Category Archives: Stem Cell Videos

Unveilling stem cells

LAWRENCE SERETSE Correspondent

Cryo-Save, the European company that intends to establish the first stem cell bank in Botswana says stem cells do not have just one function. They can themselves become or create other types of cells such as blood cells, brain cells, tissue cells, muscle cells and the like. Stem cells can be found in every person but they are much more numerous in the body of a foetus.

There are three types of stem cell banking namely, the baby stem cell banking which is the preservation and storage of cord blood and umbilical cord tissue. Adult stem cell banking is the preservation and storage of peripheral blood (from blood stream for bone marrow transplants) and fatty tissue stem cells.

The reproductive cell banking deals with the preservation and storage of eggs and sperm for future fertility treatments or artificial insemination purposes. Studying stem cells helped humans understand how they transform into the dazzling array of specialised cells that make us what we are. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are caused by problems that occur somewhere in this process. A better understanding of normal cell development has allowed scientists to understand and perhaps correct the errors that cause these medical conditions. Many support stem cell research because it has the potential to provide solutions to a wide variety of medical conditions and diseases.

Stem cell research could even lead to a cure for some of the most traumatic injuries and diseases. Stem cell treatments cure over 70 diseases and disorders like Leukemia, Lymphoma, blood cancers, bone marrow disorders like Aplastic anaemia, sickle cell, Diabetes, Alzheimer's Disease, heart disease, stroke, birth defects, spinal cord injuries, ability to replace or repair organs and cancer.

This is just half of it. If one just looked at the benefits one might wonder why stem cell treatments are not in wide use. The shortcomings of stem cell research are often fears of what could result from such knowledge and the moral implications of using the stem cells. There are worries that humans should not try to play God. "Relating bodies have to pay extra caution and determine if we really need these banks. Again, some researchers may be coming to dig stem cells in Botswana, since there maybe restrictive laws in their countries.

"The unsuspecting citizens may end up giving up their stem cells for money," says Iqbal Chand, the CEO of Diagnofirm Medical Laboratories. He gave a scenario from recent publications that a patient in Berlin was cleared of HIV after stem cell treatment for leukemia.

"We do not even know how true it is and if it was the stem cells that cured his HIV. Even if it is, it is one person in a million so there is no assurance," Chand pointed out.

Another big issue with stem cells research is superstition. In most African communities, the umbilical cord must be buried after birth because it is believed that anyone with access to it could exert some spiritual influence on the child. This has led to uncertainty towards cord tissue and cord blood storage in most African societies. However, with the success of transplants making the headlines, more and more people are willing to donate adult stem cells to save lives.

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Unveilling stem cells

LEADING scientists, biomedical research bodies and patient groups urged the European Parliament yesterday to maintain vital European Union funding for studies using embryonic stem cells.

Hailing the field as "one of the most exciting and promising" in modern biomedical research, the group said they feared research grants currently under review may be under threat from pro-life European parliamentarians who say public funds should not be spent on embryonic stem cell work.

"(EU) Commission funding must be available to continue to support scientists investigating all types of stem cells - including human embryonic stem cells - with potential to make advances in regenerative medicine," they wrote in an open letter released by the Wellcome Trust, a charitable health foundation.

The European Parliament is debating the future outline of Horizon 2020, the EU's program for research and innovation from 2014 to 2020.

Draft rules provide for stem cell research funding, including embryonic stem cells but some member states have been lobbying for embryonic stem cell research to be excluded.

Many scientists believe stem cell research has the potential to lead to the development of treatments for a whole host of diseases including incurable neurodegenerative illnesses such as Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

Europe, particularly Britain, is considered a world leader in stem cell research.

The letter was signed by the Association of Medical Research Charities, the British Heart Foundation, the European Genetic Alliances' Network, Britain's Medical Research Council, the charity Parkinson's UK and Wellcome Trust.

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Eastday-Researchers urge EU not to cut stem cell funding

Vein grown from stem cells saves 10-yr-old girl

(Reuters) / 16 June 2012

Doctors in Sweden have replaced a vital blocked blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using the first vein grown in a lab from a patients own stem cells.

The successful transplant operation, reported online in The Lancet medical journal, marks a further advance in the search for ways to make new body parts.

