Category Archives: Stem Cell Videos

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received a complaint alleging the Houston company involved in Gov. Rick Perry's unregulated adult stem-cell operation is a potential danger to patients and not in compliance with federal law.

In an eight-page letter sent last month, University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner called on the FDA to investigate Celltex Therapeutics Corp., which banks people's stem cells for future reinjection in the event of disease or injury. Perry was the company's first customer last year.

"It appears their business plan involves injecting or infusing on a for-profit, commercial basis non-FDA-approved adult stem cells into paying customers," Turner wrote in the Feb. 21 letter. "This plan conflicts with FDA regulations governing human stem cells."

An FDA spokeswoman declined comment, but Turner said an agency official told him the matter has been assigned to an investigator and is being taken seriously.

Celltex co-founder David Eller said Tuesday night he is confident the company will "meet all FDA specifications." He emphasized that Celltex doesn't administer stem cells, but stores and processes them at the behest of doctors who later reinject them into patients.

Dr. Stanley Jones, a Houston orthopedic surgeon, injected Perry's stem cells during his back surgery in July.

The plan by Celltex and Perry to make Texas a leader in the therapy have been controversial since details about the governor's procedure became known last summer. The therapy, drawing on the ability of adult stem cells to replenish dying cells, is promising but thought by most medical researchers to need much more clinical study before it is commercialized.

Stem cells are a kind of medicine known as biologics, therapy involving living cells rather than chemicals. Most medical experts say that adult stem-cell therapy involves more than the "minimal manipulation" the agency allows without its oversight because the cells are isolated, cultured in a laboratory and stored for some period of time before being reinjected.

The FDA has recently stepped up enforcement of unregulated adult stem cell activity, though legal experts interviewed last fall by the Chronicle said it was unclear whether the agency would look into Perry's procedure because he seemed fully informed and unharmed by it.

The Texas Medical Board is currently considering a policy that would require providers of stem cells and other experimental drugs to use them only with the permission of independent review committees that assess trials for patient safety. The policy comes up for final approval in April.

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Gov. Perry's stem-cell firm draws FDA scrutiny

Washington, Mar 16 (ANI): A special type of brain cell forged from stem cells could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that cause the uncontrollable spasms characteristic of Huntington's disease, a new study has suggested.

Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence.

"This is really something unexpected," said Su-Chun Zhang, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the new study, which showed that locomotion could be restored in mice with a Huntington's-like condition.

Zhang is an expert at making different types of brain cells from human embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells.

In the new study, his group focused on what are known as GABA neurons, cells whose degradation is responsible for disruption of a key neural circuit and loss of motor function in Huntington's patients.

GABA neurons, Zhang explained, produce a key neurotransmitter, a chemical that helps underpin the communication network in the brain that coordinates movement.

In the laboratory, Zhang and his colleagues at the UW-Madison Waisman Center have learned how to make large amounts of GABA neurons from human embryonic stem cells, which they sought to test in a mouse model of Huntington's disease.

The goal of the study, Zhang noted, was simply to see if the cells would safely integrate into the mouse brain.

To their astonishment, the cells not only integrated but also project to the right target and effectively re-established the broken communication network, restoring motor function.

The results of the study were surprising, Zhang explained, because GABA neurons reside in one part of the brain, the basal ganglia, which plays a key role in voluntary motor coordination.

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'Forged' brain cells offers hope for Huntington's disease treatment

Todd Finkelmeyer has been covering higher education for the Capital Times since April 2008. He started contributing to the newspaper in 1990, was hired full-time in 1994 and has since covered everything from the Super Bowl to stem cell research. Follow his Campus Connection blog for the latest on higher education news in the Madison area.

Researchers working on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus have found a way to use neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells to restore muscle coordination in mice inflicted with a Huntingtons disease-like condition.

The findings, which were reported Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell by a team of scientists who work at the university's Waisman Center, could one day help lead to new therapies for Huntington's disease, the debilitating disorder that affects both muscle coordination and cognitive ability. There currently are no effective treatments.

This is very exciting, and next well try to move onto different models, particularly in primates, to see whether this actually works in a larger brain, says Su-Chun Zhang, a UW-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the study.

Zhang, who specializes in producing different types of brain cells from stem cells, explains that this particular research focused on GABA neurons -- the cells that deteriorate and thus disrupt the brains circuitry that leads to the loss of motor function in patients with Huntington's. He notes the GABA neurons make a chemical that plays an important role in helping to link the communication network in the brain with movement.

Zhang and co-workers in the lab figured out how to produce large amounts of these GABA neurons from human embryonic stem cells, which they tested in mice with a Huntingtons-like ailment. Initially, the researchers were just trying to see whether or not these cells could safely integrate into the mouse brain. They were stunned to see that the cells not only successfully merged into the brain, but that they also eventually sent signals to the proper targets and rewired broken circuitry to restore motor functions.

This was quite surprising, says Zhang. These human neurons actually projected a long distance to another place in the brain and hooked up at the circuit, which is essential for our movement coordination. This is very critical, because in order for cell therapies to work for Huntingtons, the circuit has to be re-formed.

