Category Archives: Stem Cells

August 6, 2013

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

A new study from the Ostrow School of Dentistry of the University of Southern California (USC) reveals stem cells found in mouth tissue can relieve inflammatory disease, as well as become other types of cells.

The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Dental Research, focused on gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSC) that are found in the gingival, or gum tissue, of the mouth. Like other stem cells, GMSC have the ability to develop into different types of cells as well as affect the immune system.

Gingiva is very unique in our body, says Professor Songtao Shi, associate professor at the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology. It has much less inflammatory reaction and heals much faster when compared to skin.

Before this study, the developmental origins and abilities of GMSC had not been fully demonstrated. The USC researchers reveal there are two types of GMSC. The first type, M-GMSC, arrives from the mesoderm layer of cells during embryonic development. The second type, N-GMSC, originate from cranial neural crest cells that develop into many important structures of the head and face. N-GMSC were found to comprise 90 percent of the gingival stem cells.

M-GMSC and N-GMSC vary dramatically in their abilities, the team found. In addition to being easier to change into other types of cells, including neural and cartilage-producing cells, N-GMSC also have more of a healing effect on inflammatory disease than M-GMSC. When mice with dextrate sulfate sodium-induced colitis an inflamed condition of the colon received transplants of N-GMSC, the inflammation was dramatically reduced.

The study findings suggest the stem cells in the gingiva obtained via a simple biopsy of the gums may have important medical applications in the future.

We will further work on dissecting the details of the gingiva stem cells, especially their notable immunoregulatory property, says Xingtian Xu, specialized lab technician at the Ostrow School of Dentistry Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology.

Through the study of this unique oral tissue, we want to shed the light on the translational applications for improving skin wound healing and reducing scar formation.

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Gum Tissue Stem Cells Heal Fast And Fight Inflammation

Through research, attention to detail and patience, Rebecca Soto is working to eradicate leukemia through stem cell research.

Soto, a junior at the University of Texas at El Paso, is one of 44 undergraduate students chosen from a pool of 650 applicants to participate in the 2013 Harvard Stem Cell Institute Internship program in Cambridge, Mass.

It was through her work at UTEP, in which she was studying the influenza virus through the Harvard Hughes Medical Institute, that Soto as given the opportunity to participate in the stem cell research program at Harvard. Soto said she jumped at the opportunity because of her love for science and the potential of stem cells.

"Stem cell research has been seen as the best potential to cure a variety of diseases," Soto said. "With leukemia the most typical type of treatments are bone marrow transplants. But sometimes the patient's immune system rejects the transplant. But if you can harvest the stem cells from the patient and reprogram their cells to be healthy they may be able to recuperate from the disease they have."

The summer program, hosted by Harvard University and 11 of the university's affiliated schools and hospitals including the Boston Children's Hospital, is a summer internship program in which college students study the promise of stem cell research and develop possible treatments

The program, which began June 10 and will end Aug. 16, gives undergraduate students hands on experience in the field of stem cell biology. The program also provides students with a stipend of $4,320.

Stem cells are biological cells that have the potential to renew themselves. Their use has been researched to renew or repair damaged tissue or organs.

"Stem cells are very promising," Soto said. "And the great thing about stem cell research is that it's not just limited to one field.

It can apply to a variety of different fields. I think that anyone that would be affected by a disease or serious illness could use stem cells to cure diseases and eradicate the pain that our loved ones may feel."

The 10-week program, began in 2004, with a small pool of applicants strictly from Harvard University, said William Lensch, the internship program director for the institute.

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UTEP student works to eradicate leukemia through stem cells

August 5, 2013, 8:29 a.m.

For a $330,000 burger, taste testers thought the flavor fell a little flat.

The hefty price tag, however, wasn't for some fancy, rare cut of meat. In fact, this meat had never so much as mooed in a previous life: It was beef grown in a laboratory.

Dutch scientists Monday unveiled their ambitious research project, years in the making, with a public taste test of their cultured beef in London.

Volunteer tasters sampled hamburger made from the lab-grown beef made from stem cells. Scientists hope it can one day alleviate a food crisis as the world's population swells and help combat climate change.

Quiz: How well do you know fast food?

To make the meat, scientists atMaastricht University in the Netherlandsused muscle stem cells from two organic cows and combined them with a nutrient solution. The muscle cells then grew into strands of meat. It takes 20,000 strands to make a 5-ounce burger.

Taste testers said the meat lacked the fat of a conventional burger, making the taste a little underwhelming, the Associated Press reported.

But with a bit more tinkering, Mark Post, who led the project, said that could be resolved.

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Scientists cook, eat beef made from cattle stem cells grown in lab

LONDON For $332,000, you might expect a burger to come with fries and a shake.

But it's no ordinary hamburger that two volunteer taste-testers tucked into in London on Monday. The meat was grown in a laboratory, from cattle stem cells.

The perfectly round patty was pan fried in sunflower oil and butter and then sampled by Josh Schonwald, author of The Taste of Tomorrow, and food scientist Hanni Rutzler.

