Category Archives: Utah Stem Cells

Stem cells, specifically mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), have been called patient-specific drug stores for injured tissues because of their broad range of healing abilities. MSCs are directly responsible for healing damaged tissues after injury. Upon encountering damaged tissue, they release proteins that decrease inflammation, kill invading microbes, and trigger the growth of new connective tissues and blood vessels.In the case of severe damage and cell death, MSCs have the ability to turn into healthy versions of damaged or destroyed cells that they encounter.

When we take MSCs from your own bone marrow, from your own fat, or from both, concentrate and/or isolate them, and then inject them directly into your problem area, we trick your body into thinking that there has been a new injury without actually causing any tissue insult, and you get a second chance at healing. In the case of advanced osteoarthritis where the population of stem cells has been depleted, we are repopulating the area with stem cells, and thereby restoring the bodys natural ability to heal itself.

Docere Clinics is an affiliate member of the Cell Surgical Network(CSN).It is the belief of the CSN that the most ethical approach to stem cell therapy is under the umbrella of IRB approved research protocols. An IRB is an Institutional Review Board;an organization of members responsible for approving and overseeing research on humans. IRBs are approved under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Human Research Protection. As such, our patients understand the investigational nature of our activities, are provided appropriate informed consents, and are followed continuously on an online database to chart their progress or any issues of concern. The efforts of the CSN will provide safety data,demonstrate effectiveness of treatments, and help to improve treatment programs going forward.

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Adult Stem Cell Therapy in Utah Docere Clinics

Why is Stem Cell Prolotherapy better than alternative methods of treating chronic joint pain?

The procedure lasts about 3040 minutes, using local anesthetic with very little discomfort, and after it is completed you will be able to walk out of the office and drive yourself home. This is in contrast to prolonged hospital stays with extensive down time and expense associated with various surgical procedures, including total knee replacements. The average cost of a total knee replacement in the U.S. is $40,000, and often associated with mediocre results, especially with regard to functionality. Stem Cell Prolotherapy offers a much better solution with potentially better results, especially mobility, at a fraction of the cost. There are other treatment modalities sometimes used to lubricate the knee joint, such as Hyaluronate, known by the brand names, "Synvisc" or "Euflexxa". The problem with these is that they are only a temporary solution, which at best will only last for about six months before the procedure will need to be repeated. This is in stark contrast to the permanent healing and regeneration, which is achieved with the Stem Cell Prolotherapy. However, Hyaluronate can be used in conjunction with the Stem Cell Prolotherapy so that you can enjoy the benefits of both therapies, if you choose.

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Utah Stem Cells - Cottonwood Heights, UT | Groupon

Biological and chemical warfare has been used for centuries before WW II, but it was warfare lab at Fort Detrick and Dugway, Utah, authorized by President Roosevelt that delved into the animal disease or anthrax, brucellosis, and Black Plague that are feared and deadly to humans. Whenever anthrax was discovered in herds of sheep or cows, the whole herd would be herded into a dug ditch. Killed, bodies burned and covered with soil, and the land on which the herd grazed would be fenced off and kept free of all animals.

Britain collaborated with America on biological warfare. So when Winston Churchill threatened to bomb four German cities with anthrax bombs if Hitler didnt stop bombing England with V-2 missiles into England, Hitler stopped sending missiles. When the biological warfare labs combined anthrax DNA with a plant disease DNA, a new disease was created that was incurable for when it would be treated it would morph into another disease to fight off the disease was needed like smallpox vaccine.

As my job on the farm was to gather eggs and look after the chickens, I came down with chicken pox and spent a week or more in a darkened room to save my eyesight. But every year I still had to line up, have someone scratch left arm until blood flowed and get small pox vaccine.

Three weeks after 9/11, the secretary of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle opened a letter to Tom and the envelope contained a trillion spores of silicon coated anthrax. Tom had opposed President Bushs orders that took away Constitutional rights as did Senator Leahy. His secretary was also poisoned by anthrax spores. It was then blamed on Saddam Hussein but traced to the biological weapons laboratories at Dugway, Utah, and Fort Detrick, Maryland, that President Nixon had ordered closed in 1972 but were kept open.

The labs made synthetic viruses by injecting RNA plant diseases into the DNA of an animal disease to make a new biological warfare disease. They then prepared vaccine to immunize American soldiers going into a nation devastated by this disease. Prisoners in a Maryland prison were offered to have six months off their sentence if they agreed to be vaccinated. They all died but passed this disease on.

