New Stem Cell Gene Therapy Gives Hope to Prevent Inherited Neurological Disease

Source: University of Manchester
Date: 25 July 2013

Summary:

Scientists from The University of Manchester have used stem cell gene therapy to treat a fatal genetic brain disease in mice for the first time.  The method was used to treat Sanfilippo – a fatal inherited condition which causes progressive dementia in children – but could also benefit several neurological, genetic diseases.  Researchers behind the study, published in the journal Molecular Therapy this month, are now hoping to bring a treatment to trial in patients within two years.

A New Weapon Against Stroke: Stem Cell Study Uncovers the Brain-protective Powers of Astrocytes

Source: University of California - Davis

Date: July 23, 2013

Summary:

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — One of regenerative medicine’s greatest goals is to develop new treatments for stroke. So far, stem cell research for the disease has focused on developing therapeutic neurons — the primary movers of electrical impulses in the brain — to repair tissue damaged when oxygen to the brain is limited by a blood clot or break in a vessel. New UC Davis research, however, shows that other cells may be better suited for the task.  Published today in the journal Nature Communications, the large, collaborative study found that astrocytes — neural cells that transport key nutrients and form the blood-brain barrier — can protect brain tissue and reduce disability due to stroke and other ischemic brain disorders.

Scientists Successfully Generate 'Artificial Bones' from Umbilical Cord Stem Cells

Source: University of Granada


Date: 18 July 2013

Summary:

 Granada-based researchers patent a new biomaterial based on an activated carbon cloth support that acts as scaffolding for the construction of cells capable of bone regeneration. Although their results were obtained ‘ex vivo’, in the future they could help manufacture medicines to treat neoplastic, traumatic or degenerative bone pathologies. After obtaining artificial bone in the laboratory, the next step is to implant the biomaterial in animals to see if it can regenerate bone in them.

Scientists in Granada, Spain, have patented a new biomaterial that facilitates generating bone tissue—artificial bones in other words—from umbilical cord stem cells . The material, consisting of an activated carbon cloth support for cells that differentiate giving rise to a product that can promote bone growth, has recently been presented at a press conference at the Biomedical Research Centre, Granada.

Although the method has not yet been applied with ‘in vivo’ models, laboratory results are highly promising. In the future, they could help manufacture medicines for the repair of bone or osteochondrial, tumour or traumatic lesions and to replace lost cartilage in limbs. After obtaining artificial bones in the laboratory, the researchers' next step is to implant this biomaterial in experimental animal models—like rats or rabbits—to see if it can regenerate bone in them.

HIV Positive Men Show No Signs of HIV after Bone Marrow Transplant and Discontinuation of Anti-Retroviral Therapy

Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital

Date: July 3, 2013

Summary:

Boston, MA - Two Brigham and Women's Hospital patients with longstanding HIV infections who underwent bone marrow transplants have stopped anti-retroviral therapy and have no detectable HIV in their blood cells.  One patient stopped anti-retroviral therapy 15 weeks ago, the other stopped 7 weeks ago.  These new findings will be presented on July 3, 2013 at the International AIDS Society Conference (IAS 2013) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Timothy Henrich, MD and Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, physician-researchers in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

DeGette And Dent Introduce Bipartisan Stem Cell Legislation

Source: Office of Diana DeGette
Date: June 19, 2013

Summary:

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Charlie Dent (R-PA) introduced the bipartisan Stem Cell Research Advancement Act, to ensure a lasting framework for ethical embryonic stem cell research at the National Institutes for Health (NIH), and to bring certainty to the scientific community pursuing research that could produce life-saving cures and treatments.

The Stem Cell Research Advancement Act would support embryonic stem cell research, and codify the NIH’s guidelines for carrying out all human stem cell research, embryonic and adult. It also requires NIH to review its guidelines at least every three years and make periodic updates as scientifically warranted.

Stem Cell Injections Improve Spinal Injuries in Rats

Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: May 28, 2013

Summary:

An international team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that a single injection of human neural stem cells produced neuronal regeneration and improvement of function and mobility in rats impaired by an acute spinal cord injury (SCI).  The findings are published in the May 28, 2013 online issue of Stem Cell Research & Therapy.

The rats received the pure stem cell grafts three days after injury (no other supporting materials were used) and were given drugs to suppress an immune response to the foreign stem cells. Marsala said grafting at any time after the injury appears likely to work in terms of blocking the formation of spinal injury cavities, but that more work would be required to determine how timing affects functional neurological benefit. The human stem cells, said the scientists, appeared to vigorously take root at the injury site.  Scientists observed the grafted stem cells appeared to be doing two things: stimulating host neuron regeneration and partially replacing the function of lost neurons.

