Category Archives: Stem Cells

By Alex Y. Vergara

DR. VICKI Belo ARNOLD ALMACEN

Is the elusive search for the fountain of youth over? Vicki Belo, one of the countrys leading beauty doctors, thinks so, as she recently unveiled her latest weapons in the fight against aging: intradermal (ID) and intravenous (IV) stem cell treatments.

Developed by Russian doctors in Moscow after more than a decade of research, ID treatment, much like Botox, is injected directly on specific points of the face and neck to supposedly facilitate faster skin regeneration, tighten sagging muscles and promote the production of collagen and elastin, two of the skins most important building blocks.

As we age, our skin tends to lose elasticity, said Belo. Since we dont produce as much collagen and elastin as we used to, our faces soon lose fat and become hollow. Wrinkles also start to deepen and permanently set in.

This may sound a bit scary, but the stem cells Belo uses, unlike those used in a number of clinics abroad, including a famous one in Germany, dont come from animals like sheep. They are not sourced from embryos either.

In a way, we pioneered stem cell therapy in the Philippines by using a persons own fat cells and transferring them to other parts of her body, particularly the face, said Belo. We still do that, but this latest development in stem cell therapy is more effective and offers more dramatic results.

Instead, Belo now uses stem cells cultured from bone marrow harvested from young and healthy Russian donors using the so-called Mesenchymal procedure.

Stem cells sourced from bone marrow are much better, she explained. Bone marrow is like the bodys main factory where stem cells originate.

More effective approach

Read more:
Bone marrow stem cells (from young Russians!)–the new fountain of youth?

Toronto, Feb 1 (IANS) Stem cells from zebrafish, the staple of genetic research, could regenerate damaged cones in retinas and restore eyesight to people.

Rods and cones in the eyes are the most important photoreceptors. In humans, rods provide night vision, while cones offer a full-colour look at the world during the day.

It was not known, says University of Alberta researcher Ted Allison, whether stem cells could be instructed to only replace the cones in its retina. This could have important implications for human eyesight, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports.

Almost all success in regenerating photoreceptor cells to date had been limited to rods, not cones. Most previous experiments were conducted on nocturnal rodents, animals that require good night vision and have far more rods than cones, according to an Alberta statement.

"This is the first time in an animal research model that stem cells have only repaired damaged cones," said Allison. "For people with damaged eyesight, repairing the cones is most important because it would restore day-time colour vision.

Researchers say this shows some hope for stem cell therapy that could regenerate damaged cones in people, especially in the cone-rich regions of the retina that provide daytime/colour vision.

Allison says the next step for his team is to identify the particular gene in zebrafish that activates repair of damaged cones.

Read more:
Zebrafish stem cells could heal human retinas

Public release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sally Stewart sally.stewart@cshs.org 310-248-6566 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 30, 2012) Injecting specialized cardiac stem cells into a patient's heart rebuilds healthy tissue after a heart attack, but where do the new cells come from and how are they transformed into functional muscle?

Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, whose clinical trial results in 2012 demonstrated that stem cell therapy reduces scarring and regenerates healthy tissue after a heart attack, now have found that the stem cell technique boosts production of existing adult heart cells (cardiomyocytes) and spurs recruitment of existing stem cells that mature into heart cells. The findings, from a laboratory animal study, are published in EMBO Molecular Medicine online.

"We're finding that the effect of stem cell therapy is indirect. It stimulates proliferation of dormant surviving host heart tissue, and it attracts stem cells already in the heart. The resultant new heart muscle is functional and durable, but the transplanted stem cells themselves do not last long," said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Heart Institute. Marbn, the article's senior author, invented the experimental stem cell procedures and technology tested in humans.

Consistent with previous studies, the researchers found that the heart's native stem cells are not responsible for the normal replenishment of lost heart cells, but they do contribute to rebuilding heart tissue after heart attack.

This study shows that existing heart cells contribute to formation of new heart cells in the normal heart: Through a gradual cycling process, dying heart cells are replaced by new ones. The researchers found that this cycling process escalates in response to heart attack, enabling existing heart cells to assist in the development of new ones. Further, these effects can be amplified through stem cell therapy.

The investigational therapy turns on genes that bolster cell production from both sources existing heart cells and existing stem cells essentially boosting the heart's normal means of cell replacement and its natural responses to injury. The injection of stem cells also improves heart structure and function.

Marbn and his clinical and research teams in 2009 performed the first procedure in which a heart attack patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized stem cells that were injected back into the heart. Earlier this year, they reported results of a clinical trial that found significant reduction in the size of heart attack-caused scars in patients who underwent the experimental stem cell procedure, compared to others who did not.