While politicians argue over Obamacare, they should push to ban biological warfare the whole world over. Chemotherapy cant distinguish between leukemia or neoplastic cells; transplanted stem cells can replace cells killed by chemotherapy or diseased or dead neural cells such as Alzheimer's, dementia, neural or muscular degeneration.

Paracrine soluble factors produced by stem cells, known as stem cell secretome, mediate the effect of degenerative, inflammatory, and auto-immune is being researched as a medical use itself as cell-free medicinal product. Prochymal was conditionally approved by Canada in 2012 for treatment of children. FDA has approved five hematopoietic stem cell products derived from umbilical cord blood. MSC is derived from bone marrow of adult donors that can make up 10,000 doses that are frozen and stored until needed.

I propose a treaty to halt biological warfare research and have governments work on regenerative stem cell therapies or like therapies that would do away with invasive surgeries, chemotherapy, drugs, to improve the health and lives of people all over the world.

Andrew Patterson was born on a dairy farm two miles south of Sullivan on Feb. 13, 1930. He has attended eight universities for a total of 10 years, lived in 10 countries for 28 years, traveled in 50, speaks and writes Spanish, reads French and German, has written seven encyclopedia articles, and numerous reports and studies for World Bank, Pan American Union, and Economic Development.

Descendant from 15 American Revolutionary ancestors (16th was Cherokee), history is his life's blood, as is telling the truth. He states, "The day I stop learning is the day I am dead, and The hardest thing in life has been to unlearn what has been taught to me as the truth. He has learned there are many men who have stopped WW III from China, Russia, and other countries and it cost them their life. President John F. Kennedy was one of them.

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COLUMN: Let's make biological warfare a crime - Journal Gazette and Times-Courier

The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on "unscrupulous" clinics selling unproven and potentially dangerous treatments involving stem cells.

Hundreds of clinics around the country have started selling stem cell therapies that supposedly use stem cells but have not been approved as safe and effective by the FDA, according to the agency.

"There are a small number of unscrupulous actors who have seized on the clinical promise of regenerative medicine, while exploiting the uncertainty, in order to make deceptive, and sometimes corrupt assurances to patients based on unproven and, in some cases, dangerously dubious products," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement Monday.

The FDA has taken action against clinics in California and Florida.

The agency sent a warning letter to the US Stem Cell Clinic of Sunrise, Fla., and its chief scientific officer, Kristin Comella, for "marketing stem cell products without FDA approval and significant deviations from current good manufacturing practice requirements."

The clinic is one of many around the country that claim to use stem cells derived from a person's own fat to treat a variety of conditions, including Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and lung and heart diseases, the FDA says.

The Florida clinic had been previously linked to several cases of blindness caused by attempts to use fat stem cells to treat macular degeneration.

The FDA also said it has taken "decisive action" to "prevent the use of a potentially dangerous and unproven treatment" offered by StemImmune Inc. of San Diego, Calif., and administered to patients at California Stem Cell Treatment Centers in Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills, Calif.

As part of that action, the U.S. Marshals Service seized five vials of live vaccinia virus vaccine that is supposed to be reserved for people at high risk for smallpox but was being used as part of a stem-cell treatment for cancer, according to the FDA. "The unproven and potentially dangerous treatment was being injected intravenously and directly into patients' tumors," according to an FDA statement.

Smallpox essentially has been eradicated from the planet, but samples are kept in reserve in the U.S. and Russia, and vaccines are kept on hand as a result.

But Elliot Lander, medical director of the California Stem Cell Treatment Centers, denounced the FDA's actions in an interview with Shots.

"I think it's egregious," Lander says. "I think they made a mistake. I'm really baffled by this."

While his clinics do charge some patients for treatments that use stem cells derived from fat, Lander says, none of the cancer patients were charged and the treatments were administered as part of a carefully designed research study.

"Nobody was charged a single penny," Lander says. "We're just trying to move the field forward."

In a written statement, U.S. Stem Cell also defended its activities.

"The safety and health of our patients are our number one priority and the strict standards that we have in place follow the laws of the Food and Drug Administration," according to the statement.

"We have helped thousands of patients harness their own healing potential," the statement says. "It would be a mistake to limit these therapies from patients who need them when we are adhering to top industry standards."

But stem-cell researchers praised the FDA's actions.

"This is spectacular," says George Daley, dean of the Harvard Medical School and a leading stem-cell researcher. "This is the right thing to do."

