Category Archives: Stem Cells

Jesse Freeman, 71, had stem cells from his bone marrow injected into his heart after he had a cardiac arrest. With his wife Christine, 67

Mike Brooke, Reporter Sunday, March 2, 2014 6:00 PM

A 71-year-old man has become one of the first heart attack victims to receive pioneering stem cell surgery to see if it will help his recovery.

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On March 12, I will be 72, so the stem cell surgery for me is an early birthday present just to be alive, admits Jesse Freeman.

I was never ill in my life, then one day I was indoors and didnt feel great. I thought it was an infection that started in my jaw, then spread to my chest. I had a shower and drove down to Harold Wood walk-in centre.

I had extremely high blood pressure and they told me I had had a heart attack.

They took me to The London Chest Hospital and I was being operated on within 10 minutes.

The hospital saved my life they removed the blockage and put in a wire mesh stent to keep the artery open.

The doctors asked me while I was in recovery if I would take part in the stem cell trial.

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A team of Boston and Japanese researchers stunned the scientific world Wednesday by revealing a remarkably simple and unexpected way to create stem cells able to give rise to any tissue in the body.

To transform mature cells into powerful stem cells that are a biological blank slate, the team simply bathed them in an acid bath for half an hour. The technique appears to be far easier and faster than current methods for creating these cells, which scientists are racing to develop into therapies for a range of diseases.

The result is shocking, astounding, revolutionary, and weird, said scientists not accustomed to using such exuberant words to describe new research findings. The finding has been officially reported only in mice, but human studies are underway. Researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital said that over the weekend they made what appears to be a human version of the stem cells, although further study and confirmation of that preliminary result is needed.

Its just a wonderful result; its almost like alchemy, said Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who was not involved in the research published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It says one has found a way to reveal the hidden potential of cells with a relatively straightforward method.

The discovery less than a decade ago that it was possible to reprogram mature human cells to become stem cells was hailed as a breakthrough and was recognized with a share of the Nobel prize in 2012. It spawned a huge push, funded with hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private money, to devise ways to use the cells to treat diseases in which tissues are injured or lost, such as juvenile diabetes or heart failure.

The new work reveals a potentially cheap, fast, and simple avenue to create the powerful cellsby exposing mature cells to environmental stress instead of having to manipulate the genes inside the cells nucleus. If the finding is replicated by other scientists, it also promises to yield fresh insights into the behavior of cells, and demonstrates that important scientific advances often emerge from unexpected areas of inquiry.

The approach is so simple and so out-of-the-box that it might never have been tried if it hadnt been for the persistence and curiosity of Dr. Charles Vacanti, a Brigham and Womens anesthesiologist working largely outside the field of stem cell science.

Vacanti is best known for his work on the earmouse, the flashy tissue engineering feat of growing a human ear on the back of a mouse that made headlines in 1995. Vacanti wanted to find a better cell type to use on tissue engineering projects and began working with a team including his younger brother Martin, a pathologist, to find one.

In a 2001 study, they reported the discovery of a new kind of stem cell that they isolated with a technique that had been used to isolate neural stem cells: they mashed up mature tissue and passed it through ever-smaller pipettes to sift out a new type of cell they called a spore-like cell.

Our lab was pretty ridiculed, Vacanti recalled, of the scientific response. After that, I kind of kept it to myself.

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Scientists discover a new, simpler way to make stem cells - Boston.com

2014-02-08: Stem Cells for Incurable Diseases - Dr. Vicki Wheelock
In this lecture, Dr. Vicki Wheelock, a Clinical Professor of Neurology, speaks about Parkinson #39;s Disease and how stem cells are offering new hope in the trea...

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2014-02-08: Stem Cells for Incurable Diseases - Dr. Vicki Wheelock - Video

CAREMI: Healing "Broken" Hearts with Stem Cells
Acute myocardial infarct (AMI) severely damages heart tissue due to impaired perfusion or blood flow. Although established procedures like angioplasty and st...

By: Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares

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CAREMI: Healing "Broken" Hearts with Stem Cells - Video

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Clothing tycoon Peter Nygrd has been getting stem-cell treatments for four years.

The video begins like a clip from a James Bond movie, where the billionaire tycoon announces his plan to save humanity.

"Since the dawn of time, great men have challenged the status quo and dared to dream," an off-screen female narrator says in a sultry British accent while images of Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther King and other great historical figures parade across the screen.

The great man in question is none other than Peter Nygrd, the Helsinki-born, Manitoba-raised fashion magnate best known as the founder of Nygrd International.

And his plan to save humanity? Use stem-cell research to cure diseases and live forever, just as you would expect a billionaire tycoon to declare in a Bond movie.

In a 10-minute YouTube video titled Bahamas Stem Cell Laws: The Peter Nygrd Breakthrough, the 70-year-old former Winnipegger claims to be at the forefront of scientific and legislative efforts to further the achievements of stem-cell research.

