Category Archives: Stem Cells

And now there are three: in the wake of announcements from laboratories in Oregon and California that they had created human embryos by cloning cells of living people, a lab in New York announced on Monday that it had done that and more.

In addition to cloning the cells of a woman with diabetes, producing embryos and stem cells that are her perfect genetic matches, scientists got the stem cells to differentiate into cells able to secrete insulin.

That raised hopes for realizing a long-held dream of stem cell research, namely, creating patient-specific replacement cells for people with diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart failure and other devastating conditions. But it also suggested that what the Catholic Church and other right-to-life advocates have long warned of - scientists creating human embryos to order - could be imminent.

The trio of successes "increases the likelihood that human embryos will be produced to generate therapy for a specific individual," said bioethicist Insoo Hyun of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. And "the creation of more human embryos for scientific experiments is certain."

The accelerating progress in embryonic stem cell research began last May. Scientists, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University, reported they had created healthy, early-stage human embryos - hollow balls of about 150 cells - by fusing ova with cells from a fetus, in one experiment, and an infant in another.

Earlier this month, scientists at the CHA Stem Cell Institute in Seoul, South Korea, announced they had managed the same feat with skin cells from two adult men.

In each case, scientists used a version of the technique that created the sheep Dolly in 1996, the first clone of an adult mammal. Called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the recipe calls for removing the nuclear DNA from an ovum, fusing it with a cell from a living person, and stimulating each ovum to begin dividing and multiplying. The resulting embryo includes stem cells that can differentiate into any human cell type.

While that sounds simple enough, immense technical hurdles kept scientists from achieving human SCNT over more than a decade of attempts. Now that they have a reliable recipe, including the right nutrients to sustain the eggs and the right timing to start it dividing, they have "a reproducible, reliable way to create patient-specific stem cells" via cloning, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology and co-author of the CHA paper.

INCURABLE DISEASE

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Cloned embryos yield stem cells for diabetes

Homeopathic Remedies Made From Stem Cells
Dr. Michael Martins recommends to buy Homeopathic Remedies made by their company from stem cells (Modern Homeopathy - http://herballabs.net/en/homeopathy/mod...

By: Lidija Skolnija

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Homeopathic Remedies Made From Stem Cells - Video

Gold River, CA (PRWEB) April 27, 2014

SkinStore.com, the nations leading e-commerce specialty retailer with over 9000 products for healing and maintaining healthy skin, has added Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio Repair to its assortment of premium products.

Using state-of-the-art breakthrough stem cell technology, Peter Thomas Roth blended five rose stem cells with four rose extracts to create luxurious, effective anti-aging products. The Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Gel Mask is a cooling, revitalizing gel designed to promote cell turnover. Strengthening and rejuvenating the skin, the soothing mask improves the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles as well as dullness and dehydration, leaving skin radiant. Cleansing is a vital part of any skin care regimen, but a cleanser can do more than just remove makeup and environmental impurities. Glycolic acid combined with rose water, rose hip seed and other extracts plus rose stem cells make Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Cleansing Gel highly effective at sweeping away dead skin surface cells to reveal fresh, young-looking skin.

Christina Bertolino, Senior Buying Manager at SkinStore.com, said, Peter Thomas Roth is known industry-wide for effective products that produce clinically-proven results. With their cutting-edge plant stem cell technology theyve created a breakthrough in anti-aging.

About SkinStore.com. Physician-founded in 1997, SkinStore carries over 300 premium brands of skin care, cosmetics, hair care, beauty tools and fragrances from around the world. With over 9,000 products to choose from, SkinStore is a leading online resource for clinical and dermatologist-recommended skin care products. Customers receive free shipping on all U.S. orders over $49, and an esthetician-staffed call center is available Monday through Friday to answer questions and offer product recommendations. The company is headquartered in Gold River (Sacramento), California with operations in Sydney, Australia and an affiliate in Hangzhou, China. For more information visit SkinStore.com, SkincareStore.com.au, or SkinStorechina.com

Contact Information Denise McDonald, Content & Production Manager SkinStore http://www.skinstore.com 916-475-1427

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SkinStore.com Announces the Addition of Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Products

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Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014 7:00 pm

Commentary: Stem cells: Good or evil? The Washington Post SantaFeNewMexican.com |

Controversies over stem-cell research are so last decade or so it seemed until last week.

For the last few years, the promising field of stem-cell research has focused on a technique that skirts various ethical concerns about the treatment of human embryos and the potential to clone whole human beings. But last week, U.S. and South Korean researchers announced that they went ahead with a different technique, successfully creating stem cells cloned from the normal skin cells of adults. Their work helps to open a new avenue in stem-cell research. But it also could be a step on the way to human reproductive cloning.

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Commentary: Stem cells: Good or evil?

