WASHINGTON (BP) -- A Japanese researcher who discovered a way to produce stem cells that act like embryonic ones without their lethal consequences has won a Nobel Prize. "I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way." -- Shinya Yamanaka The Nobel Foundation awarded its 2012 prize in physiology or medicine to Shinya Yamanaka, who was able to reprogram adult skin cells into cells that have virtually the identical properties of embryonic ones, which have the ability to change into any cell or tissue in the body. In the Oct. 8 announcement, Yamanaka, 50, shared the Nobel Prize with British scientist John Gurdon, 79, whose work in 1962 paved the way for the Japanese researcher's breakthrough.

Unlike embryonic stem cells, reprogrammed cells -- also known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells - do not cause harm to a donor. The extraction of embryonic stem cells, however, results in the destruction of a days-old human embryo.

The "life" issue also was a theme in the awarding of this year's Nobel Prize for literature. Chinese writer Mo Yan, a critic of his country's coercive population control policy, received the award Oct. 11 from the Nobel Foundation, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Yan's most recent novel, "Wa," "illuminates the consequences of China's imposition of a single-child policy," according to the Nobel news release.

Yamanaka, the Nobel physiology/medicine winner who teaches at Kyoto University in Japan, was motivated in his search for a safe way to produce embryonic-like cells by a look through a microscope at a human embryo stored at a fertility clinic in the late 1990s.

"When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters," Yamanaka told The New York Times in 2007. "I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way."

In 2006, he found a way to induce adult cells to take on embryonic-like, or "pluripotent," qualities. Embryonic stem cells are considered "pluripotent," meaning they can develop into all of the different cell types in the body. Adult stem cells typically have been regarded as "multipotent," meaning they can form many, though not all, of the body's cell types. Yamanaka's work showed adult cells could become "pluripotent" and thereby avoid the ethical problems with embryonic stem cells.

Pro-life bioethics specialist Wesley Smith lauded the Nobel Foundation's decision to reward Yamanaka, writing on his blog, "This is so deserved!"

"Bravo Dr. Yamanaka! You proved that good ethics leads to splendid science," Smith said.

The ability of stem cells to convert to other cells and tissues has provided great hope for developing cures for various diseases. Embryonic stem cell research has yet to provide any treatments for human beings and has been plagued by tumors in lab animals, however. Reprogrammed, or iPS, cells have demonstrated promising results but have not been used in human trials.

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Hisashi Moriguchi presented his work at the New York Stem Cell Foundation meeting this week.

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From the beginning, it seemed too good to be true. Days after Kyoto University biologist Shinya Yamanaka won a Nobel prize for his 2006 discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (see 'Cell rewind wins medicine Nobel'), Hisashi Moriguchi a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo claimed to have modified that technology to treat a person with terminal heart failure. Eight months after surgical treatment in February, said a front-page splash in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun yesterday, the patient was healthy.

But after being alerted to the story by Nature, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where Moriguchi claimed to have done the work, denied that the procedure had taken place. No clinical trials related to Dr Moriguchi's work have been approved by institutional review boards at either Harvard University or MGH, wrote David Cameron, a spokesman for Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. The work he is reporting was not done at MGH, says Ryan Donovan, a public-affairs official at MGH, also in Boston.

A video clip posted online by the Nippon News Network and subsequently removed showed Moriguchi presenting his research at the New York Stem Cell Foundation meeting this week.

If true, Moriguchis feat would have catapulted iPS cells into use in a wide range of clinical situations, years ahead of most specialists' predictions. I hope this therapy is realized in Japan as soon as possible, the head of a Tokyo-based organization devoted to helping children with heart problems told Yomiuri Shimbun.

But there were reasons to be suspicious. Moriguchi said he had invented a method to reprogram cells using just two chemicals: microRNA-145 inhibitor and TGF- ligand1. But Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a stem-cell researcher at the University of Tokyo, says that he has never heard of success with that method. He adds that he had also never heard of Moriguchi before this week.

Moriguchi also said that the cells could be differentiated into cardiac cells using a 'supercooling' method that he had invented. Thats another weird thing, says Nakauchi.

The article in which Moriguchi presented his two-chemical method, published in a book1 describing advances in stem-cell research, includes paragraphs copied almost verbatim from other papers. The section headed 2.3 Western blotting, for example, is identical to a passage from a 2007 paper by Yamanaka2. Section 2.1.1, in which Moriguchi describes human liver biopsies, matches the number of patients and timing of specimen extractions described in an earlier article3, although the name of the institution has been changed.

