Posted: March 1, 2013 at 9:46 pm
The Farrier #39;s Role with Stem Cell Therapy
At the 2013 International Hoof-Care Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio, Frank Reilly, DVM, talks about the farrier #39;s role in the use of stem cells.
By: AFJTV
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The Farrier's Role with Stem Cell Therapy - Video
Posted: March 1, 2013 at 9:46 pm
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Family Research Council (FRC) Senior Fellow Dr. David Prentice, a native Kansan, congratulated the Kansas state senate for passing S.B. 199, a bill that would establish the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, a regional hub to advance and deliver adult and cord blood stem cell therapies to patients and serving as a resource for adult and cord blood stem cells for therapies. The Center would also inform professionals and the public about such therapies.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080930/FRCLOGO)
Dr. Prentice, a cell biologist who was selected by George W. Bush's Council on Bioethics to write a comprehensive review of adult stem cell research in 2004, testified before the Kansas Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare in support of S.B. 199 on Feb. 25. Dr. Prentice additionally serves as adjunct professor of molecular genetics at the John Paul II Institute at the Catholic University of America, and formerly served as professor of life sciences at Indiana State University and adjunct professor of medical and molecular genetic at Indiana University School of Medicine.
The bill will now go to the Kansas House of Representatives for consideration.
In his testimony Dr. Prentice said:
"There are significant opportunities right now for Kansas to benefit from the establishment of a center of excellence specializing in the application of adult stem cell therapies for certain diseases, as well as educating physicians as well as the public about the advantages and availability of stem cell treatments.
"Kansas is moving forward as a potential leader in the area of adult and cord blood stem cell therapies. Estimates are that KU Med has done over 1,000 adult stem cell transplants, from bone marrow as well as a growing number from umbilical cord blood. These include stem cell transplants for various cancers and leukemias, but also initiating clinical trials to treat heart damage. Much more is possible.
"Kansas is well-positioned to become a leader in this area, and a global resource. The potential benefits for patients are incalculable. I urge you to support S.B. 199."
To read Dr. Prentice's testimony, click here: http://www.frc.org/testimony/testimony-of-dr-david-prentice-before-the-committee-on-public-health-and-welfare-kansas-senate
SOURCE Family Research Council
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FRC's Dr. David Prentice Congratulates Kansas Senate for Passing Ethical Stem Cell Therapy Bill
Posted: March 1, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Stem Cell Research- Inventing The Future
By: Ximena Ls
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Stem Cell Research- Inventing The Future - Video
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 9:45 pm
Public release date: 28-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Richardson krchrdsn@wakehealth.edu 336-716-4453 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Feb. 28, 2013 Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and colleagues have identified a special population of adult stem cells in bone marrow that have the natural ability to migrate to the intestine and produce intestinal cells, suggesting their potential to restore healthy tissue in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Up to 1 million Americans have IBD, which is characterized by frequent diarrhea and abdominal pain. IBD actually refers to two conditions ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in which the intestines become red and swollen and develop ulcers, probably as the result of the body having an immune response to its own tissue.
While there is currently no cure for IBD, there are drug therapies aimed at reducing inflammation and preventing the immune response. Because these therapies aren't always effective, scientists hope to use stem cells to develop an injectable cell therapy to treat IBD.
The research findings are reported online in the FASEB Journal (the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) by senior researcher Graca Almeida-Porada, M.D., Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and colleagues.
The new research complements a 2012 report by Almeida-Porada's team that identified stem cells in cord blood that are involved in blood vessel formation and also have the ability to migrate to the intestine.
"We've identified two populations of human cells that migrate to the intestine one involved in blood vessel formation and the other that can replenish intestinal cells and modulates inflammation," said Almeida-Porada. "Our hope is that a mixture of these cells could be used as an injectable therapy to treat IBD."
The cells would theoretically induce tissue recovery by contributing to a pool of cells within the intestine. The lining of the intestine has one of the highest cellular turnover rates in the body, with all cell types being renewed weekly from this pool of cells, located in an area of the intestine known as the crypt.
In the current study, the team used cell markers to identify a population of stem cells in human bone marrow with the highest potential to migrate to the intestine and thrive. The cells express high levels of a receptor (ephrin type B) that is involved in tissue repair and wound closure.
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Research supports promise of cell therapy for bowel disease
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 9:45 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Discgenics announces the successful completion of an animal study demonstrating safety and efficacy of its novel therapy for reducing back pain caused by degenerative disc disease. This product, known as Injectable Discosphere Cell Therapy (IDCT), features Discgenics' patented, allogeneic, human disc-derived stem cell technology. The study showed that after one injection of IDCT in degenerated discs there was a restoration of disc height and tissue architecture, while noting no inflammatory response.