Daley praised the FDA's promise to provide clear guidance soon for vetting legitimate stem-cell therapies while cracking down on "snake-oil salesmen" marketing unproven treatments.

Stem-cell research is "a major revolution in medicine. It's bound to ultimately deliver cures," Daley says. "But it's so early in the field," he adds. "Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous practitioners and clinics that are marketing therapies to patients, often at great expense, that haven't been proven to work and may be unsafe."

Others agreed.

"I see this is a major, positive step by the FDA," says Paul Knoepfler, a professor of cell biology at the University of of California, Davis, who has documented the proliferation of stem-cell clinics.

"I'm hoping that this signals a historic shift by the FDA to tackle the big problem of stem-cell clinics selling unapproved and sometimes dangerous stem cell "treatments" that may not be real treatments," Knoepfler says.

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FDA Cracks Down On Stem-Cell Clinics Selling Unapproved Treatments - Utah Public Radio

REXBURG A family from Sandy, Utah, is renting out space in a field across from Walmart in hopes of raising money to help their mother combat multiple myeloma cancer.

Earlier this year the Paul and Jenny Ahlstrom family went looking for a way to raise money and opted to rent out the farmland. The family started their fundraising about two years ago and so far have raised $477,000 of the $500,000 needed to fund two cancer treatments.

The campsites rent from $200 for tents to $250 for RV camping. The family advertised on various websites, and as of Friday they had rented out about 90 spaces for an estimated 400 people. They have a total of 25 acres to use should they need to open more campsites.

Each of the Ahlstroms six children worked on a portion of the project. The familys youngest opened a lemonade stand while other siblings created the eclipse camp and advertised it on social media in various ways.

Paul Ahlstrom served a Mormon mission with Rexburg farmer Roger Muir, who helped the family secure the land to transform it into a campground.

Before securing the property, the Ahlstroms needed a camping permit. That required them to get 20 portable restrooms, none of which were available in the Gem State.

Who would have thought the limiting factor on setting up a fundraiser would be access to porta-potties? We shipped them from Utah. They were $600 a porta-potty. Thats $12,000 of porta-potties. Yikes! Paul Ahlstrom said.

The joke was that the portable restrooms had been misnamed.

Instead of Honey Buckets, they should be called Gold Buckets. We pretty much bought them, he said.

Campers have been undeterred by the straw covering the field. On Friday the family received four calls about camping there. Had they been there early Friday morning, they would have had seven extra campers.

The Ahlstroms plan to set up a temporary kitchen for their campers. They also plan to host a breakfast, childrens games and the movie Galaxy Quest over the weekend for their guests.

We have central cooking tables and a couple dozen stoves everybody can cook on if they want, Paul Ahlstrom said.

Jenny Ahlstrom also visited the campground on Friday. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. Instead of letting the disease get her down, she created a foundation, Myeloma Crowd, and is personally working with doctors from New York to Germany to find a cure. She also hosts a weekly radio show for cancer patients.

According to the Mayo Clinic, multiple myeloma cells attack healthy bone marrow and crowd out normal blood cells.

Rather than produce helpful antibodies, the cancer cells produce abnormal proteins that can cause kidney problems, the clinic's website reported.

The Mayo Clinic reported that about three percent of Americans over the age of 50 suffer from the disease. The older a person is, the more likely it is that they will experience the illness. Men usually develop the disease, and the disease is twice as likely to be found in African-Americans.

Because Jenny Ahlstrom was well under 50, female and of European descent, the diagnosis came as a shock, she said.

I had a lot of bone damage. It hurts your kidneys. Its a plasma cancer, she said.

Jenny Ahlstrom has had two stem cell transplants to fight the disease.

This disease is weird. It always relapses. You can go a year, you can go six months, you can go 10 years, but eventually youll relapse and the treatments will stop working. Its a terminal cancer, she said.

Jenny Ahlstrom expects to return for more treatment as her remission numbers increase. Despite the ongoing treatment, she chooses to remain positive.

The fun part and the exciting part is that we decided to start this foundation, she said.

The Ahlstrom family heard about the eclipse through a friend earlier this month. The family later researched ideal locations to watch the eclipse and ways to earn money toward their foundation.

The primary goal was to help raise money for Jennys cancer foundation, Myeloma Crowd, Paul Ahlstrom said.

They later chose Rexburg because of its generally good weather this time of year and because it was rated as one of the top spots for eclipse viewing. After visiting a local hotel, they decided to set up a campground of their own.

They said the Japanese Space Agency rented their entire hotel for the August eclipse two years ago, Paul Ahlstrom said.