He notes scientists generally didnt believe it was possible for this circuitry to be rewired in older brains. In the mature brain, the nerve cells do not project a long distance, particularly into the correct target, Zhang explains. But that happened with these cells. So the point is, these stem cells somehow know where to go.

Its not clear how relevant this information will be in finding treatments for Huntingtons, but the UW-Madison scientists are hopeful their research can be used as another building block of information that can one day lead to treatments for the debilitating disease.

According to the Huntington's Disease Society of America, more than a quarter of a million Americans have the ailment or are at risk of inheriting the disease from an affected parent.

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Campus Connection: UW research hints at potential for Huntington’s treatment

08-03-2012 17:13 A section from Sam Harris' talk at the Beyond Belief 2 conference. Harris argues that religion obscures moral intuitions, using the case of stem cells. Check out The Science Network at thesciencenetwork.org

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Sam Harris - Stem Cells and Morality (MIRROR).flv - Video

Public release date: 15-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Su-Chun Zhang zhang@waisman.wisc.edu 608-265-2543 University of Wisconsin-Madison

MADISON -- Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence.

But if researchers can build on new research reported this week (March 15, 2012) in the journal Cell Stem Cell, a special type of brain cell forged from stem cells could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that cause the uncontrollable spasms characteristic of the disease.

"This is really something unexpected," says Su-Chun Zhang, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the new study, which showed that locomotion could be restored in mice with a Huntington's-like condition.

Zhang is an expert at making different types of brain cells from human embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells. In the new study, his group focused on what are known as GABA neurons, cells whose degradation is responsible for disruption of a key neural circuit and loss of motor function in Huntington's patients. GABA neurons, Zhang explains, produce a key neurotransmitter, a chemical that helps underpin the communication network in the brain that coordinates movement.

In the laboratory, Zhang and his colleagues at the UW-Madison Waisman Center have learned how to make large amounts of GABA neurons from human embryonic stem cells, which they sought to test in a mouse model of Huntington's disease. The goal of the study, Zhang notes, was simply to see if the cells would safely integrate into the mouse brain. To their astonishment, the cells not only integrated but also project to the right target and effectively reestablished the broken communication network, restoring motor function.

The results of the study were surprising, Zhang explains, because GABA neurons reside in one part of the brain, the basal ganglia, which plays a key role in voluntary motor coordination. But the GABA neurons exert their influence at a distance on cells in the midbrain through the circuit fueled by the GABA neuron chemical neurotransmitter.

"This circuitry is essential for motor coordination," Zhang says, "and it is what is broken in Huntington patients. The GABA neurons exert their influence at a distance through this circuit. Their cell targets are far away."

That the transplanted cells could effectively reestablish the circuit was completely unexpected: "Many in the field feel that successful cell transplants would be impossible because it would require rebuilding the circuitry. But what we've shown is that the GABA neurons can remake the circuitry and produce the right neurotransmitter."

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Stem cells hint at potential treatment for Huntington's Disease

09-03-2012 18:23 A company is locked in a battle with the FDA over the use one's own stem cells. The company argues that one has the right to over one's own body? If that's true, why is the FDA blocking this treatment? Find out. Plus, doctors are refusing to treat children that do not get vaccinated. Is this ethical? See more at http://www.pjtv.com

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FDA Blocks Stem Cell Therapy: Is the Government Playing a Cell Game? - Video

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received a complaint alleging the Houston company involved in Gov. Rick Perry's unregulated adult stem-cell operation is a potential danger to patients and not in compliance with federal law.

In an eight-page letter sent last month, University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner called on the FDA to investigate Celltex Therapeutics Corp., which banks people's stem cells for future reinjection in the event of disease or injury. Perry was the company's first customer last year.

"It appears their business plan involves injecting or infusing on a for-profit, commercial basis non-FDA-approved adult stem cells into paying customers," Turner wrote in the Feb. 21 letter. "This plan conflicts with FDA regulations governing human stem cells."

An FDA spokeswoman declined comment, but Turner said an agency official told him the matter has been assigned to an investigator and is being taken seriously.

Celltex co-founder David Eller said Tuesday night he is confident the company will "meet all FDA specifications." He emphasized that Celltex doesn't administer stem cells, but stores and processes them at the behest of doctors who later reinject them into patients.

Dr. Stanley Jones, a Houston orthopedic surgeon, injected Perry's stem cells during his back surgery in July.

The plan by Celltex and Perry to make Texas a leader in the therapy have been controversial since details about the governor's procedure became known last summer. The therapy, drawing on the ability of adult stem cells to replenish dying cells, is promising but thought by most medical researchers to need much more clinical study before it is commercialized.

Stem cells are a kind of medicine known as biologics, therapy involving living cells rather than chemicals. Most medical experts say that adult stem-cell therapy involves more than the "minimal manipulation" the agency allows without its oversight because the cells are isolated, cultured in a laboratory and stored for some period of time before being reinjected.

