Posted: November 6, 2014 at 12:40 am
Stem Cell Research Therapy Explained - From MS to Spinal Injury
Stem cell treatment and research towards curing illness--from multiple sclerosis to spinal injury--is detailed by Dr. Neil Riordan. The American medical industry, obstructions to research in...
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Stem Cell Research & Therapy Explained - From MS to Spinal Injury - Video
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:58 pm
12 hours ago Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
The e-incubator, an innovative miniature incubator that is compatible with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), enables scientists to grow tissue-engineered constructs under controlled conditions and to study their growth and development in real-time without risk of contamination or damage. Offering the potential to test engineered tissues before human transplantation, increase the success rate of implantation, and accelerate the translation of tissue engineering methods from the lab to the clinic, the novel e-incubator is described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C.
"In the article "The e-Incubator: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Compatible Mini Incubator" , Shadi Othman, PhD, Karin Wartella, PhD, Vahid Khalilzad Sharghi, and Huihui Xu, PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, present the results of a validation study using the device to culture tissue-engineered bone constructs for 4 weeks. The e-incubator is a standalone unit that automatically detects and regulates internal conditions such as temperature, carbon dioxide levels, and pH via a microcontroller. It performs media exchange to feed the cultures and remove waste products. The current design is compatible with MRI to monitor the constructs without removing them from the incubator. With proper adjustments, compatibility with other imaging technologies including computed tomography (CT) and optical imaging is also possible."
""Calibratable, hands-free tissue development environments are becoming increasingly important for the engineering of implantable tissues," says Tissue Engineering Co-Editor-in-Chief Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development, Avery Dennison Medical Solutions of Chicago, IL and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC. "In this new development, noninvasive imaging modalities are added to the spectrum of sensing and environmental capabilities that heretofore have included temperature, humidity, light, physical force, and electromagnetism. This represents a solid advance for the field.""
Explore further: Improving imaging of cancerous tissues by reversing time
More information: The article is available free on the Tissue Engineering website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ten.tec.2014.0273 until December 5, 2014."
As a child, it was fascinating to put a flashlight up to our palms to see the light shine through the hand. Washington University in St. Louis engineers are using a similar idea to track movement inside the ...
Because Brown University biomedical engineering graduate student Molly Boutin needed to study how neural tissues grow from stem cells, she wanted to grow not just a cell culture, but a sphere-shaped one. ...
Using a new technique to study an old problem, an Agricultural Research Service scientist in North Carolina has uncovered new details about what happens to a cereal plant when it freezes.
Biologists and doctors rely heavily on incubators and microscopes. Now the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT has come up with a novel solution that combines the functions of both these ...
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New e-Incubator enables real-time imaging of bioengineered tissues in controlled unit
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:57 pm
Standing at the counter of his jewelry and appraisal consulting shop on Matthew Lane, Marty Greenfield is happy to be alive. He said he feels blessed to be one of 112 people chosen to participate in a study on the affects of stem cells on a damaged heart. The clinical trials were funded by Baxter Healthcare Corp.
Greenfield had his first stem cell procedure on Oct. 17, 2013. Now, a year later, Greenfield stands in his shop with a smile on his face. He said he is full of energy for his 65 years, and reports he has improved health for the first time in over 20 years. After the procedure was done, Greenfield said he experienced severe pain but only in the neck area at the transfusion entry point and that pain has only recently subsided.
The initial clinical trial began with 444 participants, however, Baxter reduced the number to just 112 with Greenfield being number 112. I feel like I am the luckiest 112th person in the world, Greenfield said.
Greenfield said his health has improved and he has been hospitalized once since the procedure. This isnt about me. I am extremely humbled by this. The end result of this is to help humanity. And, I hope it works, truthfully, Greenfield said.
Greenfield said he had troubles with his heart and severe chest pains for more than 20 years, sometimes it was so severe he would be rushed to an emergency room for fear he was having a heart attack. After visiting countless doctors and cardiologists, he was diagnosed with a condition known as angina.
Angina is a painful heart condition that causes blood flow to the heart to be limited or reduced which results in chest pain, sometimes mimicking a heart attack. There is no known cure at this time.
After being told he would need a heart transplant, Greenfield said he was on a mission to find some way of reducing his pain.
