By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Veterinary Week -- Research findings on Stem Cell Research are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from North Hills, California, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Successful derivations of specific neuronal and glial cells from embryonic stem cells have enormous potential for cell therapies and regenerative medicine. However, the low efficiency, the complexity of induction method, and the need for purification represent obstacles that make their application impractical."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "In this study, we found that PDGFR alpha(+) cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) can serve as a useful source from which to induce cells that express gamma-aminobutyric-acid (GABA)-releasing (GABAergic) neuronal markers. PDGFR alpha(+) cells were induced from mESC on collagen IV-coated plates in mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) culture medium with limited exposure to retinoic acid, sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorter and maintained in MSC culture medium containing Y-27632, a Rho-associated kinase inhibitor. We found that supplementation of vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor-basic, and sodium azide (NaN3) to MSC culture medium effectively differentiated PDGFR alpha(+) cells into cells that express GABAergic neuronal markers, such as Pax2, Dlx2, GAD67 NCAM, and tubulin-beta III, while markers for oligodendrocyte (Sox2) and astrocyte (Glast) were suppressed. Immunostaining for GABA showed the majority (86 +/- 5%) of the induced cells were GABA-positive. We also found that the PDGFR alpha(+) cells retained such differentiation potential even after more than ten passages and cryopreservation. In summary, this study presents a simple and highly efficient method of inducing cells that express GABAergic neuronal markers from mESC."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Together with its ease of maintenance in vitro, PDGFR alpha(+) cells derived from mESC may serve as a useful source for such purpose."

For more information on this research see: Effective induction of cells expressing GABAergic neuronal markers from mouse embryonic stem cell. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Animal, 2013;49(7):479-485. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Animal can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from M. Nishikawa, VAGLAHS Sepulveda, Renal Regenerat Lab, North Hills, CA 91343, United States. Additional authors for this research include N. Yanagawa, S. Yuri, P. Hauser, O.D. Jo and N. Yanagawa.

Keywords for this news article include: Biomedical Engineering, Biomedicine, Neurons, California, North Hills, United States, Bioengineering, Stem Cell Research, Embryonic Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine, North and Central America

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2013, NewsRx LLC

Originally posted here:
Recent Findings from M. Nishikawa and Co-Researchers Yields New Information on Stem Cells

After the success of the test-tube burger, Michael Brooks answers the question on everyone in the NS offices lips: "Why not make burgers from human stem cells?"

You are what you eat - or at least you might be. Photograph: Getty Images.

Sometimes the NSs offices resound with provocative questions. Last week, it was: Why not make burgers from human stem cells?

This is not as ridiculous as it might first seem. It would be the pinnacle of ethical carnivorous living, the only way you could eat prime meat with the full, informed consent of the donor.

It wouldnt be cheap. The price of a burger cultured from human cells would make the 250,000 feed, created by the Maastricht University researcher Mark Post and formally presented on 5 August, look like a bargain. Human stem-cell culture for medical research is done under the most onerous safety restrictions and following strict protocols. Culturing human cells for human consumption would be just as onerous (and thus expensive) as it is for medical research because we would have to make sure there was no chance the cells could become infected by viruses or bacteria.

Eating other animals is safer simply because the pathogens that make them ill do not necessarily make humans ill. Eat your own kind and you risk unleashing all kinds of hell. That was what the BSE crisis was all about. Ingestion of ground-up cattle brains in cheap cattle feed led to an epidemic of the bovine disease. A similar phenomenon was discovered in human beings in the 1950s. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea were eating their deceased relatives in order to absorb their strength and other qualities. Enormous numbers of them contracted kuru, a disease related to BSE, which killed hundreds of them.

Yet many more Fore women and children died of kuru than men (to the point where the women accused the men of using witchcraft to destroy them). Usually, in the traditional funeral rites, the men were given the prime cuts to eat muscle tissue while the women and children got the brains and organs, which harboured disease in far more virulent measure. The Fore men were largely fine, so you could argue that cannibalism is not necessarily a health hazard: its eating the wrong bits that kills you.

The real show-stopper for the human stem-cell burger is the bit that most of the media coverage glossed over. Growing those stem cells is not a matter of scattering them in a bed of organic grass. The cells are grown in a cocktail of antibiotics and fetal bovine serum. This is blood drawn from foetuses that have been removed from slaughtered pregnant cows.

At about 160 (or three cow foetuses, depending on how you want to look at it) a litre, this is the most expensive part of the whole process. It is also the most distasteful. Experiencing poor mouthfeel from a burger is one thing. Knowing a cow foetus has had its heart punctured and sucked dry in order to grow the meat is quite another.

Medical researchers get through roughly half a million litres of fetal bovine serum a year because its hormones and growth factors are so essential to stem-cell growth. There are problems with it, though. The chemicals it contains can skew the outcome of experiments. In addition, the serum is extracted in a slaughterhouse, with no anaesthetic, and research shows that the foetus probably feels pain or discomfort.