When contacted by Nature, Moriguchi stood by his publication. We are all doing similar things so it makes sense that wed use similar words, he says. He did admit to using other papers as reference.

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ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have taken the first steps to create neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue in animals.

Details of the work are published in two complementary studies published in the September online issues of the journals Experimental Cell Research and Stem Cell Research.

"Reversing brain degeneration and trauma lesions will depend on cell therapy, but we can't harvest neural stem cells from the brain or spinal cord without harming the donor," said Osvaldo Delbono, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the studies.

"Skeletal muscle tissue, which makes up 50 percent of the body, is easily accessible and biopsies of muscle are relatively harmless to the donor, so we think it may be an alternative source of neural-like cells that potentially could be used to treat brain or spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disorders, brain tumors and other diseases, although more studies are needed."

In an earlier study, the Wake Forest Baptist team isolated neural precursor cells derived from skeletal muscle of adult transgenic mice (PLOS ONE, Feb. 3, 2011).

In the current research, the team isolated neural precursor cells from in vitro adult skeletal muscle of various species including non-human primates and aging mice, and showed that these cells not only survived in the brain, but also migrated to the area of the brain where neural stem cells originate.

Another issue the researchers investigated was whether these neural-like cells would form tumors, a characteristic of many types of stem cells. To test this, the team injected the cells below the skin and in the brains of mice, and after one month, no tumors were found.

"Right now, patients with glioblastomas or other brain tumors have very poor outcomes and relatively few treatment options," said Alexander Birbrair, a doctoral student in Delbono's lab and first author of these studies. "Because our cells survived and migrated in the brain, we may be able to use them as drug-delivery vehicles in the future, not only for brain tumors but also for other central nervous system diseases."

In addition, the Wake Forest Baptist team is now conducting research to determine if these neural-like cells also have the capability to become functioning neurons in the central nervous system.

Co-authors of the studies are Tan Zhang, Ph.D., Zhong-Min Wang, M.S., Maria Laura Messi, M.S., Akiva Mintz, M.D., Ph.D., of Wake Forest Baptist, and Grigori N. Enikolopov, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

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Neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue may hold key to cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases

FRIDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Autism researchers have been given the go-ahead by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch a small study in children with autism that evaluates whether a child's own umbilical cord blood may be an effective treatment.

Thirty children with the disorder, aged 2 to 7, will receive injections of their own stem cells from umbilical cord blood banked by their parents after their births. All of the cord blood comes from the Cord Blood Registry, the world's largest stem cell bank.

Scientists at Sutter Neuroscience Institute, in Sacramento, Calif., said the placebo-controlled study will evaluate whether the stem cell therapy helps improve language and behavior in the youngsters.

There is anecdotal evidence that stem cell infusions may have a benefit in other conditions such as cerebral palsy, said lead study investigator Dr. Michael Chez, director of pediatric neurology at the institute.

"We're hoping we'll see in the autism population a group of patients that also responds," Chez said. Other autism and stem cell research is going on abroad, but this study is the first to use a child's own cord blood stem cells.

Chez said the study will involve only patients whose autism is not linked to a genetic syndrome or brain injury, and all of the children will eventually receive the stem cells.

Two infusions will take place during the 13-month study. At the start of the research, the children will be split into two groups, half receiving an infusion of cord blood stem cells and half receiving a placebo. At six months, the groups will swap therapies. The infusions will be conducted on an outpatient basis with close monitoring, Chez said.

"We're working with Sutter Children's Hospital, who does our oncology infusions with the same-age children," he said. "They are very experienced nurses who work with preschool and school-age kids to help them get through medical experiences."

Each child and his or her parents will be given a private room with a television and videos, beverages, and perhaps a visit from the hospital's canine therapy dog, and then a topical anesthetic will be applied to the arm to numb the skin before intravenous needle placement. A hematology expert will be giving the infusions and monitoring for safety, said Chez, who noted that each child will be watched closely for an hour and a half before heading home. They will be seen the next day as well for a safety check.

At six, 12 and 24 weeks, the researchers will measure behavioral and language changes in the children, and other changes noted by parents and the children's doctors will be logged as well.

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Could Stem Cells Treat Autism? Newly Approved Study May Tell