Thanks to Pauls long friendship with Muir, the family decided to host a campsite and earn money that way.

Originally from California, Paul Ahlstrom works as an entrepreneur and has formed various companies. Through the campsite hes currently teaching his own children how to become entrepreneurs as well.

If the family breaks even on the campground endeavor, it will be a lesson well-learned, Paul Ahlstrom said.

We dont know if its a fundraiser or a fun, expensive camping weekend, he said.

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Utah family sets up campground in Rexburg to fight cancer - Rexburg Standard Journal

Those suffering from hair loss problems could soon be worry free thanks to a bunch of researchers at UCLA. The team found that by activating the stem cells in the hair follicles they could make it grow. This type of research couldnt come soon enough for some. We may have finally found a cure for patients suffering from alopecia or baldness.

Hair loss is often caused by the hair follicle stem cells inability to activate and induce a new hair growth cycle. In doing the study, researchers Heather Christofk and William Lowry, of Eli Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA discovered that the metabolism of hair follicle stem cells is far different to any other cell found within the skin. They found that as hair follicle stem cells absorb the glucose from the bloodstream they use it to produce a metabolite called pyruvate. The pyruvate is then either sent to the cells mitochondria to be converted back into energy or is converted into another metabolite called lactate.

Christofk is an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology and he says, Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly. First, the team demonstrated how blocking the lactate production in mice prevented the hair follicle stem cells from activating. Then, with the help of colleagues at the Rutter lab at the University of Utah, they increased the lactate production in the mice and as a result saw an accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation and therefore an increase in the hair cycle.

Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect, confirms Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. During the study, the team found two drugs in particular that influenced hair follicle stem cells to promote lactate production when applied to the skin of mice. The first is called RCGD423. This drug is responsible for allowing the transmission of information from outside the cell right to the heart of it in the nucleus by activating the cellular signaling pathway called JAK-Stat. The results from the study did, in fact, prove that JAK-Stat activation will lead to an increased production of lactate which will enhance hair growth. UK5099 was the second drug in question, and its role was to block the pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, forcing the production of lactate and accelerating hair growth as a result.

The study brings with it some very promising results. To be able to solve a problem that affects millions of people worldwide by using drugs to stimulate hair growth is brilliant. At the moment there is a provisional patent application thats been filed in respect of using RCGD423 in the promotion of hair growth and a separate provisional patent in place for the use of UK5099 for the same purpose. The drugs have not yet been tested in humans or approved by the Food and Drug Administration as fit for human consumption.

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Scientists Discover New Hair Growth Technique Using Stem Cells - TrendinTech

The ever-elusive cure for thinning hair, a concern that plagues both men and women, may have taken a taken a tentative step forward with the results of a new research study that focuses specifically on the role of follicle stem cells.

In new findings published in Nature Cell Biology, UCLA researchers revealed the discovery of a new way to activate hair regrowth by focusing on the unique metabolism of "quiescent" hair follicle stem cells. Although long-lived, these stem cells are normally inactive until the start of a new hair cycle, when they quickly spur regrowth in the anagen phase.

The UCLA study authors explain how the metabolism of hair follicle stem cells the way they divide, produce energy and respond to their environment differs from other cells of the skin:

Converting pyruvate into lactate could be the key to promoting more active follicles.

Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly, said Heather Christofk, an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology.

In one test on mice, the researchers found that when they genetically blocked lactate production, hair follicle stem cell activation was prevented. A second test, completed in collaboration with the Rutter Lab at the University of Utah, found that genetically increasing lactate production in mice accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation and increased the overall hair cycle.

Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells, said Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.

The research team identified two drugs, RCGD423 and UK5099, that each promoted lactate production when applied to the skin of mice. The first drug works by activating a cellular signaling pathway called JAK-stat, increasing lactate production and in turn the activation of hair follicle stem cells to stimulate hair growth. The second drug blocks pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, forcing the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and accelerating hair growth in mice.

Both experimental drugs are covered by provisional patent applications filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents. They have been used in preclinical tests only and have not been tested in humans or approved by the Food & Drug Administration.

Through this study, we gained a lot of interesting insight into new ways to activate stem cells, said Aimee Flores, a predoctoral trainee in Lowrys lab and first author of the study. The idea of using drugs to stimulate hair growth through hair follicle stem cells is very promising given how many millions of people, both men and women, deal with hair loss. I think weve only just begun to understand the critical role metabolism plays in hair growth and stem cells in general.