Stem Cells with Dr Newman - Presented by Linda Miner
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Stem Cells with Dr Newman - Presented by Linda Miner - Video

Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014, 9:00 AM

FRIDAY, April 25, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Skin that was created from stem cells and grown in a lab could be used instead of animals to test drugs and cosmetics, and to develop new treatments for skin disorders, scientists report.

An international team of researchers said it's the first to create lab-grown epidermis -- the outermost layer of skin -- that has a functional barrier like real skin. The functional barrier prevents water from escaping the body and keeps germs and toxins out. Until now, no one had successfully grown epidermis with a functional barrier, which is needed for drug testing, the study authors said.

The research, led by scientists at King's College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center, is described in the current issue of the journal Stem Cell Reports.

The ability to create an unlimited amount of genetically identical skin samples "can be used to study a range of conditions where the skin's barrier is defective due to mutations in genes involved in skin barrier formation, such as ichthyosis (dry, flaky skin) or atopic dermatitis (eczema)," Dr. Theodora Mauro, leader of the research team, said in a King's College London news release.

"We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery," she said.

Dr. Dusko Ilic, leader of the team at King's College London, said: "Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents, and thus could be scaled up for commercial testing of drugs and cosmetics."

"Human epidermal equivalents representing different types of skin could also be grown, depending on the source of the stem cells used, and could thus be tailored to study a range of skin conditions and sensitivities in different populations," he added.

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Stem Cells Yield Lab-Grown Skin, Researchers Say

April 25, 2014

Kings College London

An international team led by Kings College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) has developed the first lab-grown epidermis the outermost skin layer with a functional permeability barrier akin to real skin. The new epidermis, grown from human pluripotent stem cells, offers a cost-effective alternative lab model for testing drugs and cosmetics, and could also help to develop new therapies for rare and common skin disorders.

The epidermis, the outermost layer of human skin, forms a protective interface between the body and its external environment, preventing water from escaping and microbes and toxins from entering. Tissue engineers have been unable to grow epidermis with the functional barrier needed for drug testing, and have been further limited in producing an in vitro (lab) model for large-scale drug screening by the number of cells that can be grown from a single skin biopsy sample.

The new study, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, describes the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to produce an unlimited supply of pure keratinocytes the predominant cell type in the outermost layer of skin that closely match keratinocytes generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and primary keratinocytes from skin biopsies. These keratinocytes were then used to manufacture 3D epidermal equivalents in a high-to-low humidity environment to build a functional permeability barrier, which is essential in protecting the body from losing moisture, and preventing the entry of chemicals, toxins and microbes.

A comparison of epidermal equivalents generated from iPSC, hESC and primary human keratinocytes (skin cells) from skin biopsies showed no significant difference in their structural or functional properties compared with the outermost layer of normal human skin.

Dr Theodora Mauro, leader of the SFVAMC team, says: The ability to obtain an unlimited number of genetically identical units can be used to study a range of conditions where the skins barrier is defective due to mutations in genes involved in skin barrier formation, such as ichthyosis (dry, flaky skin) or atopic dermatitis. We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery.

Dr Dusko Ilic, leader of the team at Kings College London, says: Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents, and thus could be scaled up for commercial testing of drugs and cosmetics. Human epidermal equivalents representing different types of skin could also be grown, depending on the source of the stem cells used, and could thus be tailored to study a range of skin conditions and sensitivities in different populations.

Source: King's College London

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Skin Layer Grown From Human Stem Cells Could Replace Animals In Drug, Cosmetics Testing

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Apr-2014

Contact: Jenny Gimpel jenny.gimpel@kcl.ac.uk 44-020-784-84334 King's College London

An international team led by King's College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) has developed the first lab-grown epidermis the outermost skin layer - with a functional permeability barrier akin to real skin. The new epidermis, grown from human pluripotent stem cells, offers a cost-effective alternative lab model for testing drugs and cosmetics, and could also help to develop new therapies for rare and common skin disorders.

The epidermis, the outermost layer of human skin, forms a protective interface between the body and its external environment, preventing water from escaping and microbes and toxins from entering. Tissue engineers have been unable to grow epidermis with the functional barrier needed for drug testing, and have been further limited in producing an in vitro (lab) model for large-scale drug screening by the number of cells that can be grown from a single skin biopsy sample.

The new study, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, describes the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to produce an unlimited supply of pure keratinocytes the predominant cell type in the outermost layer of skin - that closely match keratinocytes generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and primary keratinocytes from skin biopsies. These keratinocytes were then used to manufacture 3D epidermal equivalents in a high-to-low humidity environment to build a functional permeability barrier, which is essential in protecting the body from losing moisture, and preventing the entry of chemicals, toxins and microbes.

A comparison of epidermal equivalents generated from iPSC, hESC and primary human keratinocytes (skin cells) from skin biopsies showed no significant difference in their structural or functional properties compared with the outermost layer of normal human skin.