Although the preliminary results are positive, the researchers do not know precisely how the research treatment works.

Link:
Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute study: Stem cells boost heart's natural repair mechanisms

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vijay Swami vijayarunachal@gmail.com 91-360-221-1105 RIWATCH

The Idu-Mishmi community and Arunachal Pradesh appeared on the world map today for its greatest contribution in studying dormant Mycobacterium in TB that has affected nearly 4 billion people in the world and causing 1.9 million deaths yearly. In India, one person is dying of TB every 3 minutes. The study details and the contribution of Idu-Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh and RIWATCH (Research Institute of World's Ancient Traditions Cultures and Heritage) in accomplishing the study has been duly acknowledged in a research paper published in a reputed journal 'Science Translational Medicine' on 30 January 2013. Dr. Ista Pulu, a Doctor belonging to Idu Mishimi community, and Vijay Swami, Director of RIWATCH are the co-authors of the paper. Dr. Deepjyoti Kalita, a Doctor from Guwahati Medical College who participated in research study and Lab work at Roing is also a co-author from north east India.

TB is a huge problem in North East India. The incidence of this infectious disease is much more higher in Northeast of India and especially Arunachal Pradesh than rest of India. There are special TB departments in every hospital to treat TB patients. The doctors prescribe drug treatment for months together to the TB patients, however TB recurs leading to death and suffering. It was not clear as to how the bacteria of TB hide in the body from months of drug treatment. Now the study published in Science Translational Medicine report that the dormant TB hide in bone marrow stem cells to escape from drug treatment. This research will help our efforts to develop better therapy to target the dormant TB bacteria.

Concern for Public Health of local communities of Arunachal Pradesh has been always on the top priorities of RIWATCH, since it directly affects the socio-cultural life of local communities and their social environment. Dr. Bikul Das, who hails from Sualkuchi in Assam and engaged in doing research on stem cells in Stanford University California is known to RIWATCH and its' parent organization ICCS (International Center for Cultural Studies US) since long. When he was working as a Doctor in Bhutan, he speculated that, TB bacteria escapes the host immune defense and drug treatment by hiding inside bone marrow stem cells. Dr. Das and his team at Stanford University, California and Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA had a thorough lab research and successfully recovered variable bacteria inside the CD271+ stem cells using mouse model of TB developed by Dr. Antonio Campos-Neto at Forsyth Institute. Dr. Das then approached RIWATCH to perform the clinical study in the Arunachal Pradesh/Bhutan area, where he is actively engaged in yearly free medical camps.

Here in Arunachal Pradesh, the public health concern of RIWATCH and Dr. Bikul Das's research came together. The RIWATCH decided to facilitate Dr. Das to study as to why the TB recurrence is higher in Arunachalee communities.

The RIWATCH plunged into action, mobilized a team of local medical professionals from Governmental Hospital to work with Dr. Das, obtained necessary permission from Department of health, even involved doctors from Guwahati Medical College Assam to set up a temporary research lab at Roing, a district headquarter of Lower Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. The place was given by Dr. Ista Pulu, Sr. Gynecologist, District Hospital Roing, a generator from medical department was borrowed for uninterrupted power supply, accommodation for the entire team was done by RIWATCH free of cost, Dr. Pulu provided the fuel for generator, and this is how with people's involvement our temporary laboratory was set up. A local NGO founded by Dr. Das, the KaviKrishna Foundation provided the funding for the research materials. We conducted free general medical camps in five villages and given free medicines to all patients. The people of Idu-Mishmis suffering from this dreaded disease participated in the study actively. This effort led to identification of individuals who had TB, and successfully completed drug treatment. This was even confirmed with department of TB in Govt. hospital. From these individuals, the team isolated the CD271+ stem cells, and found evidence of dormant TB bacteria in those stem cells. These results supported Dr Das's laboratory and Dr Campos-Neto's animal study evidence that dormant TB hide in the CD271+ stem cells.

Briefly, the findings indicate that the dormant TB bacteria hijack a stem cell type known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The TB bacteria hide inside the CD271 expressing MSCs, and these infected MSCs resides in the bone marrow niche, which is of low oxygen. So, drugs and immune cells cannot reach the niche where MSCs resides in the bone marrow. This helps dormant TB bacteria to escape the attack from immune cells and drugs. This could be the reason why it is so difficult to eradicate TB from human host.

The MSCs are stem cells that give rise to bone, cartilage and muscle. MSCs are also known to migrate to the area of inflammation including lung. Recently a group of Indian scientists led by Dr Gobardhan Das of New Delhi found MSCs in the lung granuloma, which is not so surprising because lung granuloma is inflammatory. During drug treatment most of the granuloma become sterile, that means TB bacteria become dead. So, scientists were wondering where does the dormant bacteria survive in our body following drug treatment. The present findings now indicate that TB hijack these MSCs to move to the secured niches in the bone marrow to hide for years to escape from the drug treatment.

