Category Archives: Stem Cells

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Friday, Aug. 17, 2012 8:36AM EDT

A Toronto research team hopes to make hip and knee replacements a thing of the past as it explores the growth of new human cartilage using stem cells.

With an estimated four million Canadians suffering from arthritis, and that number expected to grow to seven million by 2031, doctors are hoping to use the stem cells to treat the deterioration of cartilage in joints. Although hip and knee replacements are a great operation, they improve patients lives in terms of pain, quality and function, theyre not your own joint, Dr. Nizar Mahomed told CTVs Canada AM on Friday. They dont last forever and they bring risks and limitations.

Mahomed, an orthopedic surgeon at Torontos Western Hospital, said 45,000 hip and knee replacement surgeries are performed in Canada each year. Many of the surgeries are to treat the damage left by arthritis, which he said is caused by aging, obesity and injuries.

The incident of arthritis increases with age, so as our population ages the prevalence of arthritis is going to continue to increase.

Mahomed and his colleagues are one of the first research teams in the world that have been able to grow human cartilage.

The team is now embarking on the next stage of the study, which will see the new tissue used in animals.

If we actually make it work in animals then one day well be able to bring it back into patients, said Mahomed.

He added that stem cells hold much hope for medicine in the future as studies are looking at using the cells to regenerate cardiac tissue and in the treatment of nerve and spinal cord injuries.

Mahomed said he hopes within five to 10 years the new technology can be used in human patients while putting an end to joint replacement surgeries.

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New research uses stem cells as possible treatment for arthritis

Researchers at Kings College London have developed the first artificial functioning blood vessel outside of the body, according to a release from the college. The vessels are made from reprogrammed stem cells from human skin. The team also saw the cells develop into a blood vessel inside the body for the first time.

The hope is that this new technique will eventually lead to a treatment for patients with heart disease. The plan is that the reprogrammed cells would be injected into a leg or even directly into the heart to restore blood flow. Another possibility would be to graft one of the artificially developed vessels into the body as a replacement for blocked or damaged vessels. The research team also believes the newly created vessels could be used to prevent leg amputation in diabetic patients with poor circulation.

The study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that the reprogrammed vascular cells have no risk turning into tumors.

The release quotes Professor Qingbo Xu of the British Heart Foundation as saying, "This is very exciting research . . . If we can develop this approach as personalized treatments for patients with the condition, it will be a significant step forward."

The researchers cautioned that this is an early study and that more research needs to be done regarding how this approach will works in patients, but Dr Hlne Wilson, Research Advisor at the British Heart Foundation, said: "The discovery could help lead towards future therapies to repair hearts after they are damaged by a heart attack. As well as playing a part in a possible future regenerative treatment, these cells might also be used in drug screening to find new treatments to tackle inherited diseases."

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Stem Cells as Blood Vessels=Heart Tx?

Even after 18 years of frozen storage, human embryos can still produce viable stem cells for drug screening and biomedical research.

By Hayley Dunning | August 16, 2012

Cryopreservation of embryos in fertility centers is common, and concerns over damage to the embryo during thawing were largely allayed by the birth of a healthy boy in 2010 from 20-year old cryopreserved embryo. Last week (August 10), researchers in Thailand reported in BioResearch Open Access that they successfully induced the growth of stem cells from a set of 17- and 18-year-old frozen embryos.

The embryos were thawed, then cultured to the blastocyst stage and co-cultured with human foreskin fibroblasts which acted as feeder cells to maintain the growth of embryonic stem cells. The team used the same method to induce stem cells to grow from fresh embryos for comparison, and in cells from both sources they found similar levels of pluripotency.

The importance of this study is that it identifies an alternative source for generating new embryonic stem lines, using embryos that have been in long-term storage, BioResearch Open Access Editor-in-Chief Jane Taylor told Asian News International.

By Cristina Luiggi

A postdoctoral research fellow at Emory University falsifies stem cell research data.

By Megan Scudellari

Human embryonic stem cells swiftly kill themselves in response to DNA damage.

By Edyta Zielinska

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Embryonic Stem Cells Survive Freezing

Neural stem cells (green) in the hippocampus huddle around a neuron (purple), listening for stray signals.

In 2000, a team of neuroscientists put an unusual idea to the test. Stress and depression, they knew, made neurons wither and die particularly in the hippocampus, a brain area crucial for memory. So the researchers put some stressed-out rats on an antidepressant regimen, hoping the mood boost might protect some of those hippocampal neurons. When they checked in a few weeks later, though, the team found that rats hippocampuses hadnt just survived intact; theyd grown whole new neurons bundles of them. But thats only the beginning of our tale.

