Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

Boy Scout Troop 286 Icebucket Challenge for the Scoutmaster
Ice Bucket Challenge Completed! With a whole lot of help from my Scouts! Donation went to the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center at KU Med in Kansas City. They do some terrific work there and...

By: Scott Medlock

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Boy Scout Troop 286 Icebucket Challenge for the Scoutmaster - Video

Stem Cell Therapy as a Treatment Option for Osteoarthritis
Dr. Frank Garcia, board certified orthopedic surgeon with The San Antonio Orthopaedic Group, discusses the use of stem cell therapy in the treatment of osteo...

By: The San Antonio Orthopaedic Group

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Stem Cell Therapy as a Treatment Option for Osteoarthritis - Video

How can you get the best result after stem cell therapy for autism spectrum disorder
How can you get the best result after stem cell therapy for autism spectrum disorder? In conversation with Dr Alok Sharma (MS, MCh.) Professor of Neurosurgery Head of Department, LTMG Hospital...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

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How can you get the best result after stem cell therapy for autism spectrum disorder - Video

27.08.2014 - (idw) Max-Delbrck-Centrum fr Molekulare Medizin (MDC) Berlin-Buch

Stem cells are essential for the repair of muscle damage, but all attempts to manipulate human muscle stem cells for therapy have thus far failed. Now Dr. Andreas Marg and Prof. Simone Spuler of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint cooperation between the Max Delbrck Center (MDC) and the Charit, have shown how this might work. They developed a method in which they did not isolate the muscle stem cells, but rather cultivated, proliferated and transplanted them along with their muscle fibers. Using this method in mice, they were able to successfully regenerate muscle tissue. Thus they have opened the door for the use of muscle stem cells to treat muscle diseases.* "Muscle stem cells, which we also refer to as satellite cells, can awaken in their stem cell niche after decades of quiescence and can then repair damaged muscle tissue," Professor Spuler explained. At the ECRC in Berlin-Buch, the neurologist heads the University Outpatient Clinic for Muscle Disorders and the Department of Muscle Sciences. She and her team are exploring the causes of muscle diseases. Evidence shows that satellite cells are active in people with severe muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe genetic disease in which the muscles degenerate. "But at some point, she added, the reservoir is depleted of muscle stem cells and muscle wasting cannot be stopped."

All attempts to rebuild muscle tissue by transplanting satellite cells in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy have failed. The transplanted cells are not viable. Furthermore, the use of other cells with potential to regenerate muscle cells has shown little success. These cells have only limited potential to regenerate muscle. But how is it possible to nevertheless use the bodys own self-renewal potential and the reconstruction potential of satellite cells?

The offer of developmental biologist Professor Carmen Birchmeier (MDC) to participate in the network project on satellite cells (SatNet) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research pointed Professor Spuler and her co-workers in the right direction. One of the topics of the project was to elucidate why satellite cells rapidly lose their regeneration potential if they are kept in a cell culture. This led to the idea to cultivate the satellite cells together with the surrounding muscle tissue to see whether the cells, if they remain in their accustomed milieu, might possibly regenerate better.

Muscle biopsy specimens from young and old donors After due approval and written, informed consent, Professor Spuler and Dr. Marg obtained specimens of fresh thigh muscle tissue from patients between 20 and 80 years of age from neurosurgeons of Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch, which like the MDC is located close to the ECRC.

From the biopsy specimens, Professor Spuler and her co-workers dissected more than 1000 muscle fiber fragments, each about 2-3 millimeters long. Remarkably, the researchers found the number of stem cells in the individual tissue specimens to be independent of the age of the donor and that thousands of myoblasts developed from a small number of satellite cells. After further developmental steps, these fuse into muscle fibers.

Dr. Marg: Satellite cells need to have their local milieu around them Professor Spuler and her co-workers cultivated the muscle fiber fragments with the satellite cells, initially for up to three weeks. During this time, the satellite cells increased by 20- to 50-fold, but numerous connective tissue cells also developed in these cultures. To prevent this, the researchers concurrently subjected the muscle fragments to oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) and to cooling (hypothermia) at 4 degrees Celsius. Under these conditions, only satellite cells are able to survive in their stem cell niche, in contrast to the connective tissue cells. Apparently, the satellite cells receive the proper nutrients in their own local milieu, Dr. Marg said.

