Category Archives: Stem Cell Videos

By Kim Ribbink, Studio One Networks

Stem cell research often conjures images of political firestorms and futuristic science, yet it's a field that's already offering hope for humans and dogs alike. While the ideal of fixing spinal injuries and curing disease may be a long way off, dogs treated with stem cells are enjoying a new lease on life.

Pepper, a 10-year-old standard poodle, is a case in point. Crippled with arthritis in both his hips, Pepper came to James Gaynor, DVM, M.S., medical director of Animal Anesthesia & Pain Management Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., with his owners, who fully expected to have to put their pet to sleep. Conventional treatments hadn't worked, or had made their dog even sicker. In fact, Pepper's owners were so certain nothing could be done that they bought another puppy. "At our 60 day recheck, the owner was hugging me and crying out of happiness because, in her words, we gave her back her dog," Dr. Gaynor says. "The only problem was she now had Pepper and a puppy."

Healthy Bones It wasn't long ago that dogs like Pepper with arthritis had few options beyond conventional anti-inflammatory treatments -- including a variety of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Metacam, Previcox, Rimadyl and phenylbutazone; steroid medications such as Prednisone; and disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOADs) such as Adequan Canine -- that sometimes don't work. Now stem cells are providing an alternative. One California-based company, Vet-Stem, uses stem cells from dogs' own fat to treat animals in pain.

According to Julie Ryan Johnson, DVM, vice president of sales and marketing, studies have shown that fat is very rich with stem cells, making it an ideal source, and one that is nearly free from controversy, given that most of us don't mind having a bit of fat removed. "The way we do this is a veterinarian will send us a sample of the dog's fat," Dr. Ryan Johnson says. "We isolate the stem cells from that and then send the stem cells back to the veterinarian who injects them back into the dog -- for example, into an arthritic hip or elbow."

Once in the dog, the stem cells communicate with other cells in their environment. While it's not known exactly how they work, they do decrease the dog's pain level. "It's provided the veterinarian with another solution for helping these animals that have pain or difficulty moving," Dr. Ryan Johnson says. "Most importantly, for the dog and the dog owner, it offers quality of life."

The Possibilities Richard Vulliet, Ph.D., DVM, professor and director of the Laboratory of Veterinary Cytotherapeutics at UC Davis, says stem cells haven't cured any diseases yet, but researchers are working hard to change that. "I think that stem cells in general will rewrite the medical textbooks in the next 10 to 20 years," Dr. Vulliet says. "They will have an impact on human, canine, feline and equine health and will allow us to treat diseases that we can only dream about at this time."

Tony Kremer, DVM, an Illinois-based veterinary surgeon, says that as research progresses into the origin of diseases, there is hope that stem cell therapy might one day be used to treat diabetes and muscular dystrophy in dogs. "It is hoped that this research can repair or replace diseased organs, severed spinal cords, or brain cells destroyed by Alzheimer's disease in humans and dogs," he says.

Dr. Vulliet works with adult bone marrow stem cells to investigate potential cures for diseases that cause misery for many dogs. Your dog may soon be able to get breakthrough treatment in the following areas:

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Stem Cell Research and Your Dog

Pluristem Therapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq:PSTI; DAX: PJT: PLTR) today announced that its Placental eXpanded (PLX) cell treatment has saved the life of a third bone marrow disease patient. The treatment at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, was carried out under Israel's compassionate use procedures.

The patient, a 45-year old man with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a form of blood cancer, underwent chemotherapy and an unrelated bone marrow transplant, because the chemotherapy also kills normal bone marrow cells. However, he suffered from severe and long standing pancytopenia (lack of white blood cells) with associated complications.

Due to the patient's life threatening condition, 144 days after the bone marrow transplantation, PLX cells were twice injected intramuscularly, one week apart. No local or systemic side effects were observed. In addition, the patient's general clinical condition and wellbeing significantly improved, resulting in his release from Hadassah Medical Center.

Pluristem said that the success of the three treatments with its PLX cells may have significant potential to treat a range of indications of bone marrow diseases.

Professor Reuven Or, Director of the Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cancer Immunology at Hadassah Medical Center handled the treatments. He said, "Following three successful treatments, which were conducted for the first time in the world, in Hadassah Medical Center, we can say that PLX cells from the placenta saved the life of patients suffering from bone marrow failure. We are very encouraged by the results and hope that future clinical trials will show the effectiveness of the PLX cells. I believe that the PLX treatment holds huge hope for patients who suffer from different conditions of bone marrow failure and once approved will be available for every patient who needs it.

