Stem cell discovery may revive damaged heart

(IANS) / 29 November 2012

A new discovery that tricks aging stem cells into rejuvenating mode could enable scientists to create youthful patches for damaged or diseased hearts and heal them, according to a Canadian study.

The breakthrough may enable scientists to create such life giving patches from a patients own stem cells - regardless of the patients age - while avoiding the threat of rejection, the study claims.

Stem cell therapies involving donated bone marrow stem cells run the risk of patient rejection in a portion of the population, argues Milica Radisic, associate professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports.

One method of avoiding such a risk has been to use cells derived from a patients own body. But until now, clinical trials of this kind of therapy using elderly patients own cells have not been a viable option, since aged cells tend not to function as well as cells from young patients, according to a Toronto statement.

If you want to treat these people with their own cells, how do you do this? asks Radisic. Its a problem that Radisic and co-researcher Ren-Ke Li think they might have an answer for: by creating the conditions for a fountain of youth reaction within a tissue culture. Li is a professor in the division of cardiovascular surgery.

Radisic and Li first create a micro-environment that allows heart tissue to grow, with stem cells donated from elderly patients at the Toronto General Hospital, where Li works.

Li and his team then tracked the molecular changes in the tissue patch cells. We saw certain aging factors turned off, states Li, citing the levels of two molecules in particular, p16 and (regucalcin) RGN, which effectively turned back the clock in the cells, returning them to robust and states.

Its very exciting research, says Radisic, who was named one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT in 2008 and winner of the 2012 Young Engineers Canada award.

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Stem cell discovery may revive damaged heart

Drugs converting stem cells into heart muscle may be newest frontier in treating damage from heart attacks.

Known for his work with the pathways that manage heart formation before birth,

Robert Schwartz (above) gives the introduction for Mark Mercola (not shown), a professor from from Sansford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. | Bethel Glumac/The Daily Cougar

came to UH from Sansford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando to share his latest research on stem cells at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Rockwell Pavilion of the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.

The loss of 1 billion cells that normally takes place in a heart attack is devastating, Mercola said. Their team hopes to use small molecules to cause stem cells to become heart cells.

We can take stem cells, and revert them back to those embryonic stem cells, Mercola said. What Im giving you is a roadmap to come up with new drugs.

Mercola lectured about the different methods in which he and his team are attempting to combat the lack of heart regeneration within the human body. The talk was open to all students, and featured a Q-and-A session afterwards.

There have been screaming matches at meetings over techniques to regenerate the heart, Mercola said.

Mercola said the techniques his team used in their researched found the lineage of cardiomyctes, describing how the team dyed them with a green protein.

Mercola said he hoped their works would lead to the ideal heart muscles that would result in a new class of drugs to stimulate regeneration of damaged heart muscle.

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Stem cells may be key to treating heart attack patients

A Little Rock child is the first in Arkansas to take part in an FDA trial using cord blood stem cells to treat his cerebral palsy.

Before the injections, 3-year-old Drake Haynes was severely developmentally delayed. Now, Drake is running, jumping, playing and talking just like any other kid his age.

Drake's mother, Nicole, says his transformation has been dramatic. "We never knew if he would smile and he does, a lot!"

Drake's diagnosis of cerebral palsy came after suffering a stroke due to lack of oxygen to the brain during birth. "He couldn't walk, he couldn't talk, and he just sat there."

Drake's speech therapist, Barrett Feltus, saw little to no signs of improvement. "At first he wasn't making any sounds or very few sounds. Now, he's talking in words. He's able to tell you what he wants and needs in a sentence."

The Haynes say it's all thanks to having Drake's umbilical cord blood banked at birth. Now, Drake's own stem cells are helping him heal. "The neurologist doing the assessment was amazed. She just kept saying, "Oh my gosh! I can't believe he can do this."

Feltus says she can see the light in Drake's eyes. "He was unhappy for a while because he couldn't communicate. Now he can, and he's happier. He plays with the kids, and he can communicate his needs, so he's overall a happy kid."