It could open the door to stem cell-based grafts for heart bypass and dialysis patients who lack suitable blood vessels for replacement surgery, and the Swedish team said it is now working with an undisclosed company to commercialise the process.

Im very optimistic that in the near future we will be able to get both arteries and veins transplanted on a large scale, said Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson, professor of transplantation biology at the University of Gothenburg, and a member of the team that performed the operation in March 2011. The advantage of using tissue grown from a patients own cells is that there is no risk of organ rejection and hence no need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs.

Four years ago, a 30-year-old woman received the worlds first transplant of a tailor-made windpipe, grown in a similar way by seeding a stripped-down donor organ with her own stem cells. Other such trachea operations have followed since.

The latest case involved a young girl with an obstructed hepatic portal vein, which drains blood from the intestines and spleen to the liver. Its blockage can be fatal.

The team from the University of Gothenburg took a 9cm section of groin vein from a deceased donor and removed all the living cells, leaving just a protein scaffold tube. Stem cells extracted from the girls bone marrow were then injected onto the tube and two weeks later the graft was implanted. The new blood vessel immediately restored normal blood flow, the doctors said, although after a year it narrowed and a second stem cell-based graft was needed. Martin Birchall and George Hamilton of University College London said in a commentary in The Lancet that the Swedish doctors had spared the young girl the trauma of having veins harvested from deep in her neck or leg and avoided the need for a liver transplant.

But they cautioned the technique now needed to be tested in clinical trials and developed into a straightforward quality-controlled production process.

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Vein grown from stem cells saves 10-yr-old girl

Researchers pull viable cells from bodies that had been dead for more than 2 weeks.

By Bob Grant | June 15, 2012

Wikimedia Commons, Robert Lawton

Stem cells stay alive and in a dormant state for more than 2 weeks after a person passes away, according to researchers in France. A team of scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have successfully recovered viable stem cells from muscle tissue in dead bodies that had been kept at 4 degrees Celsius for 17 days, later using the cells to generate new, functional muscle cells. They report their findings in this weeks issue of Nature Communications.

Previously, researchers thought that stem cells could only remain viable in corpses for 1 or 2 days. But Pasteur Institute histologist and neuropathologist Fabrice Chrtien, senior author on the paper, said that stem cells may even remain viable for more than 17 days. Maybe they can also resist longer, he told LiveScience.

The stem cells recovered from the human corpses were in a dormant state, characterized by reduced metabolic activity and elevated levels of reactive oxygen species. Chrtien and his collaborators suggested that the low oxygen environment in which the cells sat likely contributed to their quiescence and subsequent retention of viability.

This discovery could form the basis of a new source, and more importantly new methods of conservation, for stem cells used to treat a number of pathologies, according to a statement from the Pasteur Institute announcing the discovery.

By Jef Akst

New research finds that older men have children and grandchildren with longer telomeres, pointing to possible health benefits of delayed reproduction.

By Tia Ghose

Continued here:
Stem Cells from Corpses

London, June 15 : Scientists have revealed that some stem cells can lay dormant for more than two weeks in a dead person and then be revived to divide into new, functioning cells.

The research unlocks further knowledge about the versatility of these cells, touted as a future source to replenish damaged tissue.

"Remarkably, skeletal muscle stem cells can survive for 17 days in humans and 16 days in mice post-mortem, well beyond the one to two days currently thought," the Daily Mail quoted the statement of scientists.

The researchers led by Fabrice Chretien of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, found that the stem cells retained their ability to differentiate into perfectly functioning muscle cells.

"This discovery could form the basis of a new source, and more importantly new methods of conservation, for stem cells used to treat a number of pathologies," the researchers said.

Stem cells are infant cells that develop into the specialised tissues of the body.

The latest findings have sparked great excitement as they offer hopes of rebuilding organs damaged by disease or accident.

The Pasteur Institute team found that to survive in adverse conditions, skeletal muscle stem cells lower their metabolism to enter a dormant state, using less energy.

The team then also looked at stem cells taken from bone marrow, where blood cells are produced.

These remained viable for four days after death in lab mice and retained their ability to reconstitute tissue after a bone marrow transplant.