Nygrd claims to have lobbied the Bahamian government to further stem-cell research, though the Bahamas Weekly reported the island nation's attorney general denied the billionaire was involved in drafting legislation.

That alone is fascinating, but Nygrd isn't just a stem-cell advocate. He says he's personally involved in the research by receiving injections of his own cells grown in Peter, or rather, petri dishes.

Yes, Nygrd claims he is actually getting younger. In his video, he calls stem-cell research a game-changer for humanity.

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Nygrd uses stem cells to pursue immortality

(PRWEB) February 27, 2014

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida, announces a series of free public seminars on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief, and, Dr. Nia Smyrniotis, Medical Director.

The next upcoming seminars will be held on March 2nd and March 16th. The March 2nd lecture will be at the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale Downtown, 250 N. Andrews Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, at 2pm. The March 16th lecture will be at the Comfort Suites Weston, 2201 N. Commerce Parkway, Weston, Florida 33326, at 2pm. You can, also, join Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center at the Health and Wellness Experience Expo presented by WPEC Channel 12 and the Sun-Sentinel on March 1st at Mizner Park Amphitheater, Boca Raton, Florida from 10am-5pm.

At the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, utilizing investigational protocols, adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be deployed to improve patients quality of life with a number of degenerative conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (also called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). Adipose tissue is exceptionally abundant in ADSCs. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15 minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and important Growth Factors that facilitate the stem cell process and promote their activity.

ADSCs are the body's natural healing cells - they are recruited by chemical signals emitted by damaged tissues to repair and regenerate the bodys damaged cells. The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center only uses autologous stem cells from a person's own fat no embryonic stem cells are used. Our current areas of study include: Heart Failure, Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and orthopedic joint injections. For more information, or if someone thinks they may be a candidate for one of the stem cell protocols offered by Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, they may contact Dr. Nia or Dr. Gionis directly at (561) 331-2999, or see a complete list of the Centers study areas at: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

About Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center is an affiliate of the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center (Irvine, California) and the Cell Surgical Network (CSN). We provide care for people suffering from diseases that may be alleviated by access to adult stem cell based regenerative treatment. We utilize a fat transfer surgical technology to isolate and implant the patients own stem cells from a small quantity of fat harvested by a mini-liposuction on the same day. The investigational protocols utilized by the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Research Protections; and the study is registered with http://www.Clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information contact: Miami(at)MiamiStemCellsUSA(dot)com or visit our website: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

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Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: Leaders in Stem Cell Treatment

Adult stem cells and cancer cells have many things in common, including an ability to migrate through tiny gaps in tissue. Both types of cells also experience a trade-off when it comes to this ability; having a flexible nucleus makes migration easier but is worse at protecting the nucleus' DNA compared to a stiffer nucleus. Nuclear proteins that regulate nuclear stiffness are therefore thought to control processes as diverse as tissue repair and tumor growth.

In a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that cell migration through micron-size pores is regulated by lamin-A, a nuclear protein that is very similar to the fibrous ones that make up hair.

They have also shown that a cell's ability to survive the mechanical stress of migration depends on proteins called "heat shock factors." Using an anti-cancer drug that inhibits heat shock responses, they showed that this drug's effectiveness relies on inhibiting the invasive migration of cells via the same mechanism.

Taking into account the role that lamin-A plays in increasing nuclear stiffness could help stem cell biologists and cancer clinicians interpret the diversity of nuclear shapes seen in a static sample of tissue under a microscope. Nuclei normally appear rounded but can also appear multi-lobed or greatly elongated; high lamin-A levels tend to produce the more distorted shapes after a cell squeezes its nucleus through a narrow pore.

"If we can understand more clearly the effects the lamin-A meshwork within nuclei has on the ability of cells to crawl through tiny openings," said Dennis Discher, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, " then we can develop better nucleus-directed treatments for stopping the spread of cancer or for keeping stem cells in the right place while they grow into tissue."

Discher, along with lead author Takamasa Harada, a graduate student in his lab, conducted the studies with fellow lab members Joe Swift, Jerome Irianto, Jae-Won Shin, Kyle Spinler, Avathamsa Athirasala, Dave Dingal and Irena Ivanovska, as well as undergraduate student Rocky Diegmiller.

The study's experiments were conducted on immortalized human cancer cells as well as human-donor-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which are in wide use in clinical trials for tissue repair. The researchers either inhibited or overexpressed lamin-A in the cells, then placed both kinds on top of a thin sheet with very small pores. By adding blood serum to a chamber on the bottom of the porous sheet, the researchers encouraged the cells to push, pull and squeeze their nuclei through the pores.

Looking under a microscope at the cells that made it though the sheet revealed very few of the cells where lamin-A had been overexpressed. There was also a dearth of cells where lamin-A was strongly repressed. The cells that were most successful in migrating through the sheet's pores were the ones with lamin-A only slightly less than normal.

"The decreased migration with very low lamin-A levels was especially surprising," Harada said, "and so we measured the physical stiffness of the various nuclei, confirming that cell nuclei were systematically softer with low levels of lamin-A."

