Category Archives: Stem Cells

MANILA, PhilippinesStem cells in a bottle? Too good to be true.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned the public not to be taken in by the claims about Inner Power Stem Cells Booster, a purported stem cell product being sold and promoted online.

In an advisory dated May 29, FDA acting Director General Kenneth Go said the bottled product being marketed on a classified ads website, http://www.olx.ph, was not registered with the FDA either as a drug or a food supplement or human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based product (HCT/P).

Go also said the online ad carried deceitful health and therapeutic claims not supported by scientific or clinical studies.

According to the ad, seaweeds are the primary ingredient of the product combined with root crops, fruits, vegetables, legumes, honey and fructoligosaccharides (food for good bacteria).

The prebiotic mixture had been fermented and had produced a byproduct in the form of a jam, the ad said.

The ad further claimed that once taken, the product helped in stem cell production by the process of mitosis that would aid in platelet, red and white blood cells production.

Sea turtles

The ad also claimed that the product was formulated by a herbalist, Salvador Duco, who supposedly studied and observed the lifecycle of sea turtles.

From his study, Duco supposedly discovered that sea turtles could live up to 500 years because of the nutrients in the food they ate.

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FDA warns vs new stem cell product

At the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers reported results of a Phase I trial of OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc), an investigational drug candidate discovered by OncoMed Pharmaceuticals targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs). The drug was generally well tolerated, and several of the 26 patients with advanced solid tumors experienced stable disease for greater than six months. Three trials are now open for OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) in combinations with standard therapy for pancreatic, ovarian and liver cancers, being offered at the CU Cancer Center and elsewhere.

"These are optimistic results for one of the first targeted therapies for cancer stem cells," says Antonio Jimeno, MD, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center, director of the university's Cancer Stem Cell-Directed Clinical Trials Program, and principal investigator of the clinical trial at the CU Cancer Center site. "And it is great to work with such a science-focused sponsor, whose vision aligns with ours: bringing to the clinic cutting-edge drugs and ideas that are focused on targeting CSCs. In the context of the collaboration between the Gates Center for Stem Cell Biology and the CU Cancer Center this was the second clinical trial we offered to our patients with the specific intent to eliminate the CSCs in their tumors."

OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) is an antagonist of the Wnt pathway, a key CSC signaling pathway that regulates the fate of these cells. The Wnt pathway is known to be inappropriately activated in many major tumor types, including colon, breast, liver, lung and pancreatic cancers, and is critical for the function of CSCs. Because of this extensive validation, in the Jimeno lab and elsewhere, the Wnt pathway has been a major focus of anti-cancer drug discovery efforts. OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) and a sister compound also developed by OncoMed, vantictumab (OMP-18R5), are two of the first therapeutic agents targeting this key pathway to enter clinical testing. In multiple preclinical models, OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) has shown its effectiveness in reducing CSC populations, leading to associated anti-tumor activity, either as a single agent or when combined with chemotherapy.

"The ongoing line of work with this drug is an excellent example of the bench getting even closer to the bedside -- our lab work with the drug in patient-derived xenograft models of disease makes possible the clinical trials taking place at the University of Colorado Hospital next door," Jimeno says.

The Phase I clinical trial of OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) is an open-label dose escalation study in patients with advanced solid tumors for which there was no remaining standard curative therapy. Patients are assessed for safety, immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics, biomarkers, and initial signals of efficacy. The trial is conducted at Pinnacle Oncology Hematology in Scottsdale, Arizona, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the CU Cancer Center under the direction of Principal Investigators Dr. Michael S. Gordon, Dr. David Smith and Dr. Antonio Jimeno, respectively.

The most common adverse events, mild to moderate and manageable, included dysgeusia (altered taste), fatigue, muscle spasms, decreased appetite, alopecia and nausea. One related Grade 3 or greater adverse event of Grade 3 increased blood phosphorus was reported. One moderate sacral insufficiency fracture occurred in one patient at the highest tested dose of 20 mg/kg every three weeks after 6 cycles.

