Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered stem cells in the human eye which can be transformed into light sensitive cells and potentially reverse blindness
Hundreds of thousands of people who are registered blind have been offered new hope after scientists discovered special stem cells in the human eye which can be altered to pick up light.
Researchers at the University of Southampton have discovered a reservoir of stem cells in an area of the eye called the corneal limbus.
And they have proven that, in the right environment, they can be transformed into photo-receptor cells which react to light.
Scientists are hopeful that implanting the cultured stem cells in a damaged eye could reverse blindness.
It could offer a potential cure for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, which are both caused by the loss of photo-receptor cells in the eye.
And researchers were amazed to find that the cells even existed in the eyes of a 97-year-old, opening up the possibility that the treatment could work for the elderly.
“These cells are readily accessible, and they have surprising plasticity, which makes them an attractive cell resource for future therapies,” said Professor Andrew Lotery, of the University of Southampton and a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Southampton General Hospital led the study.
“This would help avoid complications with rejection or contamination because the cells taken from the eye would be returned to the same patient.
“More research is now needed to develop this approach before these cells are used in patients.”
The loss of photoreceptors cells causes irreversible blindness.
Age related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the developed world which affects around one in three people in the UK by age 75.
Around 513,000 people are in the late stage of AMD and that figure is set to rise by one-third over the next decade, totalling nearly 700,000 cases by 2020.
Almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss, approximately one person in 30.
It is predicted that by 2020 the number of people with sight loss will rise to over 2,250,000. By 2050, the number of people with sight loss in the UK will double to nearly four million.
There is currently no treatment for blindness caused by the loss of photo-receptors.
So far scientists have only shown that the concept works in the lab and are yet to implant them in a human patient. But they are hopeful that the cells could be taken from a patient, grown in the lab and transplanted back into the eye. Clinical trials should begin within five years.
Charities are optimistic that it could herald a brighter future for people with sight loss.
Clara Eaglen, RNIB Eye Health Campaigns Manager, said: "At RNIB we talk to people everyday who tell us about the huge impact that losing their sight has on daily life, so this is very interesting research.
"The study shows that you can grow stem cells and make them act like light sensitive cells, a big step forward in helping patients with conditions such as age-related macular degeneration where damage has occurred to the light sensitive cells.
"These cells can then be taken from a patient, changed, and replaced - reducing the risk of rejection which is exciting.
"We are hopeful that stem cell technology will significantly change the way in which people with sight loss are treated over the next decade."
The research was published in the journal PLOS One.
LINK
Showing posts with label Stem Cells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stem Cells. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
The promise of stem cell therapies is closer to reality
Edgar Irastorza was just 31 when his heart stopped beating in October 2008.
A Miami property manager, break-dancer and former high school wrestler, Irastorza had recently gained weight as his wife’s third pregnancy progressed.
“I kind of got pregnant, too,” he said.
During a workout one day, he felt short of breath and insisted that friends rush him to the hospital. Minutes later, his pulse flatlined.
He survived the heart attack, but the scar tissue that resulted cut his heart’s pumping ability by a third. He couldn’t pick up his children. He couldn’t dance. He fell asleep every night wondering if he would wake up in the morning.
Desperation motivated Irastorza to volunteer for a highly unusual medical research trial: getting stem cells injected directly into his heart.
“I just trusted my doctors and the science behind it, and said, ‘This is my only chance,’ ” he said recently.
Over the last five years, by studying stem cells in lab dishes, test animals and intrepid patients like Irastorza, researchers have brought the vague, grandiose promises of stem cell therapies closer to reality.
Stem cells broke into the public consciousness in the early 1990s, alluring for their potential to help the body beat back diseases of degeneration like Alzheimer’s, and to grow new parts to treat conditions like spinal cord injuries.
Progress has been slow. But researchers have been learning how to best use stem cells, what types to use and how to deliver them to the body — findings that are not singularly transformational, but progressive and pragmatic.
As many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are underway in the United States to treat patients with heart disease, blindness, Parkinson’s, HIV, diabetes, blood cancers and spinal cord injuries, among other conditions.