Discgenics CEO Flagg Flanagan said, " We are very encouraged by the results of the small animal pilot study as it shows the initial safety and efficacy of IDCT, which is produced from adult human disc-derived stem cells.We are optimistic that these early results will be indicative of our therapy's performance in further animal studies and will accelerate us toward human clinical studies and, ultimately, to an FDA cleared product.We believe this technology will revolutionize the way back pain is treated." Discgenics is currently conducting further studies of safety and efficacy in multiple animal species to support future scientific publications and for use in gaining regulatory clearance.
About Discgenics, Inc.
Discgenics is a privately funded spinal therapeutics company that is utilizing adult human disc stem cells within a tissue engineering approach to treat patients debilitated by degenerative disc disease. News and other information on the company are available at: http://www.discgenics.com.
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Discgenics Successfully Completes Pilot Efficacy Study of Injectable Discosphere™ Cell Therapy
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm
Bone Marrow aspirated stem cells injected into the shoulder
By: Marc Darrow
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Bone Marrow aspirated stem cells injected into the shoulder - Video
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm
by JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News
KING5.com
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 10:36 PM
As Baby Boomers age, the number of joint replacements is going up. But even those from Generation X are now wearing out their joints, and replacements dont last forever. Paul Lyon of Gig Harbor went to Colorado looking for a better solution. Lyon says even climbing the stairs was difficult for him, but he didnt want to get a knee replacement. So instead of surgery last September, he headed to a clinic near Denver that specializes in stem cell repair.
The Regenexx procedure allows you to take your cells and try to heal your body. Dr. Christopher Centeno pioneered this less-invasive procedure eight years ago. Stem cells are harvested from a patients hip. We take those cells, we concentrate them in much, much higher numbers, and then, we place them very precisely in the spot in need of repair, Centeno said. The clinic also treats athletes, some as young as 16, with orthopedic injuries. It fits patients like Paul, in their 40s to 80s with joint damage, who still want to push the limits. Lyon plans to get his second knee treated, but not until after ski season. He paid $7,000 for his procedure, which isnt covered by insurance. But he says his money was well spent. I've had friends who've had replacements, with great success, extremely painful, but they're still limited on what they can do so, he said. I'm hoping to be able to ski for a long time with the stem cells. Maybe I'll have to cut back on the level of skiing I'm doing, but I think I'll be OK. When Lyon skies, he hikes five hours up Crystal Mountain, then skies down. He says he couldnt have done this a year ago.
The procedure doesnt come without controversy. Its still considered experimental and doesnt work for every patient.
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Regenexx website
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Stem cells used to repair knees, joint damage
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm
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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE Until 2 p.m. ET, Feb. 27, 2013
TWICE GIVEN, TWICE USED: INFUSION OF STEM CELLS AND SPECIALLY GENERATED T-CELLS FROM SAME DONOR IMPROVES LEUKEMIA SURVIVAL
Newswise SEATTLE In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors.
Reporting results of a pilot clinical trial in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers describe the use of T-cells that were taken from a donor, programmed in the lab to recognize the Wilms Tumor Antigen 1 (WT1) and kill leukemia cells, grown in large numbers, and then infused into patients to promote anti-leukemic activity. The WT1 protein is overexpressed in leukemias and is in part responsible for why the cells have become leukemic.
The best results were achieved when some of the patients received T-cell clones that were exposed to interleukin 21 (IL-21) during the programming and growth process, based on the hypothesis that such exposure would create cells that could survive longer and produce greater anti-leukemic activity after transfer. IL-21 promotes T-cell expansion while helping those cells acquire characteristics of central memory T-cells.
This is the first time patients have received an infusion of WT1 specific T-cells, and thus also the first demonstration that such cells can provide a therapeutic anti-leukemic effect, as has been suggested from earlier vaccine trials that induce less potent responses, said Philip Greenberg, M.D., corresponding author and head of the Immunology Program at Fred Hutch.
Ours is also the first report to show that greatly improved T-cell in-vivo persistence can be achieved after transfer by modifying the way cells are generated in tissue culture for therapy with inclusion of the cytokine IL-21, said Aude Chapuis, M.D., lead author on the study and a research associate in the Fred Hutch Immunology Program.
The findings support expanding efforts to target WT1 and provide insights into what is necessary to establish potent and persistent T-cell responses in patients, and such second generation studies have recently been initiated at Fred Hutch. All of the patients, who were treated post-transplant at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Fred Hutchs site for patient care, received adoptively transferred infusions of billions of enhanced CD8 cytotoxic T-cell clones. They were considered at high risk of death because they had already relapsed and/or had a poor prognosis due to unfavorable characteristics of their leukemia.
Four of the 11 patients in the trial received infusions of T-cells that targeted WT1 and were generated in the presence of IL-21. One had detectable relapsed disease and entered complete remission shortly after the T-cells were infused. All four survived after T-cell therapy without relapse for more than 30 months without suffering graft-vs.-host-disease and required no additional anti-leukemic treatment, according to the study. GVHD is a major complication of stem cell transplantation.