Pluristem chairman and CEO Zami Aberman said, "In addition to these three patients, we have data to suggest that our PLX cells may be helpful for rescuing both allogeneic as well as autologous bone marrow transplant failures."

Last month, Pluristem filed documents requesting the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant orphan drug status for the companys PLX cells for the treatment of aplastic anemia, a critical hematological emergency which is treated by a bone marrow transplantation. There are 30,000 bone marrow transplants a year in the US alone.

Pluristem's share price rose 8.1% after the announcement by mid-afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 18.19, after rising 2.7% on Nasdaq yesterday to $4.19, giving a market cap of $188 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - http://www.globes-online.com - on September 5, 2012

Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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Pluristem stem cells save 3rd bone marrow disease patient

Dear Dr. Donohue Since starting to clip your articles, I haven't found any that deal with using adult stem cells for breakthrough treatments, such as repairing heart damage. Could they help if one needs an aortic valve replacement? A.R.

Answer Stem cells are primitive cells that have the potential of spawning mature cells that carry out specific bodily functions, like skin cells, liver cells, lung cells, heart muscle cells, and on and on. Embryonic stem cells have the greatest potential for differentiating into any of the many varieties of cells that make up all body organs, structures and tissues.

Hematopoietic stem cells are recovered from the bone marrow and, to a lesser extent, the circulating blood. They have been and are being used to restore the bone marrow's capability of generating blood cells.

At the present time, no stem cell therapy has been used in replacing a heart valve.

Dear Dr. Donohue I would like to know the risk of having a stroke when a carotid artery has a blockage. I was told that doctors don't go by percentage of blockage now. How is the risk determined? K.C.

Answer An obstruction in the carotid artery, the neck artery that supplies the brain with blood, is not the only cause of a stroke. A piece of a blood clot that has broken off of a main clot elsewhere in the body and been swept into a brain artery is another cause of stroke. I mention this to keep it clear that a blocked carotid is but one risk for a stroke.

The doctors I know still use percentage of reduction in the interior of a carotid artery as a criterion of stroke risk. With a 60 percent to 70 percent or greater narrowing of the carotid artery, people benefit from the opening up of the artery, using a variety of procedures. Some experts feel that a 60 percent narrowing requires only blood-thinning medication, such as aspirin. Others feel that surgical removal of the blockage is indicated.

Other factors have to be considered: the patient's age, the patient's wishes and the patient's health problems unrelated to the artery problem..

Dear Dr. Donohue I am an 85-year-old female, and my doctor has suggested a colonoscopy. I find it a degrading test. The doctor didn't say why I needed it. Should a woman my age have it? K.C.

Answer The American College of Physicians recommends against screening colonoscopies for people 75 and older or for those people with a life expectancy of less than 10 years. Some add that screening can be stopped only if prior colonoscopies have been normal. No one I know recommends screening at 85.

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A look at stem cells and their current use

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One of the most promising and exciting treatment avenues for multiple sclerosis is the use of a patient's own stem cells to try to stop -- or even repair -- some of the disease's brain tissue damage.

But injecting a patient with a dose of his or her own bone-marrow stem cells was actually a pretty crude method of treating the disease, because no one was quite sure how or why it worked. Last year, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University began trying this for MS patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial after positive results were seen in mice.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheaths that surround and protect nerve cells. When myelin is damaged, the nerve cells are exposed and unable to do their job, which is sending signals to the brain and back. This results in the loss of motor skills, coordination and cognitive abilities.

Like many other researchers using stem cells, the local group didn't know exactly how their treatment worked, but they knew that when they gave these human mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, to mice with a mouse version of the disease, the mice got better.

Figuring out why the mice improved could help researchers see if the MSC injection will work well in a particular patient before the patient is injected, and possibly augment or improve the treatment as well.

In May, the research group at CWRU, headed up by neurosciences professor Robert Miller, discovered exactly what it is in the stem-cell soup that has a healing effect: a large molecule called hepatocyte growth factor, or HGF. The team published their results in Nature Neuroscience.

Miller's group knew that it could be the stem cells themselves, by coming in physical contact with the myelin damage, that were having a healing effect. Or it could be something the stem cells secreted into the surrounding liquid culture, or media, they were grown in, that was key. HGF is secreted by the stem cells, Miller said.

The team identified the HGF by first injecting only the liquid the stem cells were grown in, but not the stem cells themselves, into the mice they were studying. The mice got better, so the team knew whatever was helping was in the media.

Next, they isolated the small, medium and large molecules from the media and tried each size on the mice. Only the large-molecule treatment had the healing effect, meaning that whatever was helping was somewhere in that mix, Miller said.