Greenfield found a local doctor who recommended he become part of Baxters clinical trial called RENEW. Through the double-blind clinical trial, the patients own stem cells are harvested from blood , separated from other components of blood cells and then injected back into the heart in an effort to improve or restore blood circulation.
At his last UCLA appointment Greenfield had to perform a stress test on a treadmill. He said, with a huge smile, he was able to do 16 minutes compared to the mere three minutes when he first began the clinical trials.
After that last treadmill test, I could have done another 10 to 15 minutes but my knee was giving me trouble, Greenfield explained.
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:56 pm
Durham, NC (PRWEB) November 05, 2014
Half of all traumatic injuries to the face result in a loss of teeth and the surrounding tissue and bone that once supported them, which in turn makes these types of injuries very debilitating and difficult to treat. But in a new study published in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, doctors at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry (UMSoD), Ann Arbor, have found a new way to regenerate a patients jawbone through the use of stem cells.
The procedure, done under local anesthesia, significantly speeds up the healing time relative to that of traditional bone grafting while allowing a patient to experience only a minimal amount of pain.
Part of a larger clinical trial, the findings highlighted in this issue focus on a 45-year-old woman missing seven front teeth plus 75 percent of the bone that once supported them, the result of a blow to her face five years earlier. She was left with severe functional and cosmetic deficiencies, since the missing bone made it impossible for her to have dental implant-based teeth replacements.
Darnell Kaigler, DDS, MS, PhD, an assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, was a lead member of the study team. "In small jawbone defects of the mouth created after teeth were extracted, we have placed gelatin sponges populated with stem cells into these areas to successfully grow bone."
Since the sponge material is soft, it does not work in larger areas. Thus, he and his team of researchers decided to try b-tricalcium phosphate (b-TCP) as a scaffold upon which to place the cells instead. "For treating larger jawbone defects, it is important to have a scaffold material that is rigid and more stable to support bone growth," he explained.
They then placed the b-TCP scaffold, which had been seeded with a mixed population of bone marrow-derived autologous stem and progenitor cells 30 minutes prior to treatment at room temperature, into the defective area of the patients mouth during a procedure that requires only local anesthesia. Four months later, 80 percent of her missing jawbone had been regenerated, allowing them to proceed with placing oral implants that supported a dental prosthesis to once again give her a complete set of teeth.
Study team member Sharon Aronovich, DMD, FRCD(C), a clinical assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the UMSoD, said, I am very grateful to all the patients and researchers that participated in this study. Thanks to everyone's efforts, we are one step closer to providing patients with a minimally invasive option for implant-based tooth replacement.
As the first report to describe a cell therapy for craniofacial trauma reconstruction, this research serves as the foundation for expanded studies using this approach, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
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Stem cells help doctors restore womans smile, regenerating bone to hold dental implants
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:55 pm
Ischemic stroke mainly caused by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) is a major type of stroke, but there are currently very limited therapeutic options for its cure. Neural stem cells (NSCs) or neural precursor cells (NPCs) derived from various sources are known to survive and improve neurological functions when they are engrafted in animal models of stroke. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from somatic cells of patients are novel cells that promise the autologous cell therapy for stroke. In this study, we successfully differentiated iPSCs derived from human fibroblasts into NPCs and found their robust therapeutic potential in a rodent MCAo stroke model. We observed the significant graft-induced behavioral recovery, as well as extensive neural tissue formation. Animal MRI results indicated that the majority of contralaterally transplanted iPSC-derived NPCs migrated to the peri-infarct area, showing a pathotropism critical for tissue recovery. The transplanted animals exhibited the significant reduction of stroke-induced inflammatory response, gliosis and apoptosis, and the contribution to the endogenous neurogenesis. Our results demonstrate that iPSC-derived NPCs are effective cells for the treatment of stroke.
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Therapeutic potential of human induced pluripotent stem ...
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:52 pm
Today, a man lies dying of liver failure in a hospital. There is little expectation that he will be one of the lucky few to receive a transplant before he becomes too ill to save. Even if he did receive a transplant, he will be burdened with taking multiple anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life, which in and of themselves would significantly compromise his health.
Tomorrow, scientists develop a method to build this man a new liver, one that would be a perfect match for him, requiring no anti-rejection drugs whatsoever. There is a catch. To perfect such a solution would require the destruction of other lives. Would Judaism sanction such a solution?
