Posted: January 21, 2015 at 7:40 pm
Dr Georgina Hollway Stem Cell Research Published in Nature
Dr Georgina Hollway describes a collaborative project between Sydney #39;s Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Melbourne #39;s Australian Regenerative Medicine ...
By: Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Originally posted here:
Dr Georgina Hollway Stem Cell Research Published in Nature - Video
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 3:00 pm
a stem cell is a cell whose function has not been decided. stem cells have the potential to become any type of cell that exists, at least in humans. every person has stem cells, but the older you are, the harder it is to find these cells, because less of them exist. the most easy place to get these cells from is the BLASTOCYST form of fetal development; herein lies the bige controversy of embryonic stem cell research
an example is someone who has diabetes. this disease causes cell in the pancreas to stop functioning and eventually die. stem cells have the potential to repair the problem before it even happens.
Cells that maintain the ability to replicate them selves as well as form other cells of the body. Two major classificiations exist; embyronic stem cells which are totipotent or pluripotent and can make any cell of the organisms body and adult or tissue specific stem cells which are multipotent and can produce only a limited range of cell types. Often confused by the laymen and stupid right-wing politicians as tiny little babys but really more similar to dandruff than babys.
this is a more simple definition of it. before the human body developes it has stem cells, which are like blank cells, that will eventually become other things, if stem cells are put next to muscle tissue, it will become muscle tissue etc. you can get them from aborted fetuses and they could cure diseases like alzheimers, because they might beable to put the stem cells in the people, and have them replicate and rebuild the brain cells. and yes, as the other person said "Often confused by the laymen and stupid right-wing politicians as tiny little babys but really more similar to dandruff than babys"
stem cells could save millions of people but republicans wont let that happen
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Urban Dictionary: stem cell
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 2:58 pm
This Tuesday, Jan. 20, President Barack Obama will honor an American tradition as old as George Washington: the State of the Union. The constitutionally ordained address to each new session of Congress has been a presidential ritual since 1790. Its a chance to check in on the present and make some pledges for our future.
Its that future bit that got us thinking: If all that talk had come true, even the crazy, far-out pledgesespecially the crazy, far-out pledgeswhat would our world look like today? Not political promises and posturing for lower taxes or immigration reform, but lifestyle manna such as supersonic jets and paralysis-curing implants.
So we read through 35 years of State of the Union addresses, from Obama back to Ronald Reagan, and found an interesting mix of science and science fiction with varying likelihoods of the prognostications ever becoming reality. Obama may have missed his goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 (by 725,000 cars), but its bound to happen one day. Meanwhile, Reagans nuclear shield (popularly known as the Star Wars program) is a remnant of a time tormented by the Cold War. As for Clintons child-safe smart guns well, whos to tell?
Together, these visions offer a uniquely American version of Utopia. One wed be perfectly happy driving our Wi-Fi-enabled, 3D-printed, hydrogen-fueled car aroundbut maybe only for a day or two.
The Pledge: In 2013, Obama referred to a once-shuttered warehouse in the Rust Belt that became a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering 3D printing and proposed replicating its success around the country.
The Reality? As Obama said, it has already happened in Youngstown, Ohio, thanks to his Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. But the likelihood of reviving former industrial towns with 3D printing hubs seems counterintuitive to the very idea of 3D printing, not to mention the fact that 3D printing is still pricier than the old-fashioned assembly line for most manufacturers.
The Pledge:In 2013, Obama also heralded the work of scientists who are developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs and urged Congress to keep making those investments.
The Reality? Things are looking good. Scientists have made great advances in regenerating organs using stem cells (doctors grew trachea way back in 2008). And ever since Obama removed some barriers for using stem cells in research, scientists have been steaming ahead.
The Pledge: In 2000, President Bill Clinton asked gun companies to invest in smart guns to keep weapons out of the hands of children, as well as other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The Reality? Despite the 15 years that have passed since Clintons call to action, its still a dreamone pretty much destined to fail, thanks both to the National Rifle Association and to lack of consumer interest. (We do have fingerprint-enabled gun casesand GPS locators that track when a gun is drawn and shot. Baby steps.)