"The drug is now being developed in combination with standard of care in three Phase 1b clinical trials, with the CU Cancer Center being one of the active sites," Jimeno says. "In pancreatic, ovarian and liver cancers, we hope that by adding anti-cancer stem cell drugs to standard of care, we can control proliferating cells within the tumor that could otherwise help the tumor regenerate in the face of existing chemotherapies."

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The above story is based on materials provided by University of Colorado Cancer Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Results in Phase I Trial Targeting Cancer Stem Cells

A Harvard-led team is the first to demonstrate the ability to use low-power light to trigger stem cells inside the body to regenerate tissue, an advance they reported in Science Translational Medicine. The research, led by Wyss Institute Core Faculty member David Mooney, Ph.D., lays the foundation for a host of clinical applications in restorative dentistry and regenerative medicine more broadly, such as wound healing, bone regeneration, and more.

The team used a low-power laser to trigger human dental stem cells to form dentin, the hard tissue that is similar to bone and makes up the bulk of teeth. What's more, they outlined the precise molecular mechanism involved, and demonstrated its prowess using multiple laboratory and animal models.

A number of biologically active molecules, such as regulatory proteins called growth factors, can trigger stem cells to differentiate into different cell types. Current regeneration efforts require scientists to isolate stem cells from the body, manipulate them in a laboratory, and return them to the bodyefforts that face a host of regulatory and technical hurdles to their clinical translation. But Mooney's approach is different and, he hopes, easier to get into the hands of practicing clinicians.

"Our treatment modality does not introduce anything new to the body, and lasers are routinely used in medicine and dentistry, so the barriers to clinical translation are low," said Mooney, who is also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "It would be a substantial advance in the field if we can regenerate teeth rather than replace them."

The team first turned to lead author and dentist Praveen Arany, D.D.S., Ph.D., who is now an Assistant Clinical Investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At the time of the research, he was a Harvard graduate student and then postdoctoral fellow affiliated with SEAS and the Wyss Institute.

Arany took rodents to the laboratory version of a dentist's office to drill holes in their molars, treat the tooth pulp that contains adult dental stem cells with low-dose laser treatments, applied temporary caps, and kept the animals comfortable and healthy. After about 12 weeks, high-resolution x-ray imaging and microscopy confirmed that the laser treatments triggered the enhanced dentin formation.

"It was definitely my first time doing rodent dentistry," said Arany, who faced several technical challenges in performing oral surgery on such a small scale. The dentin was strikingly similar in composition to normal dentin, but did have slightly different morphological organization. Moreover, the typical reparative dentin bridge seen in human teeth was not as readily apparent in the minute rodent teeth, owing to the technical challenges with the procedure.

"This is one of those rare cases where it would be easier to do this work on a human," Mooney said.

Next the team performed a series of culture-based experiments to unveil the precise molecular mechanism responsible for the regenerative effects of the laser treatment. It turns out that a ubiquitous regulatory cell protein called transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-1) played a pivotal role in triggering the dental stem cells to grow into dentin. TGF-1 exists in latent form until activated by any number of molecules.

Here is the chemical domino effect the team confirmed: In a dose-dependent manner, the laser first induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are chemically active molecules containing oxygen that play an important role in cellular function. The ROS activated the latent TGF-1complex which, in turn, differentiated the stem cells into dentin.

Excerpt from:
Researchers Use Light To Coax Stem Cells To Repair Teeth

May 29, 2014

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Researchers led by a team from Harvard University have successfully used a low-power laser to stimulate stem cell differentiation within the body, according to a study published on Wednesday by Science Translational Medicine.

[ Watch the Video: What Are Stem Cells? ]

The study team used a laser to stimulate dental stem cells and cause them to form dentin the hard tissue that makes up the majority of a tooth. The study was also able to identify and describe the molecular mechanism behind the growth process.

