Category Archives: Stem Cell Videos

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT; OTCBB: ACTC), a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that chairman and CEO Gary Rabin will be presenting at the World Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Conference, May 21-23, in London.

Mr. Rabins presentation, titled Successes and ongoing advancements of human clinical trials for the treatment of AMD & Stargardts Disease, will be given on Monday, May 21 at 5:05 p.m. BST (London time). Mr. Rabin will provide an update on ACTs three ongoing human clinical trials in the U.S. and E.U. for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD) and Stargardts Macular Dystrophy (SMD).

ACT recently announced Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) approval to move forward with enrollment and treatment of additional patients with SMD in its U.S. SMD trial, and to treat the final two patients to round out the initial dosing arm in its European trial. All three of the companys ongoing clinical trials use human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.

About SMD, Dry AMD and Degenerative Diseases of the Retina

Stargardts Macular Dystrophy (SMD) is one of the most common forms of macular degeneration in the world. SMD causes progressive vision loss, usually starting in children between 10 to 20 years of age. Eventually, blindness results from photoreceptor loss associated with degeneration in the pigmented layer of the retina, called the retinal pigment epithelium or RPE cell layer.

Degenerative diseases of the retina are among the most common causes of untreatable blindness in the world. As many as thirty million people in the United States and Europe suffer from macular degeneration, which represents a $25-30 billion worldwide market that has yet to be effectively addressed. Approximately 10% of people ages 66 to 74 will have symptoms of macular degeneration, the vast majority the dry form of AMD which is currently untreatable. The prevalence increases to 30% in patients 75 to 85 years of age.

About Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology company applying cellular technology in the field of regenerative medicine. For more information, visit http://www.advancedcell.com.

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Advanced Cell Technology to Present at World Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Congress in London

Newswise May 17, 2012 - Oakland, Calif. Scientists at Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) led by Vladimir Serikov, MD, PhD, and Frans Kuypers, PhD, report in the current Epub issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicine (1) that placental stem cells with important therapeutic properties can be harvested in large quantities from the fetal side of human term placentas (called the chorion). The chorion is a part of the afterbirth and is normally discarded after delivery, but it contains stem cells of fetal origin that appear to be pluripotent -- i.e., they can differentiate into different types of human cells, such as lung, liver, or brain cells. Since these functional placental stem cells can be isolated from either fresh or frozen term human placentas, this implies that if each individuals placenta is stored at birth instead of thrown away, these cells can be harvested in the future if therapeutic need arises. This potential represents a major breakthrough in the stem cell field.

In previous work, Drs. Serikov and Kuypers reported a novel technology to harvest blood-forming stem cells from the placenta to augment cord blood cells (2). These cells are siblings of the cord blood derived stem cells. Cord blood stem cells, unlike embryonic stem cells, have been used for many hundreds of successful bone marrow transplants. These transplants are mainly performed in children, as the amount of cells that can be harvested from cord blood is usually not sufficient for a successful transplant in adults. Adding placental-derived stem cells to the cord blood stem cells could make successful adult bone marrow transplants routinely possible.

The current report (1) demonstrates that placental stem cells have much broader therapeutic potential than bone-marrow transplants, because they are pluripotent i.e. able to differentiate into many different cell types -- and they also generate growth factors that help in tissue repair. These cells are shown to integrate into different tissues when transplanted into mice, but like cord blood stem cells, and in contrast to embryonic pluripotent stem cells, they do not form tumor-like structures in mice.

Placental-derived stem cells are often viewed as adult stem cells in contrast to embryonic stem cells, which are the dominant focus in the stem cell research field. However, this report shows that these fetal stem cells can be harvested in large numbers, and without the ethical concerns attached to the use of embryonic stem cells. These stem cells may thus be a more practical source for regenerative medicine, particularly since, if placentas are routinely saved instead of thrown away, each individual will be able to draw on their own fetal stem cells if future therapeutic needs arise.

