Mesenchymal Stem Cells May Repair Damaged Brain Cells

Someone should tell Michael J. Fox:

There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient’s own bone marrow, can be found ― and literally seen ― in laboratories at Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Yoram Cohen of TAU’s School of Chemistry has recently proven the viability of these innovative stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, using in-vivo MRI. Dr. Cohen has been able to track their progress within the brain, and initial studies indicate they can identify unhealthy or damaged tissues, migrate to them, and potentially repair or halt cell degeneration. His findings have been reported in the journal Stem Cells.

“By monitoring the motion of these cells, you get information about how viable they are, and how they can benefit the tissue,” he explains. “We have been able to prove that these stem cells travel within the brain, and only travel where they are needed. They read the chemical signalling of the tissue, which indicate areas of stress. And then they go and try to repair the situation.”…

Dr. Cohen and his team of researchers took magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and used them to label the stem cells they tested. When injected into the brain, they could then be identified as clear black dots on an MRI picture. The stem cells were then injected into the brain of an animal that had an experimental model of Huntington’s disease. These animals suffer from a similar neuropathology as the one seen in human Huntington’s patients, and therefore serve as research tool for the disease.

On MRI, it was possible to watch the stem cells migrating towards the diseased area of the brain. “Cells that go toward a certain position that needs to be rescued are the best indirect proof that they are live and viable,” explains Dr. Cohen. “If they can migrate towards the target, they are alive and can read chemical signalling.”…

Although there is a drawback to using this particular type of stem cell ― the higher degree of difficulty involved in rendering them “neuron-like” ― the benefits are numerous. “Bone marrow-derived MSCs bypass ethical and production complications,” says Dr. Cohen, “and in the long run, the cells are less likely to be rejected because they come from the patients themselves. This means you don’t need immunosuppressant therapy.”

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Vatican Radio Discusses ASCR

From Religious Intelligence:

Dr Settimio Grimaldi, an expert at the Institute of Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine in Rome, asked Vatican Radio listeners this week “Why we should complicate things by going and taking embryonic cells, with all the ethical questions that follow?”

The Vatican radio show discussed the latest developments in adult stem cell research which have revealed a method to repair a damaged heart by cultivating cardiac stem cells and re-injecting them to replace damaged tissue. Researchers revealed that the treatment could be available within three years following successful testing.

Dr. Grimaldi said: “The adult stem cell is already prepared to differentiate in the tissue we want to repair. And it is certainly more productive, less wasteful and less dangerous, beyond the ethical aspects, to work with adult stem cells instead of embryonic stem cells.”

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Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment Saves Legs

The results of a clinical trial to save volunteers’ leg from amputation by injecting stem cell concentrate to the limb affected by thrombo angitis obliterance (TAO) have been encouraging. The stem cells were taken from the patients’ bone marrow.

The clinical trial is being conducted on patients suffering from blocks in the artery of the leg. Sixty patients were enrolled in the trial, and all of them were smokers. Some had diabetes as well.

Thirty nine of the 44 patients who had already undergone the mandatory 6-month follow-up did not require amputation following stem cell injection to the affected legs. Follow-up of the remaining 16 patients is under way.

The last patient, enrolled on May 25, will complete his six-month follow up in November.

“We have got very good results,” said Dr. K.S. Vijayaragavan. “The legs of 89 per cent of the patients have been saved.” Dr. Vijayaragavan, Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, is conducting the trial.

According to him, the failure to save the leg of five patients was because they continued to smoke even after stem cell injection. Immediate and complete cessation of smoking is the most basic and important requirement for saving the leg. Diabetes should also be under control.

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University of Florida Scientists Program Blood Stem Cells to Become Vision Cells

GO GATORS!!

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers were able to program bone marrow stem cells to repair damaged retinas in mice, suggesting a potential treatment for one of the most common causes of vision loss in older people.

The success in repairing a damaged layer of retinal cells in mice implies that blood stem cells taken from bone marrow can be programmed to restore a variety of cells and tissues, including ones involved in cardiovascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.

“To our knowledge, this is the first report using targeted gene manipulation to specifically program an adult stem cell to become a new cell type,” said Dr. Maria B. Grant, a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at UF’s College of Medicine. “Although we used genes, we also suggest you can do the same thing with drugs — but ultimately you would not give the drugs to the patient, you would give the drugs to their cells. Take the cells out, activate certain chemical pathways, and put the cells back into the patient.”

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Sight Restored With ASC Contacts!

Check out this amazing video about some scientists in Australia who were able to significantly restore the sight of patients with blinding corneal disease using stem cells from the patients’ own eyes:

Unlike most other ASC treatments that can cost tens of thousands of dollars and often require surgical implantation, the procedure is totally cheap and easy. Said UNSW’s Dr Nick Di Girolamo, lead author of the study, “There’s no suturing, there is no major operation: all that’s involved is harvesting a minute amount – less than a millimeter – of tissue from the ocular surface.” He says it could even be used to treat patients in poorer countries, “If you’re going to be treating these sorts of diseases in third world countries all you need is the surgeon and a lab for cell culture. You don’t need any fancy equipment.”

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Man Treated for Heart Failure With Own Cardiac Stem Cells

A team of University of Louisville physicians at Jewish Hospital successfully conduct what is being reported as the world’s first adult cardiac stem cell injection:

After two heart attacks, Michael Jones of Louisville suffered heart failure that made him so weak he could manage only a few football passes now and then with his grandson.

But after becoming one of the world’s first heart patients to get an infusion of cardiac stem cells, Jones said he works out on a treadmill and bike and feels invigorated.