Study author David Mooney noted that the work could eventually lead to testing of a non-invasive dental procedure.

Our treatment modality does not introduce anything new to the body, and lasers are routinely used in medicine and dentistry, so the barriers to clinical translation are low, said Mooney, a professor of bioengineering at Harvards School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in a recent statement. It would be a substantial advance in the field if we can regenerate teeth rather than replace them.

The study team began by drilling holes in the molars of rodents. Next, the team treated the tooth pulp containing dental stem cells with a low-power laser, applied short term caps, and kept the animals secure and in good health. After around 12 weeks, observations confirmed that the treatment regimen induced improved dentin development.

It was definitely my first time doing rodent dentistry, said study author Dr. Praveen Arany, a clinical investigator at the National Institutes of Health. The dentin was strikingly similar in composition to normal dentin, but did have slightly different morphological organization.

Moreover, the typical reparative dentin bridge seen in human teeth was not as readily apparent in the minute rodent teeth, owing to the technical challenges with the procedure, he added.

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Scientists Stimulate Dental Stem Cells With Laser

Open wide, this won't hurt a bit. That might actually be true if the dentist's drill is replaced by a promising low-powered laser that can prompt stem cells to make damaged hard tissue in teeth grow back. Such minimally invasive treatment could one day offer an easy way to repair or regrow our pearly whites.

When a tooth is chipped or damaged, dentists replace it with ceramic or some other inert material, but these deteriorate over time.

To find something better, researchers have begun to look to regenerative medicine and in particular to stem cells to promote tissue repair. Most potential stem cell therapies require the addition of growth factors or chemicals to coax dormant stem cells to differentiate into the required cell type. These chemicals would be applied either directly to the recipient's body, or to stem cells that have been removed from the body and cultured in a dish for implantation.

But such treatments have yet to make it into the doctor's clinic because the approach needs to be precisely controlled so that the stem cells don't differentiate uncontrollably.

Praveen Arany at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues wondered whether they could use stem cells to heal teeth, but bypass the addition of chemicals by harnessing the body's existing mechanisms.

"Everything we need is in the existing tooth structure the adult stem cells, the growth factors, and exactly the right conditions," says Arany.

So they tried laser light, because it can promote regeneration in heart, skin, lung, and nerve tissues.

To mimic an injury, Arany's team used a drill to remove a piece of dentin the hard, calcified tissue beneath a tooth's enamel that doesn't normally regrow from the tooth of a rat. They then shone a non-ionising, low-power laser on the exposed tooth structure and the soft tissue underneath it. This allowed the light to reach the dental stem cells deep inside the pulp of the tooth.

Twelve weeks after a single 5-minute treatment, new dentin had formed in the cavity. Similar dentin production was seen in mice and in cultured human dental stem cells.

It not quite the end of the dentist's intervention though, they would still need to cap the tooth to protect it, because the stem cells that produce enamel are not present in adults.

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Forget the dentist's drill, use lasers to heal teeth

TOKYO - A Japanese stem cell scientist, under pressure over inconsistencies in her groundbreaking research, has agreed to retract one of the two papers published in the respected journal Nature, reports said Thursday.

Haruko Obokata, 30, was feted after unveiling research that appeared to show a straightforward way to re-programme adult cells to become a kind of stem cell.

Stem cells are precursors that are capable of developing into any other cell in the human body, and a readily manufacturable supply of them could one day help meet a need for transplant tissues, or even whole organs.

But within weeks of her paper on so-called Stimulus-Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency (STAP) cells being published, questions began to emerge, with fellow scientists saying they could not replicate her results.

Riken, the respected research institute that sponsored the study, has urged her to withdraw her two papers, after concluding that she fabricated at least some of the data.

Obokata has agreed with her co-authors to a partial retraction, saying: "I don't oppose withdrawing one of the" papers, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Kyodo News and other media.