Placental stem cells are only 9 months old, and in contrast to adult stem cells, do not need to be reprogrammed to become pluripotent. Placental-derived stem cells have characteristics of young and vigorous cells, including young mitochondria. Future research will be aimed to bring this to the clinic and to test their efficacy in translational therapeutic applications.

Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), is known internationally for state-of-the-art basic and clinical research and translating it into interventions for treating and preventing human diseases. CHORI has 300 members of its investigative staff, a budget of about $50 million, and is ranked among the nations top 10 research centers in National Institutes of Health funding to childrens hospitals. For more information, go to http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org and http://www.chori.org.

References 1. Nazarov I, Lee J, Soupene E, Etemad S, Knapik D, Green W, Bashkirova E, Fang X, Matthay MA, Kuypers FA, Serikov VB. Multipotent Stromal Stem Cells from Human Placenta Demonstrate High Therapeutic Potential. Stem Cells Translational Medicine :2012;2011:2000 2000 http://www.StemCellsTM.com : Link to Abstract: http://stemcellstm.alphamedpress.org/content/early/2012/05/08/sctm.2011-0021.abstract, 2012. To appear in the June 2012 print issue. 2. Serikov V, Hounshell C, Larkin S, Green W, Ikeda H, Walters MC, Kuypers FA. Human Term Placenta as a Source of Hematopoietic Cells. Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 234:813-823, 2009.

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Multipotent Stromal Stem Cells from Normally Discarded Human Placental Tissue Demonstrate High Therapeutic Potential

17 May 2012 Last updated at 21:37 ET

A father who lost his son to leukaemia is calling for secondary schools and colleges to include one lesson on how to donate stem cells, blood and organs.

Keith Sudbury wants to raise awareness by making donation part of the curriculum for students aged 16 and over.

His son Adrian received a stem cell transplant which gave him an extra year of life, but died aged 27.

Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan is supporting the idea of 'Adrian's Law'.

Adrian spent the last two years of his life campaigning for better education about stem cell donation.

He took a petition to Downing Street and met the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to talk about the campaign to get more young people to register as donors.

With Adrian's Law, his parents Kay and Keith want the message to reach more young people and they hope that there will be a Private Member's Bill in the Commons to highlight its importance.

We can grow the first generation of potential lifesavers.

"We urgently need more people willing to donate blood and stem cells," Keith Sudbury said.

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Father wants 'donation' lessons

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utahs scandal-plagued, state-owned liquor business will have a new management scheme. After weeks of back-room negotiations, legislators and the governor have found a compromise.

Right now, in Utah the governor is mostly excluded from liquor policy. He will get a lot more power in liquor. But he will have to share power with the independent liquor commission. All of this change is in the hope of avoiding new scandals.

We have reached a compromise on the governance for alcohol policy for the state of Utah, said Sen. John Valentine. Governor Gary Herbert wanted the liquor commission to disappear. He wanted the governor to run liquor, as he runs other state departments. Prior to 1977, we had it all under the executive branch, said Valentine. But Valentine studied history. When liquor was under the governor, distilleries donated booze to the governor's fundraising gala. And in 1976, under Governor Calvin L. Rampton, there was a scandal. We ended up with five indictments. We ended up with a governor who ended up with 30 cases of booze up at the mansion that we couldnt account for, said Valentine. So the legislature created the liquor commission. But now under the commission, former Liquor Chief Dennis Cullen is accused of insider dealing with a firm owned by his son. In running the state liquor business, Utah moves from scandal to scandal. Utah has tried the governor running liquor, and tried the commission running liquor, and after this latest scandal, Utah will try a combination of the governor and the commission.

(Copyright 2012 Sinclair Broadcast Group) Legislators, Governor Find Comprise For Liquor Business Management

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Stem Cells Used To Repair Damaged Teeth

Pluristem Therapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq:PSTI; DAX: PJT: PLTR) today reported that the cardiac function in a diabetic-induced diastolic dysfunction in animals improved following PLacental eXpanded (PLX cells) administration.

The study was conducted as part of the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) in collaboration with Prof. Doctor Carsten Tschope and his staff at the Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Berlin-Bradenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Berlin, Germany.