"The molecule that jumped out at us was HGF," he said, because it is the right size, is made by MSCs, and in a couple of studies had been shown to be involved in myelin repair.

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Cleveland researchers find key to stem-cell therapy for MS patients: Discoveries

- Safe and Effective Results from Adipose Derived Adult Stem Cells manufactured by RNL BIO

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Korean researchers, reporting the results of a major study in the Circulation Journal, found that the transplantation adipose (fat) derived stem cells resulted in the regeneration of blood vessels in patients who were otherwise expecting to receive limb amputations due to damaged arteries and lack of blood circulation.

Researchers at Pusan National University, led by Dr. Han Cheol Lee, describe how patients with critical limb ischemia (hereafter, CLI, example of which include Buergers Disease and diabetic foot ulcers) were injected with adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell manufactured by RNL BIO.

As a result of the remarkable adipose stem cell process of RNL BIO, researchers found that immediate new blood vessel generation was identified. (The title of article is "Safety and Effect of Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem Cell Implantation in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia")

CLI results from lack of circulation due to small artery damage and subsequent tissue necrosis. Patients with severe CLI often face limb amputation. Buergers Disease, or diabetic foot ulcer, are of the same kind. Risk factors are diabetic mellitus, hypertension, high cholesterol and smoking. There is no known cure to date.

Currently percutaneous transluminal angioplasty or PTA may treat 60-70% of patients with CLI, but it doesnt work with those who suffer from Buergers Disease. Working under approval to conduct compassionate use research of stem cell to treat CLI by intra-muscular injection of adipose tissue derived stem cells in December, 2008 (KFDA IND approval # 1273), the researchers in this study enrolled 15 subjects: 12 with Buergers Disease, and 3 with Diabetic foot ulcers. 300 million stem cells were injected into each patients leg. No complications were observed, even six months after injection.

Only five patients, as they all had expected, required minor amputation during follow-up, and all amputation sites healed completely. At 6 months, significant improvement was noted in pain and in claudication walking distance. Digital subtraction angiography before and 6 months after ATMSC implantation showed formation of numerous vascular collateral networks across affected arteries.

Dr. Jeong-Chan Ra, President of RNL Stem Cell Technology Institute, said, "This new therapy through adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cell is expected to offer new hope for patients with CLI, hope that had been difficult to find before."

RNL Stem Cell Technology Institute

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First Evidence that Adipose Stem Cell-Based Critical Limb Ischemia Treatment is Safe & Effective is published in ...

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cwsq7k/stem_cells) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Stem Cells" to their offering.

This third in the Current Topics in Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine Series contains a careful selection of new and updated, high-quality articles from the well-known Meyer's Encyclopedia, describing new perspectives in stem cell research. The approximately 40 chapters are divided into four sections: Basic Biology, Stem Cells and Disease, Stem Cell Therapy Approaches, and Laboratory Methods, with the authors chosen from among the leaders in their respective fields.

The two volumes represent an essential guide for students and researchers seeking an overview of the field.

Key Topics Covered:

Introduction to Stem Cells

Basic Biology

Stem Cells, Embryonic

Stem Cells, Adult

Stem Cells in the Adult Brain: Neurogenesis

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Research and Markets: Stem Cells - Current Topics in Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine Series

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Cases of autism have soared in recent years: one in every 88 children is diagnosed with the disorder. Now, a groundbreaking clinical trial will test whether a childs own stem cells the building blocks of the body might help.

Dr. Michael Chez of the Sutter Neuroscience Institute wants to look at the relationship between the immune system and the central nervous system, and it is his hope that he will be able to use stem cells to help behavioral and developmental issues in autistic children.

Elisa Rudgers son, Rydr, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 11 months, he couldnt sit up on his own and required feeding tubes to eat. At 15 months, doctors gave Rydr his first infusion of banked cord blood stem cells that his parents saved while he was a newborn. His developmental delays diminished quickly.

After the first infusion after three months, he was crawling, six months he was standing, and nine months he was walking. said Rudgers.

Rudgers said that her 4-year-old son likes the spotlight because hes become something of a medical marvel. Hes gotten lots of attention.

Rydrs stem cells apparently helped at least partly rebuild his damaged brain. Now, Rydrs doctor is enrolling patients in a clinical trial to see if the same treatment thats helped this little boy, can help treat autism. Dr. Chez believes it can.

Theres enough encouraging evidence to think there may have a role to play here, but were opening a new door and thats the giant step. he said.

Can Rydrs reversal be repeated?

Many experts are skeptical, saying its unclear what or where the brain defect in autism actually is. Dr. Chez says stem cells could regenerate missing brain cells or help repair faulty connections between brain cells.