Initial studies suggest that stem cell therapy can be delivered safely, said Dr. Ellen Feigal, senior vice president of research and development at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, which has awarded more than $2 billion toward stem cell research since 2006 and is enrolling patients in 10 clinical trials this year.
But enthusiasm for stem cells sometimes outstrips the science. When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas had adult stem cells injected into his spine in 2011 for a back injury, his surgeon had never tried the procedure and had no data to support the experiment.
A June review in The New England Journal of Medicine found that “platelet-rich plasma” stem cell therapies praised by a number of athletes worked no better than placebos.
Such public chatter may imply that stem cell research is further advanced than it is, said Dr. Charles Murry, a co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington.
Slick websites advertising stem cell therapies leave the impression that such treatments are ready to use and that “the only problem is the evil physicians and government, who want to separate people from lifesaving therapies,” said Murry, a cardiovascular pathologist. “Almost every one of these places are charlatans.”
In fact, very few therapies beyond bone marrow transplants have been shown to be effective, he said.
And still to be determined is the most cost-effective way to deliver stem cells.
Scientists presumed, for instance, that a patient’s heart would repair itself better when injected with its own stem cells. But the study that Irastorza volunteered for at the University of Miami showed that patients fared just as well with someone else’s stem cells, and their bodies did not mount an immune attack against the cells.
If supported by further studies, this means that future patients won’t need immune suppressants, and that stem cells can be made in large batches — and therefore more cheaply.
Treatment for Irastorza, who received his own cells, began with the withdrawing of some of his bone marrow. Researchers took adult cells believed to be stem cells from the marrow and then inserted them through a catheter directly into Irastorza’s heart.
About a third of his left ventricle had been destroyed by his heart attack, which was attributed to a hereditary cholesterol problem. It’s impossible to know for sure whether the bone marrow cells’ descendants became heart muscle cells or if repairs were spurred some other way, but today, his doctors tell him his heart is one third of the way back to normal.
It’s enough, Irastorza said, to allow him to dance again and to be the kind of father he wants to be: “My quality of life is like night and day to before the treatment.”
http://health.heraldtribune.com/2014/09/30/promise-stem-cell-therapies-closer-reality/
A Miami property manager, break-dancer and former high school wrestler, Irastorza had recently gained weight as his wife’s third pregnancy progressed.
“I kind of got pregnant, too,” he said.
During a workout one day, he felt short of breath and insisted that friends rush him to the hospital. Minutes later, his pulse flatlined.
He survived the heart attack, but the scar tissue that resulted cut his heart’s pumping ability by a third. He couldn’t pick up his children. He couldn’t dance. He fell asleep every night wondering if he would wake up in the morning.
Desperation motivated Irastorza to volunteer for a highly unusual medical research trial: getting stem cells injected directly into his heart.
“I just trusted my doctors and the science behind it, and said, ‘This is my only chance,’ ” he said recently.
Over the last five years, by studying stem cells in lab dishes, test animals and intrepid patients like Irastorza, researchers have brought the vague, grandiose promises of stem cell therapies closer to reality.
Stem cells broke into the public consciousness in the early 1990s, alluring for their potential to help the body beat back diseases of degeneration like Alzheimer’s, and to grow new parts to treat conditions like spinal cord injuries.
Progress has been slow. But researchers have been learning how to best use stem cells, what types to use and how to deliver them to the body — findings that are not singularly transformational, but progressive and pragmatic.
As many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are underway in the United States to treat patients with heart disease, blindness, Parkinson’s, HIV, diabetes, blood cancers and spinal cord injuries, among other conditions.
Initial studies suggest that stem cell therapy can be delivered safely, said Dr. Ellen Feigal, senior vice president of research and development at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, which has awarded more than $2 billion toward stem cell research since 2006 and is enrolling patients in 10 clinical trials this year.
But enthusiasm for stem cells sometimes outstrips the science. When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas had adult stem cells injected into his spine in 2011 for a back injury, his surgeon had never tried the procedure and had no data to support the experiment.
A June review in The New England Journal of Medicine found that “platelet-rich plasma” stem cell therapies praised by a number of athletes worked no better than placebos.