First success in mice The ECRC researchers then tried out their therapy approach in mice in which muscle regeneration had been inhibited by irradiation. They grafted the muscle fragments containing the satellite cells, which following the hypothermia had been kept for two weeks in culture dishes, into the tibalis anterior muscle. The researchers found that the muscles of animals that had been treated with these fiber fragments regenerated particularly well.

Objective: to couple satellite cells with gene therapy However, a genetic muscle disease cannot be successfully treated alone by transplanting muscle fragments. Professor Spuler: The idea is therefore to equip the satellite cells additionally with a healthy gene that repairs the defective gene and then to transfect it with the aid of a non-viral gene taxi into the muscles to be treated. In a first experiment with a reporter gene in the Petri dish, Professor Spuler and her co-workers proved that this is possible in principle. The reporter gene fluoresces green when it is transfected into the satellite cell. As gene taxi the researchers use the Sleeping Beauty transposon a jumping gene that can change its position in the genome. This transposon technique was developed several years ago by Dr. Zsuzsanna Izsvk (MDC) and Dr. Zoltn Ivics (Paul Ehrlich Institute, Frankfurt) and is considered to be a very promising delivery vehicle (vector) for gene therapy.

Before the method developed by Professor Spuler and her group can be used to benefit patients, some hurdles remain to be taken. So far, the transplantation has succeeded in small mice muscles. In clinical trials, the scientists and physicians want to determine whether this technique can be used in large human thigh muscles, which may be severely altered due to a muscular disease.

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New Research Method Opens Door to Therapy with Human Muscle Stem Cells Promising Method Developed

ABC Kellie van Meurs (3rd from R) died of a heart attack last month while receiving stem cell treatment in Moscow.

Rogue operators in Australia and overseas are charging thousands of dollars for ineffectual stem cell treatments, a leading stem cell research group has warned.

And Stem Cells Australia says there is a growing number of patients going overseas for stem cell treatments which are limited in Australia.

A loophole in the therapeutic goods legislation means that doctors are legally allowed to treat patients, both here and overseas, with their own stem cells even if that treatment is unsafe or has not been proven effective through clinical trials.

Stem Cells Australia believes that dozens of doctors in Australia offer the questionable treatments.

"They're selling treatment without any proof of benefit, and without any proof of safety," Associate Professor Megan Munsie, a stem cell biologist at the University of Melbourne, told 7.30.

Annie Leverington was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007.

She was once a talented flamenco dancer and worked as a court stenographer.

But in 2002 she noticed something was wrong when her fingers started to "drop" during long trials.

Then her feet started to go.

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Rogue stem cell therapy operators charging thousands for ineffective treatments, researchers say

ReNeuron Group Quote more

Price: 3.55

Chg: 0.05

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Date: 17:05

Shares in AIM-listed stem cell business ReNeuron Group rose on Tuesday morning after the group unveiled details of progress with the PISCES clinical trial of its ReN001 stem cell therapy for disabled stroke patients.

The group said that the primary aim of the study was to test the safety and tolerability of the treatment in ascending doses of the ReN001 cells in patients with moderate to severe functional neurological impairments resulting from their stroke.

The secondary aim of the study is to evaluate efficacy measures for the design of future clinical trials with ReN001, including imaging measures as well as a number of tests of sensory, motor and cognitive functions.

Interim data from the first nine patients treated in the PISCES study was being presented by the clinical team from Glasgow's Southern General Hospital at the 22nd European Stroke Conference, taking place in London this week, the group said.

It added that there was no cell-related or immunological adverse events reported in any of the patients treated and sustained reductions in neurological impairment and spasticity were observed in most patients compared with their stable pre-treatment baseline performance.

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ReNeuron jumps on stem cell study results

Whats the difference between adult stem cell taken from body fat and from bone marrow
Whats the difference between adult stem cell taken from body fat and from bone marrow? In conversation with Dr Alok Sharma (MS, MCh.) Professor of Neurosurgery Head of Department, LTMG Hospital...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

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Whats the difference between adult stem cell taken from body fat and from bone marrow - Video