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Researchers in London, UK, are investigating the effectiveness of stem cell therapies for facial reconstruction.

A joint team, from London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and University College London's Institute of Child Health, has published the findings of their research in the journal Nanomedicine.

This follows the recent news that another UK-based team, of The London Chest Hospital, has begun the largest ever trial of adult stem cells in heart attack patients.

Great Ormond Street has a proven track record in facial reconstruction, particularly with regard to treating children with a missing or malformed ear - a condition called microtia. This kind of reconstructive surgery involves taking cartilage from the patient's ribs to craft a "scaffold" for an ear, which is then implanted beneath the skin.

Despite successes with this method, the researchers thought the treatment may be improved by bringing stem cells into the process.

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Reconstructing faces using human stem cells from fat

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has induced human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to differentiate toward pure-population, mature heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes.

Wendy Crone

A substrate patterned with a precisely sized series of channels played a critical role in the advance.

Published online in the journal Biomaterials, the research could open the door to advances in areas that include tissue engineering and drug discovery and testing.

Researchers currently can differentiate hESC into immature heart muscle cells. Those cells, however, don't develop the robust internal structures repeating sections of muscle cells called sarcomeres that enable cardiomyocytes to produce the contracting force that allows the heart to pump blood. Other cell components that allow heart muscle cells to communicate and work together also are less developed in immature cardiomyocytes.

One barrier to efforts to produce more mature cells is the culture surface itself; hESC are notoriously finicky. "It's really hard to culture stem cells effectively and to provide them with an environment that's going to help them to thrive and differentiate in the way you want," says lead author Wendy Crone, a professor of engineering physics, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at UW-Madison.

Recently, three-dimensional and micropatterned substrates have emerged as more accurately mimicking the cells' physiological environment. However, the majority of previous research studies using patterning were conducted using cells from rats, says Max Salick, a Ph.D. student in materials science at UW-Madison and first author on the paper.

"One of the unique aspects of our research is that it observes human cardiomyocytes' response to micropatterning geometries," he says.

Working in laboratories in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the UW-Madison researchers focused on finding the pattern, including the right size scale, that suits the human stem cells.

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Stem cell advance yields mature heart muscle cells

Jesse Freeman, 71, suffered a major heart attack at home Had surgery to repair a blocked artery and to insert a stent to keep it open He was then asked to take part in a new study into the use of stem cells These are 'master cells' which can turn into almost any other type of cell in the body, replacing damaged cells He had bone marrow removed from his hip and infused into his heart It is hoped this will regenerate to help heal his damaged heart

By Emma Innes

PUBLISHED: 08:36 EST, 3 March 2014 | UPDATED: 08:52 EST, 3 March 2014

A British man has become the second patient in a Europe to have pioneering stem cell treatment in a bid to prolong his life.

Jesse Freeman, 71, was invited to take part in the landmark trial after suffering a major heart attack at home.

Surgeons repaired a blocked artery and inserted a stent to keep it open after he was rushed to hospital.

Jesse Freeman (pictured with his wife, Christine) has become the second person in Europe to have pioneering stem cell treatment after a heart attack. It is hoped the procedure will cause his damaged heart muscle to regenerate and that it could eventually become common practice in the treatment of heart attack patients

But while recovering in hospital, he was asked to take part in the major new study to see if heart attack patients can benefit from being treated with their own stem cells.

These are 'master cells' which can turn into almost any other type of cell in the body, replacing damaged cells.

Doctors at the London Chest Hospital, in Bethnal Green, removed bone marrow from Mr Freeman, a grandfather, without general anaesthetic and the cells were then infused into his heart.

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Is this the heart attack treatment of the future? British grandfather has stem cells taken from his hip and injected ...

Scientists have managed to use body fat and turned it into cartilage It is now hoped technique could help patients born with microtia At the moment, doctors take cartilage from other parts of the body

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:43 EST, 2 March 2014 | UPDATED: 06:46 EST, 2 March 2014

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British scientists are aiming to grow ears and noses in a laboratory to transplant then into humans.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London have managed to use abdominal body fat and turn it into cartilage.

It is now hoped that the technique could help patients who have been born with microtia, which means the ear fails to develop properly, or who have been in an accident.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital are aiming to grow ears and noses in a laboratory to transplant then into humans

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Ears and noses to be grown in lab from stem cells for human transplants thanks to revolutionary technique

An advanced surgery was performed at TOSH hospital on Saturday to treat a patient with knee arthritis, with the damaged cartilage in the knee regenerated using stem cells.

Prof. A.A. Shetty, director of minimally invasive surgery and stem cell research at Canterbury Christchurch University, UK, who performed the surgery, said all the Indian Council of Medical Researchs guidelines were adhered to while performing the procedure. He was speaking at a press meet on Saturday.

Under an earlier version of this technique, stem cells harvested in the bone marrow had to be cultured in the lab and then injected into the knee after six weeks. There were several disadvantages with this technique longer hospital stay, increased chances of infection, lower success rates and increased costs, he said.

However, under the new technique, the stem cells are harvested and centrifuged within the operation theatre. The stem cell concentrate is then mixed with a special fibrin gel and inserted directly at the site of the damaged cartilage through a keyhole procedure.

This surgery is less expensive, at around Rs. 75,000, and the patient can go home the next day. Its failure rate is only 10 to 15 per cent and it can also be performed on patients with advanced osteoarthritis, Prof. Shetty said.

A 49-year-old woman, on whom the surgery has been performed, is currently recovering at the hospital.

Prof. Seok Jung Kim, director of the regenerative medical system, South Korea, and S.H. Jaheer Hussain, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, TOSH hospital, also participated in the meet.

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Chennai TOSH hospital treats knee arthritis with stem cells

Jesse Freeman, 71, had stem cells from his bone marrow injected into his heart after he had a cardiac arrest. With his wife Christine, 67

Mike Brooke, Reporter Sunday, March 2, 2014 6:00 PM

A 71-year-old man has become one of the first heart attack victims to receive pioneering stem cell surgery to see if it will help his recovery.

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On March 12, I will be 72, so the stem cell surgery for me is an early birthday present just to be alive, admits Jesse Freeman.

I was never ill in my life, then one day I was indoors and didnt feel great. I thought it was an infection that started in my jaw, then spread to my chest. I had a shower and drove down to Harold Wood walk-in centre.

I had extremely high blood pressure and they told me I had had a heart attack.

They took me to The London Chest Hospital and I was being operated on within 10 minutes.

The hospital saved my life they removed the blockage and put in a wire mesh stent to keep the artery open.

The doctors asked me while I was in recovery if I would take part in the stem cell trial.

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