Dr Theodora Mauro, leader of the SFVAMC team, says: "The ability to obtain an unlimited number of genetically identical units can be used to study a range of conditions where the skin's barrier is defective due to mutations in genes involved in skin barrier formation, such as ichthyosis (dry, flaky skin) or atopic dermatitis. We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery."

Dr Dusko Ilic, leader of the team at King's College London, says: "Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents, and thus could be scaled up for commercial testing of drugs and cosmetics. Human epidermal equivalents representing different types of skin could also be grown, depending on the source of the stem cells used, and could thus be tailored to study a range of skin conditions and sensitivities in different populations."

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Skin layer grown from human stem cells could replace animals in drug and cosmetics testing

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells, which the researchers have dubbed induced HSCs (iHSCs), have the functional hallmarks of HSCs, are able to self-renew like HSCs, and can give rise to all of the cellular components of the blood like HSCs.

The findings mark a significant step toward one of the most sought-after goals of regenerative medicine: the ability to produce HSCs suitable for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from other cell types, in particular more mature or differentiated cells.

The research team, led by Derrick J. Rossi, PhD, of Boston Children's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, reported their work today online in the journal Cell.

HSCs are the basic starting material for HSCTs, regardless of their source (bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood). The success of any individual patient's HSCT is tied to the number of HSCs available for transplant: the more cells, the more likely the transplant will take hold. However, HSCs are quite rare.

"HSCs only comprise about one in every 20,000 cells in the bone marrow," says Rossi. "If we could generate autologous HSCs from a patient's other cells, it could be transformative for transplant medicine and for our ability to model diseases of blood development."

In their study, Rossi and his collaborators, including lead author Jonah Riddell, PhD, screened gene expression in 40 different types of blood and blood progenitor cells from mice. From this screen they identified 36 transcription factors -- genes that control when other genes are turned on and off -- that are expressed exclusively in HSCs, not in cells that arise from them.

"Blood cell production invariably goes in one direction: from stem cells, to progenitors, to mature effector cells," Rossi explains. "We wanted to reverse the process and derive HSCs from differentiated blood cells using transcription factors that we found were specific to HSCs."

In a series of mouse transplantation experiments, Rossi's team found that six -- Hlf, Runx1t1, Pbx1, Lmo2, Zfp37 and Prdm5 -- of the 36 factors, plus two additional factors not originally identified in their screen -- Mycn and Meis1 -- were sufficient to robustly reprogram two kinds of blood progenitor cells (pro/pre B cells and common myeloid progenitor cells) into iHSCs.

Rossi's team reprogrammed their source cells by exposing them to viruses containing the genes for all eight factors and a molecular switch that turned the factor genes on in the presence of doxycycline. They then transplanted the exposed cells into recipient mice and activated the genes by giving the mice doxycycline.

The resulting iHSCs were capable of generating the entire blood cell repertoire in the transplanted mice, showing that they had gained the ability to differentiate into all blood lineages. Stem cells collected from those recipients were themselves capable of reconstituting the blood of secondary transplant recipients, proving that the eight-factor cocktail could instill the capacity for self-renewal -- a hallmark property of HSCs.

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Blood cells reprogrammed into blood stem cells in mice

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Apr-2014

Contact: Irene Sege irene.sege@childrens.harvard.edu 617-919-3110 Boston Children's Hospital

BOSTON (April 24, 2014)Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells, which the researchers have dubbed induced HSCs (iHSCs), have the functional hallmarks of HSCs, are able to self-renew like HSCs, and can give rise to all of the cellular components of the blood like HSCs.

The findings mark a significant step toward one of the most sought-after goals of regenerative medicine: the ability to produce HSCs suitable for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from other cell types, in particular more mature or differentiated cells.

The research team, led by Derrick J. Rossi, PhD, of Boston Children's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, reported their work today online in the journal Cell.

HSCs are the basic starting material for HSCTs, regardless of their source (bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood). The success of any individual patient's HSCT is tied to the number of HSCs available for transplant: the more cells, the more likely the transplant will take hold. However, HSCs are quite rare.

"HSCs only comprise about one in every 20,000 cells in the bone marrow," says Rossi. "If we could generate autologous HSCs from a patient's other cells, it could be transformative for transplant medicine and for our ability to model diseases of blood development."

In their study, Rossi and his collaborators, including lead author Jonah Riddell, PhD, screened gene expression in 40 different types of blood and blood progenitor cells from mice. From this screen they identified 36 transcription factorsgenes that control when other genes are turned on and offthat are expressed exclusively in HSCs, not in cells that arise from them.

"Blood cell production invariably goes in one direction: from stem cells, to progenitors, to mature effector cells," Rossi explains. "We wanted to reverse the process and derive HSCs from differentiated blood cells using transcription factors that we found were specific to HSCs."

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Scientists reprogram blood cells into blood stem cells in mice