Such public chatter may imply that stem cell research is further advanced than it is, said Dr. Charles Murry, a co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington.
Slick websites advertising stem cell therapies leave the impression that such treatments are ready to use and that “the only problem is the evil physicians and government, who want to separate people from lifesaving therapies,” said Murry, a cardiovascular pathologist. “Almost every one of these places are charlatans.”
In fact, very few therapies beyond bone marrow transplants have been shown to be effective, he said.
And still to be determined is the most cost-effective way to deliver stem cells.
Scientists presumed, for instance, that a patient’s heart would repair itself better when injected with its own stem cells. But the study that Irastorza volunteered for at the University of Miami showed that patients fared just as well with someone else’s stem cells, and their bodies did not mount an immune attack against the cells.
If supported by further studies, this means that future patients won’t need immune suppressants, and that stem cells can be made in large batches — and therefore more cheaply.
Treatment for Irastorza, who received his own cells, began with the withdrawing of some of his bone marrow. Researchers took adult cells believed to be stem cells from the marrow and then inserted them through a catheter directly into Irastorza’s heart.
About a third of his left ventricle had been destroyed by his heart attack, which was attributed to a hereditary cholesterol problem. It’s impossible to know for sure whether the bone marrow cells’ descendants became heart muscle cells or if repairs were spurred some other way, but today, his doctors tell him his heart is one third of the way back to normal.
It’s enough, Irastorza said, to allow him to dance again and to be the kind of father he wants to be: “My quality of life is like night and day to before the treatment.”
http://health.heraldtribune.com/2014/09/30/promise-stem-cell-therapies-closer-reality/
Monday, April 28, 2014
Cloning used to make stem cells from adult humans
(CNN) -- For the first time, cloning technologies have been used to generate stem cells that are genetically matched to adult patients.
Fear not: No legitimate scientist is in the business of cloning humans. But cloned embryos can be used as a source for stem cells that match a patient and can produce any cell type in that person.
Researchers in two studies published this month have created human embryos for this purpose. Usually an embryo forms when sperm fertilizes egg; in this case, scientists put the nucleus of an adult skin cell inside an egg, and that reconstructed egg went through the initial stages of embryonic development.
"This is a dream that we've had for 15 years or so in the stem cell field," said John Gearhart, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Gearhart first proposed this approach for patient-specific stem cell generation in the 1990s but was not involved in the recent studies.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into any kind of tissue in the human body. From growing organs to treating diabetes, many future medical advances are hoped to arise from stem cells.
Scientists wrote in the journal Cell Stem Cell this month that they used skin cells from a man, 35, and another man, 75, to create stem cells from cloned embryos.
"We reaffirmed that it is possible to produce patient-specific stem cells using a nuclear transfer technology regardless of the patient's age," said co-lead author Young Gie Chung at the CHA Stem Cell Institute in Seoul, South Korea.
On Monday, an independent group led by scientists at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute published results in Nature using a similar approach. They used skin cells from a 32-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes to generate stem cells matched to her.
Both new reports follow the groundbreaking research published last year by Shoukhrat Mitalipov and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University in the journal Cell. In that study, researchers produced cloned embryos and stem cells using skin cells from a fetus and an 8-month-old baby.
"It's a remarkable process that gives us these master cells, these stems cells that are essentially the seeds for all of the tissues in our bodies," said George Daley, director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the recent studies. "That's why it's so important for medical research."
A brief history of stem cells
The first developments in the field of stem cell research used leftover embryos created by the union of sperm and egg from in vitro fertilization.
But embryonic stem cell research is controversial because to use the stem cells for developing medical treatments, the embryo is destroyed. Embryos have the potential to develop into a fully formed human, bringing up ethical questions.
Scientists later realized that it's not necessary to use embryos to obtain stem cells that match patients. Shinya Yamanaka won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering how to make "induced pluripotent stem cells," or IPS cells.
IPS cells are made by inserting genes to "turn back the clock" on mature cells that already have specific functions. It doesn't matter what the cell was before; it can now be reprogrammed as any kind of cell researchers want.
Why, then, would researchers bother to make stem cells using cloning, which requires human eggs and the creation of embryos?
