tagged w/ Stem Cells
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1 year ago
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Researchers hope the brain stem cells will stimulate the growth of new neurons and reduce inflammation caused by the stroke
Doctors have injected stem cells into a man's brain as part of the world's first clinical trial of the cells in stroke patients.
The former truck driver, who is in his 60s, was severely disabled by a stroke 18 months ago and requires continuous care from his wife.
Doctors injected around two million cells into a healthy region of his brain called the putamen, close to where neurons were damaged by the stroke. They hope the injected cells will release chemicals that stimulate new brain cells and blood vessels to grow, while healing scar tissue and reducing inflammation.
The team, led by Professor Keith Muir at the University of Glasgow's Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, expect to treat 11 more male patients aged between 60 and 85 in the trial, using progressively higher doses of five million, 10m and 20m cells.
The injections are being given to patients who have suffered ischaemic stroke, the most common type, caused by a blocked blood vessel in the brain. The operation requires a general anaesthetic and patients will be monitored for two years to see whether the procedure is safe and has any beneficial effect on their quality of life.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/16/stem-cells-injected-brain-strokeResearchers hope the brain stem cells will stimulate the growth of new neurons and... more
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Stem cells are cells that can be found in all organisms. These cells are useful because they have a regenerative function in the body to heal people disease. Based on stem cell source, it is divided into three namely embryonic stem cells, cord blood and adult umbillical stem cells. There are two methods for harvesting stem cells. The first methods for harvesting stem cells is a harvesting peripheral blood stem cells. A peripheral blood harvesting stem cells is a technique that used to restore a person's blood cells after they have been damaged. The second methods for harvesting stem cells is a bone marrow harvesting stem cells. It is Used to treat cancers like leukemia. Harvesting Stem Cells can also be done on the Teeth. I once saw a video in one website that I meet about Harvesting Stem Cells From Teeth.
In addition Harvesting Stem Cells can also be done from peripheral blood. This occurs at a harvesting peripheral blood stem cells. Besides being used for the treatment of leukemia, stem cells are also used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, Spinal Cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, liver cirrhosis, Osteoarthitis, Cancer, and many more. I once read in a website Stem Cells Regenerative can cure Eye Blind. By using stem cells taken from the patient's own eye can make the patient could see again. Harvesting the stem cells in a process required a machine because in that process blood is removed from the patient's body, circulated through an aspheresis machine and for subsequently returned to the patient's body.
Methods of Harvesting Stem Cells | Methods Harvesting Stem Cells
http://www.katrinatribute.info/methods-for-harvesting-stem-cells.htmlStem cells are cells that can be found in all organisms. These cells are useful... more
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"WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked government rules expanding stem cell research, a blow to the Obama administration that could stall potentially lifesaving research.
The nonprofit group Nightlight Christian Adoptions contends that the government's new guidelines will decrease the number of human embryos available for adoption and implantation. Nightlight helps individuals adopt human embryos that are being stored in fertilization clinics. The group provides domestic, international and embryo adoption services to families in all 50 states.
A federal appeals court had ruled that two fellow plaintiffs — doctors who do research with adult stem cells, James Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology — were entitled to sue over the new guidelines, prompting U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on Monday to reverse a decision he made in October when he dismissed the lawsuit.
Sherley and Deisher allege that the guidelines will result in increased competition for limited federal funding and will injure their ability to compete successfully for National Institutes of Health stem cell research money.
Federal law explicitly forbids use of taxpayer dollars to destroy a human embryo — and culling stem cells from an embryo does destroy the embryo. However, once created, these batches of stem cells, or lines, can reproduce indefinitely in lab dishes.
The Obama administration expanded the number of stem cell lines created with private money that federally funded scientists could research, up from the 21 that President George W. Bush had allowed to 75 so far. To qualify, the NIH insisted on evidence that the woman or couple who donated the original embryo did so voluntarily and were told of other options, such as donating to another infertile woman.
