Category Archives: Stem Cells

Programme Your BODY MIND to REVERSE AGING with Stephen Hawking on Science Channel
"STEM CELL UNIVERSE" with Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking, Science Channel presents a controversial and groundbreaking new special STEM CELL UNIVERSE with Stephen Hawking premiering on Monday,...

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Back in 2006, when controversy over embryonic stem cell funding was still raging, a piece of research came along that would make the debate essentially obsolete: normal adult cells can actually be reprogrammed into stem cells. No embryos necessary. The technique went on to win its inventor the Nobel Prize. And now, after many years in the lab, a Japanese patient will the first person to receive the next-gen treatment, called induced pluripotent stem cells.

This first clinical trial for iPSCs has long been in the making. Part of its complexity is that cells are taken from each patient and then, through a series of lab procedures, transformed into stem cells. Each patient gets his or her own genetically matched iPSCs.

This individualization is a key advantage over embryonic stem cells, which have been tested in humans before. Special drugs are required to prevent patients' bodies from rejecting embryonic stem cells.

After some final safety checks and genetic tests, the first clinical trial is officially underway in Japan. Nature reports that the first patient will likely receive iPSCs within days. In total, the clinical trial has enrolled six patients, all of whom with an eye condition called macular degeneration that leads to blindness. The iPSCs will replace a deteriorated layer of cells in their retinas.

So far, the procedure has worked without serious adverse effects (usually tumors) in mice and monkeys. If it works in humans, iPSCs could be a promising new avenue for human stem cell therapy, which, if you remember, could hold the key to all sorts of incurable conditions from diabetes to Parkinson's to spinal cord injuries. This is a small first step in that direction. [Nature]

Top image: an eye with signs of macular degeneration. National Eye Institute

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Induced Stem Cells Will Be Tested on Humans for the First Time

Barrett Foot Ankle Institute Stem Cells

By: Barrett Foot Ankle Institute

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Barrett Foot & Ankle Institute Stem Cells - Video

Father-of-two James Cross, 55, suffered a heart attack in February Surgeons at the London Chest Hospital offered him a unique chance Experimental therapy involved injecting stem cells from Mr Cross's hip into his heart in the hope they would encourage the organ to repair itself It appears to have worked as Mr Cross's heart muscle function has increased from 21% after the attack to 37% and it is still improving Experts hope the new technique will increase survival rates by a quarter

By John Naish

Published: 20:38 EST, 8 September 2014 | Updated: 07:12 EST, 9 September 2014

James Cross, 55,was offered experimental treatment after suffering a heart attack in February

After James Cross had a heart attack in February, he was given a unique chance for a new life.

Surgeons at the London Chest Hospital offered the 55-year-old experimental therapy that involved injecting his own stem cells into the damaged organ.

This was done in the hope that it would encourage his heart to repair itself.

The injected stem cells should prevent the hearts muscle tissue from becoming increasingly damaged after suffering a lack of oxygen during the heart attack.

And it seems to have worked.

After the heart attack, I had 21 per cent of my heart muscle functioning, as opposed to the normal 61 per cent, says James.

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Could stem cells from your hip repair your heart after an attack?

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Newswise LOS ANGELES (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL SEPT. 10, 2014 at 5 A.M. EDT) Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat heart attack damage. The combined nanoparticle enabled precise localization of the bodys own stem cells to the injured heart muscle.

The study, which focused on laboratory rats, was published today in the online peer reviewed journal Nature Communications. The study addresses a central challenge in stem cell therapeutics: how to achieve targeted interactions between stem cells and injured cells.

Although stem cells can be a potent weapon in the fight against certain diseases, simply infusing a patient with stem cells is no guarantee the stem cells will be able to travel to the injured area and work collaboratively with the cells already there.

Infusing stem cells into arteries in order to regenerate injured heart muscle can be inefficient, said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who led the research team. Because the heart is continuously pumping, the stem cells can be pushed out of the heart chamber before they even get a chance to begin to heal the injury.

In an attempt to target healing stem cells to the site of the injury, researchers coated iron nanoparticles with two kinds of antibodies, proteins that recognize and bind specifically to stem cells and to injured cells in the body. After the nanoparticles were infused into the bloodstream, they successfully tracked to the injured area and initiated healing.