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Stem cell researchers discover promising lead in quest for hair regrowth - PhillyVoice.com

UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.

The research was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Hair follicle stem cells are long-lived cells in the hair follicle; they are present in the skin and produce hair throughout a persons lifetime. They are quiescent, meaning they are normally inactive, but they quickly activate during a new hair cycle, which is when new hair growth occurs. The quiescence of hair follicle stem cells is regulated by many factors. In certain cases they fail to activate, which is what causes hair loss.

In this study, Christofk and Lowry, of Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, found that hair follicle stem cell metabolism is different from other cells of the skin. Cellular metabolism involves the breakdown of the nutrients needed for cells to divide, make energy and respond to their environment. The process of metabolism uses enzymes that alter these nutrients to produce metabolites. As hair follicle stem cells consume the nutrient glucose a form of sugar from the bloodstream, they process the glucose to eventually produce a metabolite called pyruvate. The cells then can either send pyruvate to their mitochondria the part of the cell that creates energy or can convert pyruvate into another metabolite called lactate.

Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly, said Christofk, an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology.

The research team first blocked the production of lactate genetically in mice and showed that this prevented hair follicle stem cell activation. Conversely, in collaboration with the Rutter lab at University of Utah, they increased lactate production genetically in the mice and this accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation, increasing the hair cycle.

Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells, said Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.

The team identified two drugs that, when applied to the skin of mice, influenced hair follicle stem cells in distinct ways to promote lactate production. The first drug, called RCGD423, activates a cellular signaling pathway called JAK-Stat, which transmits information from outside the cell to the nucleus of the cell. The research showed that JAK-Stat activation leads to the increased production of lactate and this in turn drives hair follicle stem cell activation and quicker hair growth. The other drug, called UK5099, blocks pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, which forces the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and accelerates hair growth in mice.

Through this study, we gained a lot of interesting insight into new ways to activate stem cells, said Aimee Flores, a predoctoral trainee in Lowrys lab and first author of the study. The idea of using drugs to stimulate hair growth through hair follicle stem cells is very promising given how many millions of people, both men and women, deal with hair loss. I think weve only just begun to understand the critical role metabolism plays in hair growth and stem cells in general; Im looking forward to the potential application of these new findings for hair loss and beyond.

The use of RCGD423 to promote hair growth is covered by a provisional patent application filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents. The use of UK5099 to promote hair growth is covered by a separate provisional patent filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents, with Lowry and Christofk as inventors.

The experimental drugs described above were used in preclinical tests only and have not been tested in humans or approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for use in humans.

The research was supported by a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine training grant, a New Idea Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Cancer Institute (R25T CA098010), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01-GM081686 and R01-GM0866465), the National Institutes of Health (RO1GM094232), an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant (RSG-16-111-01-MPC), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (5R01AR57409), a Rose Hills Foundation Research Award and the Gaba Fund. The Rose Hills award and the Gaba Fund are administered through the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center.

Further research on the use of UK5099 is being funded by the UCLA Technology Development Group through funds from California State Assembly Bill 2664.

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UCLA scientists identify a new way to activate stem cells to make hair grow - UCLA Newsroom

By Dr. Mercola

Since time immemorial, man has searched for the Fountain of Youth. Nothing has changed in that regard, but the methods of inquiry and discovery have certainly progressed.

Some of these ideas rival even the most outlandish sci-fi scenarios imaginable, up to and including the transfer of your consciousness into a bionic body.1 Personally, I dont want to veer too far from the natural order of things.

But the technology and science enthusiast in me cant help but be intrigued by the ideas and radical advances in the field of extreme life extension. One of the most promising techniques in this field, from my perspective, revolves around the use of adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout your body. They multiply and replace cells as needed, in order to regenerate damaged tissues. Their value, in terms of anti-aging and life extension, centers around their ability to self-renew indefinitely, and their ability to generate every type of cell needed for the organ from which it originates.

Dr. Bryant Villeponteau, author of Decoding Longevity, is a leading researcher in novel anti-aging therapies involving stem cells. Hes been a pioneer in this area for over three decades.

Personally, I believe that stem cell technology could have a dramatic influence on our ability to live longer and replace some of our failing parts, which is the inevitable result of the aging process. With an interest in aging and longevity, Dr. Villeponteau started out by studying developmental biology.

If we could understand development, we could understand aging, he says.

Later, his interest turned more toward the gene regulation aspects. While working as a professor at the University of Michigan at the Institute of Gerontology, he received, and accepted, a job offer from Geron Corporationa Bay Area startup, in the early 90s.