By the time 2009 rolled around, another team of researchers was suggesting that human brains might get a similar hippocampal boost from antidepressants. The press announced the discovery with headlines like, Antidepressants Grow New Brain Cells although not everyone agreed with that conclusion. Still, whether the principle applied to humans or not, a far more basic question was begging to be answered: How, exactly, does a brain tell new cells to form?

Well, through synapses, of course, you might answer and thatd be a very reasonable guess. After all, synapses are how most neurons talk to each other: electrochemical information is squirted from a tiny tendril of one neuron into the tip of a tendril on another; and cells throughout most of the brain share essentially this same mechanism for passing signals along: The signals coming out of Neuron As synapses keep bugging Neuron B by stimulating its synapses, until finally Neuron B caves under peer pressure and bugs Neuron C with the signal and so on.

There are, however, two significant exceptions to this system.

The first exception was discovered a few years ago, as scientists got more and more curious about the role of neuroglia (also known as just glia), synapse-less cells that many had assumed were just there to serve as structural support for neurons. A 2008 study showed that glia help control cerebral blood flow, and research in 2010 demonstrated that some glia cells known as astrocytes actively listen for and respond to certain neurotransmitter messages. These so-called quiet cells are actually pretty loud talkers once you learn to tune in to their chatter.

The second exception to the synapse rule is even more mysterious in large part because its a brand-new discovery: As the journal Nature reports, a team led by Hongjun Song at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found that neural stem cells listen in on the stray chemical signals that leak from synapses.

You can imagine neural stem cells as being sort of neural embryos depending on the surrounding conditions, they can develop into neurons or into glia. And heres whats strange about the way these cells communicate: They respond not to any single synaptic signal, but to the overall chemical vibe of their environment to chronic feelings of stress, for instance. By way of response, they may morph into neurons or glia or even tell the brain to crank out some all-new cells.

Neural stem cells seem to be particularly interested in the chemical GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) a neurotransmitter thats known to be involved in inhibiting signals from other neurons. When scientists artificially block these stem cells GABA receptors from receiving messages, the cells wake up and start replicating but when those GABA signals are allowed to reach the receptors, the stem cells stay dormant.

In this case, Song explains, GABA communication keeps the brain stem cells in reserve, so if we dont need them, we dont use them up.

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What Your Neural Stem Cells Aren't Telling You

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Verastem, Inc., (VSTM) a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and also commented on certain corporate accomplishments and plans.

We made significant advances in our therapeutic programs during the second quarter, said Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Verastem. The acquisition of the Phase 2-ready focal adhesion kinase inhibitors from Pfizer accelerates this key cancer stem cell-targeting program by approximately 12-18 months, and we are now positioned to initiate a potential registration study in mesothelioma next year.

Recent Accomplishments

Our significant recent accomplishments include the following:

Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) Inhibition

Dual PI3K/mTOR Inhibition

Corporate

Second Quarter 2012 Financial Results

As of June 30, 2012, Verastem had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $104.3 million compared to $56.8 million on December 31, 2011.

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Verastem Reports Second Quarter 2012 Financial and Corporate Results

Figure 1: iPSCs cultivated atop a 'feeder' layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (top left) maintain expression of a fluorescent pluripotency marker (top right; green). However, these cells also thrive (bottom left) and maintain their pluripotency (bottom right) when grown on a glutaraldehyde-fixed feeder cell layer. Image reproduced under the terms of the CCAL, with copyright shared by Yue et al

Stem cells are renowned for their capacity to develop into a wide range of mature cell types but they cannot maintain this flexibility on their own. In the body, neighboring cells help maintain this pluripotent state. But to grow these cells in culture, scientists have had to devise a variety of specialized techniques.

This is especially true for embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are ESC-like cells derived from adult tissue. To preserve their pluripotency, these cells have typically been grown atop a supporting layer of feeder cells. Now, a strategy developed by a team led by Yoshihiro Ito at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, promises to make ESC and iPSC cultivation considerably easier.

Feeder cells provide valuable growth factors for stem cells but also make culture complicated and create opportunities for contaminationan especially serious concern for clinical applications. Early attempts to isolate the key features of feeder cells have fallen short. It was difficult to culture stem cells on growth-factor immobilized substrates, says Ito. Feeder cells provide a complex microenvironment that cannot simply be replaced with one or several growth factors.