The FDA has recently stepped up enforcement of unregulated adult stem cell activity, though legal experts interviewed last fall by the Chronicle said it was unclear whether the agency would look into Perry's procedure because he seemed fully informed and unharmed by it.

The Texas Medical Board is currently considering a policy that would require providers of stem cells and other experimental drugs to use them only with the permission of independent review committees that assess trials for patient safety. The policy comes up for final approval in April.

Read more from the original source:
FDA receives complaint about Houston company that stored Gov. Perry's stem cells

Newswise MADISON For the first time, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made early retina structures containing proliferating neuroretinal progenitor cells using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from human blood.

And in another advance, the retina structures showed the capacity to form layers of cells as the retina does in normal human development and these cells possessed the machinery that could allow them to communicate information. (Light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in the retina along the back wall of the eye produce impulses that are ultimately transmitted through the optic nerve and then to the brain, allowing you to see.) Put together, these findings suggest that it is possible to assemble human retinal cells into more complex retinal tissues, all starting from a routine patient blood sample.

Many applications of laboratory-built human retinal tissues can be envisioned, including using them to test drugs and study degenerative diseases of the retina such as retinitis pigmentosa, a prominent cause of blindness in children and young adults. One day, it may also be possible replace multiple layers of the retina in order to help patients with more widespread retinal damage.

We dont know how far this technology will take us, but the fact that we are able to grow a rudimentary retina structure from a patients blood cells is encouraging, not only because it confirms our earlier work using human skin cells, but also because blood as a starting source is convenient to obtain, says Dr. David Gamm, pediatric ophthalmologist and senior author of the study. This is a solid step forward.

In 2011, the Gamm lab at the UW Waisman Center created structures from the most primitive stage of retinal development using embryonic stem cells and stem cells derived from human skin. While those structures generated the major types of retinal cells, including photoreceptors, they lacked the organization found in more mature retina.

This time, the team, led by Gamm, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and postdoctoral researcher and lead author Dr. Joseph Phillips, used their method to grow retina-like tissue from iPS cells derived from human blood gathered via standard blood draw techniques.

In their study, about 16 percent of the initial retinal structures developed distinct layers. The outermost layer primarily contained photoreceptors, whereas the middle and inner layers harbored intermediary retinal neurons and ganglion cells, respectively. This particular arrangement of cells is reminiscent of what is found in the back of the eye. Further, work by Dr. Phillips showed that these retinal cells were capable of making synapses, a prerequisite for them to communicate with one another.

The iPS cells used in the study were generated through collaboration with Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) of Madison, Wis., who pioneered the technique to convert blood cells into iPS cells. CDI scientists extracted a type of blood cell called a T-lymphocyte from the donor sample, and reprogrammed the cells into iPS cells. CDI was founded by UW stem cell pioneer Dr. James Thomson.

We were fortunate that CDI shared an interest in our work. Combining our labs expertise with that of CDI was critical to the success of this study, added Dr. Gamm.

Other members of the research team include:

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Scientists Produce Eye Structures from Human Blood-Derived Stem Cells

Edited by M. A. Hayat 384 pp, $209 New York, NY, Springer, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-9-4007-2015-2

Stem cells and cancer stem cells are 2 distinct, evolving, and promising areas of research. Hematopoietic stem cells are already used in the treatment of bone marrow failure and hematologic malignancies, and there is now great interest in isolating stem cells from other organs for use in replenishing damaged tissue in the heart, brain, bones, and other organs and structures. In contrast, cancer stem cells, a newly recognized component of some cancers, have some properties of pluripotent stem cells in that they replicate without normal cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Moreover, they are naturally resistant to chemotherapy because of drug-exuding pumps, DNA repair proteins, and dormancy; thus, these cells are now suspected to be the root cause of relapse and metastasis after conventional therapies in some malignancies, especially leukemia. Targeting cancer stem cells in addition to cancer cells may therefore lead to better eradication of cancer than is presently possible.

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Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells: Therapeutic Applications in Disease and Injury, Volume 2 [Book and Media Reviews]

Civil servants urged to donate stem cells Last Updated(Beijing Time):2012-03-13 10:37

China should mobilize civil servants to donate their hemopoietic stem cells to help people with life-threatening blood diseases, proposed a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.

The publicity campaign mobilizing civil servants to donate would also allow them to develop a more intimate relationship with citizens, said Guo Changjiang, vice-president of the Red Cross Society of China, according to Beijing Times.

Statistics from the China Marrow Donor Program show that more than 20,000 civil servants donated their stem cells by the end of 2011, accounting for 0.33 percent of civil servants in China.

On the whole, the China Marrow Donor Program collected 1.46 million stem cell blood samples by the end of 2011, accounting for 0.11 percent of the population. The stock is limited compared to other countries.

At present there are nearly 1 million blood disease patients in China in need of a transplant of stem cells. Since it's difficult to find two sets of stem cells compatible enough for a transplant, a much larger stem cell pool is needed, according to medical experts.

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Civil servants urged to donate stem cells