They were working on telomerase, which I was pretty excited about at the time. I joined them when they first started, he says. We had an all-out engagement there to clone human telomerase. It had been cloned in other animals but not in humans or mammals.

Your body is made up of 10 trillion cells, each of which contains a nucleus. Inside the nucleus are the chromosomes that contain your genes. The chromosome is made up of two arms, and each arm contains a single molecule DNA, which is essentially a string of beads made up of units called bases.

A typical DNA molecule is about 100 million bases long. Its curled up like slinky, extending from one end of the chromosome to the other. At the very tip of each arm of the chromosome is whats called a telomere.

If you were to unravel the tip of the chromosome, a telomere is about 15,000 bases long at the moment of conception in the womb. Immediately after conception, your cells begin to divide, and your telomeres begin to shorten each time the cell divides. Once your telomeres have been reduced to about 5,000 bases, you essentially die of old age.

Telomerase is an enzyme that is involved in repairing the ends of the chromosomes, i.e. the telomere, thereby preventing it from shortening.

What you have to know about telomerase is that its only on in embryonic cells. In adult cells, its totally, for the most part, turned off, with the exception of adult stem cells, Dr. Villeponteau explains. Adult stem cells have some telomerase not full and not like the embryonic stem cells, but they do have some telomerase activity.

At Geron, Dr. Villeponteau worked on a program to isolate human telomerase. They were the first industrial lab to do so, and successfully at that. The founder of Geron was Michael Westnow known for his pioneering work with embryonic stem cells. In 94-95, West began searching for another product to add to Gerons arsenal besides telomerase. He honed in on stem cells, recognizing their incredible potential for turning regeneration of body tissues into a practical reality.

He identified several groups that were working on the isolation of human stem cells, Dr. Villeponteau says. He put together a collaborative agreement with these people and part-funding from Geron. That bore fruit later in the 90s. Thats how Geron became both the telomerase and the stem cell king it was because of that early support of the stem cell research. They had lines of stem cell, embryonic stem cells, before anybody else did.

I was involved in a lot of that initial research. But what I came away with was that these embryonic stem cells, as good as they were, had problems too. Because you had to isolate them, you had to grow them, and then you had to put them into a foreign body, if they were going to be useful. That means you have to worry about immunity, because its a different type of somebody elses cells. That was a problem.

The other problem was that it was not that easy and straightforward to differentiate these embryonic stem cells the way you want them. I started to be more interested at that point in adult stem cells.

Most of the research currently being done, both in academia and industrial labs, revolves around either embryonic stem cells, or a second type called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Dr. Villeponteau, on the other hand, believes adult stem cells are the easiest and most efficient way to achieve results.

That said, adult stem cells do have their drawbacks. While theyre your own cells, which eliminates the problem of immune-related issues, theres just not enough of them. Especially as you get older, there are fewer and fewer adult stem cells, and they tend to become increasingly dysfunctional too. Yet another hurdle is that they dont form the tissues that they need to form...

To solve such issues, Dr. Villeponteau has created a company with the technology and expertise to amplify your adult stem cells a million-fold or more, while still maintaining their ability to differentiate all the different cell types, and without causing the cells to age. Again, it is the adult stem cells ability to potentially cure, or at least ameliorate, many of our age-related diseases by regenerating tissue that makes this field so exciting.

I was initially intrigued with the principles of using telomerase to potentially extend human lifespan. But in talking to a few other clinicians, I became aware that using a generic process to influence the entire body raises potentially serious concerns. Dr. Villeponteaus amplification process of human adult stem cells, however, appears to bypass such concerns as its targeted to one cell type. He explains:

Heres the issue: I think, with telomerase activation systemically, it probably doesnt do much good, because 99 percent of your cells are not going to be affected, nor should they be. You dont even want them to be, because the somatic cells in the body, the cells that do all the work muscle, nerves, and all of that have a natural lifespan. Maybe you can do certain things to extend [their lifespan] a little bit. But youre going to do only a little on the margins. Theyre going to be dying and they have to be regenerated. There has to be a regeneration process.

They used to think that certain tissues like the brain and heart muscle didnt have any stem cells; didnt have any new growth. Thats not true. Now weve found that they do have them. In the case of neuro [brain cells], it is very important for memory that you have this capability. I think where the telomerase activation really helps, even taken systemically, is in the stem cell compartment because it would help with your own stem cells.