"People have made patient-matched stem cells using IPS methods," said Dieter Egli, senior author on the Nature paper that could have implications for diabetes treatment and researcher at the New York Stem Cell Foundation. "But it is not clear in the U.S. at the very least, and also elsewhere, how and if these are going to be translated into people."
Egli points out that there have been some reports that IPS cells may have shortcomings when converted into specific cell types, and that stem cells produced by cloning may be better.
But which stem cell type is better and safer -- the IPS cells or cells from cloned embryos? That is still an open question. To settle it, there would need to be a comparison of the two stem cell types generated using the DNA of the same person.
Gearhart doesn't see the cloning method replacing the use of IPS cells, which are not controversial and don't require that women donate their eggs.
"As we learn more about the reprogramming process that normally occurs in the egg following fertilization, we can use that information to produce better IPS cells," Gearhart said.
The process of extracting eggs is complex and expensive; having enough supply is a "serious concern," Daley said.
"The more we learn about reprogramming, the more I think IPS will be the one of choice," Gearhart said.
Making stem cells by cloning
An embryo, the earliest stage of human development, is a cluster of cells smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
To make a cloned embryo, scientists use equipment analogous to "like a half-million-dollar video game," Daley said.
Researchers perform surgery on eggs with needles that are the 10th of the size of a human hair. They use joysticks to manipulate the tiny equipment, spearing the egg, removing its DNA and then transferring the nucleus of a skin cell into the egg.
"That process, which is called nuclear transfer, sets in motion this remarkable process of early human development," Daley said. "We trick this reconstructed egg into thinking it's been fertilized."
Chung's group -- which led the Cell Stem Cell study -- used this cloning method that Mitalipov had pioneered to get two stem cell lines out of 77 eggs. "It seems that the quality of oocyte (egg) plays a pivotal role," Chung said.
Egli and colleagues had their own spin on the cloning process, amending it so that it happens in a more controlled way. Their study in Nature used electricity in combination with chemicals, and manipulating the calcium concentration, to improve the procedure. They generated stem cells specific to the diabetic patient who had donated skin cells; the eggs came from donors.
This group got four cell lines from 71 eggs, said research assistant Lydia Mailander. The average egg donation is 14 to 15 oocytes. Researchers estimate it would take two such donations to get one stem cell line.
In mice, Egli and colleagues showed in a separate study that the cloned stem cells from the diabetic patient mature into glucose-responsive beta cells, which secrete insulin into the bloodstream of the animals.
Further considerations
It's not clear that there are enough eggs in supply to support a large-scale production of stem cells this way, experts said.
For the near-term research purposes, there seem to be enough eggs available for stem cell cloning: About 10,000 egg donor cycles occur annually in the United States, Egli said.
But egg donation for research is generally low, Gearhart said. According to the American Diabetes Association, about 1 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, the target population for a potential stem cell therapy.
The cloning method takes a few weeks, and is not significantly faster than generating IPS cells, Egli said.
Including compensation to the woman, an egg donation cycle costs about $14,000, Egli said.
"It may not at all be more expensive (than IPS) if the cells that we make are actually better," he said. "That's why it's important to do these comparisons."
Such a comparison would be interesting, said Daley, but the advantages would have to be considerable to beat out IPS, which is "much more efficient and less ethically contentious that Yamanaka (the Nobel winner) taught us."
Still, from a research perspective, the cloning method could help scientists interested in understanding how an egg reprograms the cell, Daley said. It could help answer: "How does an egg reset the whole identity of an adult cell back to an embryonic state?"
Stem cell cloning research might, in this way, teach scientists how to make stem cells more efficiently, he said, and optimize them for medical applications.
How about making a clone?
Mitalipov told CNN in 2013 that the embryos created in his study, from skin cells and eggs, would not grow babies. That would have required additional technology, and it wasn't part of the study.
But the same basic "nuclear transfer" principle used in Mitalipov's, Chung's and Egli's studies was used create Dolly the sheep, the first mammal clone.
In Dolly's case, an embryo created by nuclear transfer was transplanted to a ewe, which gave birth to a sheep.
