Category Archives: Stem Cells

Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter Posted: Wednesday, September 18, 2013, 2:00 PM

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have figured out a way to more readily turn adult skin cells into primitive stem cells that could potentially be used to treat a variety of chronic diseases.

In a study published Sept. 18 in Nature, Israeli researchers reported that they identified the key molecule that stops adult cells from transforming into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Those stem cells are similar to the primitive cells found in embryos, and have the potential to generate any type of body tissue, scientists believe.

Ultimately, the hope is to use iPS cells to treat damaged tissue in a range of chronic ills -- from heart disease and diabetes, to arthritis, and spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer's disease.

That's still some years away, according to the experts, but the new findings are a step forward.

"We've already known how to create these cells, but it's an inefficient process," said Konrad Hochedlinger, a stem cell researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who was not involved in the study.

Right now, it could take weeks to months to coax human skin cells to transform into iPS cells. And even then, only a fraction of the cells are actually successfully "reprogrammed," Hochedlinger added.

In the new study, researchers reprogrammed in the space of one week nearly all of the mouse and human skin cells they studied.

They did it by identifying a molecule that normally acts as a "roadblock" to keep adult cells from reverting back to infancy.

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Advance Seen in Turning Adult Cells Into Stem Cells

by KING 5 HealthLink

KING5.com

Posted on September 18, 2013 at 1:47 PM

Updated today at 6:06 PM

One-in-three people in the U.S. suffers from chronic pain. It affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. Non-invasive treatments in the past have been limited, but now stem cells could hold the key to the future of pain management.

Eight out of ten of us have back pain at some time in our lives---usually it's not a serious problem. But when it is, you can have a difficult time getting relief. Now researchers say stem cells could hold the key.

Bobby Sydnor has something to sing about. He may have found the answer to his debilitating pain from a motorcycle accident 40 years ago that nearly crushed his spine.

"It's just excruciating; it is, he said. I remember sometimes crawling to the bathroom."

But now thanks to a new therapy, he's finally getting some relief without surgery. Hes taking part in a clinical trial that's using stem cells to regenerate discs in the spine.

"It really has the potential to change the disease state, instead of just treating the symptoms," said Dr. Tory McJunkin, a principal investigator in the study. They have the ability to change and regrow that tissue until its normal tissue.

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Stem cells used to treat chronic back pain

Cells can now be made pluripotent on a tight schedule and with high efficiency.

Hanna Lab

Researchers have for the first time converted cultured skin cells into stem cells with near-perfect efficiency.

By removing a single protein, called Mbd3, a team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, was able to increase the conversion rate to almost 100% ten times that normally achieved. The discovery could clear the way for scientists to produce large volumes of stem cells on demand, hastening the development of new treatments

In 2006, scientists first showed that mature cells could be reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells capable of growing indefinitely and of becoming any type of cell in the body, a property known as pluripotency. But the production of these induced pluripotent stem cells remained mysteriously inefficient. Low cell-conversion rates have thwarted efforts to study how the process, called reprogramming, happens. It has also discouraged the development of techniques to produce stem cells under the stringent conditions required for therapeutic applications.

But in work described today in Nature1, Weizmann stem-cell researcher Jacob Hanna and his team have reprogrammed cells with nearly 100% efficiency. Moreover, the researchers show that the cells all transition to pluripotency on a synchronized schedule.

"This is the first report showing that you can make reprogramming as efficient as anyone was hoping for, says Konrad Hochedlinger, a stem-cell scientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "It is really surprising that manipulating a single molecule is sufficient to make this switch, and make essentially every single cell pluripotent within a week."

Scientists typically reprogram cells to become pluripotent using a set of four genes. These are integrated into cells' DNA, where they switch on cells' own pluripotency program, turning them into induced pluripotent stem cells. But even established techniques convert less than 1% of cultured cells many get stuck in a partially reprogrammed state. And some become pluripotent faster than others, making the reprogramming process difficult to monitor.