“I hope to have as normal a life as anyone,” “the self-employed painting and remodeling contractor said at a news conference Friday. “I might even start jogging again.”

Jones, 66, received an infusion of his own stem cells through a minimally invasive catheterization procedure on July 17— as part of a clinical trial being conducted by a team of University of Louisville physicians at Jewish Hospital.

The doctors, who announced the trial and started recruiting patients in February, are using adult cardiac stem cells to heal hearts. They said they were infusing the second patient Friday. A similar procedure, involving slightly different cells, was performed last month in California, doctors said.

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This is not the first time a cardiac patient has been treated with stem cells – see: Stem Cells Treat Heart Attack Patient, Adult Stem Cells Better Choice Than Death or Transplant for Heart Failure Patients, Stem Cells Gave Don Ho 15 Extra Months to Perform – so I think the “first time” they’re referring to is the source of the stem cells rather than the procedure itself.

Adult Stem Cells Help Scleroderma Patient Feel “Reborn”

New Jersey patient’s chronic autoimmune disease improves after adult stem cell treatment:

[A]fter undergoing an autologous adult stem-cell transplant 14 months ago to stop his advanced case of scleroderma, an incurable autoimmune disease that causes excess collagen to make skin tighten and feel hard and thick, George is able to pinch his pliable skin. He’s also able to open his mouth real wide.

“I feel really good,” said George, a retired William C. McGinnis School principal, who in April was taken off all medications, including antibiotics, related to his transplant.

“I feel I was reborn,” George said. “It’s great to be alive.”…

Just before the March 13, 2008, adult stem-cell transplant, George’s skin was stiff and his face was tight. He had a hard time swallowing. Doctors were concerned his condition was spreading internally to the point it might close his esophagus and damage his heart and lungs.

The procedure George underwent at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago involved taking stem cells from his bone marrow, cleaning and freezing them while he received large doses of chemotherapy to cleanse his immune system before the stem cells were put back into his body to grow.

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“Lifesaver” to Donate Stem Cells a Second Time

Now here’s a wonderful, feel-good story to start your off weekend with!:

Terry Bowe is a lifesaver.

In 2005, he donated his blood stem cells to a critically ill patient whose name he didn’t know and whose city and even country of residence remained a guarded secret.

All he was told by officials with the National Marrow Donor Program was the recipient was a 36-year-old woman with leukemia who was fighting for her life.

In 2006, after both donor and recipient agreed to meet, Bowe came face to face with Kimberly Richards, a wife and mother from Glendale, Ariz.

“He actually saved my life,” Richards said after that first meeting.

Nearly four years after receiving Bowe’s life-saving gift, Richards remains a survivor.

“Terry considered it a privilege to be given the opportunity to save someone else’s life,” Richards said Wednesday from her home in Arizona. “Where would I be if he hadn’t?”

Now at age 54, Bowe has the rare chance to do it again. The Bakersfield husband and father has been matched with a 59-year-old man suffering from leukemia.

“I’m amazed that I get to do this again,” said the Chevron employee. “After my first experience, I swore I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I am. No hesitation.

“The minor discomfort I experienced paled in comparison to the reward of helping somebody,” he added.

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Testing Effectiveness of Using ASCs for Type-1 Diabetes Treatment

In Wisconsin:

A study at UW Hospital and others across the country is testing an experimental treatment for Type 1 diabetes: giving adult stem cells to people recently diagnosed in hopes of stopping the progression of the disease.

The approach involves stem cells taken from the bone marrow of donors and grown in a lab. The cells, infused into patients intravenously, are thought to reduce the inflammation that causes the patients to stop producing insulin, researchers say.

Insulin, a hormone, is needed to process sugar. People with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin shots or use insulin pumps to stave off kidney disease, blindness, amputations, heart disease and other serious conditions. The hope is that the new treatment could reduce or eliminate their need for insulin, though that remains unproven.

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And in Kentucky:

On Wednesday, Spindler received his third and final injection of what could be adult stem cells at the University of Kentucky Hospital, becoming the first person in Kentucky to receive the treatment, which is being tested in a clinical trial.

Spindler is the state’s first participant in a national research project that is being conducted through Osiris Therapeutics, a company based in Maryland. Researchers are trying to determine whether injected adult stem cells can repair tissue damage and help the body produce insulin.

But Spindler won’t find out for two years whether the injections he has been receiving contain stem cells or placebos. The study is double-blind, so even Spindler’s physicians don’t know which he’s getting.

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These are only very early tests of course, but, hey, it’s more than anything that’s being done with embryonic stem cells…

“The First Time it’s Ever Been Done in a Human”

Patient has his own stem cells implanted to repair damaged heart muscle after heart-attack:

A heart attack that struck the otherwise healthy Milles on May 24 is what compelled the married father of two to become one of 24 patients participating in a study at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles. As it turned out, Milles would be the first of the patients to undergo the history-making procedure.

“This is very groundbreaking,” said Dr. Raj Makkar, director of the Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “This is the first time it’s ever been done in a human.”

Two days later, in a minimally invasive procedure, Milles had pieces of his heart tissue extracted through a tube inserted in a neck artery.

“We generally go ahead and gather four to six pieces of the heart muscle,” said Makkar, who conducted the procedure on Milles. “If you put the pieces together it’s about the size of a raisin.”

The pieces are taken to a stem cell laboratory where they are put through a number of steps that researchers are currently having patented. The cells then grow into a conglomeration of different cells, including stem cells.

After four to six weeks, about 10 to 25 million stem cells had been produced for the transplant. Makkar inserted the stem cells into Milles’ heart through an artery in his groin. Milles was home within 24 hours.

Now, doctors will wait to see if the stem cells repair his heart muscle.

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