In the case of human embryos generated in these stem cell experiments, "it would be dangerous and unethical to attempt to transfer them into a uterus," Daley said.
Link and a Great Slide Show of "History of Stem Cells"
Fear not: No legitimate scientist is in the business of cloning humans. But cloned embryos can be used as a source for stem cells that match a patient and can produce any cell type in that person.
Researchers in two studies published this month have created human embryos for this purpose. Usually an embryo forms when sperm fertilizes egg; in this case, scientists put the nucleus of an adult skin cell inside an egg, and that reconstructed egg went through the initial stages of embryonic development.
"This is a dream that we've had for 15 years or so in the stem cell field," said John Gearhart, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Gearhart first proposed this approach for patient-specific stem cell generation in the 1990s but was not involved in the recent studies.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into any kind of tissue in the human body. From growing organs to treating diabetes, many future medical advances are hoped to arise from stem cells.
Scientists wrote in the journal Cell Stem Cell this month that they used skin cells from a man, 35, and another man, 75, to create stem cells from cloned embryos.
"We reaffirmed that it is possible to produce patient-specific stem cells using a nuclear transfer technology regardless of the patient's age," said co-lead author Young Gie Chung at the CHA Stem Cell Institute in Seoul, South Korea.
On Monday, an independent group led by scientists at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute published results in Nature using a similar approach. They used skin cells from a 32-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes to generate stem cells matched to her.
Both new reports follow the groundbreaking research published last year by Shoukhrat Mitalipov and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University in the journal Cell. In that study, researchers produced cloned embryos and stem cells using skin cells from a fetus and an 8-month-old baby.
"It's a remarkable process that gives us these master cells, these stems cells that are essentially the seeds for all of the tissues in our bodies," said George Daley, director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the recent studies. "That's why it's so important for medical research."
A brief history of stem cells
The first developments in the field of stem cell research used leftover embryos created by the union of sperm and egg from in vitro fertilization.
But embryonic stem cell research is controversial because to use the stem cells for developing medical treatments, the embryo is destroyed. Embryos have the potential to develop into a fully formed human, bringing up ethical questions.
Scientists later realized that it's not necessary to use embryos to obtain stem cells that match patients. Shinya Yamanaka won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering how to make "induced pluripotent stem cells," or IPS cells.
IPS cells are made by inserting genes to "turn back the clock" on mature cells that already have specific functions. It doesn't matter what the cell was before; it can now be reprogrammed as any kind of cell researchers want.
Why, then, would researchers bother to make stem cells using cloning, which requires human eggs and the creation of embryos?
"People have made patient-matched stem cells using IPS methods," said Dieter Egli, senior author on the Nature paper that could have implications for diabetes treatment and researcher at the New York Stem Cell Foundation. "But it is not clear in the U.S. at the very least, and also elsewhere, how and if these are going to be translated into people."
Egli points out that there have been some reports that IPS cells may have shortcomings when converted into specific cell types, and that stem cells produced by cloning may be better.
But which stem cell type is better and safer -- the IPS cells or cells from cloned embryos? That is still an open question. To settle it, there would need to be a comparison of the two stem cell types generated using the DNA of the same person.
Gearhart doesn't see the cloning method replacing the use of IPS cells, which are not controversial and don't require that women donate their eggs.
"As we learn more about the reprogramming process that normally occurs in the egg following fertilization, we can use that information to produce better IPS cells," Gearhart said.
The process of extracting eggs is complex and expensive; having enough supply is a "serious concern," Daley said.
"The more we learn about reprogramming, the more I think IPS will be the one of choice," Gearhart said.
Making stem cells by cloning
An embryo, the earliest stage of human development, is a cluster of cells smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
To make a cloned embryo, scientists use equipment analogous to "like a half-million-dollar video game," Daley said.
Researchers perform surgery on eggs with needles that are the 10th of the size of a human hair. They use joysticks to manipulate the tiny equipment, spearing the egg, removing its DNA and then transferring the nucleus of a skin cell into the egg.
"That process, which is called nuclear transfer, sets in motion this remarkable process of early human development," Daley said. "We trick this reconstructed egg into thinking it's been fertilized."