Jewish law clearly forbids the taking of one life to save another. The Talmud forbids saving one's life at the expense of another by asking how one knows that his life is more valuable than his neighbor's. Perhaps your neighbor's life is more valuable.
When The Fetus Is A Threat To Life
But, what if the life that would need to be sacrificed was that of a fetus? May we permit abortion to save the life of an already born person? The Mishna clearly states that if the life of a woman in labor is threatened by her fetus, the fetus should be aborted. But once a portion of the baby has emerged, we may not abort the fetus, because "one may not set aside one person's life for the sake of another."
The principle behind this ruling is that one may kill someone who is unjustly pursuing a third party to kill him. Since the fetus, who is not yet considered a "complete" person, is "pursuing" the mother in a way that will inevitably result in her death, we may kill it first. But, once it has even partially emerged, it is considered a full-fledged person. Now we are faced with a dilemma, states Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one of the most respected rabbis of the 20th century: who is pursuing whom?
When Pursuing Each Other
Imagine that you are transported back in time to Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. As you step out of the time machine you see Aaron Burr, pulling out a revolver to shoot Alexander Hamilton, former U.S. Treasury Secretary. Simultaneously, you see Hamilton also drawing his revolver to kill Burr! What should you do? Kill Burr? Kill Hamilton? Jewish law would rule that you may kill neither, because they are pursuing each other and you do not know which one, if either, is an innocent party.
In our case of the baby struggling to be born at the expense of the mother and the mother struggling to survive at the expense of the fetus, are not the baby and the mother each "pursuing" the other? In such a case, the general rule is that we may not choose either, since each is a complete and autonomous person, and each is both the pursuer and the pursued. Luckily for us, these scenarios are very rare occurrences in our day thanks to Caesarian sections.
But, since the rationale for abortion in Jewish law is based on the fetus being a pursuer of the mother, a life-threatening situation for another adult would not justify our killing a fetus, since the fetus does not threaten the life of anyone except the mother. Therefore, we cannot allow abortion, even to save the life of our patient with liver failure.
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Is Stem Cell Research Ethical? Ethical issues stem cell ...
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:46 pm
Miami, FL (PRWEB) November 05, 2014
Global Stem Cells Group, its subsidiary Stem Cell Training, Inc. and Dr. J. Victor Garcia have announced plans to conduct the Adipose Derived Harvesting, Isolation and Re-integration Training Course in Barcelona, Spain Nov. 22-23. 2014.
The two-day, hands-on intensive training course, which will be conducted by Garcia, was developed for physicians and high-level practitioners to learn techniques in harvesting and reintegrating stem cells derived from adipose tissue and bone marrow. The objective of the training is to bridge the gap between bench science in the laboratory and the doctors office by teaching effective, in-office regenerative medicine techniques.
For more information, visit the Stem Cell Training, Inc. website, email info(at)stemcelltraining(dot)net, or call 305-224-1858.
About Global Stem Cells Group:
Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions.
With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.
Global Stem Cells Groups corporate mission is to make the promise of stem cell medicine a reality for patients around the world. With each of GSCGs six operating companies focused on a separate research-based mission, the result is a global network of state-of-the-art stem cell treatments.
About Stem Cell Training, Inc.:
Stem Cell Training, Inc. is a multi-disciplinary company offering coursework and training in 35 cities worldwide. Coursework offered focuses on minimally invasive techniques for harvesting stem cells from adipose tissue, bone marrow and platelet-rich plasma. By equipping physicians with these techniques, the goal is to enable them to return to their practices, better able to apply these techniques in patient treatments.
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Global Stem Cells Group to Hold Practical, Hands-on Training Course on Adipose-derived Stem Cell Harvesting, Isolation ...
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:43 pm
Freeport, Grand Bahama (PRWEB) November 05, 2014
Okyanos is the first to receive regulatory approval from the National Stem Cell Ethics Committee (NSEC) to provide adult stem cell therapy in its new state-of-the-art facility and has now begun treating patients. The licensing includes approval for cardiac cell therapy, as well as cell therapy for tissue ischemia, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic neurological and orthopedic conditions. The licensing criteria requires that approved protocols be supported by peer-reviewed papers showing substantial evidence of safety and efficacy.
"As the leader in cell therapy, Okyanos is very proud to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients who are looking for new options for unmet healthcare needs. said Matt Feshbach, CEO and co-founder of Okyanos. Adipose (fat)- derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) are known to restore blood flow, modulate the immune system, reduce inflammation and prevent further cell death after a wound, helping the body begin the process of healing itself.
