Sep. 23, 2013 University at Buffalo translational researchers are developing a richer understanding of atherosclerosis in humans, revealing a key role for stem cells that promote inflammation.

The research was published last month in PLOS One. It extends to humans previous findings in lab animals by researchers at Columbia University that revealed that high levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol promote atherosclerosis by stimulating production of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC's).

"Our research opens up a potential new approach to preventing heart attack and stroke, by focusing on interactions between cholesterol and the HSPCs," says Thomas R. Cimato, MD, PhD, lead author on the PLOS One paper and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

He notes that the finding about the importance of these stem cells in atherosclerosis could lead to the development of a useful therapy in combination with statins, or one that could be used in place of statins in individuals who cannot tolerate them.

The study demonstrated for the first time in humans that high total cholesterol recruits stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, via increases in IL-17, which has been implicated in many chronic inflammatory diseases, including atherosclerosis. IL-17 boosts levels of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF), which releases stem cells from the bone marrow.

They also found that statins do reduce the levels of HSPCs in the blood but not every subject responded similarly, Cimato says.

"We've extrapolated to humans what other scientists previously found in mice about the interactions between LDL cholesterol and these HSPCs," explains Cimato.

The demonstration that a finding in lab animals is equally relevant in humans is noteworthy, adds Cimato, a researcher in UB's Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC).

"This is especially true with cholesterol studies," he says, "because mice used for atherosclerosis studies have very low total cholesterol levels at baseline. We feed them very high fat diets in order to study high cholesterol but it isn't easy to interpret what the levels in mice will mean in humans and you don't know if extrapolating to humans will be valid."

Cimato adds that the degree of increased LDL cholesterol in mouse studies is much higher than what is found in patients who come to the hospital with a heart attack or stroke.

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How 'bad' cholesterol causes atherosclerosis in humans: Stem cells play a key role

SUNRISE, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 23, 2013) - Bioheart, Inc. (OTCQB: BHRT), a biotech company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage as well as severe peripheral vascular disease announces that it has entered into an agreement with Invitrx Therapeutics to license their adipose derived stem cell products.The license agreement term sheet for adipose derived cells is for use in all indications in both human and animal medicine.

Invitrx Therapeutics is a biotechnology company specializing in the culture and engineering of adult stem cells, innovative products and therapies that are used in aesthetics, wound closure, and healing, as well as, plastic and reconstructive surgery.The team at Invitrx has been working with adipose derived stem cells for over 10 years and this experience can contribute to the development and commercialization of AdipoCell (Bioheart's adipose stem cell product).

Bioheart has recently completed enrollment in the Phase I Angel Trial using adipose derived stem cells.Preliminary 3 month follow up results will be released later this quarter.

"Combining the experience and expertise of the team at Invitrx with the currently available Bioheart products will strengthen our program.We are looking forward to expanding the Angel trial and incorporating some of the newly licensed techniques," said Mike Tomas, CEO of Bioheart, Inc.

Habib Torfi, Chairman and CEO of Invitrx, said, "Invitrx Therapeutics is looking forward to join forces with Bioheart Inc. to help advance and expand the product lines and the existing clinical trials in the stem cell field."

About Bioheart, Inc

Bioheart is committed to maintaining its leading position within the cardiovascular sector of the cell technology industry delivering cell therapies and biologics that help address congestive heart failure, lower limb ischemia, chronic heart ischemia, acute myocardial infarctions and other issues.Bioheart's goals are to cause damaged tissue to be regenerated, when possible, and to improve a patient's quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations.

Specific to biotechnology, Bioheart is focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage and peripheral vascular disease. Its leading product, MyoCell, is a clinical muscle-derived cell therapy designed to populate regions of scar tissue within a patient's heart with new living cells for the purpose of improving cardiac function in chronic heart failure patients. For more information on Bioheart, visit http://www.bioheartinc.com, or visit us on Facebook: Bioheart and Twitter @BioheartInc.

Forward-Looking Statements: Except for historical matters contained herein, statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "to," "plan," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "would," "estimate," or "continue" or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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Bioheart Announces Agreement With Invitrx to License Adipose Derived Stem Cells

Dublin, Sept. 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mjr966/circulating_tumor) has announced the addition of the "Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) Market Report 2013" report to their offering.

This is the latest and most up-to-date Market Report addressing the CTC and CSC markets as they are evolving rapidly.

In this report, the authors focus upon technical and business trends in these spaces as they are fast evolving. CTCs have been shown to have prognostic value in a number of cancer types and therefore there is extensive research and development activity to develop methodologies for CTC enumeration as well as analysis. Furthermore, there is a lot of clinical trial activity in a number of different cancer classes seeking to establish the clinical utility of CTC measurements in various cancer subtypes.

The authors have performed worldwide market tracking wherein they've analyzed research trends in the study of CTCs and CSCs. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of product vendors and their market penetrance, markers utilized for the capture/study of CTCs and CSCs as well as cancer classes wherein there is current research activity vis-a-vis CTCs and CSCs are described in this dataset derived from worldwide pools of researchers in November and December 2012therefore these data reflect an up-to-date market landscape.

The authors have also performed extensive analysis of the various clinical trials where CTCs are being enumerated and analyzed. These clinical data set the trajectory of the clinical utility of CTCs.

