Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

This UCL photo shows an eye diseased with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in the developed world. Photograph: UCL/PA

Patients with a devastating eye disease who had embryonic stem cell therapy to improve their sight have suffered no major side-effects since they had the treatment, scientists report.

The study (pdf) represents the first evidence for the long-term safety of the pioneering therapy, which restored some vision to more than half of the patients who took part in the trial.

There had been concerns that the cells could be rejected by the bodys immune system or become overactive and grow into tumours. But after following the patients for up to three years, researchers said the treatment appeared to be safe.

The trial focused on 18 patients with two different types of macular degeneration. The diseases have no effective treatments and are among the leading causes of blindness in adults and children in the developed world.

Nine patients with Stargardts macular dystrophy and nine with dry atrophic age-related macular degeneration had injections of 50,000 to 150,000 retinal pigment cells behind the retina of their worst-affected eye. The pigment cells were created in the lab by treating human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) with chemicals that make them transform into retinal cells.

The vision of most patients improved after transplantation of the cells. Overall, the vision of the patients improved by about three lines on the standard visual acuity chart, whereas the untreated fellow eyes did not show similar improvements in visual acuity. The patients also reported notable improvements in their general and peripheral vision, as well as in near and distance activities, said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, which funded the research.

One of the patients, a 75-year-old horse rancher from Kansas, was blind in the eye he had treated. A month after the therapy, his vision had improved by 10 lines and he had taken to riding horses again. Other patients could use their computers or read a watch, Lanza said.

Little things like that which we all take for granted have made a huge difference in the quality of their life. Indeed, one patient recently went to the mall for the first time, and another patient can travel to the airport by herself, he added.

Writing in The Lancet, the scientists said that patients had tolerated the implanted cells for up to 37 months. They found no evidence of hyper-proliferation or rejection of the cells during a typical follow-up period of 22 months.

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Stem cell therapy success in treatment of sight loss from macular degeneration

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Oct-2014

Contact: David McKeon DMcKeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation @nyscf

NEW YORK, NY (October 14, 2014) The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced today that Marius Wernig, PhD, Associate Professor in the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the 2014 recipient of the NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize, which has been awarded since 2011 for extraordinary achievements in translational stem cell research by a young scientist.

Dr. Wernig and his team discovered that human skin cells can be converted directly into functional neurons, termed induced neuronal (iN) cells, in a period of four to five weeks with the addition of just four proteins.

"Dr. Wernig's groundbreaking research has the potential to accelerate all research on devastating neurodegenerative diseases," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and Co-founder of NYSCF. "His work can impact and accelerate research on multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and autism among many other conditions."

At Stanford, Dr. Wernig focuses on using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and iN cells for disease modeling and as potential cellular therapy. This new technique transformed the field of cellular reprogramming by eliminating the need to first create iPS cells, making it easier to generate patient or disease-specific neurons. These cell types hold tremendous therapeutic and translational relevance for patients around the world. Potential applications range from replacing damaged brain tissue to repairing the myelinating nerves lost in multiple sclerosis to identifying novel drugs and treatments for a range of neurological diseases.

In addition to his recent scientific achievements, Dr. Wernig was part of the inaugural class of NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigators in 2010, and is the first NYSCF Robertson Investigator to receive the NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize.

"I am delighted that Dr. Wernig is being recognized with this year's NYSCF Robertson Prize for his important research that has opened entirely new avenues for studying brain diseases. The NYSCF Robertson Prize was created to acknowledge the most important work being down by young stem cell scientists and I am thrilled to see a NYSCF Robertson Investigator go on to receive NYSCF Robertson Prize," said Julian Robertson, whose foundation underwrites the $200,000 prize. The terms of the prize require that the $200,000 stipend be used, at the recipients' discretion, to further support their research.

The NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize will be presented to Dr. Wernig at a ceremony in New York City by Susan L. Solomon on October 14th.

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Marius Wernig receives New York Stem Cell Foundation's Robertson Stem Cell Prize

Seeing is definitely believing when it comes to stem cell therapy. A blind man has recovered enough sight to ride his horse. A woman who could see no letters at all on a standard eye test chart can now read the letters on the top four lines. Others have recovered the ability to see colour. All have had injections of specialised retinal cells in their eyes to replace ones lost through age or disease.