Adult stem cell therapy has emerged as a new treatment alternative for those who want to live a more normal life but are restricted in these activities due to their medical conditions. Just 50 miles from the US shore, Okyanos cell therapy is available to patients with severe heart disease including coronary artery disease (CAD) and congestive heart failure (CHF) as well as patients with auto-immune diseases, orthopedic, neurological and urological conditions. Okyanos cell therapy is performed in their new state-of-the-art facility built to exceed U.S. surgical center standards.
With the regulatory and licensing approvals for adult stem cell therapy, Okyanos is the first to treat patients with cell therapy for severe heart disease and other unmet medical conditions based on a combination of internationally approved cell processing technology, technical papers, clinical trials and in-clinic use which provide the basis for a new standard of care.
Patients can contact Okyanos at http://www.okyanos.com or by calling toll free at 1-855-659-2667.
About Okyanos: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Okyanos brings a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease, tissue ischemia, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic neurological and orthopedic conditions. Okyanos Cell Therapy utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from patients own adipose (fat) tissue which helps improve blood flow, moderate destructive immune response and prevent further cell death. Okyanos is fully licensed under the Bahamas Stem Cell Therapy and Research Act and adheres to U.S. surgical center standards. The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of the river Okyanos, symbolizes restoration of blood flow.
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Okyanos Treats First Patients with Cell Therapy
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 6:52 pm
Jeff Allen, who is developing a cancer diagnostic chip similar to this one, poses for a picture in Nick Cosford's research lab at the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. The chip Allen is developing would isolate cancer stem cells for diagnosis.
After Jeff Allens wife died of cancer in 2002, the analytical biochemist put his training to work in learning more about the disease.
Doing so was initially a hobby, he said. As time progressed, it became more than a hobby. It became a downright obsession. I got angry at cancer, and as the years went, by I became frustrated with the slow pace of developing new weapons against it.
Allen, whose background includes development of molecular diagnostic devices, began studying how cancer treatment could be improved.
Now he and his sons, Alexander and Austin, said theyve designed a device that can detect the most dangerous cancer cells, often called cancer stem cells. The device is still in the concept phase, but scientists who have looked at the technology think its feasible.
The device is envisioned as a microchip that examines a patients blood sample to identify and isolate cancer stem cells. Once captured, these cells would be genetically sequenced to find the mutations driving the cancer. Then doctors could prescribe the most customized treatment based on this more rigorous analysis.
To carry out his plan, Allen is seeking $50,000 through the crowdfunding site gofundme.com. He also has formed a company, TumorGen MDx.
In the world of oncology, theres increasing but not total recognition of cancer stem cells and their destructive role. Allen said his own reading of the literature is that these cells do indeed exist. They possess distinct characteristics that enable them to seed an entire new tumor from just a few cells, or perhaps only one.
That theory carries tremendous significance for accurate diagnosis. A drug that inhibits most cancer cells but misses the cancer stem cells wont do much good.
Jeff Allen's video promoting his work for a test to detect cancer stem cells.
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Hunting for cancer stem cells
Posted: November 5, 2014 at 2:59 am
Lung diseases remain a significant and devastating cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In contrast to many other major diseases, lung diseases notably chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPDs), including both asthma and emphysema, are increasing in prevalence and COPD is expected to become the third leading cause of disease mortality worldwide by 2020. New therapeutic options are desperately needed. A rapidly growing number of investigations of stem cells and cell therapies in lung biology and diseases as well as in ex vivo lung bioengineering have offered exciting new avenues for advancing knowledge of lung biology as well as providing novel potential therapeutic approaches for lung diseases. These initial observations have led to a growing exploration of endothelial progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem (stromal) cells in clinical trials of pulmonary hypertension and COPD with other clinical investigations planned. Ex vivo bioengineering of the trachea, larynx, diaphragm, and the lung itself with both biosynthetic constructs as well as decellularized tissues have been used to explore engineering both airway and vascular systems of the lung. Lung is thus a ripe organ for a variety of cell therapy and regenerative medicine approaches. Current state-of-the-art progress for each of the above areas will be presented as will discussion of current considerations for cell therapy-based clinical trials in lung diseases. Stem Cells 2014;32:1625
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Concise Review: Current Status of Stem Cells and ...