It was "close to meat," according to Rutzler, but she said she expected it to be softer and as the petri-dish beef contains no fat, it wasn't very juicy.

Schonwald also noted the absence of fat, which translated into a lesser flavor, "but the bite feels like a conventional hamburger"

Mark Post, whose team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands developed the burger, hopes that making meat in labs could eventually help feed the world and fight climate change.

Monday's taste test, coming after five years of research, is a key step toward making lab meat a culinary phenomenon.

"For the burger to succeed it has to look, feel and taste like the real thing," Post said.

Post and colleagues made the meat from the muscle cells of two organic cows. The cells were put into a nutrient solution to help them develop into muscle tissue, growing into small strands of meat.

It took nearly 20,000 strands to make one 5-ounce patty, which for Monday's taste test was seasoned with salt, egg powder, breadcrumbs, red beet juice and saffron. The project cost $332,000.

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Burger grown from cow stem cells in laboratory put to taste test in London

French biotech entrepreneur Andre Choulika is working on an unusual and pricey project: A stem cell bank for adults. Choulika's stem cell bank, Sceil, is a new Singapore-based operation that claims to transform human skin cells into stem cells and then to store them for future medical procedures. For $60,000, clients can have a sample of their underarm skin punched at a local dermatologist, and sent to Singapore, where the cells are converted into stem cells over the course of a few months. The $60,000 only covers the first two years of storage.

Yes, it's expensive, but It's also one of the very first attempts to bank adult stem cells for future medical procedures.

Sceil, which operates in Singapore thanks to strict regulatory issues surrounding stem cell banking in the United States and the European Union, is based around the regenerative medicine theories of Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. In a telephone conversation with Fast Company, Choulika expressed interest in future innovations--some decades away--that might come from Yamanaka's work. Yamanaka won his Nobel Prize, shared with researcher John Gurdon, for turning mature human cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. These stem cells, though somewhat more difficult to work with than embryonic stem cells, avoid much of the ethical and legal issues that surround them.

The process of converting underarm cells into stem cells takes several months, Choulika told me. Skin cell samples are cultured to a volume of several billion, and these primary cells are saved as backups. Then some of these cells are cultured and converted into induced pluripotent stem cells over a period of three to four months. The conversion process lasts longer for different people. In some people it's more difficult, and in others it's easier. For good measure, Choulika emphasized that his company stores the stem cells in liquid nitrogen on three different continents.

Here is an infographic Sceil provides to potential clients to explain his business model:

Three different continents? Right there is the rub with Sceil. The company's target audience are ultra-affluent folks with lots of spending money--although Choulika didn't say as much, the 12-14 million people worldwide he cited as a target market jibes nicely with that--who are worried about their future health. They could be a target market for some world-changing medical experiments in foreign countries.

Regenerative medicine researchers worldwide have promised revolutionary results. Researchers at Wake Forest University are applying regenerative medicine techniques to 3-D print artificial organs on demand. Scientists at San Francisco State University are working on regenerating adult teeth. Then there are the more experimental efforts attempting to undo neurological damage and human aging with regenerative medicine. Once the FDA and other regulatory agencies approve hospital-ready versions of these technologies decades from now, Fast Company readers under 50 may have a shot at organ donations-on-demand in their lifetimes.

For Choulika, the stem cell bank is an experimental effort. Since moving to France from Lebanon, he founded Cellectis, a genome engineering firm closely tied to the Pasteur Institute. Cellectis' bread and butter is the much more lucrative field of conventional gene editing and intellectual property licensing for everything from big pharma to companies that make genetically modified foods. Stem cell banking is still nascent, and Sceil will be one of the very first banks targeting adult stem cell donations.

Sceil's success comes down to those millions of people with $60,000 extra to spend. If the world has enough mega-rich people to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a future shot at growing a new pancreas or reversing aging by a decade, Sceil has pretty decent odds.

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For $60,000, You Can Store Your Stem Cells in This Bank

Washington, Aug 06 (ANI): Stem cells found in mouth tissue have the ability to develop into different types of cells and can also relieve inflammatory disease, a new study has revealed.

The cells featured in the study by Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC were 'gingival mesenchymal' stem cells (GMSC), which are found in the gingiva, or gum tissue, within the mouth.

Professor Songtao Shi, the study's senior author said that gingiva has much less inflammatory reaction and heals much faster when compared to skin.

The study shows that there are two types of GMSC: those that arise from the mesoderm layer of cells during embryonic development (M-GMSC) and those that come from cranial neural crest cells (N-GMSC).

The cranial neural crest cells develop into many important structures of the head and face, and 90 percent of the gingival stem cells were found to be N-GMSC.

The two types of stem cells vary dramatically in their abilities. N-GMSC were not only easier to change into other types of cells, including neural and cartilage-producing cells; they also had much more of a healing effect on inflammatory disease than their counterparts.

When the N-GMSC were transplanted into mice with dextrate sulfate sodium-induced colitis - an inflamed condition of the colon - the inflammation was significantly reduced.

The study is published in the Journal of Dental Research. (ANI)

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Stem cells found in gum tissue may be best wound healers