Hanna and his team investigated the potential roadblocks to reprogramming by working with a line of specially engineered mouse cells, in which the reprogramming genes were already inserted and could be activated with a small molecule. Such cells normally reprogram at rates below 10%. But when a gene responsible for producing the protein Mbd3 was repressed, rates soared to nearly 100%.

Hanna says that the precise timing of embryonic development led him to wonder whether it might be possible to reprogram the reprogramming process. Cells in an embryo are not supposed to remain pluripotent indefinitely, he explains. Usually, Mbd3 represses the pluripotency program as an embryo develops, and then remains in mature cells. During reprogramming, proteins from the inserted pluripotency genes prompt Mbd3 to repress the cells own pluripotency genes.

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Stem cells made with near-perfect efficiency

Sep. 17, 2013 Scientists have succeeded in growing stem cells that have the ability to develop into two different types of cells that make up a healthy pancreas. The research team led by Dr. Hans Clevers of the Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands, have isolated and grown stem cells from the pancreases of mice using a 3-D culture system previously developed by the scientists. The results, which are reported in The EMBO Journal, could eventually lead to ways to repair damaged insulin-producing beta cells or pancreatic duct cells.

Cell signalling molecules known as Wnts and a protein called Lgr5 are essential to produce adult stem cells that can be coaxed to grow and divide rapidly. However, these signaling pathways and molecules are inactive in the adult pancreas. "We have found a way to activate the Wnt pathway to produce an unlimited expansion of pancreatic stem cells isolated from mice," Clevers said. "By changing the growth conditions we can select two different fates for the stem cells and generate large numbers of either hormone-producing beta cells or pancreatic duct cells." He added: "This work is still at a very early stage and further experiments are needed before we can use such an approach for the culture of human cells but the results are a promising proof-of-concept."

In the study, the pancreases of mice were altered in a way that makes duct cells proliferate and differentiate. Some cells in this new population were stem cells that were capable of self-renewal. The scientists were able to culture these cells to give rise to large numbers of pancreatic cells or tiny clumps of tissue referred to as organoids.

Therapeutic strategies for pancreatic disease have been hampered by a lack of cell culture systems that allow scientists to grow replacement tissue in a test tube or on a dish. Alternative approaches such as tissue transplantation are limited by the scarcity of donors and the possibility of tissue rejection. The new work offers access to an unlimited supply of pancreatic stem cells that would be beneficial for the development of new therapeutic interventions for pancreatic diseases like diabetes.

The next steps for the scientists will include further refinement of the cell culture methods developed in this study and investigation of ways to extend the approach to human pancreatic cells.

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Pancreatic stem cells isolated from mice

Newswise We often think of human cells as tiny computers that perform assigned tasks, where disease is a result of a malfunction. But in the current issue of Science, researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center offer a radical view of health seeing it more as a cooperative state among cells, while they see disease as result of cells at war that fight with each other for domination.

Their unique approach is backed by experimental evidence. The researchers show a network of genes in cells, which includes the powerful tumor suppressor p53, which enforce a cooperative state within cellsrather like the queen bee in a beehive. Disease or disorder occurs when these enforcer genes are mutated, allowing competition between cells to ensue.

Both competition and cooperation drive evolution, and we are wired for cooperation all the way down to our genes, says the studys senior investigator, Thomas P. Zwaka, MD, PhD, Professor at the Black Family Stem Cell Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The findings, if backed by future research, offer a new way to address disease, Dr. Zwaka says. Understanding the genetic basis of cooperative and competitive cellular behaviors could explain how cancer and immune system dysfunction develops, he says. If a cell has lost a gene that fosters communication among cells, it may dominate other cells by ignoring signals to stop proliferating. It also makes sense that the immune system might detect and attack cells that are not cooperating. Failure to cooperate may also underlie development of birth defects.

He adds that it may be possible to flip the cooperation switch back on therapeutically, or to manipulate stem-like cells to misbehave in a way that produces replacement cells for regenerative medicine.