The result is a kind of molecular matchmaking, Marbn said. Through magnetic resonance imaging, we were able to see the iron-tagged cells traveling to the site of injury where the healing could begin. Furthermore, targeting was enhanced even further by placing a magnet above the injured heart.

The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute has been at the forefront of developing investigational stem cell treatments for heart attack patients. In 2009, Marbn and his team completed the world's first procedure in which a patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized heart stem cells. The specialized cells were then injected back into the patient's heart in an effort to repair and regrow healthy muscle in a heart that had been injured by a heart attack. Results, published in The Lancet in 2012, showed that one year after receiving the stem cell treatment, heart attack patients demonstrated a significant reduction in the size of the scar left on the heart muscle.

Earlier this year, Heart Institute researchers began a new study, called ALLSTAR, in which heart attack patients are being infused with allogeneic stem cells, which are derived from donor-quality hearts.

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Combining Antibodies, Iron Nanoparticles and Magnets Steers Stem Cells to Injured Organs

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9-Sep-2014

Contact: Lauren Anderson lauren.anderson@europeanlung.org 1-142-672-876 European Lung Foundation http://www.twitter.com/EuropeanLung

Munich, Germany: A new study has revealed how stem cells work to improve lung function in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Previous studies have shown that stem cells can reduce lung inflammation and restore some function in ARDS, but experts are not sure how this occurs. The new study, which was presented at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress today (09 September 2014), brings us a step closer to understanding the mechanisms that occur within an injured lung.

ARDS is a life-threatening condition in which the efficiency of the lungs is severely reduced. It is caused by damage to the capillary wall either from illness or a physical injury, such as major trauma. ARDS is characterised by excessive and dysregulated inflammation in the lung and patients require mechanical ventilation in order to breathe.

Although inflammation is usually a method by which the body heals and copes with an infection, when the inflammation is dysregulated it can lead to severe damage. Immune cells known as macrophages can coordinate the inflammatory response by driving or suppressing inflammation, depending on the stimulation.

The researchers investigated whether stem cells can affect the stimulation of the macrophages and promote the state in which they will suppress the inflammation.

They tested this in an animal model using human bone marrow-derived stem cells. Mice were infected with live bacteria to induce acute pneumonia and model the condition of ARDS. The results showed that treatment with stem cells led to significant reductions in lung injury, inflammation and improved bacterial clearance. Importantly, when stem cells were given to animals that had their macrophages artificially removed, the protective effect was gone. This suggests that the macrophages are an important part of the beneficial effects of stem cells seen in this model of ARDS.

These results were further supported by experiments where stem cells were applied to human macrophages in samples of fluid taken from lungs of patients with ARDS. Again, the stem cells were able to promote the anti-inflammatory state in the human macrophage cells. The authors have identified several proteins, secreted by the stem cells, that would be responsible for this effect.

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Study sheds light on how stem cells can be used to treat lung disease

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Sep-2014

Contact: Paddy Moore padmoore@ohri.ca 613-737-8899 x73687 Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Ottawa, Canada (September 7, 2014) As we age, stem cells throughout our bodies gradually lose their capacity to repair damage, even from normal wear and tear. Researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and University of Ottawa have discovered the reason why this decline occurs in our skeletal muscle. Their findings were published online today in the influential journal Nature Medicine.

A team led by Dr. Michael Rudnicki, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, found that as muscle stem cells age, their reduced function is a result of a progressive increase in the activation of a specific signalling pathway. Such pathways transmit information to a cell from the surrounding tissue. The particular culprit identified by Dr. Rudnicki and his team is called the JAK/STAT signalling pathway.

"What's really exciting to our team is that when we used specific drugs to inhibit the JAK/STAT pathway, the muscle stem cells in old animals behaved the same as those found in young animals," said Dr. Michael Rudnicki, a world leader in muscle stem cell research. "These inhibitors increased the older animals' ability to repair injured muscle and to build new tissue."

What's happening is that our skeletal muscle stem cells are not being instructed to maintain their population. As we get older, the activity of the JAK/STAT pathway shoots up and this changes how muscle stem cells divide. To maintain a population of these stem cells, which are called satellite cells, some have to stay as stem cells when they divide. With increased activity of the JAK/STAT pathway, fewer divide to produce two satellite cells (symmetric division) and more commit to cells that eventually become muscle fibre. This reduces the population of these regenerating satellite cells, which results in a reduced capacity to repair and rebuild muscle tissue.