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Stem cells stay alive for 17 days in dead bodies

Doctors in Sweden have replaced a vital blocked blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using the first vein grown in a lab from a patient's own stem cells.

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The successful transplant operation, reported online in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, marks a further advance in the search for ways to make new body parts.

It could open the door to stem cell-based grafts for heart bypass and dialysis patients who lack suitable blood vessels for replacement surgery, and the Swedish team said it is now working with an undisclosed company to commercialize the process.

"I'm very optimistic that in the near future we will be able to get both arteries and veins transplanted on a large scale," said Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson, professor of transplantation biology at the University of Gothenburg, and a member of the team that performed the operation in March 2011.

The advantage of using tissue grown from a patient's own cells is that there is no risk of organ rejection and hence no need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs.

Four years ago, a 30-year-old woman received the world's first transplant of a tailor-made windpipe, grown in a similar way by seeding a stripped-down donor organ with her own stem cells. Other such trachea operations have followed since.

The latest case involved a young girl with an obstructed hepatic portal vein, which drains blood from the intestines and spleen to the liver. Its blockage can be fatal.

The team from the University of Gothenburg took a 9 cm (3.5 inch) section of groin vein from a deceased donor and removed all the living cells, leaving just a protein scaffold tube. Stem cells extracted from the girl's bone marrow were then injected onto the tube and two weeks later the graft was implanted.

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Vein grown from stem cells saves girl

By Denise Mann HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- In what is being reported as a scientific first, Swedish doctors were able pair the groin vein of a dead donor with stem cells from a young girl and implant the healthy vein into the girl, improving both blood flow in her lower body and her quality of life.

The 10-year-old had a rare condition where her portal vein, which is located in the abdomen and tasked with carrying blood from the bowels and other abdominal organs to the liver, was blocked. If this vein is blocked, liver disease, heart failure and certain cancers may develop. The relatively rare condition may also cause weight loss, nausea and pain.

Details of the feat are published online June 14 in The Lancet.

U.S experts were quick to caution that the procedure has only been accomplished in one patient, but they agreed that it could be a game-changer with applications that go far beyond this particular condition.

In the procedure, the transplant team from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden first took a segment of the groin vein from a dead donor, and stripped it of all living cells. They then injected stem cells taken from the girl's own bone marrow into the remaining vein. Two weeks after this seeding, the newly grown graft was implanted in the girl.

There were no complications, and the procedure immediately restored normal blood flow. In the year following the operation, the girl grew taller and gained weight. Her blood flow later decreased, and she underwent a second vein replacement surgery a year after the first. Her quality of life has improved since the procedures, and she is now able to take increasingly long walks and participate in light gymnastics. Importantly, she is showing no sign of rejecting the new vein even though she is not taking any immunosuppressive drugs.

"The new stem cells-derived graft resulted not only in good blood flow rates and normal laboratory test values but also, in strikingly improved quality of life for the patient," wrote the team led by Dr. Michael Olausson, of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. "The work also establishes the feasibility and safety of a novel paradigm for treatment, in cases of venous insufficiency, obstructed veins or inadequate autologous [from the patient] veins."

Today, surgeons may approach such cases by harvesting veins from a patient's neck or leg to re-route around a blockage elsewhere. This can be traumatic and is associated with its own set of risks and complications. In addition, not everyone has healthy veins that can be used in this manner. This is where the new stem cell vein grafting procedure could play an important role.

"This is an interesting article and an exciting first step," said Dr. Scott Pilgrim, an attending pediatric cardiologist at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park. "If this outcome turns out to be reproducible and is studied in a larger, defined population with a well-designed, controlled trial, I feel this advance could be a watershed moment in developing new, novel strategies for vascular and cardiothoracic surgeons."

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First stem cell vein implant helps young girl

June 14, 2012

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com

A successful transplant operation in Sweden points to a medical future where your doctor can grow a transplant organ from your own cells, making organ donation a thing of the past.

Doctors have now successfully transplanted a vein grown with a patients own stem cells without complications or the need for immunosuppressants, according to a report published this week in The Lancet. The patient was a 10-year-old girl in Sweden who was suffering from a potentially fatal blockage in the vein which drains blood from the intestines and spleen to the liver.