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We Were Promised Space Lasers: The State of the Union's Biggest Fibs
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 2:57 pm
NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --IntelliCell BioSciences, Inc.("IntelliCell" or the "Company") (OTCQB:SVFC), a regenerative medicine company utilizing adult autologous stromal vascular fraction cells (SVFCs) derived from the blood vessels found in adipose tissue, announced today an agreement for the development of a new closed processing system (the "System") for its cellular therapy manufacturing with Hielscher Ultrasonics. Under the agreement, Hielscher Ultrasonics will provide system design and engineering development for ultrasonic cavitation manufacturing, and IntelliCell Biosciences will use this system in its commercial application of its stromal vascular fraction cellular product, "SVFC."
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150121/170577LOGO
According to Dr. Steven Victor, CEO, "We are pleased to be partnering with Hielscher Ultrasonics and Tom Hielscher on the development of a new technology specifically designed to meet the needs of manufacturing in our cellular laboratory. By combining Hielscher's more than 20 years of process development and manufacturing experience with ultrasonic cavitation and Intellicell's experience in manufacturing SVFCs, we hope to produce a system that is patentable and makes the manufacturing process more streamline."
Thomas Hielscher states, "Hielscher Ultrasonics (www.hielscher.com) is the world's premier supplier of high performance, high quality ultrasonic devices. Hielscher Ultrasonics seeks to continually improve its products and services in order to fulfill their customers' needs. The permanent striving for improvement was the initiating step to develop an optimized ultrasonic reactor for IntelliCell's stem cell preparation."
In order to separate the stem cells and other beneficial cell types from the fat tissue, the harvested tissue is treated ultrasonically. The ultrasound cavitation technology can be adjusted exactly to the required intensity to break the tissue so that the cells are released for separation, but mildly enough to prevent the stem cells from damage.
To improve the ultrasonic cavitation technique, Hielscher developed for IntelliCell a unique ultrasonic reactor, which allows the sonication in a sterile, contamination-free environment.
About IntelliCell Biosciences
IntelliCell is a pioneering regenerative medicine company focused on the expanding regenerative medical markets using adult autologous stromal vascular fraction cells (SVFCs) derived from the blood vessels in the adult adipose tissue. IntelliCell BioSciences has developed its own patented technology and protocol to separate adult autologous vascular cells from adipose tissue without the use of enzymes. IntelliCell will also be seeking to develop technology-licensing agreements with technology developers, universities, and international business entities.
About Hielscher Ultrasonics
Hielscher Ultrasonicsis a family owned business, located in Teltow near Berlin (Germany). The main emphasis of its activities is the conception, development and production of ultrasonic devices for the use inlaboratoryandindustrialapplications. Technological innovations together with the realization of new ultrasound based processes substantiated the company growth and its market acceptance. Today, ultrasonic devices made by Hielscher Ultrasonics are being used in laboratories and production plants on all continents across the world. Hielscher Ultrasonics integrates the ultrasonic devices into complex ultrasonic systems, such aswire cleaning systems, too. The systems are produced to meet the customer's requirements in terms of power, extended range of accessories and steady state proof equipment (www.hielscher.com).
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IntelliCell BioSciences Announces Collaboration to Develop Closed Processing System for Cell Therapy Manufacturing
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 2:41 pm
An Airdrie man feels he has been duped out of thousands of dollars after receiving treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).
Lee Chuckry, who has been dealing with MS for almost 20 years, says his symptoms have worsened since he received experimental, stem-cell therapy in India in 2013 from Regenetek Research INC, a Winnipeg-based company led by CEO Doug Broeska.
Its gotten much worse, said Chuckry of his condition, an autoimmune disorder that damages the insulating covers of nerve cells, leading to a wide range of symptoms and permanent neurological damage.
Chuckry explained he was diagnosed with MS about 20 years ago and is now dependant on a motorized scooter to get around.
The 47-year-old Airdrie man originally found Broeskas study online.
I was hoping for something that would put the breaks on the disease, said Chuckry.