As an alternative, the researchers subjected feeder cell layers to chemical fixation treatments that killed the cells while physically preserving them and maintaining their external structure largely intact. This resulted in a robust cell culture surface that retained virtually all of the features with which stem cells would typically interact. Mouse iPSCs maintained their pluripotent state even after extensive cultivation on feeder cells that had previously been fixed with either formaldehyde (FA) or glutaraldehyde (GA). GA fixation is a harsher treatment, but Ito and colleagues noted that GA fixed cells also provided a superior substrate, and this GA-fixed layer was robust enough to be washed and reused.

The researchers were pleasantly surprised to find that mouse iPSCs grown in this manner were virtually indistinguishable from those cultured by traditional methods (Fig. 1). Feeder cells were believed to secrete proteins or other compounds that maintain the growth of undifferentiated stem cells, says Ito. But fixed cells lose this secretion capability, which shows that providing the right contact microenvironment is more important for iPSCs. Given how rugged the fixed cell layers are, he anticipates that this approach could offer a commercially viable cell culture tool once it has been tested and optimized for cultivation of human iPSCs.

More information: Yue, X.-S., Fujishiro, M., Nishioka, C., Arai, T., Takahashi, E., Gong, J.-S., Akaike, T. & Ito, Y. Feeder cells support the culture of induced pluripotent stem cells even after chemical fixation. PLoS ONE 7, e32707 (2012). http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032707

Provided by RIKEN

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Stem cells thrive on superficial relationships

ROCKVILLE, MD--(Marketwire -08/08/12)- MarketResearch.com has announced the addition of the new report "Global Markets for Stem Cells," to their collection of Biotechnology market reports. For more information, visit http://www.marketresearch.com/BCC-Research-v374/Global-Stem-Cells-7083022/

The global market for stem cell products was $3.8 billion in 2011. This market is expected to reach nearly $4.3 billion in 2012 and $6.6 billion by 2016, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7% from 2011 to 2016.

The American market for stem cell products was $1.3 billion in 2011. This sector is expected to rise at a CAGR of 11.5% and reach nearly $2.3 billion by 2016.

The European market for stem cell products was $872 million in 2011 and is expected to reach nearly $1.5 billion by 2016, a CAGR of 10.9%.

For more information, visit http://www.marketresearch.com/BCC-Research-v374/Global-Stem-Cells-7083022/

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MarketResearch.com is the leading provider of global market intelligence products and services. With research reports from more than 720 top consulting and advisory firms, MarketResearch.com offers instant online access to the world's most extensive database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Moreover, MarketResearch.com's Research Specialists have in-depth knowledge of the publishers and the various types of reports in their respective industries and are ready to provide research assistance. For more information, call Will Gray at 240-747-3008 or visit http://www.marketresearch.com.

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Latest Research Shows Stem Cell Product Market to Reach $6 Billion by 2016

Originally published August 7, 2012 at 7:45 PM | Page modified August 7, 2012 at 8:25 PM

Two University of Washington scientists, using expertise in stem cells, cardiology, pathology, cell biology and the electrophysiology of the heart, are a step closer to their holy grail: regenerating a damaged heart.

Human heart-muscle cells injected into the damaged heart of a guinea pig not only strengthened the heart's ability to contract, the cells synchronized with the animal's heart and protected it from arrhythmias, rhythm disturbances that can be fatal.

Regenerating a damaged heart is the "big dream, the big vision," said Dr. Charles E. Murry, a cardiovascular biologist who co-led the research published in the most recent issue of Nature.

"This is the first demonstration that human heart-muscle grafts can electrically stabilize the injured heart, and the first demonstration that they can couple and beat in sync," Murry said.

When the researchers injected the human heart cells, grown from embryonic stem cells, into the hearts of guinea pigs with damaged hearts, they saw a "profound effect," said Dr. Michael Laflamme, the senior author.

"The animals that had received these stem-cell-derived heart-muscle cells had far fewer arrhythmias," said Laflamme.

Like Murry, he is a cardiovascular biologist, pathologist and member of the UW Center for Cardiovascular Biology and the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.

To tell if the new cells were beating in rhythm with their host, the researchers inserted a sensor gene that would fluoresce green when the cells contracted. The fluorescent protein was originally discovered in the Aequorea victoria jellyfish at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

In the last several years, medical science has made much progress in helping patients survive acute heart attacks, Murry noted.

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UW researchers see work as step toward regenerating human heart