Cell misbehave, they are unpredictable. They do not operate like little machines, he says. What our study suggests is that cooperation is so central to our evolution that we have genetic mechanisms to protect us against cheating and dominating behavior.

A network of genes with an ancient function The research team, which also includes study first author Marion Dejosez, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Icahn School at Mount Sinai, took a long view toward the behavior of cells. They wondered how it was that cells, which lived on earth as single units for hundreds of millions of years, could effectively bundle themselves together to perform specific tasks. Cells started somehow to form alliances, and to cooperate, and obviously this multicellularity had certain advantages.

But they also questioned what happened to the cheating behavior that can be seen in single cells, such as amoeba, that live in colonies competitive behavior that allows the cell to gain a reproductive advantage without contributing its fair share to the community.

They conducted a genetic screen in stem cells to look for mutants that allow cells to misbehaveto become a little antisocial and do things they wouldnt normally do, Dr. Zwaka says. The screen picked up about 100 genes, which seem to cluster together into a network.

The team focused on three of those genesp53, long known as the guardian of the genome, Topoisomerase 1 (Top1), which control genomic stability, and olfactory receptors involved in the sensation of smell.

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Stem Cells are Wired for Cooperation, Down to the DNA

Bio Stem Plus as it was advertised in sulit.com.ph. The advertisement has become inactive as of Monday.

MANILA, PhilippinesThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sunday warned the public against buying unregistered stem cell supplements being peddled online.

In an advisory, the FDA cited in particular a product called Bio Stem Plus, saying that it was neither an FDA-approved stem cell preparation nor an approved food or dietary product.

According to acting FDA Director General Dr. Kenneth Go, the agency had been monitoring Bio Stem Plus supplements being sold and advertised with deceitful health and therapeutic claims through sulit.com.ph, an online buy-and-sell website catering to the Philippine market.

Go said the product was being promoted supposedly as a natural stem cell nutrition that increases adult stem cell circulation, repairs damaged tissues, decreases the effects of aging, aids in up to 70 known human conditions and cures high blood, vertigo and back pain.

The public is hereby warned against buying and using unregistered Bio Stem Plus There are no scientific and clinical studies that would support or back up its health and therapeutic claims, said Go.

As advertised, stem cell is to be taken orally and will not pass as a product for registration as human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/P), he added.

Under the Department of Healths Administrative Order No. 2013-0012, stem cells and stem cell products must be preparations of viable cells that have the capacity to replicate and differentiate into different types of cells.

HCT/Ps are intended for implantation, transplantation, infusion or transfer into a human recipient so stem cell products that are supposed to be taken orally or applied topically cannot pass as HCT/Ps, said the DOH.

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FDA warns vs stem cells taken orally

The Texas Medical Board on Friday approved controversial new rules on the use of adult stem cells, raising concerns that Texans could receive therapies that have not yet been proven to work and that could be unsafe.

The new rules allow doctors to perform stem-cell procedures as long as they are done for research and receive approval from an institutional review board, which can be private and profit-making. The rules also require that patients sign informed consent forms.

The approval process, which took months, was set off by Gov. Rick Perry, who reported relief from back pain after being injected with his own stem cells last summer before he began his presidential bid. Perry directed his staff to help push through the legislation on which the new rules are based.

Researchers said the evidence of success of stem-cell injections is anecdotal, and they advocate waiting for clinical trial results before allowing doctors to charge patients for the procedures, which typically cost tens of thousands of dollars.

I think there are some real problems with these rules, said Leigh Turner, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, who commented on the rules before the board. The protective mechanism that they're focusing on isn't going to do very much.

The rules' supporters acknowledged the need for changes, like a better definition of stem cells, but they said the rules would protect Texas patients more effectively. Procedures are being performed now without oversight.

Doing something at this point is better than doing nothing, said Mario Salinas, director of Texans for Stem Cell Research, adding, This is just the first step.

Perry received a stem-cell injection in July to treat his back pain. That same month, he sent a letter to the medical board chairman commenting on the revolutionary potential that adult stem-cell research and therapies have on our nation's health, quality of life and economy. The rules approved Friday do not address the use of embryonic stem cells a far more controversial procedure that has drawn moral and religious objections.