But her lawyer said that she won't withdraw the main paper, and insists she successfully created STAP cells on several occasions.

The paper to be withdrawn noted the versatility of the cells, while the other paper summed up the cells' characteristics and method of making them.

Immediate confirmation of the news reports were not available.

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Japan scientist to retract one stem cell paper

13 hours ago

Researchers investigating the use of human menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal cells (MBMCs) as culture 'feeder layers' found that MBMCs can replace animal-derived feeder systems in human embryonic stem cell culture systems and support their undifferentiated growth, while helping the cells proliferate and survive. For medical transplantation, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may need to remain "undifferentiated" and the experimenter's technique preserves the undifferentiated nature of hESCs destined for transplantation and also prevents potential animal cell contamination.

To be suitable for medical transplantation, one idea is that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) need to remain "undifferentiated" i.e. they are not changing into other cell types. In determining the best way to culture hESCs so that they remain undifferentiated and also grow, proliferate and survive, researchers have used blood cell "feeder-layer" cultures using animal-derived feeder cells, often from mice (mouse embryonic fibroblasts [MEFs]). This approach has, however, been associated with a variety of contamination problems, including pathogen and viral transmission.

To avoid contamination problems, a Brazilian research team has investigated the use of human menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal cells (MBMCs) as feeder layers and found that "MBMCs can replace animal-derived feeder systems in human embryonic stem cell culture systems and support their growth in an undifferentiated stage."

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Medicine, but is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub.

"Human embryonic stem cells present a continuous proliferation in an undifferentiated state, resulting in an unlimited amount of cells with the potential to differentiate toward any type of cell in the human body," said study corresponding author Dr. Regina Coeli dos Santos Goldenberg of the Instituto de Biofisica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. "These characteristics make hESCs good candidates for cell based therapies."

Feeder-layers for hESCs comprised of MEFs have been efficiently used for decades but, because of the clinical drawbacks, the authors subsequently experimented with human menstrual blood cells as a potential replacement for animal-derived feeder-layers, not only for negating the contamination issues, but also because human menstrual blood is so accessible. MBMCs are without ethical encumbrances and shortages, nor are they difficult to access - a problem with other human cells, such as umbilical cord blood cells, adult bone marrow cells or placenta cells.

"Menstrual blood is derived from uterine tissues," explained the researchers. "These cells are widely available 12 times a year from women of child-bearing age. The cells are easily obtained, possess the capability of long-term proliferation and are clinically compatible with hESCs-derived cells."

The researchers found that their culture system using MBMCs as a feeder-layer for hESCs are the "closest and more suitable alternative to animal-free conditions for growing hESCs" and a "good candidate for large-expansion of cells for clinical application." They also found no difference in growth factor expression when comparing the use of growth factors in both the standard feeder system using animal cells and the feeder system they tested using hESCs.

"It is also noteworthy to highlight that our group reported the rapid and efficient generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from MBMCs, indicating that these cells can be used as a model to study patient-specific disease and that in the future they might be used in clinical settings."

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Researchers find human menstrual blood-derived cells 'feed' embryonic stem cells

Disabled mice regained the ability to walk less than two weeks after receiving human neural stem cells (Photo: Shutterstock)

When scientists at the University of Utah injected human stem cells into mice disabled by a condition similar to multiple sclerosis, they expected the cells to be rejected by the animals' bodies. It turned out that the cells were indeed rejected, but not before they got the mice walking again. The unexpected finding could have major implications for human MS sufferers.

In multiple sclerosis, the body's immune system attacks the myelin sheath that covers and insulates nerve fibers in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve. With that insulation gone, the nerves short-circuit and malfunction, often compromising the patient's ability to walk among other things.

In the U Utah study (which was begun at the University of California, Irvine) human neural stem cells were grown in a Petri dish, then injected into the afflicted mice. The cells were grown under less crowded conditions than is usual, which reportedly resulted in their being "extremely potent."