Last March, a team of doctors at the University of Gothenburg decided to grow the new blood vessel used to bypass the blocked vein instead of using an invasive neck or leg surgery to extract one of her own.

The young girl in this report was spared the trauma of having veins harvested from the deep neck or leg with the associated risk of lower limb disorders, and avoided the need for a liver or multivisceral transplantation, Martin Birchall and George Hamilton of University College London wrote in The Lancet.

To start the procedure, doctors took a three-inch section of a cadaver groin vein and stripped it of all living cells, leaving only an inert protein structure. The team then injected it with blood-forming stem cells taken from the girls bone marrow. After growing the vein for two weeks in an incubator, the stem cells had multiplied and converted into vein wall cells, to create a biologically-engineered replacement. The new vein was then implanted into the patient a year ago.

The new stem-cells derived graft resulted not only in good blood flow rates and normal laboratory test values but also, in strikingly improved quality of life for the patient, the report said.

In noting the success of the transplant, the doctors reported that the patient grew 2 inches and gained 11 pounds over the following year. In addition, her parents said that she was more physically active, had improved articulated speech, and had concentrated better on her studies.

The only major complication was the slight constriction of the vein nine months after the operation, which was corrected in a follow-up procedure. During the course of following up on the operation, scientists found no antibodies for the donor vein in the girls blood. This meant her body was not rejecting the transplant because it was recognized as being made of her own cells.

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Doctors Use Stem Cells To Grow Vein For Young Patient

1:00 AM Since the new vein was transplanted, the 10-year-old with blockage to her liver is much improved.

The Associated Press

LONDON - For the first time doctors have successfully transplanted a vein grown with a patient's own stem cells, another example of scientists producing human body parts in the lab.

In this case, the patient was a 10-year-old girl in Sweden who was suffering from a severe vein blockage to her liver. Last March, the girl's doctors decided to make her a new blood vessel to bypass the blocked vein instead of using one of her own or considering a liver transplant.

They took a 3-inch section of vein from a deceased donor, which was stripped of all its cells, leaving just a hollow tube. Using stem cells from the girl's bone marrow, scientists grew millions of cells to cover the vein, a process that took about two weeks. The new blood vessel was then transplanted into the patient.

Because the procedure used her own cells, the girl did not have to take any drugs to stop her immune system from attacking the new vein, as is usually the case in transplants involving donor tissue.

"This is the future for tissue engineering, where we can make tailor-made organs for patients," said Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson of the University of Gothenburg, one of the study's authors.

She and colleagues published the results of their work online Thursday in the medical journal Lancet. The work was paid for by the Swedish government.

The science is still preliminary, and one year after the vein was transplanted, it needed to be replaced with another lab-grown vein when doctors noticed the blood flow had dropped. Experts from University College London raised questions in an accompanying commentary about how cost-effective the procedure might be, citing "acute pressures" on health systems that might make these treatments impractical for many patients.

Similar methods have already been used to make new windpipes and urethras for patients. Doctors in Poland have also made blood vessels grown from donated skin cells for dialysis patients.

Originally posted here:
Girl's stem cells used to make her a new vein

Nation & World briefing

LONDON -- For the first time doctors have successfully transplanted a vein grown with a patient's own stem cells in another example of producing human body parts in the lab.

In this case, the patient was a 10-year-old girl in Sweden who was suffering from a severe vein blockage to her liver. In March, the girl's doctors decided to make her a new blood vessel to bypass the blocked vein instead of using one of her own or considering a liver transplant.

They took a 31/2-inch section of vein from a deceased donor, which was stripped of all its cells, leaving just a hollow tube. Using stem cells from the girl's bone marrow, scientists grew millions of cells to cover the vein, a two-week process. The new blood vessel was then transplanted into the patient.

Because the procedure used her own cells, the girl did not have to take any drugs to stop her immune system from attacking the new vein, as is usually the case in transplants involving donor tissue.

Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson of the University of Gothenburg, one of the study's authors, and her colleagues published the results of their work online Thursday, June 14, in the British medical journal Lancet. The work was paid for by the Swedish government.

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Vein grown with patient's stem cells is transplanted