"While cells with stiffer nuclei are clearly unable to push or pull their nuclei through the pores," he said, "all of the softer nuclei could be moved through more easily, which presented a paradox."

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Nuclear stiffness keeps stem cells, cancer cells in place

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Feb-2014

Contact: Evan Lerner elerner@upenn.edu 215-573-6604 University of Pennsylvania

Adult stem cells and cancer cells have many things in common, including an ability to migrate through tiny gaps in tissue. Both types of cells also experience a trade-off when it comes to this ability; having a flexible nucleus makes migration easier but is worse at protecting the nucleus' DNA compared to a stiffer nucleus. Nuclear proteins that regulate nuclear stiffness are therefore thought to control processes as diverse as tissue repair and tumor growth.

In a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that cell migration through micron-size pores is regulated by lamin-A, a nuclear protein that is very similar to the fibrous ones that make up hair.

They have also shown that a cell's ability to survive the mechanical stress of migration depends on proteins called "heat shock factors." Using an anti-cancer drug that inhibits heat shock responses, they showed that this drug's effectiveness relies on inhibiting the invasive migration of cells via the same mechanism.

Taking into account the role that lamin-A plays in increasing nuclear stiffness could help stem cell biologists and cancer clinicians interpret the diversity of nuclear shapes seen in a static sample of tissue under a microscope. Nuclei normally appear rounded but can also appear multi-lobed or greatly elongated; high lamin-A levels tend to produce the more distorted shapes after a cell squeezes its nucleus through a narrow pore.

"If we can understand more clearly the effects the lamin-A meshwork within nuclei has on the ability of cells to crawl through tiny openings," said Dennis Discher, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, " then we can develop better nucleus-directed treatments for stopping the spread of cancer or for keeping stem cells in the right place while they grow into tissue."

Discher, along with lead author Takamasa Harada, a graduate student in his lab, conducted the studies with fellow lab members Joe Swift, Jerome Irianto, Jae-Won Shin, Kyle Spinler, Avathamsa Athirasala, Dave Dingal and Irena Ivanovska, as well as undergraduate student Rocky Diegmiller.

The study's experiments were conducted on immortalized human cancer cells as well as human-donor-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which are in wide use in clinical trials for tissue repair. The researchers either inhibited or overexpressed lamin-A in the cells, then placed both kinds on top of a thin sheet with very small pores. By adding blood serum to a chamber on the bottom of the porous sheet, the researchers encouraged the cells to push, pull and squeeze their nuclei through the pores.

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Penn researchers show nuclear stiffness keeps stem cells and cancer cells in place

Richfeel Anagrow: World #39;s First Hair Thinning Treatment With Plant Stem Cell!
The Richfeel Anagrow treatment is the first of its kind in the world of hair care using "PCT Rejuva Max having Plant stem extracts and RF Anagrow 10X the fir...

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Richfeel Anagrow: World's First Hair Thinning Treatment With Plant Stem Cell! - Video

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Newswise Normally, when a cell becomes damaged or doesnt divide properly, the bodys natural recycling process breaks it down and it dies. Sometimes, though, the damage is to the genes that control a cell, and the result is out-of-control division. When this happens, a cancer cell is born.

New insights into how cancer cells arise and develop into tumors have come from researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Some of them are exploring the process by studying stem cells.

Modeling Early Pancreatic Cancer

Despite decades of progress in the detection, treatment and prevention of many types of cancer, the long-term survival rate for pancreatic cancer remains very low. One reason is that pancreatic cancer rarely produces symptoms until it has spread in the body.

The late stage at diagnosis also poses problems for researchers who want to study the early development of pancreatic cancer, according to Kenneth Zaret of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Thats because pancreatic cancer cells taken from people and then used to form tumors in animal models immediately produce the aggressive, advanced cancers from which they were derived.

Zarets lab has focused on understanding how transcription factors-proteins that control which genes in a cell are expressed-work in stem cells. His team recently explored the idea of reprogramming cancer cells so they act like embryonic stem cells, which can become just about any type of cell in the body. Because transcription factors in embryonic stem cells guide early organ development, the researchers thought that forcing cancer cells back to an embryonic state might allow the transcription factors to reproduce the early stages of cancer. This could then provide a model for studying the early development of pancreatic cancer.

Using tumor tissue from people with pancreatic cancer, Zaret and his colleagues succeeded in turning a sample of cancer cells back to an early, stem cell-like state. When used to create tumors in mice, these so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells formed early stage tumors and slowly progressed to invasive disease.

The human tumors grown in mice also secreted a wide range of proteins that are indicative of cell networks known to drive pancreatic cancer progression, as well as some not previously known to be associated with the disease. Were setting up collaborations to test these markers for their utility in screening human blood samples and see if they function as markers for detecting or predicting pancreatic cancer in humans, said Zaret.

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Learning About Cancer by Studying Stem Cells