The Haynes credit the cord blood stem cell injections for the difference in their happy, determined child. "It's like a blind has been lifted on a window."

They never thought Drake would be able to walk, talk, jump or ride a bike like the other kids his age. The Haynes say Drake's personality transformed, and his progress gives them hope he'll continue to get better and have a bright future.

The message the Haynes want to send other parents is to bank their babies cord blood. They say you never know when, or if, you're going to need it. Hopefully you won't, but just in case, they say it could be a success story like theirs.

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Cord blood stem cells help 3-year-old

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dublin - Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Frontiers In Pluripotent Stem Cells Research And Therapeutic Potentials" book to their offering.

Pluripotent stem cells have garnered tremendous interest in recent years, which is primarily driven by the hope of finding a cure for several debilitating human diseases. Cell transplantation (regeneratve medicine) offers considerable therapeutic potential. The procedure employs pluripotent stem cells as these have the inherent ability to reproduce indefinitely and have the ability to produce over 200 different types of cells constituting the human body.

The isolation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) from embryos and their successful culture in a petri dish in 1998 has been considered as a major breakthrough that is set to shape stem cell research in the 21st century. This has been followed by another remarkable breakthrough in 2006 when scientists demonstrated for the first time that such pluripotent stem cells could be produced from adult somatic tissues without having to use human embryos.

These pluripotent stem cells are called the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Both hESCs and iPS cells - highly versatile cells - could pave the way for alleviating patients suffering from diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and many more.

This e-book brings together the information from the last decade on stem cells, compiled by reputed research experts. Readers will learn all aspects of pluripotent stem cells from basic biology to their use in understanding disease process, toxicology, drug discovery and in developing therapeutic strategies. Research on these cells, including transitional and translational aspects, is explained with the aid of extensive figures, colour photographs, and tables.

This e-book is a valuable resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, scientists, embryologists, tissue engineers, doctors and biomedical scientists interested in stem cell research and medicine.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mxvl98/frontiers_in

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Research and Markets: Frontiers In Pluripotent Stem Cells Research And Therapeutic Potentials

Scientists funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome Trust have today published a patient-friendly and efficient way to make stem cells out of blood, increasing the hope that scientists could one day use stem cells made from patients own cells to treat cardiovascular disease (1) in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine.

(PRWEB) November 29, 2012

The study, in the journal Stem Cells: Translational Medicine (2), outlines a way for scientists to get the cells they need to make induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (3) from a routine blood sample. Previously scientists have struggled to find an appropriate type of cell in the blood that can be turned into a stem cell, and often make iPS cells from skin or other tissues, which can require a surgical procedure, like a biopsy.

Dr Amer Rana and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge grew patients blood in the lab and isolated what are known as late outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells (L-EPCs) to turn into iPS cells. The iPS cells can then be turned into any other cell in the body, including blood vessel cells or heart cells using different cocktails of chemicals. Scientists use these cells to study disease, and ultimately hope to grow them into tissue to repair the damage caused by heart and circulatory diseases.

Dr Amer Rana, of the University of Cambridge, said of the research:

We are excited to have developed a practical and efficient method to create stem cells from a cell type found in blood. Tissue biopsies are undesirable particularly for children and the elderly whereas taking blood samples is routine for all patients.

Researchers can freeze and store the blood cells, and then turn them into iPS cells at a later stage, rather than having to transform them as soon as they are sourced, as is the case for other cell types used previously. This will have tremendous practical value prolonging the use by date of patient samples.

Shannon Amoils, Research Advisor at the BHF, said:

iPS cells offer great potential both for the study and potentially the future treatment of cardiovascular diseases. As iPS cells are made from the patients own tissue, they can be used to study diseases and hopefully one day to repair damaged tissue without being attacked by the bodys immune system.

Being able to efficiently produce iPS cells using cells from a blood sample will make it easier for researchers to push this technology forward. But there are still many hurdles to overcome before this kind of technique could be used to treat patients.

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New Patient-Friendly Way to Make Stem Cells for Fight Against Heart Disease – Promising New Technique for Creating ...