This data-driven characterization of the cancer tumor cells and CSCs landscape is a hands-on document that can be used for competitive benchmarking, business planning, and strategy developmentall the data that have been collected in this industry analysis are presented and they form the basis for the conclusions drawn throughout the market report presented in a format enabling drag-and-drop into business presentations/business plansthis Market Report is written and delivered to customers in Microsoft PowerPoint format.

Extensive Technical and Market Analyses Presented in this Report

Description of Chapters of the Report

Chapter I. Molecular Characterization of CTCs and CSCs

Chapter II. Technologies for Studying CTCs

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Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) Market Report 2013

Newswise Embryonic stem cells have the enormous potential to treat and cure many medical problems. That is why the discovery that induced embryonic-like stem cells can be created from skin cells was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2012. But the process of creating such cells has remained frustratingly slow and inefficient, and the resulting stem cells are not yet ready for medical use. Research in the lab of the Weizmann Institute of Sciences Dr. Yaqub Hanna, which appears September 18 in Nature, dramatically changes that: He and his group have identified the brake that holds back the production of stem cells, and found that releasing this brake can both synchronize the process and increase its efficiency from around one percent or less today to 100 percent. These findings may help facilitate the production of stem cells for medical use, as well as advancing our understanding of the mysterious process by which adult cells can revert back into their original, embryonic state.

Embryonic stem cells are those that have not undergone any specialization; thus they can give rise to any type of cell in the body. This is what makes them so valuable: They can be used, among other things, to repair damaged tissue, treat autoimmune disease, and even grow transplant organs. Using stem cells taken from embryos is problematic because of availability and ethical concerns, but the hopes for their use were renewed in 2006, when a team led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University discovered that it is possible to reprogram adult cells. The resulting cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), are created by inserting four genes into their DNA. Despite this breakthrough, the reprograming process is fraught with difficulty: It can take up to four weeks; the timing is not coordinated among the cells; and less than one percent of the treated cells actually end up becoming stem cells.

Dr. Hanna and his team asked: What is the main obstacle or obstacles that prevent successful reprograming in the majority of cells? In his postdoctoral research, Dr. Hanna had employed mathematical models to show that a single obstacle was responsible. Of course in biology, as Dr. Hanna is the first to admit, experimental proof is required to back up the models. The present study not only provides the proof, it reveals the identity of that single obstacle and shows that removing it can dramatically improve reprograming.

Dr. Hannas group, led by Dr. Noa Novershtern, Yoach Rais, Asaf Zviran, and Shay Geula of the Department of Molecular Genetics, together with members of the genomics unit of the Institutes Israel Structural Proteomics Center, looked at a certain protein called MBD3, whose function was unknown. MBD3 caught their attention because it is expressed in every cell in the body, at every stage of development. This is quite rare: In general, most types of proteins are produced in specific cells, at specific times, for specific functions. The team found that there is one exception to the rule of universal expression of this protein: the first three days after conception. These are exactly the three days in which the fertilized egg begins dividing, and the nascent embryo is a growing ball of pluripotent stem cells that will eventually supply all the cell types in the body. On the fourth day, differentiation begins, and the cells start to lose their pluripotent status. And that is just when the MBD3 proteins first appear.

This finding has significant implications for the producing iPSCs for medical use. Dr. Yamanaka used viruses to insert the four genes but, for safety reasons, these are not used in reprograming cells to be used in patients. This gives the process an even lower success rate of only around a tenth of a percent. The researchers showed that removing MBD3 from the adult cells can improve efficiency and speed the process by several orders of magnitude, and the time needed to produce the stem cells was shortened from four weeks to eight days. As an added bonus, since the cells all underwent the reprograming at the same rate, the scientists will now be able, for the first time, to actually follow the process step by step and reveal its mechanisms of operation. Dr. Hanna points out that his teams achievement was based on research into the natural pathways of embryonic development: Scientists investigating reprograming can benefit from a deeper understanding of how embryonic stem cells are produced in nature. After all, nature still makes them best, in the most efficient manner.

Dr. Yaqub Hannas research is supported by Pascal and Ilana Mantoux, France/Israel; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Sir Charles Clore Research Prize; the Benoziyo Endowment Fund for the Advancement of Science; Erica A. Drake and Robert Drake; the European Research Council; and the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians, and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials, and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.

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Weizmann Institute Scientists Produce Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) by Removing One Protein

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/v4v3cp/global_stem_cells) has announced the addition of the "Global Stem Cells Pipeline Capsule - 2013" report to their offering.

The latest report 'Global Stem Cells Pipeline Capsule - 2013' provides up-to-date information on key Research and Development activities (R&D) in the global stem cells market. It covers active stem cells pipeline molecules in various stages of clinical trials, preclinical research, and drug discovery.

This report helps executives track their competitor's pipeline molecules. The information presented in this report can be used for identifying partners, evaluating opportunities, formulating business development strategies, executing in-licensing and out-licensing deals.

The report provides information on pipeline molecules by company and mechanism of action across the R&D stages. It also provides information on pipeline molecules developed in leading geographies (North America and Europe). Licensing activities are thoroughly captured in this report.

Key Features of the Report:

- Stem Cells: Overview

- Stem Cells Pipeline Overview

- Stem Cells Phase 3 Clinical Trial Pipeline Insights

- Stem Cells Phase 2 Clinical Trial Pipeline Insights

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Research and Markets: Global Stem Cells Pipeline Capsule - 2013 Covers Active Stem Cells Pipeline Molecules in Various ...