For the people of Arunachal Pradesh and RIWATCH, the study undertaken is proved to be one of the greatest contributions to the whole humanity. The study as to "why TB treated patients remain sensitive to TB tests for life" made a breakthrough, "the results now will have direct implications in anti-TB drug development and explain why it is so difficult to treat active and latent TB" said the RIWATCH release. No doubt, this RIWATCH initiative in medical research has brought the Idu-Mishmi people and Arunachal on the world map.

Read more from the original source:
Arunachal contributes in detecting stem cells where dormant TB bacteria hide

Public release date: 30-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

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

STANFORD, Calif. - Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year. Although antibiotics exist that can ameliorate the symptoms, the courses of therapy last for months and don't completely eradicate the disease, which frequently recurs years or decades after the initial treatment.

Now, in a classic case of bench-to-bedside research, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a possible reason for the disease's resistance: The ability of the tuberculosis bacteria to infiltrate and settle down in a particular class of stem cell in the bone marrow. By doing so, the bacteria take advantage of the body's own mechanisms of self-renewal.

"Cancer scientists have noted that self-renewing stem cells like these in the bone marrow have properties - such as natural drug resistance, infrequent division and a privileged immune status - that make them resistant to many types of treatment," said Dean Felsher, MD, PhD, professor of oncology and of pathology. "Now it turns out that this ancient organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, figured out a long time ago that, for the same reasons, these cells are ideal hosts to invade and in which to hide."

Not only did the scientists find genetic material from the bacteria inside the stem cells, they were also able to isolate active bacteria from the cells of human patients with tuberculosis who had undergone extensive treatment for the disease. The findings raise the possibility that other infectious agents may employ similar "wolf-in-stem-cell-clothing" tactics. And, although any new human treatments are likely to still be years away, they suggest a new possible target in the fight against tuberculosis, which infects nearly 2.2 billion people worldwide.

"We now need to learn how the bacteria find and infect this tiny population of stem cells, and what triggers it to reactivate years or decades after successful treatment of the disease," said postdoctoral scholar Bikul Das, MBBS, PhD.

Felsher is a co-senior author of the study, which will be published online Jan. 30 in Science Translational Medicine. Das is the lead author. The research was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Mass.; the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto; and several research groups in India.

The research focuses on a subset of stem cells in the bone marrow called mesenchymal stem cells. These cells are multipotent, meaning they can become several different types of specialized cells, including bone, fat and cartilage. Although the mesenchymal stem cells are most often found in the bone marrow, they are known to be able to migrate to sites in the lungs, where the tuberculosis bacteria thrive.

"Hematopoeitic cells, especially macrophages, have long been thought of as the primary intracellular niche for M. tuberculosis, even when the infection is present at a very low levels and the individual is asymptomatic," said Kevin Urdahl, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the country's largest independent organization devoted to the study of infectious diseases. Urdahl was not involved in the research. "However, this study shows that the bacteria also has the capacity to reside within mesenchymal stem cells, and may even persist in these cells after drug treatment. Although further studies will be needed to establish the relative importance of this niche during latent infection, the immunoprivileged nature of the bone marrow and the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to express drug efflux pumps make this an intriguing possibility that could have important clinical implications."

Read the rest here:
Tuberculosis may lurk in bone marrow stem cells of infected patients, Stanford researchers say

Jan. 29, 2013 Injecting specialized cardiac stem cells into a patient's heart rebuilds healthy tissue after a heart attack, but where do the new cells come from and how are they transformed into functional muscle?

Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, whose clinical trial results in 2012 demonstrated that stem cell therapy reduces scarring and regenerates healthy tissue after a heart attack, now have found that the stem cell technique boosts production of existing adult heart cells (cardiomyocytes) and spurs recruitment of existing stem cells that mature into heart cells. The findings, from a laboratory animal study, are published in EMBO Molecular Medicine online.

"We're finding that the effect of stem cell therapy is indirect. It stimulates proliferation of dormant surviving host heart tissue, and it attracts stem cells already in the heart. The resultant new heart muscle is functional and durable, but the transplanted stem cells themselves do not last long," said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Heart Institute. Marbn, the article's senior author, invented the experimental stem cell procedures and technology tested in humans.

Consistent with previous studies, the researchers found that the heart's native stem cells are not responsible for the normal replenishment of lost heart cells, but they do contribute to rebuilding heart tissue after heart attack.