Either way, Ryders mom says, its worth a try.

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Clinical Trial With Stem Cells Creates Hope For Parents Of Autistic Children

New hope was raised yesterday for people left paralyzed by injury, after doctors said they had succeeded in using stem cells to restore feeling in two patients.

In a world first, doctors at Zurich University said two out of three men who had agreed to take part in an early trial, had regained some sensation below the level of their injuries.

It is the first time anyone has reported a positive outcome from stem cell therapy for severe spinal cord injury - and holds out the possibility of greater things in years to come.

The ultimate aim is to help those paralysed by injury to walk again.

Stem cells are special cells that can turn themselves into almost any kind of cell in the body. Those from human embryos have that absolute ability, while 'adult' stem cells have already specialized to a degree. For instance, neural stem cells can special ise into different type of nerve cells, but not something else like muscle or blood cells.

The trial worked on the theory that injected adult stem cells would transform themselves into spinal cord nerves, reconnecting brain and lower body.

Professor Armin Curt, leading the study, described the result as fundamental.

He said: To find something that can repair the spinal cord is a huge breakthrough. If we can show that something has changed for the better [as a result of stem cell therapy] thats fundamental.

He presented the findings at the annual conference of the International Spinal Cord Society in London on Monday.

Prof Curt was working in partnership with StemCells Inc., a Californian company which also has a base in Cambridge.

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This Stem Cell Breakthrough Helped Two Paralyzed People Feel Again

Professor Armin Curt, leading the study, described the result as fundamental.

He said: To find something that can repair the spinal cord is a huge breakthrough. If we can show that something has changed for the better [as a result of stem cell therapy] thats fundamental.

He presented the findings at the annual conference of the International Spinal Cord Society in London on Monday.

Prof Curt was working in partnership with StemCells Inc., a Californian company which also has a base in Cambridge.

Dr Stephen Huhn, from the firm, said: We think these stem cells are one of the first tools we have for actually repairing the central nervous system.

"To see this kind of change in patients who truly have the worst-of-the-worst type of injury to the spinal cord is very exciting."

The three patients, who all had complete spinal injury where they could feel nothing below the break, were each given a dose of 20 million adult neural stem cells about six months ago.

This was primarily a safety trial, and Prof Curt said monitoring had shown a very good safety profile.

But detailed questioning and objective tests also showed signals were passing up the injured spine to the brain, when they had not before.

One of the patients, Knut lstad, a 46-year-old Norwegian financial consultant, said: Ive noticed changes. When somebody touches my stomach, I can feel something. I cant be specific, but I can sense it.

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Stem cells help paraplegics regain feeling

LOS ANGELES UCLA researchers have discovered a type of cell that is the "missing link" between bone marrow stem cells and all the cells of the human immune system, a finding that will lead to a greater understanding of how a healthy immune system is produced and how disease can lead to poor immune function.

The research was done using human bone marrow, which contains all the stem cells that produce blood during post-natal life.

"We felt it was especially important to do these studies using human bone marrow, as most research into the development of the immune system has used mouse bone marrow," said the study's senior author, Dr. Gay Crooks, co-director of UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and a co-director of the cancer and stem-cell biology program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The few studies with human tissue have mostly used umbilical cord blood, which does not reflect the immune system of post-natal life."

The research team was "intrigued to find this particular bone marrow cell, because it opens up a lot of new possibilities in terms of understanding how human immunity is produced from stem cells throughout life," said Crooks, a professor of pathology and pediatrics.

Understanding the process of normal blood formation in human adults is a crucial step in shedding light on what goes wrong during the process that results in leukemias, cancers of the blood.

The findings appeared Sept. 2 in the early online edition of the journal Nature Immunology.

Before this study, researchers had a fairly good idea of how to find and study the blood stem cells of the bone marrow. The stem cells live forever, reproduce themselves and give rise to all the cells of the blood. In the process, the stem cells divide and produce cells in intermediate stages of development called progenitors, which make various blood lineages, like red blood cells or platelets.

Crooks was most interested in the creation of the progenitors that form the entire immune system, which consists of many different cells called lymphocytes, each with a specialized function to fight infection.

"Like the stem cells, the progenitor cells are also very rare, so before we can study them, we needed to find the needle in the haystack," said Lisa Kohn, a member of the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program and first author of the study.

Previous work had found a fairly mature type of lymphocyte progenitor with a limited ability to differentiate, but the new work describes a more primitive type of progenitor primed to produce the entire immune system, Kohn said.

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'Missing link' ties blood stem cells, immune system