Category Archives: Stem Cells

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Are Stem Cells The Key To Anti-Aging? | Larry King Now - Ora TV - Video

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists who used human embryonic stem cells to regenerate damaged heart muscle in monkeys say this technique could be ready for human clinical trials within four years.

If the research proves successful, it could provide a way to restore normal function in failing hearts, according to the researchers.

Before this study, it wasn't known if it would be "possible to produce sufficient numbers of these cells and successfully use them to remuscularize damaged hearts in a large animal whose heart size and physiology is similar to that of the human heart," team leader Dr. Charles Murry, professor of pathology and bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a university news release.

Murry and his colleagues triggered heart attacks in anesthetized macaque monkeys and two weeks later injected 1 billion heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells into the damaged areas of the heart. That amount of cells was 10 times greater than what the researchers had previously been able to create.

The monkeys received immune system-suppressing drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted human cells. Within a few weeks, the new heart muscle cells matured and began to beat in time with the monkeys' heart cells. After three months, the transplanted cells appeared to be fully integrated into the monkeys' heart muscles.

On average, the transplanted cells regenerated 40 percent of the damaged heart muscle, according to the study published online April 30 in the journal Nature.

"The results show we can now produce the number of cells needed for human therapy and get formation of new heart muscle on a scale that is relevant to improving the function of the human heart," study co-author Dr. Michael Laflamme, also from the University of Washington, said in the news release.

There was at least one area of concern, however. In the weeks following the cell transplants, the monkeys had episodes of irregular heartbeats. But, the irregular heartbeats disappeared within two to three weeks as the stem cells matured, said Murry, who is also the director of the UW Center for Cardiovascular Biology.

The team plans to find ways to reduce the risk of heart rhythm problems and will try to prove that the stem cells strengthen the heart's pumping power.

Research carried out on animals often fails to produce similar results in humans.

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Stem Cells Used to Regenerate Heart Muscle in Monkeys

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-May-2014

Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. Stem cells made from the skin of adult, infertile men yield primordial germ cells cells that normally become sperm when transplanted into the reproductive system of mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Montana State University.

The infertile men in the study each had a type of genetic mutation that prevented them from making mature sperm a condition called azoospermia. The research suggests that the men with azoospermia may have had germ cells at some point in their early lives, but lost them as they matured to adulthood.

Although the researchers were able to create primordial germ cells from the infertile men, their stem cells made far fewer of these sperm progenitors than did stem cells from men without the mutations. The research provides a useful, much-needed model to study the earliest steps of human reproduction.

"We saw better germ-cell differentiation in this transplantation model than we've ever seen," said Renee Reijo Pera, PhD, former director of Stanford's Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Education. "We were amazed by the efficiency. Our dream is to use this model to make a genetic map of human germ-cell differentiation, including some of the very earliest stages."

Unlike many other cellular and physiological processes, human reproduction varies in significant ways from that of common laboratory animals like mice or fruit flies. Furthermore, many key steps, like the development and migration of primordial germ cells to the gonads, happen within days or weeks of conception. These challenges have made the process difficult to study.

Reijo Pera, who is now a professor of cell biology and neurosciences at Montana State University, is the senior author of a paper describing the research, which will be published May 1 in Cell Reports. The experiments in the study were conducted at Stanford, and Stanford postdoctoral scholar Cyril Ramathal, PhD, is the lead author of the paper.

The research used skin samples from five men to create what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, which closely resemble embryonic stem cells in their ability to become nearly any tissue in the body. Three of the men carried a type of mutation on their Y chromosome known to prevent the production of sperm; the other two were fertile.

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Stem cells from some infertile men form germ cells when transplanted into mice, study finds

In what could mark a significant breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease, researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have successfully repaired damaged tissue in monkey hearts using cells created from human embryonic stem cells. The findings demonstrate an ability to produce these cells on an unprecedented scale and hold great potential for restoring functionally of damaged human hearts.

The researchers were exploring ways of restoring human hearts damaged by myocardial infarctions, a common type of heart attack that blocks major arteries and prevents oxygen from reaching the heart muscle. This lack of oxygen in turn causes damage to the muscle tissue and impacts the ability of the heart to pump blood. The researchers are aiming to restore these hearts to full functionality using cells grown from human embryonic stem cells.