Chung's group -- which led the Cell Stem Cell study -- used this cloning method that Mitalipov had pioneered to get two stem cell lines out of 77 eggs. "It seems that the quality of oocyte (egg) plays a pivotal role," Chung said.
Egli and colleagues had their own spin on the cloning process, amending it so that it happens in a more controlled way. Their study in Nature used electricity in combination with chemicals, and manipulating the calcium concentration, to improve the procedure. They generated stem cells specific to the diabetic patient who had donated skin cells; the eggs came from donors.
This group got four cell lines from 71 eggs, said research assistant Lydia Mailander. The average egg donation is 14 to 15 oocytes. Researchers estimate it would take two such donations to get one stem cell line.
In mice, Egli and colleagues showed in a separate study that the cloned stem cells from the diabetic patient mature into glucose-responsive beta cells, which secrete insulin into the bloodstream of the animals.
Further considerations
It's not clear that there are enough eggs in supply to support a large-scale production of stem cells this way, experts said.
For the near-term research purposes, there seem to be enough eggs available for stem cell cloning: About 10,000 egg donor cycles occur annually in the United States, Egli said.
But egg donation for research is generally low, Gearhart said. According to the American Diabetes Association, about 1 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, the target population for a potential stem cell therapy.
The cloning method takes a few weeks, and is not significantly faster than generating IPS cells, Egli said.
Including compensation to the woman, an egg donation cycle costs about $14,000, Egli said.
"It may not at all be more expensive (than IPS) if the cells that we make are actually better," he said. "That's why it's important to do these comparisons."
Such a comparison would be interesting, said Daley, but the advantages would have to be considerable to beat out IPS, which is "much more efficient and less ethically contentious that Yamanaka (the Nobel winner) taught us."
Still, from a research perspective, the cloning method could help scientists interested in understanding how an egg reprograms the cell, Daley said. It could help answer: "How does an egg reset the whole identity of an adult cell back to an embryonic state?"
Stem cell cloning research might, in this way, teach scientists how to make stem cells more efficiently, he said, and optimize them for medical applications.
How about making a clone?
Mitalipov told CNN in 2013 that the embryos created in his study, from skin cells and eggs, would not grow babies. That would have required additional technology, and it wasn't part of the study.
But the same basic "nuclear transfer" principle used in Mitalipov's, Chung's and Egli's studies was used create Dolly the sheep, the first mammal clone.
In Dolly's case, an embryo created by nuclear transfer was transplanted to a ewe, which gave birth to a sheep.
In the case of human embryos generated in these stem cell experiments, "it would be dangerous and unethical to attempt to transfer them into a uterus," Daley said.
Link and a Great Slide Show of "History of Stem Cells"
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Scientists grow human heart tissue using stem cells
Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh turned human pluripotent stem cells into precursor heart cells, then used a mouse heart 'scaffold' to grow them into heart muscle. Researchers say the findings are a small step towards being able to manufacture transplant organs.
Scientists this week marked progress in the quest to manufacture transplant organs.
Scientists said Tuesday they had used stem cells to grow human heart tissue that contracted spontaneously in a petri dish -- marking progress in the quest to manufacture transplant organs.
A team from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells generated from human skin cells to create precursor heart cells called MCPs.
iPS cells are mature human cells "reprogrammed" into a versatile, primitive state from which they can be prompted to develop into any kind of cell of the body.
The primitive heart cells created in this way were attached to a mouse heart "scaffold" from which the researchers had removed all mouse heart cells, they wrote in the journal Nature Communications.
LINK
Scientists said Tuesday they had used stem cells to grow human heart tissue that contracted spontaneously in a petri dish -- marking progress in the quest to manufacture transplant organs.
A team from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells generated from human skin cells to create precursor heart cells called MCPs.
iPS cells are mature human cells "reprogrammed" into a versatile, primitive state from which they can be prompted to develop into any kind of cell of the body.
The primitive heart cells created in this way were attached to a mouse heart "scaffold" from which the researchers had removed all mouse heart cells, they wrote in the journal Nature Communications.
