San Diego, CA (PRWEB) September 03, 2013

Histogen, Inc., a regenerative medicine company developing innovative therapies for conditions including hair loss and cancer, today announced that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has issued patent 8,524,494, entitled Low Oxygen Tension and bFGF Generates a Multipotent Stem Cell from a Fibroblast In Vitro to the Company.

The issued patent covers Histogens method of triggering the de-differentiation of fibroblast cells into multipotent stem cells through low oxygen and special culture conditions. The resulting multipotent cells naturally secrete a variety of soluble and insoluble molecules that are the basis for Histogens products.

Histogens process is uniquely capable of harnessing all of the benefits and excitement of stem cell therapies without any of the ethical, safety or sourcing concerns, said Dr. Gail K. Naughton, Histogen CEO and Chairman of the Board. Issuance of this patent adds great strength to our technology, and value to our partners and products.

Current stem cell-derived therapies utilize embryonic stem cells or genetically-manipulated induced pluripotent stem cells, both of which have an inherent ethical and scientific risk, and raise a number of regulatory issues. Still, enthusiasm continues to build around stem cells, both for their potential to address serious medical conditions as well as their aesthetic benefits for beauty and rejuvenation.

Through Histogens technology process, the Company is uniquely able to begin with newborn fibroblasts cells, a safe, well-established and non-controversial cell source, and convert the cells into multipotent stem cells without genetic manipulation. The cells express key stem cell markers including Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog, and secrete a distinctive composition of growth factors and other proteins known to stimulate stem cells in the body, regenerate tissues, and promote scarless healing.

It is the soluble and insoluble compositions of multipotent proteins and growth factors which make up Histogens products, with numerous applications. Histogens lead product, Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) has shown success in two Company-sponsored clinical trials as an injectable treatment for alopecia. In addition, the human multipotent cell conditioned media produced through Histogens process can be found in the ReGenica line of skincare products, currently being distributed by Suneva Medical in partnership with Obagi Medical Products. Further indications of the materials currently being developed include oncology and orthopedics.

About Histogen Histogen is a regenerative medicine company developing solutions based upon the products of cells grown under proprietary conditions that mimic the embryonic environment, including low oxygen and suspension. Through this unique technology process, newborn cells are encouraged to naturally produce the vital proteins and growth factors from which the Company has developed its rich product portfolio. Histogens technology focuses on stimulating a patients own stem cells by delivering a proprietary complex of multipotent human proteins that have been shown to support stem cell growth and differentiation. For more information, please visit http://www.histogen.com.

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Histogen’s Method of Generating Multipotent Stem Cells Receives US Patent

Economic regeneration is the name of the game for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and cellular regeneration is one way to play it.

The government is pushing through bills to fast-track regulatory approval for cell-based products and set new research guidelines. Its also funding a $1.12 billion study of a type of stem cell free from ethical concerns over embryo harvesting that have dogged the science for more than a decade.

Abe aims to cement Japans leadership in a field of research that last year garnered the nations first Nobel Prize for medicine in a quarter of a century. Not only academic bragging rights are at stake: the government wants new industries to wean the worlds third-biggest economy from its dependence on autos and estimates stem cells potential to rejuvenate worn-out body parts or reverse degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers may yield $380 billion in sales by 2050.

Lawmakers will debate legislation as early as this month to make the approval process for cell therapies faster than in the U.S. and U.K. That marks a sea-change from the kind of conservative regime that held back Japanese scientists from research into cells derived from human embryos, said Alan Colman, executive director at Singapore Stem Cell Consortium.

They dont want to repeat that for the innovation Japan was totally responsible for, said Coleman, who helped pioneer cloning techniques that created Dolly the sheep in 1996. They are trying to reinvent themselves and show themselves to be progressive and sensible and not inhibitory.

Investor optimism at the prospects for Japans cell technology can be seen in some stocks. Japan Tissue Engineering Co. (7774), which makes cultured cartilage and skin tissue, has soared more than five-fold this year. ReproCell Inc. (4978), the first company licensed to make iPS cells, is almost three times higher than its initial public offering price in June.

In July, the Health Ministry gave the go-ahead for the worlds first clinical trial on humans with stem cells made using the Nobel Prize-winning technique of Shinya Yamanaka.

In an embryos early stages, stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they can become any type of tissue in the body. As the embryo develops, they begin to specialize, or differentiate, into building blocks for the bodys different structures.

Yamanaka showed how these later-stage cells in mice can be reprogrammed into what are termed induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.

While New York-based Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (ACTC) of Marlborough, Massachusetts, are already conducting trials on humans, these use cells harvested from embryos. As well as sidestepping ethical issues this raises, the Japanese technique reduces risks that immune systems will reject implanted cells because they are taken from patients own bodies.

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Abe Funds Stem Cells to Help Cure Japan Wasting Disease

Ear, eye, liver, windpipe, bladder, and even a heart. The list of body parts grown from stem cells is getting longer and longer. Now add to it one of the most complex organs: the brain.

A team of European scientists has grown parts of a human brain in tissue culture from stem cells. Their work could help scientists understand the origins of schizophrenia or autism and lead to drugs to treat them, said Juergen Knoblich, deputy scientific director at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Science and one of the paper's co-authors.

The advance could also eliminate the need for conducting experiments on animals, whose brains are not a perfect model for humans.

To grow the brain structures, called organoids, the scientists used stem cells, which can develop into any other kind of cell in the body. They put the stem cells into a special solution designed to promote the growth of neural cells. Bits of gel interspersed throughout the solution gave the cells a three-dimensional structure to grown upon. In eight to ten days the stem cells turned into brain cells. After 20 days to a month, the cells matured into a size between three and four millimeters, representing specific brain regions, such as the cortex and the hindbrain.

Growing brain tissue this way marks a major advancement because the lab-grown brain cells self-organized, and took on growth patterns seen in a developing, fetal brain.

Currently, the organoids are limited to how big they can get because they do not have a circulatory system to move around nutrients.

Knoblich's team didn't stop of growing the brain organoids, though. They went a step further and used the developing tissue to study microcephaly, a condition in which the brain stops growing. Microcephalic patients are born with smaller brains, and impaired cognitive development. Studying microcephaly in mice doesn't help because human and mouse brains are too different.

Link:
Tiny Brain Parts Teased from Stem Cells