"Before this study, it was not known if it is possible to produce sufficient numbers of these cells and successfully use them to remuscularize damaged hearts in a large animal whose heart size and physiology is similar to that of the human heart," says Dr. Charles Murry, professor of pathology, bioengineering and medicine at UW and leader of the research team.

In testing the approach, the researchers anesthetized pigtail macaques and induced controlled myocardial infarctions lasting for 90 minutes apiece, an established model for studying myocardial infarctions. Two weeks later, the scientists injected one billion heart muscle cells into the damaged muscle, ten times the amount researchers had previously been able to generate.

Over the following weeks, the injected cells infiltrated the damaged tissue, maturing to form new muscle fibers and beat in synchrony with the heart. Three months after the injections, the cells appeared fully integrated with the original tissue.

"The results show we can now produce the number of cells needed for human therapy and get formation of new heart muscle on a scale that is relevant to improving the function of the human heart, says Dr. Michael Laflamme, UW assistant professor of pathology.

The researchers say that the injected stem cells regenerated 40 percent of the damaged heart tissue, though some side effects were observed. In the first weeks after the injections, the team reported occurrences of irregular heartbeats, also known as arrhythmias. However, the problem subsided after two to three weeks once the cells had matured and become stable.

From here, the researchers will work to reduce the risk of arrhythmias and also to clearly demonstrate that the cells are capable of substantially improving the functionality of a damaged heart. They are hopeful the approach will be ready for clinical trials in humans within four years.

The team's research was published in the journal Nature.

Source: University of Washington

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Human stem cells used to repair damaged monkey hearts

by Karen Weintraub, Special for USA TODAY

KING5.com

Posted on April 30, 2014 at 3:48 PM

Two new studies out today show both the incredible promise of stem cell research and its current limitations.

In one, published in the journal Nature, researchers showed that they could repair damaged hearts by injecting these versatile stem cells into macaque monkeys. Heart disease is the leading cause of death, and if the same process can work in people, it could benefit hundreds of thousands a year.

In the other study, published in Science Translational Medicine, five men were able to regrow leg muscles destroyed by accidents or military service. The researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh, inserted into the men's muscles a "scaffold" of muscle tissue from a pig. Through aggressive physical therapy right after the surgery, the men's own stem cells were encouraged to populate the scaffold and substantially rebuild their leg muscles.

Nothing had been able to help these men before, including multiple surgeries and years of physical therapy, said Stephen Badylak, the study's senior author.

"Frankly, most of these patients have been through hell," he said at a Tuesday news conference.

David Scadden, a physician and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, said he was impressed with the rigor and promise of both studies.

It's long been a goal of stem cell research to figure out how to help the body regrow damaged tissue, he said, and both studies mark a significant step toward that goal.

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Stem cells used to repair animal hearts and human muscle

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

29-Apr-2014

Contact: Angela Hopp ahopp@asbmb.org 713-471-4541 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

SAN DIEGO (April 29, 2014) Imagine filling a hole in your heart by regrowing the tissue. While that possibility is still being explored in people, it is a reality in salamanders. A recent discovery that newt hearts can regenerate may pave the way to new therapies in people who need to have damaged tissue replaced with healthy tissue.

Heart disease is the leading cause of deaths in the United States. Preventative measures like healthful diets and lifestyles help ward off heart problems, but if heart damage does occur, sophisticated treatments and surgical procedures often are necessary. Unfortunately, heart damage is typically irreversible, which is why researchers are seeking regenerative therapies that restore a damaged heart to its original capacity.

We have known for hundreds of years that newts and other types of salamanders regenerate limbs. If you cut off a leg or tail, it will grow back within a few weeks. Stanley Sessions, a researcher at Hartwich College in Oneonta, N.Y., wondered if this external phenomenon also took place internally. To find out, he surgically removed a piece of heart in more than two dozen newts.

"To our surprise, if you surgically remove part of the heart, (the creature) will regenerate a new heart within just six weeks or so," Sessions said. "In fact, you can remove up to half of the heart, and it will still regenerate completely!"

Before the research team dove deeper into this finding, Sessions and his three undergraduate students, Grace Mele, Jessica Rodriquez and Kayla Murphy, had to determine how a salamander could even live with a partial heart. It turns out that a clot forms at the surgical site, acting much like the cork in a wine bottle, to prevent the amphibian from bleeding to death.

