Category Archives: Cell Therapy

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A few weeks ago, we told you the story of Maggie, the 13-year-old Boykin Spaniel who was suffering from arthritis.

Maggie is enjoying life once again thanks to a new type of surgery. The dog received stem cell therapy surgery six weeks ago.

Doctors were able to use adult stem cells from Maggie's blood and fat samples to collect repair cells. They then took the cells and repaired the dog's arthritic spine.

Maggie's owner, Beth Phibbs, says she could tell the dog had been in pain.

"You could tell she didn't feel well, but yet now she is like she's 5 and she's 13. She just runs out and she plays. I think she knows. She can feel the difference," Phibbs said.

The surgery costs about $2,000, but Medi-vet America says this costs about half as much as the older treatments.

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Stem cell therapy for 13-year-old dog helps with its arthritis

HYDERABAD: Lack of legislation and awareness coupled with quality and ethical Issues has been deterrent to the growth of stem cell therapy sector in India, where the bio-tech market is expected to achieve a market size of $ 8 billion by 2015, according to a report by the Yes bank.

Special provisions such as 10-year tax benefits, duty exemptions, fast tracking the approval process by giving it a status of orphan drug (as done in the US) are some measures which could be very helpful to become leaders in this sector, the report 'Stem Cells--an emerging Bio-sector' suggested.

"The legislation for this sector still is at the draft stage. A regulatory framework governing the sector, instead of the guidelines existing at present is essential for the proper growth of stem cell research and applications in India. There are also no guidelines regarding pricing which results in certain unproven injections being sold for around Rs 80,000," the report said.

Several companies are taking advantage of the lack of laws governing the stem cell segment and advertise their therapies and clinical trials as ICMR approved.

However, given the multi-tiered system of registration and approvals recommended in the ICMR's guidelines, some of these are based on fraudulent or exaggerated claims. Further, there are also ethical worries on the side-effects of such treatment, it further said.

In India, there are very few players in the stem cell sector and these are all in very nascent stages and industry consolidation with global players entering into the market through mergers and acquisition route could propel industry growth, it opined.

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Stem cell segment in India to touch $8 billion mark by 2015: Report

March 27, 2012

According to a new study, using a patients own bone marrow may help repair damaged areas of the heart caused by heart failure.

Researchers found that left ventricular ejection fraction increased by 2.7 percent in patients who received stem cell therapy.

The study, which was presented at the American College of Cardiologys 61st Annual Scientific Session, revealed that the improvement in ejection fraction correlated with the number of CD34+ and CD133+ cells in the bone marrow.

This is the kind of information we need in order to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy, Emerson Perin, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute and the studys lead investigator, said at the event.

The study included 92 patients who were randomly selected to receive stem cell treatment or placebo. The patients all had chronic ischemic heart disease and an ejection fraction of less than 45 percent along with heart failure.

Doctors placed a catheter in the hearts left ventricle to inject 3 ccs, or 100 million stem cells, into an average of 15 sites of the stem cell patients hearts.

The doctors used electromechanical mapping of the heart to measure the voltage in areas of the heart muscle and create a real-time image of the heart.

With this mapping procedure, we have a roadmap to the heart muscle, said Dr. Perin. Were very careful about where we inject the cells; electromechanical mapping allows us to target the cell injections to viable areas of the heart.

The trial was designed to determine whether left ventricular end systolic volume and myocardial oxygen consumption improved in patients who received stem cell treatment.

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Cell Therapy Improves Damaged Heart In Study

Houston researchers are reporting that adult stem cells have a modest benefit in younger patients with heart failure, the first large-scale evidence that the controversial yet promising new therapy can be developed to help millions of people with the disease.

In a study presented at a cardiology conference Saturday, Texas Heart Institute doctors presented results of a clinical trial showing that cells derived from patients' own bone marrow produce a small but significant increase in the heart's ability to pump oxygen-rich blood.

"This study moves us one step closer to being able to help patients with severe heart failure who lack other alternatives," said Dr. James Willerson, president of the Texas Heart Institute and the study's principal investigator. "It also points to a future in which stem cells regenerate the heart."