Now, Chuckry is questioning Broeskas credentials as a medical researcher.
I did do my due diligence before going to India, and I thought everything was on the up and up, said Chuckry.
Chuckry explained since returning from India, where he spent $34,000 to receive the therapy, which consisted of widening the veins in his neck and injecting stem cells, he has experienced three MS attacks.
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Airdrian says costly treatment a scam
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 11:49 am
Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 12:00 PM
TUESDAY, Jan. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A therapy that uses patients' own primitive blood cells may be able to reverse some of the effects of multiple sclerosis, a preliminary study suggests.
The findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, had experts cautiously optimistic.
But they also stressed that the study was small -- with around 150 patients -- and the benefits were limited to people who were in the earlier courses of multiple sclerosis (MS).
"This is certainly a positive development," said Bruce Bebo, the executive vice president of research for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
There are numerous so-called "disease-modifying" drugs available to treat MS -- a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective sheath (called myelin) around fibers in the brain and spine, according to the society. Depending on where the damage is, symptoms include muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems and difficulty with balance and coordination.
But while those drugs can slow the progression of MS, they can't reverse disability, said Dr. Richard Burt, the lead researcher on the new study and chief of immunotherapy and autoimmune diseases at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
His team tested a new approach: essentially, "rebooting" the immune system with patients' own blood-forming stem cells -- primitive cells that mature into immune-system fighters.
The researchers removed and stored stem cells from MS patients' blood, then used relatively low-dose chemotherapy drugs to -- as Burt described it -- "turn down" the patients' immune-system activity.
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Early Study Says Stem Cells May Reverse Multiple Sclerosis Disability
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 11:42 am
Nutech Mediworld - Pioneering human embryonic stem cell therapy
An audio visual that features patients suffering from conditions considered incurable or terminal. And how they experienced significant improvement with human embryonic stem cell therapy at...
By: Resonance Consulting
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Nutech Mediworld - Pioneering human embryonic stem cell therapy - Video
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 11:42 am
Stem cell therapy may have helped patients with a form of multiple sclerosis, according to a preliminary study.
Patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis showed signs of improvement after being treated with their own, or autologous "nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cells," a class of blood-forming stem cells, the study found. It was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Half, or 41 patients, tested two years after treatment experienced significant improvement on the Expanded Disability Status Scale, a measure of disability. And of patients tested at 4 years, 23, or 64 percent, showed significant improvement. Four-year relapse-free survival was 80 percent and progression-free survival was 87 percent.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of significant and sustained improvement in the EDSS score following any treatment for MS," stated the study. It was led by Dr. Richard K. Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago.
However, only limited conclusions can be drawn from the uncontrolled study, according to scientists who examined the results. While the therapy was associated with improvement, the stem cell transplant may not have been key. A conditioning regimen that partially depleted the stem cells before transplantation may have been responsible, said Dr. Stephen L. Hauser in a JAMA article accompanying the study.
"According to Carl Sagan, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,' a standard that is not always met in this report, and not claimed by the authors. Even though the authors appropriately acknowledge many of the limitations associated with their case series, their statement that 'to our knowledge, this is the first report of significant and sustained improvement in the EDSS score following any treatment for MS' could be challenged," Hauser wrote.
Jeanne Loring, a stem cell researcher who studies multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, agreed that the results are far from conclusive.
"Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the patients' own immune cells attack their own nervous systems," Loring said by email after examining the study. "The authors of the JAMA article treated MS patients with their own blood stem cells in the hope that these cells would replace some of the self-destructive immune cells."
However, the uneven course of MS makes it hard to draw conclusions, wrote Loring, who heads the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.
"Most patients with MS have attacks, followed by recovery, followed by another attack. In a few of these patients, the blood stem cell treatment seemed to extend their time between attacks. It's important to understand that other treatments, including drugs, have shown similar modest improvements, so it's too soon to celebrate a stem cell therapy."
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MS patients given stem cells improve
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 11:42 am
Results from a preliminary study indicate that among patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), treatment with nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (low intensity stem cell transplantation) was associated with improvement in measures of disability and quality of life, according to a study in the January 20 issue of JAMA.