What is the cork made of? In part, stem cells. Stem cells have unlimited potential for growth and can develop into cells with a specialized fate or function. Embryonic stem cells, for example, can give rise to all of the cells in the body and, thus, have promising potential for therapeutics.

As it turns out, stem cells play an important role in regeneration in newts. "We discovered that at least some of the stem cells for heart regeneration come from the blood, including the clot," Sessions explained.

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Stem cells aid heart regeneration in salamanders

Bjarki Johannesson, NYSCF

This colony of embryonic stem cells, created from a type 1 diabetes patient, is one of the first to be cloned from an adult human.

Two research groups have independently produced human embryonic stem-cell lines from embryos cloned from adult cells. Their success could reinvigorate efforts to use such cells to make patient-specific replacement tissues for degenerative diseases, for example to replace pancreatic cells in patients with type 1 diabetes. But further studies will be needed before such cells can be tested as therapies.

The first stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos were reported in May last year by a team led by reproductive biology specialist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton (see 'Human stem cells created by cloning'). Those cells carried genomes taken from fetal cells or from cells of an eight-month-old baby1, and it was unclear whether this would be possible using cells from older individuals. (Errors were found in Mitalipov's paper, but were not deemed to affect the validity of its results.)

Now two teams have independently announced success. On 17 April, researchers led by Young Gie Chung and Dong Ryul Lee at the CHA University in Seoul reported inCell Stem Cell that they had cloned embryonic stem-cell (ES cell) lines made using nuclei from two healthy men, aged 35 and 752. And in a paper published on Nature's website today, a team led by regenerative medicine specialist Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute describes ES cells derived from a cloned embryo containing the DNA from a 32-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes. The researchers also succeeded in differentiating these ES cells into insulin-producing cells3.

To produce the cloned embryos, all three groups used an optimized version of the laboratory technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the nucleus from a patient's cell is placed into an unfertilized human egg which has been stripped of its own nucleus. This reprograms the cell into an embryonic state. SCNT was the technique used to create the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, in 1996.

The studies show that the technique works for adult cells and in multiple labs, marking a major step. It's important for several reasons, says Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem-cell biologist at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London.

At present, studies to test potential cell therapies derived from ES cells are more likely to gain regulatory approval than those testing therapies derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are made by adding genes to adult cells to reprogram them to an embryonic-like state. Compared with iPS cells, ES cells are less variable, says Lovell-Badge. Therapies for spinal-cord injury and eye disease using non-cloned ES cells have already been tested in human trials. But while many ES cell lines have been made using embryos left over from fertility treatments, stem cells made from cloned adult cells are genetically matched to patients and so are at less risk of being rejected when transplanted.

Lovell-Badge says cloned embryos could also be useful in other ways, in particular to improve techniques for reprogramming adult cells and to study cell types unique to early-stage embryos, such as those that go on to form the placenta.

Few, however, expect a huge influx of researchers making stem cells from cloned human embryos. The technique is expensive, technically difficult and ethically fraught. It creates an embryo only for the purpose of harvesting its cells. Obtaining human eggs also requires regulatory clearance to perform an invasive procedure on healthy young women, who are paid for their time and discomfort.

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Stem cells made by cloning adult humans

Scientists have used cloning technology to make stem cells from a woman with Type 1 diabetes that are genetically matched to her and to her disease.

They hope to someday use such cells as tailor-made transplants to treat or potentially even cure the disease, which affects millions and which now has few treatment options other than careful diet and regular use of insulin.

Its the second report his month of success in using cloning technology to make human embryonic stem cells the cells that eventually create a complete human being and that scientists hope to harness to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinsons and injuries that cause paralysis or organ damage.

I think this is going to become reality, Dr. Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, whose report is published in the journal Nature on Monday, told reporters. It may be a bit in the future but it is going to happen.

The technique they use is called somatic cell nuclear transfer the same method used to make Dolly, the sheep who was the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996. Scientists remove the nucleus from a normal cell, clear the nucleus from a human egg cell, then inject the nucleus from the skin cell into the egg.

I think this is going to become reality."

Various chemical or electrical tricks can be used to start the egg growing as if it had been fertilized by sperm. In this case, they used DNA from a woman with Type 1 diabetes, and they said they used an improved method to trick the egg into developing.