Lamberth concluded that those filing the lawsuit have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success in arguing that the new government guidelines violate the intent of the law about federal funding of embryo destruction.
"As demonstrated by the plain language of the statute, the unambiguous intent of Congress is to prohibit the expenditure of federal funds on 'research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed,'" the judge wrote.
Having concluded that the law is unambiguous, "the question before the court is whether ESC research is research in which a human embryo is destroyed. The court concludes that it is," Lamberth added.
The judge's ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the suit."
Read the full article (link below):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_sc/us_judge_stem_cell"WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked government... more
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The UK's first major investigation of a disease using stem cells that does not involve the need to create and destroy embryos is being launched.The UK's first major investigation of a disease using stem cells that does not... more
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LOS ANGELES - DOZENS of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells - a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.
The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.
(M.A.L.)LOS ANGELES - DOZENS of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye... more
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(AP) Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells - a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.
The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.
"This is a roaring success," said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study - the longest and largest of its kind.
Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.
The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.
In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.
Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.
Adult stem cells, which are found around the body, are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.
Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma, or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.
The Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage in one eye, and some had such limited vision that they could only sense light, count fingers or perceive hand motions. Many had been blind for years and had had unsuccessful operations to restore their vision.
The cells were taken from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, the clear window that covers the colored part of the eye. In a normal eye, stem cells in the limbus are like factories, churning out new cells to replace dead corneal cells. When an injury kills off the stem cells, scar tissue forms over the cornea, clouding vision and causing blindness.
In the Italian study, the doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued the laboratory-grown stem cells over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes were damaged by burns, cells were taken from an unaffected part of the limbus.
Researchers followed the patients for an average of three years and some as long as a decade. More than three-quarters regained sight after the transplant. An additional 13 percent were considered a partial success. Though their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.
Patients with superficial damage were able to see within one to two months. Those with more extensive injuries took several months longer.
"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," said one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."
The study was partly funded by the Italian government.
Researchers in the United States have been testing a different way to use self-supplied stem cells, but that work is preliminary.
One of the successful transplants in the Italian study involved a man who had severe damage in both eyes as a result of a chemical burn in 1948. Doctors grafted stem cells from a small section of his left eye to both eyes. His vision is now close to normal.
In 2008, there were 2,850 work-related chemical burns to the eyes in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Schwab of UC Davis said stem cell transplants would not help those blinded by burns in both eyes because doctors need stem cells to do the procedure.
"I don't want to give the false hope that this will answer their prayers," he said.
Dr. Sophie Deng, a cornea expert at the UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, said the biggest advantage was that the Italian doctors were able to expand the number of stem cells in the lab. This technique is less invasive than taking a large tissue sample from the eye and lowers the chance of an eye injury.
"The key is whether you can find a good stem cell population and expand it," she said.(AP) Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when... more
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British scientists have identified the "smed-prop" genes that allow Planarian flatworms to regenerate any part of their body, including heads and brains, after an injury. Next step: regrowing human heads.
The genes are contained in stem cells that all of the worms, even adults, have. And by figuring out how they're able to regenerate body parts, they hope to parlay that into figuring out how to make the same sort of thing happen in humans.British scientists have identified the "smed-prop" genes that allow... more
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UCL scientists and surgeons have led a revolutionary operation to transplant a new trachea into a child, using the child's own stem cells to rebuild the airway in the body.
link : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325114400.htmUCL scientists and surgeons have led a revolutionary operation to transplant a new... more
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suzane
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2 years ago
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Clinics that offer to "bank" stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborns for use later in life when illness strikes are fraudsters, a top US scientist said.
Clinics in many countries allow parents to deposit stem cells from their neonate's umbilical cord with a view to using the cells to cure major illnesses that could occur later in life.
In Thailand, for example, parents pay in the region of 3,600 dollars to make a deposit in a stem cell bank, thinking they are taking out a sort of health insurance for their child.