LINK
Thursday, July 25, 2013
The promise of stem cells
 |
| Shown above are some of the stem cells derived by scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. |
Stem cells are the body’s “master” cells. They have two unique abilities: They can proliferate virtually without limit to produce an essentially infinite supply of their unspecialized cellular selves, and they can differentiate to produce any other cell types that can be used to repair or replace worn-out or damaged tissues. Combine those two superpowers, and you’ve got the proverbial medical magic bullet.
At the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, more than 200 faculty members are working to translate the promise of stem cells into viable treatments for some of society’s most vexing medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, immune disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, autism, blindness and diabetes. Much of the work being done is supported by both private and institutional sources, including grants approaching $190 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The state agency was established in 2004 to fund translational stem-cell research at institutions throughout California with the goal of developing new therapies for deadly diseases and disorders.
Here are just a few examples of that work being done at the center at UCLA.
Jump to this Fascinating Story
Monday, May 27, 2013
Stroke Victims Recovering After Stem Cell Therapy
Five stroke victims have shown signs of recovery following pioneering stem cell therapy.
Stem cells were injected directly into damaged areas of stroke victims’ brains in a trial at a Glasgow hospital.
The initial results, being presented at the European stroke conference in London tomorrow, show brain function has improved for five of the nine subjects.
Scientists say this shows the pioneering treatment may ‘kick-start’ the body’s repair process or even turn into the relevant tissue.
Professor Keith Muir said: ‘We remain pleased and encouraged by the data.’
Stroke is the third largest cause of death and the single largest cause of adult disability in the developed world.
Dr Clare Walton, a neuroscientist at the Stroke Association, said: ‘When a stroke strikes, the brain is starved of oxygen and, as a result, brain cells in the affected area die.
‘The use of stem cells is a promising technique which could help to reverse some of the disabling effects of stroke.
JUMP
Stem cells were injected directly into damaged areas of stroke victims’ brains in a trial at a Glasgow hospital.
The initial results, being presented at the European stroke conference in London tomorrow, show brain function has improved for five of the nine subjects.
Scientists say this shows the pioneering treatment may ‘kick-start’ the body’s repair process or even turn into the relevant tissue.
Professor Keith Muir said: ‘We remain pleased and encouraged by the data.’
Stroke is the third largest cause of death and the single largest cause of adult disability in the developed world.
Dr Clare Walton, a neuroscientist at the Stroke Association, said: ‘When a stroke strikes, the brain is starved of oxygen and, as a result, brain cells in the affected area die.
‘The use of stem cells is a promising technique which could help to reverse some of the disabling effects of stroke.
JUMP
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Can Stem Cells Help Those With Arthritis?
Stems cells taken from just a few grams of body fat are a promising weapon against the crippling effects of osteoarthritis.
For the past two decades, knee, hip or other joint replacements have been the standard treatment for the deterioration of joint cartilage and the underlying bone.
But artificial joints only last about 15 years and are difficult to repair once they fail.
Stem cell injections may offer a new type of therapy by either stopping the degenerative process or by regenerating the damaged cartilage, said pioneering researcher Dr. Farshid Guilak, a professor of orthopedic surgery and director of orthopedic research at Duke University.
Guilak, one of the first researchers to grow cartilage from fat, explains why stem cells are a bright light in osteoarthritis research and why widespread clinical use is still years away. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Interview Here
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
SCIENTISTS FIND SIMPLE WAY TO TRANSFORM BONE MARROW STEM CELLS INTO BRAIN CELLS…BY ACCIDENT
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have found a mechanism to turn bone marrow stem cells into brain cells. It is one the press release states is not only “simple” but was “serendipitous” in its discovery.
The current method for transforming marrow cells, for use in treating things like spinal cord injuries or strokes, is described as not only cumbersome but also risky. But this latest find, which was uncovered by scientists researching antibodies that activate a growth-stimulating receptor on the marrow cells, pointed to one type of antibody that causes the marrow stem cells to become a nearly mature form of brain cell.
“These results highlight the potential of antibodies as versatile manipulators of cellular functions,” Richard Lerner, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at the institute and principal investigator for the new study said in a statement. “This is a far cry from the way antibodies used to be thought of—as molecules that were selected simply for binding and not function.”