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm
New mouse research in Nature raises hope that human liver stem cells can be similarly grown, transplanted
For decades scientists around the world have attempted to regenerate primary liver cells known as hepatocytes because of their numerous biomedical applications, including hepatitis research, drug metabolism and toxicity studies, as well as transplantation for cirrhosis and other chronic liver conditions. But no lab in the world has been successful in identifying and growing liver stem cells in culture -- using any available technique until now.
In the journal Nature, physician-scientists in the Pap Family Pediatric Research Institute at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Childrens Hospital, Portland, Ore., along with investigators at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, describe a new method through which they were able to infinitely expand liver stem cells from a mouse in a dish.
This study raises the hope that the human equivalent of these mouse liver stem cells can be grown in a similar way and efficiently converted into functional liver cells, said Markus Grompe, M.D., study co-author, director of the Pap Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Childrens Hospital; and professor of pediatrics, and molecular and medical genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine.
In a previous Nature study, investigators at the Hubrecht Institute, led by Hans Clever, M.D, Ph.D., were the first to identify stem cells in the small intestine and colon by observing the expression of the adult stem cell marker Lgr5 and growth in response to a growth factor called Wnt. They also hypothesized that the unique expression pattern of Lgr5 could mark stem cells in other adult tissues, including the liver, an organ for which stem cell identification remained elusive.
In the current Nature study, Grompe and colleagues in the Pap Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher used a modified version of the Clever method and discovered that Wnt-induced Lgr5 expression not only marks stem cell production in the liver, but it also defines a class of stem cells that become active when the liver is damaged.
The scientists were able to grow these liver stem cells exponentially in a dish an accomplishment never before achieved and then transplant them in a specially designed mouse model of liver disease, where they continued to grow and show a modest therapeutic effect.
We were able to massively expand the liver cells and subsequently convert them to hepatocytes at a modest percentage. Going forward, we will enlist other growth factors and conditions to improve that percentage. Liver stem cell therapy for chronic liver disease in humans is coming, said Grompe.
The study, In vitro expansion of single Lgr5+ liver stem cells induced by Wnt-driven regeneration, was funded by National Institutes of Health Grant R0I DK05192.
Investigators who contributed to this research include: Grompe, Craig Dorrell, Annelise Haft, Pap Family Pediatric Research Institute, OHSU Doernbecher Childrens Hospital; Clever, Meritxell Huch, Sylvia Boj, Johan van Es, Vivian Li, Mare van de Wetering, Toshiro Sato, Karien Hamer, Nobuo Sasaki, Robert Vries, Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research; and Milton Finegold, Texas Childrens Hospital Houston.
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OHSU Doernbecher Scientists First To Grow Liver Stem Cells In Culture, Transplant Them With Demonstrated Therapeutic ...
Posted: February 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm
Public release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dean Forbes dforbes@fhcrc.org 206-667-2896 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
SEATTLE In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors.
Reporting results of a pilot clinical trial in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers describe the use of T-cells that were taken from a donor, programmed in the lab to recognize the Wilm's Tumor Antigen 1 (WT1) and kill leukemia cells, grown in large numbers, and then infused into patients to promote anti-leukemic activity. The WT1 protein is overexpressed in leukemias and is in part responsible for why the cells have become leukemic.
The best results were achieved when some of the patients received T-cell clones that were exposed to interleukin 21 (IL-21) during the programming and growth process, based on the hypothesis that such exposure would create cells that could survive longer and produce greater anti-leukemic activity after transfer. IL-21 promotes T-cell expansion while helping those cells acquire characteristics of central memory T-cells.
"This is the first time patients have received an infusion of WT1 specific T-cells, and thus also the first demonstration that such cells can provide a therapeutic anti-leukemic effect, as has been suggested from earlier vaccine trials that induce less potent responses," said Philip Greenberg, M.D., corresponding author and head of the Immunology Program at Fred Hutch.
"Ours is also the first report to show that greatly improved T-cell in-vivo persistence can be achieved after transfer by modifying the way cells are generated in tissue culture for therapy with inclusion of the cytokine IL-21," said Aude Chapuis, M.D., lead author on the study and a research associate in the Fred Hutch Immunology Program.
The findings support expanding efforts to target WT1 and provide insights into what is necessary to establish potent and persistent T-cell responses in patients, and such second generation studies have recently been initiated at Fred Hutch.
All of the patients, who were treated post-transplant at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Fred Hutch's site for patient care, received adoptively transferred infusions of billions of enhanced CD8 cytotoxic T-cell clones. They were considered at high risk of death because they had already relapsed and/or had a poor prognosis due to unfavorable characteristics of their leukemia.
Four of the 11 patients in the trial received infusions of T-cells that targeted WT1 and were generated in the presence of IL-21. One had detectable relapsed disease and entered complete remission shortly after the T-cells were infused. All four survived after T-cell therapy without relapse for more than 30 months without suffering graft-vs.-host-disease and required no additional anti-leukemic treatment, according to the study. GVHD is a major complication of stem cell transplantation.
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Infusion of stem cells and specially generated T-cells from same donor improves leukemia survival