It got to whats called a blastocyst a ball of cells that has not yet begun to differentiate into the different types of cells and tissues in the body, such as nerve cells, blood cells and bone cells. They removed individual cells and used various chemical baths to direct them to form into the desired cell type the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin and that are destroyed in diabetes. These cells carry the patients own unique DNA, including whatever genetic mistakes led to her diabetes.

These stem cells could therefore be used to generate cells for therapeutic cell replacement, they wrote in their report.

Scientists have cloned sheep, pigs, mice and monkeys, but its been far harder to clone human beings. Its partly because of the controversy few people advocate cloning humans for the purpose of making babies, and many people object to destroying a human embryo, even one that only ever existed in a lab dish.

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Stem Cells Made From Cloning Diabetic Woman

Scientists have used cloning technology to make stem cells from a woman with Type 1 diabetes that are genetically matched to her and to her disease.

They hope to someday use such cells as tailor-made transplants to treat or potentially even cure the disease, which affects millions and which now has few treatment options other than careful diet and regular use of insulin.

Its the second report his month of success in using cloning technology to make human embryonic stem cells the cells that eventually create a complete human being and that scientists hope to harness to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinsons and injuries that cause paralysis or organ damage.

I think this is going to become reality, Dr. Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, whose report is published in the journal Nature on Monday, told reporters. It may be a bit in the future but it is going to happen.

The technique they use is called somatic cell nuclear transfer the same method used to make Dolly, the sheep who was the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996. Scientists remove the nucleus from a normal cell, clear the nucleus from a human egg cell, then inject the nucleus from the skin cell into the egg.

I think this is going to become reality."

Various chemical or electrical tricks can be used to start the egg growing as if it had been fertilized by sperm. In this case, they used DNA from a woman with Type 1 diabetes, and they said they used an improved method to trick the egg into developing.

It got to whats called a blastocyst a ball of cells that has not yet begun to differentiate into the different types of cells and tissues in the body, such as nerve cells, blood cells and bone cells. They removed individual cells and used various chemical baths to direct them to form into the desired cell type the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin and that are destroyed in diabetes. These cells carry the patients own unique DNA, including whatever genetic mistakes led to her diabetes.

These stem cells could therefore be used to generate cells for therapeutic cell replacement, they wrote in their report.

Scientists have cloned sheep, pigs, mice and monkeys, but its been far harder to clone human beings. Its partly because of the controversy few people advocate cloning humans for the purpose of making babies, and many people object to destroying a human embryo, even one that only ever existed in a lab dish.

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Diabetic Woman's Cells Are Turned Into Embryonic Stem Cells

(CNN) For the first time, cloning technologies have been used to generate stem cells that are genetically matched to adult patients.

Fear not: No legitimate scientist is in the business of cloning humans. But cloned embryos can be used as a source for stem cells that match a patient and can produce any cell type in that person.

Researchers in two studies published this month have created human embryos for this purpose. Usually an embryo forms when sperm fertilizes egg; in this case, scientists put the nucleus of an adult skin cell inside an egg, and that reconstructed egg went through the initial stages of embryonic development.

This is a dream that weve had for 15 years or so in the stem cell field, said John Gearhart, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Gearhart first proposed this approach for patient-specific stem cell generation in the 1990s but was not involved in the recent studies.

Stem cells have the potential to develop into any kind of tissue in the human body. From growing organs to treating diabetes, many future medical advances are hoped to arise from stem cells.

Scientists wrote in the journal Cell Stem Cell this month that they used skin cells from a man, 35, and another man, 75, to create stem cells from cloned embryos.

We reaffirmed that it is possible to produce patient-specific stem cells using a nuclear transfer technology regardless of the patients age, said co-lead author Young Gie Chung at the CHA Stem Cell Institute in Seoul, South Korea.

On Monday, an independent group led by scientists at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute published results in Nature using a similar approach. They used skin cells from a 32-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes to generate stem cells matched to her.

Both new reports follow the groundbreaking research published last year by Shoukhrat Mitalipov and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University in the journal Cell. In that study, researchers produced cloned embryos and stem cells using skin cells from a fetus and an 8-month-old baby.

Its a remarkable process that gives us these master cells, these stems cells that are essentially the seeds for all of the tissues in our bodies, said George Daley, director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Childrens Hospital, who was not involved in the recent studies. Thats why its so important for medical research.

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Cloning used to make stem cells from adult humans