM) study will look at the safety of injecting Cardiac Repair Cells (CRC) and their ability to improve heart function.

Patients enrolled in IMPACT-DCM will have their own bone marrow cells drawn (about 3 tablespoons worth), which will then be grown in a culture to expand the number of cells that will help the heart muscle and improve blood flow. Two weeks later, the patient’s stem cells will be injected directly into the left ventricle of the heart during a minimally invasive surgery developed by Amit N. Patel, M.D., national principal investigator for the IMPACT-DCM trial and director of cardiovascular regenerative medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Read more (h/t: bioethics.com)

“Living Bandage” Grown from Stem Cells

Scientists have grown what they call a “living bandage” for a common knee injury using the patient’s own stem cells and will soon begin testing it in human patients:

Scientists at Bristol University have now managed to heal cartilage tissue in a laboratory with stem cells taken from a patient’s own bone marrow. They used the cells to coat a sponge-like scaffold, made from collagen (a fibrous protein) and placed it inside the tear in the cartilage. The stem cells pulled the two pieces of torn cartilage together.

Read more

Lab grown windpipe: another adult stem cell success

CNN had this as their homepage featured story this morning . . . let’s hope the Obama admin health and science advisors will see it and draw the proper conclusions: more money for ethical research with adult stem cells that works, not embronyic stem cells.

Woman given windpipe

created in laboratory

LONDON, England (CNN) — Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue engineered from her own stem cells in what experts have hailed as a “milestone in medicine.”

The breakthrough allowed Claudia Castillo, 30, to receive a new section of trachea — an airway essential for breathing — without the risk that her body would reject the transplant.

Castillo was given the stem cell surgery, the controversial branch of medicine that some say could lead to human cloning, after suffering a severe lung collapse.

The condition, caused by long-term tuberculosis left Castillo, a Colombian now living in Barcelona, unable to carry out simple domestic duties or care for her two children.

The only conventional option was a major operation to remove her left lung, a risky procedure with a high mortality rate. continue

Did Adult Stem Cells Cure an AIDS Patient??

An American with HIV (and leukemia) living in Berlin seems to have been cured of the disease after a bone marrow transplant:

Dr. Gero Huetter said his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin who was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the virus.

“We waited every day for a bad reading,” Huetter said.

It has not come. Researchers at Berlin’s Charite hospital and medical school say tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clean.

Now, nowhere in the article do they actually mention adult stem cells, but it is a well known fact that the “primary ingredients”, so to speak, in a bone marrow transplant are the stem cells from the transplanted bone marrow. I can only assume that this transplant is no different.

The successful result of the transplant in treating the AIDS virus here has been a shock to most doctors and scientists who still warn that it could be a “fluke.” If it is authentic, however, chalk this up to yet another example (and a major one) of ASCs blowing ESCs out of the water when it comes to therapies and cures.

Tissue engineering at the heart of real stem cell promise

Wesley Smith just blogged a great story about pediatric heart valves generated from umbilical cord cells. Those in the field of pediatric cardiology have been interested in the application of this research to real patients – and the time has come.

One wonders if the Obama administration is aware of these advances? In a time of financial crisis – and impending policies that are morally offensive – one hopes that our tax dollars will go to this type of research and therapy, and not toward embryonic stem cell research.

See also: Vessels, and Valves, and Veins, Oh My!, For some of us, February 14th is not about candy, Where the Real Booming Stem Cell Business Is

Vatican on the offensive with regard to anticipated stem cell policy

The Vatican has fired a warning shot over the bows of Barack Obama in response to the President-elect’s intention to lift the US ban on embryonic stem cell research.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, who acts as the Vatican health minister, said that stem cells taken from human embryos and involving the destruction of the embryos “serve no purpose”.

Asked whether the Vatican was concerned about reports that Mr Obama might reverse the Bush Administration’s ban, the cardinal said that embryonic stem cell research had not resulted in any significant health cure so far and was “good for nothing”.

Research on adult stem cells and umbliical cords had been shown to have “positive value”, by contrast, although even that was not “a panacea for everything.” continue