In the research of one isolated antibody that activated the marrow stem cells growth receptors, researcher Jia Xie in Lerner’s laboratory said the cells started “becoming long and thin and attaching to the bottom of the dish.” Lerner speculated, and later confirmed through tests, that they were becoming neural progenitor cells.
This process of changing a one cell into a completely different type is called transdifferentiation. Lerner said in a statement that he doesn’t know of any other laboratories that have been able to use a single protein to accomplish this, as their research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has. Current techniques for transdifferentiation involve deprogramming cells to a state that is like that of embryonic stem cells and reprogramming them, the press release explained.
Here’s how this new method of cell transdifferentiation could be used:
In principle, according to Lerner, an antibody such as the one they have discovered could be injected directly into the bloodstream of a sick patient. From the bloodstream it would find its way to the marrow, and, for example, convert some marrow stem cells into neural progenitor cells. “Those neural progenitors would infiltrate the brain, find areas of damage and help repair them,” he said.
U.S. World News and Report stated that the team will conduct animal tests using the technique and hope to collaborate with researchers working on regenerating eye nerves.
LINK
The current method for transforming marrow cells, for use in treating things like spinal cord injuries or strokes, is described as not only cumbersome but also risky. But this latest find, which was uncovered by scientists researching antibodies that activate a growth-stimulating receptor on the marrow cells, pointed to one type of antibody that causes the marrow stem cells to become a nearly mature form of brain cell.
“These results highlight the potential of antibodies as versatile manipulators of cellular functions,” Richard Lerner, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at the institute and principal investigator for the new study said in a statement. “This is a far cry from the way antibodies used to be thought of—as molecules that were selected simply for binding and not function.”
In the research of one isolated antibody that activated the marrow stem cells growth receptors, researcher Jia Xie in Lerner’s laboratory said the cells started “becoming long and thin and attaching to the bottom of the dish.” Lerner speculated, and later confirmed through tests, that they were becoming neural progenitor cells.
This process of changing a one cell into a completely different type is called transdifferentiation. Lerner said in a statement that he doesn’t know of any other laboratories that have been able to use a single protein to accomplish this, as their research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has. Current techniques for transdifferentiation involve deprogramming cells to a state that is like that of embryonic stem cells and reprogramming them, the press release explained.
Here’s how this new method of cell transdifferentiation could be used:
In principle, according to Lerner, an antibody such as the one they have discovered could be injected directly into the bloodstream of a sick patient. From the bloodstream it would find its way to the marrow, and, for example, convert some marrow stem cells into neural progenitor cells. “Those neural progenitors would infiltrate the brain, find areas of damage and help repair them,” he said.
U.S. World News and Report stated that the team will conduct animal tests using the technique and hope to collaborate with researchers working on regenerating eye nerves.
LINK
Monday, February 18, 2013
Stem Cells- Future hope for Macular Degeneration
I found this to be great news, as my mother suffered from Macular Degeneration. She was legally blind in one eye, and couldn't see out of the other! I was recently tested and thankfully got a clean bill of health from a Tulane opthamologist.
SCIENTISTS are turning human skin cells into eye cells by using stem cell research, with their sights set on unravelling a common but incurable form of blindness.
Age-related macular degeneration, which results from dying retinal cells, affects one in seven older Australians and costs the country's economy $5.15 billion a year, figures show.
But little is understood about how or why it occurs.
Enter a team at Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), which is taking skin cells from affected patients, turning them into stem cells and then into new retinal cells.
These are then compared with the patient's damaged cells, allowing the researchers to see in detail what's gone wrong.
MORE HERE
SCIENTISTS are turning human skin cells into eye cells by using stem cell research, with their sights set on unravelling a common but incurable form of blindness.
Age-related macular degeneration, which results from dying retinal cells, affects one in seven older Australians and costs the country's economy $5.15 billion a year, figures show.
But little is understood about how or why it occurs.
Enter a team at Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), which is taking skin cells from affected patients, turning them into stem cells and then into new retinal cells.
These are then compared with the patient's damaged cells, allowing the researchers to see in detail what's gone wrong.
MORE HERE
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