Although bone-marrow transplants, which use blood-forming stem cells, have been used effectively to treat a variety of ailments for decades, experts say other procedures remain experimental. The medical board's proposed rules, which appeared last month in the Texas Register, attracted criticism from Nature, the international journal, which wrote in an editorial that the board should make clear the need for clinical validation of adult stem cells.

Because the rules had already been published in the state register and stakeholders had provided feedback, the medical board could not make major changes Friday and faced a simple choice: Accept or reject the rules.

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Rules on use of adult stem cells get approval

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Stem Cell Research Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 12 Sep 2013 - 8:00 PDT

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A team of scientists in Spain has reprogrammed adult cells in live mice to revert to stem cells that appear as potent as embryonic stem cells.

The team reports its findings online this week in the journal Nature. The study is the first to achieve in living tissue what so far has only been possible in a petri dish.

Embryonic stem cells represent the "gold standard" in stem cell research and regenerative medicine, since they are the only stem cells capable of differentiating into any of the hundreds of cell types in the body.

The hope is that harnessing this ability to differentiate into any cell type will lead to treatments that can cure diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.

However, there are ethical problems about sourcing embryonic stem cells, as well as practical difficulties, since they have a very short lifespan during the early development of the embryo.

Thus, there is a need to find alternative ways to make stem cells that are as good as embryonic stem cells.

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Stem cells generated in live mice

Scientists have succeeded in generating new stem cells in living mice.

They say their success opens up possibilities for the regeneration of damaged tissue in people with conditions ranging from heart failure to spinal cord injury.

The researchers used the same "recipe" of growth-boosting ingredients normally used for making stem cells in a Petri dish, but introduced them instead into living laboratory mice and found they were able to create so-called reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).

"This opens up new possibilities in regenerative medicine," said Manuel Serrano, who led the study at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid.

Stem cell experts who were not directly involved in the study said its success was exciting, but noted that the technique as it stands could not be used in humans since the reprogrammed cells also lead to tumours forming in the mice.

"Clearly nobody wishes to do this for therapeutic purposes because this leads to the formation of tumours called teratomas," said Ilaria Bellantuono, a reader in Stem Cell and Skeletal Ageing at Britain's University of Sheffield.

But she added that Serrano's work was a "a proof of concept" that opened up the opportunity to investigate ways to partially reprogram cells in the body up to a certain stage.

"In principle, these partially dedifferentiated cells could then be induced to differentiate to the cell type of choice inducing regeneration in vivo without the need of transplantation," she said.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and are able to differentiate into all other types of cells.

Scientists say that by helping to regenerate tissue, they could offer new ways of treating diseases for which there are currently no treatments - including heart disease, Parkinson's and stroke.

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Scientists grow new stem cells in living mice

Washington, Sept. 12 (ANI): Researchers were able to make adult cells from a living organism retreat in their evolutionary development to recover the characteristics of embryonic stem cells.

The team from Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have also discovered that these embryonic stem cells, obtained directly from the inside of the organism, have a broader capacity for differentiation than those obtained via in vitro culture.

Specifically, they have the characteristics of totipotent cells: a primitive state never before obtained in a laboratory.

The study, led by Manuel Serrano, the director of the Molecular Oncology Programme and head of the Tumoural Suppression Laboratory generated these cells within an organism.

Maria Abad, the lead author of the article and a researcher in Serrano's group, said that this change of direction in development has never been observed in nature and they have demonstrated that they can also obtain embryonic stem cells in adult organisms and not only in the laboratory.

Serrano said that they can now start to think about methods for inducing regeneration locally and in a transitory manner for a particular damaged tissue.

Stem cells obtained in mice also show totipotent characteristics never generated in a laboratory, equivalent to those present in human embryos at the 72-hour stage of development, when they are composed of just 16 cells. (ANI)

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First embryonic stem cells grown in living mouse