Dr. Tschope said, "Currently, there are limited treatment options for diastolic dysfunction and even fewer options for diabetic induced diastolic dysfunction. This study holds promise that PLX cells might be able to inhibit diabetic induced diastolic dysfunction progression as well as possibly repair the existing damage, hypotheses that will be further explored in future studies."

Diabetes was induced in thirty-six mice resulting in the development of diastolic heart failure. After seven days, the animals received either PLX cells from two separate batches or placebo (12 subjects in each of the three groups). Ten mice were not treated (controls).

After three weeks, several cardiac parameters were assessed and found to be significantly improved following the treatment with PLX cells. Important measurements included the cardiac ejection fraction and the left ventricular (LV) relaxation time constant, believed to be the best index of LV diastolic function and a determination of the stiffness of the ventricle. Cardiac ejection fraction improved 19%, the left ventricular relaxation time constant fell 16% and stiffness of the ventricle fell 19%.

Administration of either batch of PLX cells also resulted in a significant anti-inflammatory effect.

Pluristem chairman and CEO Zami Alberman said, "As we demonstrated last week with the announcement that our cells successfully treated the seven year old patient suffering from aplastic bone marrow disease, our strategy is to develop a minimally invasive cell therapy solution that can be used to treat a wide range of life-threatening diseases. Our initial testing of a treatment for diastolic heart disease opens a new potential indication where our cells can be used and potentially positions Pluristem as a "first-line of defense" for diastolic dysfunction."

Pluristem's share price jumped 5.6% in pre-market trading on Nasdaq to $3.01, giving a market cap of $126.33 million. The share rose 10.6% on the TASE today to NIS 11.50.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - http://www.globes-online.com - on May 15, 2012

Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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Pluristem trial finds stem cells improve cardiac dysfunction

Washington, May 15 : In a new study, researchers have shown that human embryonic stem cells can be used to grow bone tissue grafts for use in research and potential therapeutic application.

The study is the first example of using bone cell progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells to grow compact bone tissue in quantities large enough to repair centimeter-sized defects.

When implanted in mice and studied over time, the implanted bone tissue supported blood vessel ingrowth, and continued development of normal bone structure, without demonstrating any incidence of tumor growth.

Dr. Darja Marolt, an Investigator at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Laboratory, is the lead author on the study.

She conducted the study as a post-doctoral NYSCF ' Druckenmiller Fellow at Columbia University in the laboratory of Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic.

Dr. Marolt's work is a significant step forward in using pluripotent stem cells to repair and replace bone tissue in patients. Bone replacement therapies are relevant in treating patients with a variety of conditions, including wounded military personnel, patients with birth defects, or patients who have suffered other traumatic injury.

Since conducting this work as proof of principle at Columbia University, Dr. Marolt has continued to build upon this research as an Investigator in the NYSCF Laboratory, developing bone grafts from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

iPS cells are similar to embryonic stem cells in that they can also give rise to nearly any type of cell in the body, but iPS cells are produced from adult cells and as such are individualized to each patient.

By using iPS cells rather than embryonic stem cells to engineer tissue, Dr. Marolt hopes to develop personalized bone grafts that will avoid immune rejection and other implant complications. (ANI)

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Bone grown from human embryonic stem cells

What if your very own bone marrow stem cells, upgraded with more immune cells, could be used to increase your chances of survival after a heart attack? Sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but according to a study done by Timothy Henry, MD of the Minneapolis Heart Institute and colleagues, it may in fact be possible. The findings, which were presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography, are considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal, but they are definitely promising.

"With stem cells, we've been successful with processes that improve blood flow," Henry told MedPage Today, and added that there is a significant number of class III heart failure patients who don't do well on medications or with devices.

"A therapy that would delay heart failure progression would be a major step forward," he said. "This small trial proved the intervention is safe and all the trends were in the right direction."

The next phase of the trial will begin in the summer. Stay tuned!