View post:
Yes, you can make a burger out of human stem cells - but you probably wouldn't want to

After the success of the test-tube burger, Michael Brooks answers the question on everyone in the NS offices lips: "Why not make burgers from human stem cells?"

You are what you eat - or at least you might be. Photograph: Getty Images.

Sometimes the NSs offices resound with provocative questions. Last week, it was: Why not make burgers from human stem cells?

This is not as ridiculous as it might first seem. It would be the pinnacle of ethical carnivorous living, the only way you could eat prime meat with the full, informed consent of the donor.

It wouldnt be cheap. The price of a burger cultured from human cells would make the 250,000 feed, created by the Maastricht University researcher Mark Post and formally presented on 5 August, look like a bargain. Human stem-cell culture for medical research is done under the most onerous safety restrictions and following strict protocols. Culturing human cells for human consumption would be just as onerous (and thus expensive) as it is for medical research because we would have to make sure there was no chance the cells could become infected by viruses or bacteria.

Eating other animals is safer simply because the pathogens that make them ill do not necessarily make humans ill. Eat your own kind and you risk unleashing all kinds of hell. That was what the BSE crisis was all about. Ingestion of ground-up cattle brains in cheap cattle feed led to an epidemic of the bovine disease. A similar phenomenon was discovered in human beings in the 1950s. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea were eating their deceased relatives in order to absorb their strength and other qualities. Enormous numbers of them contracted kuru, a disease related to BSE, which killed hundreds of them.

Yet many more Fore women and children died of kuru than men (to the point where the women accused the men of using witchcraft to destroy them). Usually, in the traditional funeral rites, the men were given the prime cuts to eat muscle tissue while the women and children got the brains and organs, which harboured disease in far more virulent measure. The Fore men were largely fine, so you could argue that cannibalism is not necessarily a health hazard: its eating the wrong bits that kills you.

The real show-stopper for the human stem-cell burger is the bit that most of the media coverage glossed over. Growing those stem cells is not a matter of scattering them in a bed of organic grass. The cells are grown in a cocktail of antibiotics and fetal bovine serum. This is blood drawn from foetuses that have been removed from slaughtered pregnant cows.

At about 160 (or three cow foetuses, depending on how you want to look at it) a litre, this is the most expensive part of the whole process. It is also the most distasteful. Experiencing poor mouthfeel from a burger is one thing. Knowing a cow foetus has had its heart punctured and sucked dry in order to grow the meat is quite another.

Medical researchers get through roughly half a million litres of fetal bovine serum a year because its hormones and growth factors are so essential to stem-cell growth. There are problems with it, though. The chemicals it contains can skew the outcome of experiments. In addition, the serum is extracted in a slaughterhouse, with no anaesthetic, and research shows that the foetus probably feels pain or discomfort.

View post:
Yes, you can make a burger out of human stem cells - but you probably wouldn't want to

Public release date: 22-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bob Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (Aug 22 2013) Multipotent fetal dermal cells (MFDCs) may be an ideal source for cell therapy for repairing damaged tissues and organs. Their performance is superior to that of adult dermal cells, said a research team in Italy that developed a cell isolation technique for MFDCs and subsequently published a study that appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation, and is now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/ct1022chinnici.

"When compared to adult dermal cells, fetal cells display several advantages, including a greater cellular yield after isolation, the ability to proliferate longer, and the retention of differentiation potential," said study co-author Dr. C.M. Chinnici of the Fondazie Ri.MED, Regenerative Medicine and Biomedical Technologies Unit in Palermo, Italy. "Cells from fetal dermis have been proven safe and efficacious in the treatment of pediatric burns, but proper characterization of these cells has not yet been provided."

Their research provided a protocol for the isolation and expansion of large numbers of MFDCs that may see future clinical use, said the study authors.

"We generated, propagated and analyzed a proliferating population of cells derived from human fetal dermis taken at 20-22 weeks of gestation," wrote the researchers. "The non-enzymatic isolation technique allows for a spontaneous selection of cells with higher motility and yields a nearly homogeneous cell population."

The MFDCs, they reported, were "highly proliferative and were successfully expanded with no growth factor additions." They noted that, unlike mensenchymal stem cells, which progressively lose their differentiation capacity, the MFDCs "retained their osteogenenic and adipogenic differentiation potential" meaning that their potential impact for cell transplantation is likely to be greater.

"The MFDCs demonstrated their favorable characteristics for a potential large scale production aimed at clinical use," said Dr. Chinnici.

The researchers noted that the most interesting aspect of their study was the finding that multipotent cells can be successfully isolated from small fetal skin biopsies and maintained in culture for long periods with multipotency, stability and low immunogenicity retained, "thus generating large quantities of cells for clinical use."

"Given these results, the future prospect is to translate the concept of MFDCs as cells of therapeutic interest into experimental models of tissue regeneration," they concluded.

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Fetal tissue-derived stem cells may be ideal source for repairing tissues and organs