We have a product that weve been selling commercially... to stimulate stem cell growth and maintenance of the stem cells, and telomere function is part of it... [A]ging itself and stem cells are multi-faceted and multi-pathway. You really have to attack it from different pathways. Theres no magic bullet in its treatment. You have to get in multiple ways, because aging is a process that [involves] multiple pathways.

Dr. Villeponteau uses skin as an example to illustrate the potential benefits of adult stem cells, as your skin can be used as a cosmetic guidepost for how old you are. As you get older, your skin starts to thin and lose its elasticity. This is what causes your skin to wrinkle and sag. Now, your skin is constantly renewing itself; shedding old cells as new cells are created underneath. Adult stem cells are responsible for these new skin cells being born.

As mentioned earlier, with age, your adult stem cells are reduced in number. They also become increasingly dysfunctional. As a result, the turnover in your skin slows down by about half. If you were able to keep the regeneration of skin tissue at more youthful levels by the addition of adult stem cells, youd be able to maintain youthful-looking skin longer. While this may sound too good to be true, Dr. Villeponteau points to experimental and practical evidence showing that body organs can be repaired using this technology. As for stopping the clock on general aging, however, the results are less clear.

For general aging, are we going to be able to replace your stem cells by, lets say, IV? We dont know how much good we can do. But there has been one rat experiment thats been done. They were able to extend the lifespan by adding IV stem cell population, he says.

There are three major types of stem cell populations, each with their own set of pros and cons:

While potent, their immaturity also poses problems. Its difficult to program them to develop into later-stage tissues. Its also difficult to find a way for them to form the specific tissue types that you want, because theyre further removed from those individual tissues say, liver, brain, or muscle tissue. Embryonic stem cells also have cancer potential because they form keratomas, although thats rare. And, since they are not your own cells, they may cause an immune reaction.

However, this too has its problems. On the upside, it eliminates the issue of an immune reaction, since its your own cells. But it still has the potential to promote tumor growth. As explained by Dr. Villeponteau, whenever you insert genes into a genome, you run the risk of putting it near a cancer gene, thereby generating cancer. There are also difficulties in being able to differentiate them into the various tissues you might need. Still, its an exciting area where lots of research is being done.

Very recently, there was one group that was able to take, I think, seven chemical drugs and convert a small proportion of the fibroblast into these iPS cellsdoing it just chemically and not using any genes. Of course, thats much safer. But we dont know the full impact of what thats going to mean yet, Dr. Villeponteau says.

In the US, its illegal to take out a cell, amplify it, and then put it back into the human body. The FDA considers that as a drug. However, it is legal to take bone marrow, for example, and isolate the stem cells. As long as you dont treat the cells with any kind of drug, or try to grow them, you can then legally put them back in, in a purified, concentrated form. Such treatments already exist, both in the US and abroad.

One of the most common treatments using isolated adult stem cells is for knee injuries. According to Dr. Villeponteau, theyre achieving very good results doing that, and many are actually cured. Adult stem cell therapy has also been successfully used in people with back problems, and it appears particularly effective for joint problems and bone growth. Dr. Villeponteau even used adult stem cells to treat bone loss around one of his front teeth, with good results.

He also believes it could be successfully used in the treatment of diabetes, and for recreating the human pancreas and perhaps even the heart. Another area he believes will eventually benefit from adult stem cell technology is in the general reconditioning of your circulatory systemyour arteries, veins and capillaries. Autoimmune diseases and multiple sclerosis (MS) may also benefit. At present, theres a doctor in Utah who claims to be using adult stem cells on stroke patients; successfully regenerating brain function. Stem cells have also been used in cancer patients for the past two decades.

Cancer patients, if they get high levels of radiation to kill off the cancer, it also kills off blood-forming stem cells. What theyve been doing in some places, for 20 years now, is to take a sample of your bone marrow and then replace it after the chemotherapy or the radiation therapy to regrow your immune system quickly. They can do that several times. That allows you to go to a much higher dosage of radiation that you would otherwise not be able to survive.

Another novel technology that also makes use of stem cells is 3D-printing architecture, where iPS cells or embryonic stem cells (not adult stem cells) are used to recreate an organ using a 3D printer. This too is something straight out of a science fiction movie, but it does work, and its legal. Theyve successfully replicated an esophagus for example, as well as human ears. Its really only a matter of time before they figure out how to replicate more complex organs, such as kidneys, pancreas, livers and hearts using this technology.