A trial in 18 people with degenerative eye conditions is being hailed as the most promising yet for a treatment based on human embryonic stem cells.

"We've been hearing about their potential for more than a decade, but the results have always been in mice and rats, and no one has shown they're safe or effective in humans long term," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the company that carried out the stem cell intervention. "Now, we've shown both that they're safe and that there's a real chance these cells can help people."

Ten years ago, the team at Advanced Cell Technology announced that it had successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells. These cells help keep the eyes' light-detecting rods and cones healthy. But when retinal pigment epithelial cells deteriorate, blindness can occur. This happens in age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt's macular dystrophy.

In a bid to reverse this, Lanza's team injected retinal cells into one of each of the 18participants' eyes, half of whom had age-related macular degeneration and half had Stargardt's. A year later, 10people's eyes had improved, and the eyes of the others had stabilised. Untreated eyes had continued to deteriorate.

"On average, we're seeing three lines [on an eye test chart] of visual improvement in our patients," says Lanza.

There were no serious side effects and no sign of tumours, which can be a potential risk in stem cell therapies.

Lanza says the aim of the study was to halt further deterioration, so the improvements in sight were an unexpected bonus. He speculates that the improvements might be the result of rods and cones that had become dormant when the native retinal pigment epithelial cells died, resuming their function when the fresh cells were added.

"The results are highly encouraging," says Pete Coffey of University College London, who heads a project to treat people with age-related macular degeneration using tiny patches of retinal pigment epithelial cells made from human embryonic stem cells.

Advanced Cell Technology is now planning a larger trial, first in 100 people with Stargardt's, then in people with macular degeneration.

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Stem cells improve vision enough for horse riding

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

13-Oct-2014

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

Putnam Valley, NY. (Oct. 13, 2014) Two studies recently published in Cell Transplantation reveal that cell transplantation may be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI), a major cause of disability and paralysis with no current restorative therapies.

Using laboratory rats modeled with SCI, researchers in Spain found in laboratory tests on cells harvested from rats - specifically ependymal progenitor cells (epSPCs), multipotent stem cells found in adult tissues surrounding the ependymal canal of the spinal cord - responded to a variety of compounds through the activation of purinergic receptors P2X4, P2X7, P2Y1 and P2Y4. In addition, the epSPCs responded to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through this activation. ATP, a chemical produced by a wide variety of enzymes that works to transport energy within cells, is known to accumulate at the sites of spinal cord injury and cooperate with growth factors that induce remodeling and repair.

"The aim of our study was to analyze the expression profile of receptors in ependymal-derived neurospheres and to determine which receptors were functional by analysis of intercellular Ca2+ concentration," said study co-author Dr. Rosa Gomez-Villafuertes of the Department of Biochemistry at the Veterinary School at the University of Complutense in Madrid, Spain. "We demonstrated for the first time that epSPCs express functional ionotropic P2X4 and P2X7 and metabotropic P2Y1 and P2Y4 receptors that are able to respond to ATP, ADP and other nucleotide compounds."

When they compared the epSPCs from healthy rats to epSPCs from rats modeled with SCI, they found that a downregulation of P2Y1 and an upregulation of P2Y4 had occurred in the epSPCs in the SCI group.

"This finding opens an important avenue for potential therapeutic alternatives in SCI treatments based on purinergic receptor modulation," the researchers concluded.

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The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1257_Gomez_Villafuertes.

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Spinal cord injury victims may benefit from stem cell transplantation studies

New York, Oct 13 (IANS): Diseases that occur due to blood flow problems could soon become a lot easier to treat as researchers have developed a technique to jump-start the body's system for creating blood vessels.

The research could lead to new therapies for illnesses such as peripheral artery disease - a painful leg condition caused by poor blood circulation which can lead to skin problems, gangrene and even amputation.

"While the body has cells that specialise in repairing blood vessels and creating new ones, called endothelial colony forming cells, these cells can lose their ability to proliferate into new blood vessels as patients age or develop diseases like peripheral arterial disease," said lead researcher Mervin Yoder Jr. from the Indiana University School of Medicine.

If younger, more enthusiastic endothelial colony forming cells could be injected into the affected tissues, they might jump-start the process of creating new blood vessels, the findings showed.

Although these cells are relatively difficult to find in adults, especially in those with peripheral arterial disease, they are present in large numbers in umbilical cord blood.