While this discovery is still at early stages, Dr. Rudnicki's team is exploring the therapeutic possibilities of drugs to treat muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy. The drugs used in this study are commonly used for chemotherapy, so Dr. Rudnicki is now looking for less toxic molecules that would have the same effect.

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The full article titled "Inhibition of JAK/STAT signaling stimulates adult satellite cell function" was published online September 7, 2014, by Nature Medicine.

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Why age reduces our stem cells' ability to repair muscle

Stem Cells | How Do Stem Cells Know Where To Go?
Patients will often ask how stem cells know where to go? How do they know what they #39;re supposed to? This video provides a brief explanation answering those q...

By: Nathan Wei

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Stem Cells | How Do Stem Cells Know Where To Go? - Video

A new study has revealed the reason behind why when people get older; the stem cells in their bodies start to lose the ability to repair even the normal muscle damage.

Researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and University of Ottawa have discovered as muscle stem cells age, their reduced function was a result of a progressive increase in the activation of a specific signalling pathway. Such pathways transmit information to a cell from the surrounding tissue. The particular culprit identified was called the JAK/STAT signalling pathway.

What's happening was that the skeletal muscle stem cells are not being instructed to maintain their population. As peopleget older, the activity of the JAK/STAT pathway shoots up and this changes how muscle stem cells divide. To maintain a population of these stem cells, which are called satellite cells, some have to stay as stem cells when they divide.

With increased activity of the JAK/STAT pathway, fewer divide to produce two satellite cells (symmetric division) and more commit to cells that eventually become muscle fibre. This reduces the population of these regenerating satellite cells, which results in a reduced capacity to repair and rebuild muscle tissue.

Dr. Michael Rudnicki, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and his team was now exploring the therapeutic possibilities of drugs to treat muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

The study is published in the influential journal Nature Medicine.

(Posted on 08-09-2014)

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Why stem cells lose capacity to repair damaged muscle with aging revealed

44 minutes ago by Terry Devitt When blank slate stem cells are exposed to a soft as opposed to a hard surface on which to grow, they begin to transform themselves into neurons, the large, complex cells of the central nervous system. Absent any soluble factors to direct cell differentiation, surface matters, according to new research from the lab of University of Wisconsin-Madison chemist and biochemist Laura Kiessling. Credit: Kiessling Lab/UW-Madison

Figuring out how blank slate stem cells decide which kind of cell they want to be when they grow upa muscle cell, a bone cell, a neuronhas been no small task for science.

Human pluripotent stem cells, the undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any of the 220 types of cells in the body, are influenced in the lab dish by the cocktail of chemical factors and proteins upon which they are grown and nurtured. Depending on the combination of factors used in a culture, the cells can be coaxed to become specific types of cells.

Now, in a new study published today, Sept. 8, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has added a new wrinkle to the cell differentiation equation, showing that the stiffness of the surfaces on which stem cells are grown can exert a profound influence on cell fate.

"To derive lineages, people use soluble growth factors to get the cells to differentiate," explains Laura Kiessling, a UW-Madison professor of chemistry and biochemistry and stem cell expert.

Past work, she notes, hinted that the qualities of the surface on which a cell lands could exert an influence on cell fate, but the idea was never fully explored in the context of human pluripotent stem cell differentiation.

In the lab, stem cells are grown in plastic dishes coated with a gel that contains as many as 1,800 different proteins. Different factors can be introduced to obtain certain types of cells. But even in the absence of introduced chemical or protein cues, the cells are always working to differentiatebut in seemingly random, undirected ways.

The Wisconsin group, directed by Kiessling and led by chemistry graduate student Samira Musah, decided to test the idea that the hardness of a surface can make a difference. After all, in a living body, cells seek different niches with different qualities and transform themselves accordingly.

"Many cell types grow on a surface. If a cell is near bone, the environment has certain features," says Kiessling, whose groupcollaborating with UW-Madison colleagues Sean Palecek, Qiang Chang and William Murphyhas been working to produce precise, chemically defined surfaces on which to grow stem cells. "A cell will react differently if it lands near soft tissue like the brain."

To fully explore the idea that surface matters to a stem cell, Kiessling's group created gels of different hardness to mimic muscle, liver and brain tissues. The study sought to test whether the surface alone, absent any added soluble factors to influence cell fate decisions, can have an effect on differentiation.

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In directing stem cells, study shows context matters