As early as one week after being injected, there was no sign of the cells in the animals' bodies evidence that they had been rejected, as was assumed would happen. Within 10 to 14 days, however, the mice were walking and running. After six months, they still hadn't regressed.

This was reportedly due to the fact that the stem cells emitted chemical signals that instructed the rodents' own cells to repair the damaged myelin. Stem cells grown under the same conditions have since been shown to produce similar results, in tests performed by different laboratories.

Additional mouse trials are now planned to assess the safety and durability of the treatment, with hopes for human clinical trials down the road. "We want to try to move as quickly and carefully as possible," said Dr. Tom Lane, who led the study along with Dr. Jeanne Loring from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. "I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Source: University of Utah

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Human stem cell treatment gets mice with MS-like condition walking again

Julia Matsumoto was diagnosed with a rare condition called optic neuritis that caused her to go completely blind at the age of 31 A liposuction procedure that involved extracting stem cells from Matsumoto's fat helped Matsumoto regain her vision in less than four days There is a debate as to whether it was the difficult steroid therapy or the stem cells that helped Matsumoto gain her vision back

By Alexandra Klausner

Published: 20:09 EST, 28 May 2014 | Updated: 20:09 EST, 28 May 2014

One woman with a rare condition called optic neuritis says that liposuction not only helped her lose weight, stopped her from going blind.

Julia Matsumoto was diagnosed with a rare condition called optic neuritis that caused her to go completely blind at the age of 31.

A liposuction procedure that involved extracting stem cells from Matsumoto's fat and placing them back in her body helped Matsumoto regain her vision in four days.

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Julia Matsumoto thought she'd never be able to see again but a rare stem cell therapy involving liposuction helped her regain her vision in less that three days

Doctors performed liposuction on Julia's stomach and then harvested the stem cells in her fat

According to Medical News Today, 'Adult stem cells can divide or self-renew indefinitely, enabling them to generate a range of cell types from the originating organ or even regenerate the entire original organ.'

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Woman on the verge of blindness claims LIPOSUCTION helped her to see again once doctors harvested the stem cells from ...

The European Commission has, as predicted, turned down a request from more than 1.7 million citizens for new legislation to ban the funding of research using human embryonic stem cells, including those which do not involve destruction of new embryos.

Scientists are relieved. It is a good decision for us and for Europe, says stem-cell researcher Elena Cattaneo of the University of Milan, Italy, who works on Huntingtons disease. But One of Us, the organization that led the petition, claims on its website that the Commission has exercised an unjustifiable veto which flouts the democratic procedure.

The One of Us petition was among the first to be presented within the Commissions new European Citizens Initiatives (ECIs) scheme, launched two years ago in a bid to widen participatory democracy. The ECIs have drawn criticism for their potential to be exploited by pressure groups wishing to re-open recently closed debates. (Natures editorial pages joined the critics: see The democracy carousel.)

Any European Citizens Initiative which can muster more than a million signatures across at least seven EU countries automatically triggers a parliamentary hearing and a formal response from the Commission.

The parliamentary hearing for the One of Us initiative took place on 10 April.

Today the Commission published its reasoning for not proposing new legislation. It said that the EU Council of Member States and the European Parliament had last year debated the issue thoroughly, and no new information was available to warrant a return to the debate so soon. At the time, member states and parliament both agreed that stem-cell research held great promise for currently incurable diseases such as Parkinsons disease and it was thus in the public interest to support it. They also agreed that human embryonic stem cells are still sometimes required in such research.

In its statement, the Commission further pointed out that its funding rules already preclude active destruction of new embryos and require strict oversight of experiments.

The petitioners had referred to a 2011 judgement of the European Court of Justice, which ruled patenting of inventions involving cells derived from human embryos to be illegal. But the Commission said that ruling did not apply to research.

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European Commission rejects petition on embryonic stem cells