But Irving Weissman, director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University in California, said the well-meaning parents were being fleeced by the stem cell bankers.
"They could also have derived mesenchymal cells -- fiberglass-like cells that have a very limited capacity to make scar, bone, fat -- but they don't make brain, they don't make blood, they don't make heart, they don't make skeletal muscle, despite what various people claim," he said.
The International Stem Cell Society is due to issue a report in April about unproven stem cell therapies such as banking a baby's umbilical cord blood for future use.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100221/ts_afp/sciencehealthstemcellfraud_20100221022330Clinics that offer to "bank" stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborns... more
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A long term study of human stem cell types has shown that tissue-derived human stem cells performed poorly and are more likely to die prematurely than their human embryo-derived stem cell counterparts.
The research, lead by leading stem cell scientist Robert Lanza, M.D., compared the growth and differentiation characteristics of what are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with those of human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Induced pluripotent stem cells are derived from adult tissue taken from certain organs of the body, including the liver or bone marrow, while hESC are derived from the cell mass of four- to five-day old human embryos. Both are capable of growing into most any organ cell, though iPSC are somewhat limited in the types of cells they can become.
Read more...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6378-Baltimore-Science-News-Examiner~y2010m2d11-Tissue-derived-stem-cells-perform-poorly-compared-to-embryonic-counterpartsA long term study of human stem cell types has shown that tissue-derived human stem... more
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Tis the time to be amazed: A 38-year-old man has regained vision in his blind eye thanks to a new stem cell therapy. It won't cure all blind people, but it's a giant leap. Here's how it works.
Englishman Russell Thurnbull got attacked with ammonia 15 years ago during a street fight. As a result, he got an extremely painful condition called Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, which resulted in blindness in one eye. After much medication, he became a lab rat for all kinds of treatments until a team from Newcastle's North East England Stem Cell Institute got the miraculous cure he was waiting for.
First, the team took a minuscule sample of stem cells from his healthy eye's cornea. This millimeter square of cells was placed on a amniotic membrane, which was placed inside a liquid made from his blood, glucose, insulin, and hydrocortisone. The cells will grow in that solution until taking all over the membrane, which then is used to replace the damaged cornea.
The result: He completely gained eyesight after only eight weeks of the operation. It is not Christopher Reeve walking, but if this is not the future ringing the doorbell, right here, right now, I don't know what it is. [Jesus Diaz: Gizmodo]]
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/manaposs+eye+saved+by+stem+cells/3474737Tis the time to be amazed: A 38-year-old man has regained vision in his blind eye... more
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A man who was partially blinded after intervening in a fight has had his vision restored by a new stem-cell therapy.
Russell Turnbull, 38, lost most of the sight from his right eye in 1994 when he was sprayed in the face with ammonia while trying to break up an altercation on a bus in Newcastle upon Tyne. The chemical burnt his cornea, leaving him with cloudy vision, pain on every blink and extreme sensitivity to light.
He has now become one of the first people to benefit from a treatment developed at the North East England Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle, in which stem cells from his good eye were used to repair his damaged one.A man who was partially blinded after intervening in a fight has had his vision... more
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Umbilical cord stem cells may help treat people whose vision is damaged by a cloudy cornea, US research suggests.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8399526.stmUmbilical cord stem cells may help treat people whose vision is damaged by a cloudy... more
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Newsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute video, highlighting the good, the bad and the unforgettable. From Bush V. Gore, to 9/11, to the iPod, to Borat, to the Iraq war, to Twitter and much, much more. Watch and marvel at this busy decade.
It really makes you remember about all that has changed about that last 10 years around the worldNewsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute... more
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Apligraf is a matrix of cow collagen, human fibroblasts and keratinocyte stem cells (the kind found in skin), that, when applied to chronic wounds (particularly nasty problems like diabetic sores), can seed healing and regeneration.
http://gizmodo.com/5401477Apligraf is a matrix of cow collagen, human fibroblasts and keratinocyte stem cells... more
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