The study did not find improvements in a number of heart function measures, but Willerson and other study leaders said it yielded key information about the specific adult stem cells with the greatest therapeutic potential. The trial used a number of stem cell types.

Transplants limited

About 6 million people in the United States have heart failure, a progressive and eventually fatal disease in which the heart loses the ability to effectively pump sufficient amounts of blood to the body's organs. Better therapy is needed because the limited availability of donor hearts makes transplants an option for only about 2,300 people in the United States annually.

Adult stem cells have become the subject of studies for a variety of conditions - the Texas Heart Institute has many involving the heart - since laboratory research in the late 1990s showed they have the ability to grow into most any kind of tissue. This is the first intermediate-stage study in the United States, characterized by multiple centers and many dozens of patients.

The idea of therapy involving adult stem cells formerly was considered non-controversial, a more ethical alternative to destroying embryos to obtain their stem cells. But it has come under fire recently because it is increasingly being used outside of research studies and for profit, particularly in Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry received it last year for his ailing back. The unregulated activity has prompted complaints to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Texas Medical Board draft policy requiring oversight for any use of experimental drugs.

3.1 percent increase

The new study, presented at an American College of Cardiology conference and to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 92 patients at five locations - two-thirds at the Texas Heart Institute - whose hearts were pumping at less than 45 percent of capacity and could not be treated with surgery. Doctors injected patients' own stem cells or placebos into their hearts.

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Houston study shows stem-cell's potential for heart treatment

Published on Mar 25, 2012

CHICAGO (AFP) - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slight improvements in blood pumping but no change in most of their symptoms, United States researchers said on Saturday.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

Previous studies have established that the approach is safe in human patients, but none had examined how well it worked on a variety of heart ailments.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

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Stem cell therapy could repair some heart damage: Study

HOUSTON -

Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital have found that patients with heart failure may be able to repair the damaged areas of the heart with stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow.

Doctors presented the findings at the American College of Cardiologys 61st Annual Scientific Session Saturday.

The results are from a multi-center clinical study that measured the possible benefits of using a patients own bone marrow cells to repair damaged areas of the heart suffering from severe heart failure, a condition that affects millions of Americans.

The study, which was the largest such investigation to date, found that the hearts of the patients receiving bone marrow derived stem cells showed a small but significant increase in the ability to pump oxygenated blood from the left ventricle, the hearts main pumping chamber, to the body.

The expectation is that the study will pave the way for potential new treatment options and will be important to designing and evaluating future clinical trials.

This is exactly the kind of information we need to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy, said Emerson Perin, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Research for Cardiovascular Medicine at THI, and one of the studys lead investigators.

The bone-marrow derived stem cells are helpful to the injured heart when they are themselves biologically active, added Dr. James T. Willerson, the studys principal investigator and President and Medical Director of THI.

This study moves us one step closer to being able to help patients with severe heart failure who have no other alternatives.

The study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, the national consortium to conduct such research funded by the National Institutes of Healths National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Originally posted here:
Stem cell, heart heath study

Johannesburg, Mar 25 : Stem cells could repair damage in people with advanced heart disease, a new study has claimed.

According to researchers at a major US cardiology conference, patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slightly improved heart function.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

The patients all had chronic heart disease, along with either heart failure or angina, and their left ventricles were pumping at less than 45 percent of capacity.

All the participants in the study were ineligible for revascularisation surgery, such as coronary bypass to restore blood flow, because their heart disease was so advanced.

Those who received the stem cell therapy saw a small but significant boost in the heart's ability to pump blood, measuring the increase from the heart's main pumping chamber at 2.7 percent more than placebo patients.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

"This is the kind of information we need in order to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy," News24 quoted Emerson Perin, the lead investigator from Texas Heart Institute as saying.

Perin's research, which was conducted between 2009 and 2011 across five US sites, was presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Conference in Chicago.

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Stem cell therapy `may repair heart damage`