Fifty percent of patients with MS are unable to continue employment by 10 years from diagnosis or are unable to walk by 25 years. Despite an annual cost of approximately $47,000 per patient to treat MS, no therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been shown to significantly reverse neurological disability or improve quality of life, according to background information in the article.
Multiple sclerosis is thought to be an immunemediated disorder of the central nervous system. Autologous (the use of one's own cells) hematopoietic (blood) stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a form of immune suppression but unlike standard immune-based drugs, autologous HSCT is designed to reset rather than suppress the immune system. Richard K. Burt, M.D., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and colleagues studied the association of nonmyeloablative HSCT with neurological disability and other clinical outcomes in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (defined as acute relapses followed by partial or complete recovery and stable clinical manifestations between relapses; n = 123) or secondary-progressive MS (defined as a gradual progression of disability with or without superimposed relapses; n = 28) treated between 2003 and 2014.
Outcome analysis was available for 145 patients with an average follow-up of 2.5 years. On a measure of disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score), there was significant improvement in 41 patients (50 percent of patients tested at 2 years) and in 23 patients (64 percent of patients tested at 4 years). "To our knowledge, this is the first report of significant and sustained improvement in the EDSS score following any treatment for MS," the authors write.
Receipt of HSCT was also associated with improvement in physical function, cognitive function and quality of life. There was also a reduction on another measure of clinical disease severity, volume of brain lesions associated with MS seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Four-year relapse-free survival was 80 percent and progression-free survival was 87 percent.
Patient selection is important in determining outcome, the researchers write. "In the post hoc analysis, the EDSS score did not improve in patients with secondary-progressive MS or in those with disease duration longer than 10 years."
The authors note the results are limited because this was an observational study without a control group. "Definitive conclusions will require a randomized trial; however, this analysis provides the rationale, appropriate patient selection, and therapeutic approach for a randomized study."
(doi:10.1001/jama.2014.17986; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: This study was made possible by financial support from the Danhakl family, the Cumming Foundation, the Zakat Foundation, the McNamara Purcell Foundation, and Morgan Stanley and Company. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.
Editorial: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for MS
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Stem cell transplantation shows potential for reducing disability in patients with MS
Posted: January 21, 2015 at 11:42 am
IMAGE:Stem Cells and Development is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 24 times per year in print and online. The journal is dedicated to communication and objective analysis of developments in... view more
Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
New Rochelle, NY, January 20, 2015-- Multipotent cells isolated from the human umbilical cord, called mesenchymal stromal cells (hUC-MSCs) have shown promise for use in cell therapy to treat a variety of human diseases. However, intriguing new evidence shows that hUC-MSCs isolated from women with gestational diabetes demonstrate premature aging, poorer cell growth, and altered metabolic function, as reported in an article in Stem Cells and Development, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Stem Cells and Development website until February 17th, 2015.
Jooyeon Kim and coauthors from University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul, Korea, compared the growth and viability characteristics of hUC-MSCs from the umbilical cords of pregnant women with and without gestational diabetes. They evaluated cell growth, cellular senescence, mitochondrial function-related gene expression as a measure of metabolic activity, and the stem cells' ability to differentiate into various cell types such as bone and fat cells. They report their findings in the article "Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Affected by Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Display Premature Aging and Mitochondrial Dysfunction."
"We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding how environmental and gestational stressors of all kinds affect stem cell populations," says Editor-in-Chief Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI. "The work described offers a non-invasive assay to help determine risk of developmental clinical vulnerability."
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About the Journal
Stem Cells and Development is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 24 times per year in print and online. The Journal is dedicated to communication and objective analysis of developments in the biology, characteristics, and therapeutic utility of stem cells, especially those of the hematopoietic system. A complete table of contents and free sample issue may be viewed on the Stem Cells and Development website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cellular Reprogramming, Tissue Engineering, and Human Gene Therapy. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
Link:
Does gestational diabetes affect the therapeutic potential of umbilical cord-derived stem cells?