The researchers said they had developed a potential therapy through the use of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, which are normal adult cells that have been "coaxed" via laboratory techniques into reverting into the more primitive stem cells that can produce most types of bodily tissue.

Those laboratory created endothelial colony forming cells were injected into mice, where they were able to proliferate into blood vessels and restore blood flow to tissues in damaged mouse retinas and limbs.

"This is one of the first studies using induced pluripotent stem cells that has been able to produce new cells in clinically relevant numbers - enough to enable a clinical trial," Yoder noted.

The findings appeared in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

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Stem cell therapy could create new blood vessels

La Jolla, California (PRWEB) October 13, 2014

One of the top stem cell clinics in California, Telehealth, is now accepting new patients for insurance based stem cell procedures at an additional location in La Jolla CA. Most insurance is accepted for the stem cell therapies for such conditions as degenerative arthritis, tendonitis, ligament injuries, sports injuries and more. Call (888) 828-4575 for more information and scheduling.

For years, Telehealth has been offering regenerative medicine procedures for such conditions as rotator cuff tendonitis, achilles tears, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, degenerative arthritis of the joints and more. The stem cell procedures offered include bone marrow derived or fat derived stem cell procedures, or amniotic therapy. The Board Certified doctors are highly skilled in the musculoskeletal stem cell procedures, and treat patients with the utmost expertise and compassion.

The newest location in La Jolla joins the existing clinics in Orange CA and Upland CA. Coverage for the procedures exists for PPO's, Medicare and Tricare. The procedures are extremely low risk, and small studies have consistently shown beneficial results of the injections.

The treatments at Telehealth represent a new paradigm for pain relief. Whereas most pain treatments mask pain well, such as with steroids, the stem cell treatments offer patients the capability to regenerate and repair damaged tissue. This helps to potentially regenerate cartilage, tendon, ligament tissue in those with arthritis or soft tissue injuries.

For those with sports injuries, arthritis, fractures, plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, etc, and desire insurance covered stem cell therapy, call Telehealth at (888) 828-4575.

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TeleHealth Now Accepting New Patients for Insurance Based Stem Cell Procedures at La Jolla Office

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Learn How Stem Cell Therapy Is Being Used Right Here in North Texas - Video

Can brain damage caused during birth be ever reversed? Is it possible to repair the damaged brain tissues among children, who suffer from Cerebral Palsy (CP)?

So far, the treatment option for CP is to manage the symptoms of the ailment. However, in recent times, scientists and researchers worldwide have started to explore stem cell therapy as a potential treatment option for CP patients.

Can stem cells reverse the brain damage, which is the sole cause for CP among children? Our research on over 100 CP patients and stem cell therapy has been very encouraging. The patients, who underwent stem cell therapy, have displayed huge improvement in CP symptoms, says Professor and Head of Neurosurgery, LTM Medical College, Mumbai, Alok Sharma.

The neurosurgeon, who is taking part in an international conference on CP in Hyderabad this weekend, said that doctors are not concentrating on treating the brain damage.

The current treatment options available to help patients are only to mange symptoms and nobody tries to repair the underlying damage to the brain tissue. Therefore, developing a standard therapeutic approach for CP through stem cells is the need of the hour, he said.

The results from the stem cell therapy on CP patients conducted by Dr. Aloks team were recently published in Neurogens chapter on Stem cell therapy for cerebral palsy A Novel Option in a book titled Cerebral Palsy Challenges For the Future. According to the neurosurgeon, the patients after therapy had improvements in their speech, balance, upper and lower limb activity and movement.

While for stem cell research, many prefer cord blood banking, Dr. Alok pointed out that they have used stem cells from the adults derived from the bone marrow. The transplanted stem cells have the ability to migrate to the area of the damaged tissue in the brain and home-in on those affected areas to help repair the damage. Stem cells release substance that stimulates natural growth, which decreases the process of damage of the brain, Dr. Alok explained.

The researcher, who has started NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute in Mumbai to conduct stem cell research, pointed out that stem cell therapy and other rehabilitation programmes should be encouraged for the benefit of CP patients. The positive changes that we recorded in our patients were not just restricted to their symptoms but also constructive change in brain metabolism observed through PET-CT scans, he explained. Dr. Alok Sharma can be reached at: alok276@gmail.com

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Fighting CP through stem cell therapy