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Stem Cells May Help Heart Patients

University of Michigan Hospital (Credit: UM.edu)

ANN ARBOR Three patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis will be permitted to receive a second dose of stem cells delivered directly to the spinal cord, in a clinical trial being led by the University of Michigans Eva Feldman, M.D.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the second treatment after a review concluded that the patients showed no adverse effects from their first implantation surgeries.

All have ALS, the inevitably fatal degenerative disease of the nervous system that many call Lou Gehrigs disease. They received injections directly into the lumbar, or lower, area of the spinal cord.

None of the patients experienced any long-term complications related to either the surgical procedure or the implantation of stem cells, or showed signs of rejecting the cells. And in the months following the surgery to inject the cells, none showed evidence that their ALS progression was accelerating.

These patients will receive a second implantation to the cervical, or upper, region of the spine where the nerves that control breathing reside. Most ALS patients die of respiratory failure as these nerves die or are damaged by the disease.

We believe that the cells and the route of administration are safe, said Feldman, principal investigator of the trial and the director of the UMs A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. The FDA go-ahead to bring these three patients back for re-dosing is a further validation of that.

The trial is funded by Neuralstem, to which Feldman is an unpaid consultant.

This Phase 1 safety trial, which is taking place at Emory University in Atlanta, began in January 2010. After reviewing safety data from the first 12 patients, the FDA granted approval for the trial to advance the cervical injections. Three patients so far have received injections to that area. Those to be re-dosed will come from the first cohort of 12.

Results from that cohort recently were featured in the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells in an article authored by Feldman and her colleagues at Emory, including neurologist Jonathan Glass, M.D. and neurosurgeon Nick Boulis, M.D., who performed the implantation surgeries. Boulis, an adjunct professor at UMs Medical School and a Taubman Scholar, also developed the device used to inject the stem cells into the spinal cord, which received a notice of patent allowance from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October.

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ALS Patients Approved For More Stem Cells

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 16:01 EST, 9 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:37 EST, 10 May 2012

Stem cells have been transplanted into brain cancer patients for the first time in a bid to protect them against the toxic side effects of chemotherapy.

In a study involving three patients, scientists found that two of them survived longer than predicted following the surgery while the other has seen no disease progression after three years of treatment.

The study was carried out by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in the United States.

Breakthrough: Scientists have transferred stem cells into brain cancer sufferers in a bid to protect them against the harmful effects of chemotherapy

The centre's Dr Hans-Peter Kiem said: 'We found that patients were able to tolerate the chemotherapy better and without negative side effects after transplantation of the gene-modified stem cells.

'This compares with patients in previous studies who received the same type of chemotherapy without a transplant of gene-modified stem cells.'

Dr Kiem added that a major barrier to effective use of chemotherapy to treat cancers such as glioblastoma, which all three patients had, has been the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs to other organs, primarily bone marrow.

This results in decreased blood cell counts, increased susceptibility to infections and other side effects.

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Stem cells jab 'helps brain cancer patients tolerate chemotherapy'

A new study suggests stem cells may be able to act as a shield to protect the body from the harmful side effects of chemotherapy, the BBC News reported.

As chemotherapy drugs attempt to kill cancer drugs, they can also affect the bone marrow and other healthy tissues.

In a new study, however, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle were able to use genetically modified stem cells to protect the bone marrow.

The bone marrow is very susceptible to chemotherapy, and in response to the treatment, produces less blood cells. This leaves the body more prone to infection and fatigue.

Stem cell shielding appeared to stave off some of these negative side effects. Researchers took bone marrow from patients with brain cancer and isolated the stem cells. They infected the cells with a virus which carried a gene to protect the cells against a chemotherapy drug, and then re-implanted the cells into the patients.

"We found that patients were able to tolerate the chemotherapy better, and without negative side effects, after transplantation of the gene-modified stem cells than patients in previous studies who received the same type of chemotherapy without a transplant of gene-modified stem cells, Professor Hans-Peter Kiem told the BBC News.

All three patients lived longer than the average survival time of 12 months. One patient was still alive 34 months after treatment, according to the BBC.

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Stem cell shield may protect body from chemotherapy side effects