This study shows that existing heart cells contribute to formation of new heart cells in the normal heart: Through a gradual cycling process, dying heart cells are replaced by new ones. The researchers found that this cycling process escalates in response to heart attack, enabling existing heart cells to assist in the development of new ones. Further, these effects can be amplified through stem cell therapy.

The investigational therapy turns on genes that bolster cell production from both sources -- existing heart cells and existing stem cells -- essentially boosting the heart's normal means of cell replacement and its natural responses to injury. The injection of stem cells also improves heart structure and function.

Marbn and his clinical and research teams in 2009 performed the first procedure in which a heart attack patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized stem cells that were injected back into the heart. Earlier this year, they reported results of a clinical trial that found significant reduction in the size of heart attack-caused scars in patients who underwent the experimental stem cell procedure, compared to others who did not.

Although the preliminary results are positive, the researchers do not know precisely how the research treatment works.

"Understanding the cellular sources and mechanisms of heart regeneration is the first step toward refining our strategies to more effectively regenerate healthy tissue after heart attacks," said Marbn, the Mark S. Siegel Family Professor.

The animal study was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01 HL083109, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Heart Stem Cell Center.

Read more:
Stem cells boost heart's natural repair mechanisms

Jan. 30, 2013 Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year. Although antibiotics exist that can ameliorate the symptoms, the courses of therapy last for months and don't completely eradicate the disease, which frequently recurs years or decades after the initial treatment.

Now, in a classic case of bench-to-bedside research, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a possible reason for the disease's resistance: The ability of the tuberculosis bacteria to infiltrate and settle down in a particular class of stem cell in the bone marrow. By doing so, the bacteria take advantage of the body's own mechanisms of self-renewal.

"Cancer scientists have noted that self-renewing stem cells like these in the bone marrow have properties -- such as natural drug resistance, infrequent division and a privileged immune status -- that make them resistant to many types of treatment," said Dean Felsher, MD, PhD, professor of oncology and of pathology. "Now it turns out that this ancient organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, figured out a long time ago that, for the same reasons, these cells are ideal hosts to invade and in which to hide."

Not only did the scientists find genetic material from the bacteria inside the stem cells, they were also able to isolate active bacteria from the cells of human patients with tuberculosis who had undergone extensive treatment for the disease. The findings raise the possibility that other infectious agents may employ similar "wolf-in-stem-cell-clothing" tactics. And, although any new human treatments are likely to still be years away, they suggest a new possible target in the fight against tuberculosis, which infects nearly 2.2 billion people worldwide.

"We now need to learn how the bacteria find and infect this tiny population of stem cells, and what triggers it to reactivate years or decades after successful treatment of the disease," said postdoctoral scholar Bikul Das, MBBS, PhD.

Felsher is a co-senior author of the study, which was published online Jan. 30 in Science Translational Medicine. Das is the lead author. The research was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Mass.; the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto; and several research groups in India.

The research focuses on a subset of stem cells in the bone marrow called mesenchymal stem cells. These cells are multipotent, meaning they can become several different types of specialized cells, including bone, fat and cartilage. Although the mesenchymal stem cells are most often found in the bone marrow, they are known to be able to migrate to sites in the lungs, where the tuberculosis bacteria thrive.

"Hematopoeitic cells, especially macrophages, have long been thought of as the primary intracellular niche for M. tuberculosis, even when the infection is present at a very low levels and the individual is asymptomatic," said Kevin Urdahl, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the country's largest independent organization devoted to the study of infectious diseases. Urdahl was not involved in the research. "However, this study shows that the bacteria also has the capacity to reside within mesenchymal stem cells, and may even persist in these cells after drug treatment. Although further studies will be needed to establish the relative importance of this niche during latent infection, the immunoprivileged nature of the bone marrow and the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to express drug efflux pumps make this an intriguing possibility that could have important clinical implications."

Although tuberculosis is most commonly known as a disease of the lungs, it can infect many parts of the body, including the abdomen, bone, skin and brain. The respiratory form of the disease is spread through infectious particles aerosolized when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Many cell types have been found to harbor tuberculosis bacteria, but the location of the bacteria's primary (and highly successful dormant variant) hideout has remained unclear. However, Das noticed a clue during his years as a physician in India.

"Fifteen years ago, I was treating hundreds of tuberculosis cases," said Das. "At the time, we noticed we were finding tuberculosis bacteria in bone marrow biopsies that had been obtained from some of these patients for other reasons. This was a totally unexpected and accidental finding, but it gave me the idea that the bacteria could be infiltrating these cells."

Original post:
Tuberculosis may lurk in bone marrow stem cells of infected patients