When I think about aggressive future efforts to reverse the aging process, nanotech comes to mind. In talking to Dr. Villeponteau, I believe the technology hes working on is akin to biological nanotech. Rather than creating synthetic nanobots to repair tissues, it would seem far wiser to focus on the already intrinsic intelligence of the human body, which already knows how to use adult stem cells to perform such tasks.

Theres no telling how long it will take for this kind of technology to be perfected, but research is certainly moving ahead at near-breakneck speed. Dr. Villeponteau believes adult stem cells are the fastest way to make some real headway in the areas of cellular regeneration and life extension.

Until then, you can certainly add many years, likely decades, to your life simply by eating right, exercising (which promotes the production of muscle stem cells, by the way) and living an otherwise clean and healthy lifestyle. Extreme life extension, on the other hand, is a different matter.

I think you can add 20 years to your life now if you eat right, take the right supplements, and exercise. Youd delay diseases, but thats all youre going to get. Youre not going to get extreme changes. To do that, you need real science, he says.

Dr. Villeponteaus book, Decoding Longevity, covers preventive strategies to prolong your life, mainly diet, exercise, and supplementsalthough he admittedly also includes some drugs. A portion of the book also covers future developments in the area of more radical life extension, such as stem cell technology. To keep abreast of advancements in this area, you can check out his company website at http://www.centagen.com.

More here:
Adult Stem Cells' Role in Disease Management and Anti-Aging

There are some fancy tools out there for repairing skin, from 3D bioprinting, scaffolds and matrices to spray guns that rain stem cells directly onto a wound. Doctors in Brazil are even experimenting with sterilized Tilapia fish skin as a novel dressing for burns.

Creativity is nice, but that alone wont save patients battling through the most critical hours of their lives. Denver Lough, an M.D./Ph.D., saw this first hand while working at the Johns Hopkins Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Program. Nothing was truly getting the job done.

Name one regenerative medicine product or company thats out there that actually truly regenerates anything, Lough challenged in a recent phone interview. Not, we grow keratinocytes, or we can turn a cell into an osteogenic lineage but really; does this grow full thickness tissue? Theres really not one out there and theres certainly not one thats being used clinically right now for skin regeneration.

Now CEO and CSO of PolarityTE, Lough believes the fundamental approach to tissue regeneration is taught wrong. And thats why, after all these years, skin healing remains imperfect.

Biotechs working in this field have zoomed in on individual cells, he said, working to culture and manipulate stem cells or to find the right recipe for growth factors that can guide differentiation. Thats not how biology works, Lough contests.

[Biology] works through cells interacting with each other, having gradients, having interfaces, having polarity. A cell needs to know what way is up, what way is down, he said.When you pull a single cell out of a tissue and try to command it to go down a pathway, you negate all of those factors.

The cells need to know what pathways their neighbors are expressing.

Put another way:Its like taking you in the middle of the night, out of your bed, taking off your clothes, cutting off parts of your arms and legs, pushing you through a screen door and throwing you out in the middle of the ocean and saying act like you, conduct yourself like you, Lough said earnestly.

PolarityTE will relocate you, your family, and your house. Its first product, for skin regeneration, starts with just a small piece of healthy skin taken from a patient with extensive burns. The sample is shipped to the companys facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, where it is processed into a paste to cover the wound. The paste contains so-called Minimally Polarized Functional Units (MPFUs) that instinctively organize and propagate to help heal a wound. The turnaround time is just 24-48 hours and the use of the patients own tissue obviates the risk of immune rejection.

With this new take on an old skin graft approach, PolarityTE aims to capture the diversity of the tissue ecosystem, with epidermal, dermal, and hypodermal cells, fibroblasts, hair follicles even the structural organization and blood vessel integration seen in the natural skin.

Of note, the technology pays special attention to the edges of the wound where the real healing occurs, its not a single cell that jumps between the margins, Lough said.

Its still early days, but the path-to-market is fast for an autologous (self) tissue transplant. FDA doesnt even require human trials for its regulatory clearance. To that end, the company recently announced the successful grafting of regenerated full-thickness, organized skin and hair follicles in third-degree burn wounds in pigs. The team is now looking ahead to a first-in-human trial in the third-quarter of 2017 and a possible roll out of the product early next year.

It would be a mistake, however, to place PolarityTE in the bucket of skin grafts only. Lough hopes the technology can go much further, to regenerate and restore bone, muscle, fascia, cartilage, and nerve tissues.

Photo: VolodymyrV, Getty Images

Continued here:
Reinventing tissue regeneration, one layer at a time - MedCity News