The scientists used a line of human embryonic stem cells recently approved for Phase 1 human trials in patients with chronic traumatic spinal injuries. Marsala said the ultimate goal is to develop neural precursor cells (capable of becoming any of the three main cell types in the nervous system) from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients, which would likely eliminate the need for immunosuppression treatment.

Pending approval by UC San Diego’s Institutional Review Board, the next step is a small phase 1 trial to test safety and efficacy with patients who have suffered a thoracic spinal cord injury (between vertebrae T2-T12) one to two years earlier, and who have no motor or sensory function at or below the spinal injury site.

Human Skin Cells Converted Into Embryonic Stem Cells: First Time Human Stem Cells Have Been Produced Via Nuclear Transfer

Source: Oregon Health & Science University

Date: May 15, 2013

Summary:

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells capable of transforming into any other cell type in the body. It is believed that stem cell therapies hold the promise of replacing cells damaged through injury or illness. Diseases or conditions that might be treated through stem cell therapy include Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, cardiac disease and spinal cord injuries.

The research breakthrough, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., a senior scientist at ONPRC, follows previous success in transforming monkey skin cells into embryonic stem cells in 2007. This latest research will be published in the journal Cell online May 15 and in print June 6.

Sweet News for Stem Cell's 'Holy Grail'

Source: University of Manchester
Date: 26 February 2013

Summary:

Scientists have used sugar-coated scaffolding to move a step closer to the routine use of stem cells in the clinic and unlock their huge potential to cure diseases from Alzheimer's to diabetes.  Stem cells have the unique ability to turn into any type of human cell, opening up all sorts of therapeutic possibilities for some of the world's incurable diseases and conditions.  The problem facing scientists is how to encourage stem cells to turn into the particular type of cell required to treat a specific disease.

But researchers at the University of Manchester's School of Materials and Faculty of Life Sciences have developed a web-like scaffold, coated with long-sugar molecules, that enhances stem-cell cultures to do just this. The scaffold is formed by a process known as 'electrospinning', creating a mesh of fibres that mimic structures that occur naturally within the body.

The team's results – presented in the Journal of Biological Chemistry - are particularly promising, as the sugar molecules are presented on the surface of the fibres, retaining structural patterns important in their function. The sugars are also 'read' by the stem cells grown on the surface, stimulating and enhancing the formation of neuronal cell types.

Liver Stem Cells Grown in Culture, Transplanted With Demonstrated Therapeutic Benefit

Source: Oregon Health & Science University
Date: February 25, 2013

Summary:

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 Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's 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.

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, Markus Grompe, M.D., study co-author, director of the Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital; and professor of pediatrics, and molecular and medical genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine.  Grompe and colleagues in the Papé 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.

Ben's Stem Cell News Name and Address Change: Stem Cell Sentinel

Ben's Stem Cell News will soon be changing its name to the Stem Cell Sentinel and will be able to be accessed at the website address below:

http://stemcellsentinel.blogspot.com

Please check this address for all the latest stem cell research and science news.

StemCells, Inc. Announces First Patient Cohort Completes Spinal Cord Injury Trial - Gains in Sensory Function Persist 12 Months After Stem Cell Transplant

Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: February 12, 2013

Summary:

NEWARK, Calif. -- StemCells, Inc. today announced that the twelve-month data from the first patient cohort in the Company's Phase I/II clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC® product candidate (purified human neural stem cells) for chronic spinal cord injury continued to demonstrate a favorable safety profile, and showed that the considerable gains in sensory function observed in two of the three patients at the six-month assessment have persisted. The third patient remains stable. A summary of the data was presented today by Martin McGlynn, President and CEO, at the 15th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference. By completing the twelve-month assessment, the first patient cohort has now completed the trial, and has entered into a separate follow-up study for long-term observation.

Neuralstem Receives FDA Approval To Commence Spinal Cord Injury Trial

Source: Neuralstem, Inc.
Date: January 14, 2013

Summary:

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Neuralstem, Inc. announced that it received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence a Phase I safety trial of its lead cell therapy candidate, NSI-566, in chronic spinal cord injury patients. This open-label, multi-site study, will enroll up to eight patients with thoracic spinal cord injuries (T2-T12), who have an American Spinal Injury Association (AIS) A level of impairment, between one and two years after injury. AIS A impairment refers to a patient with no motor or sensory function in the relevant segments at and below the injury, and is considered to be complete paralysis.

The primary objective of the study is to determine the safety and toxicity of human spinal stem cell transplantation for the treatment of paralysis and related symptoms due to chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). The secondary objectives of the study are to evaluate graft survival in the transplant site by MRI, as well as the effectiveness of transient immunosuppression.

BioTime Signs Definitive Agreement With Geron Regarding Stem Cell Assets

Source: BioTime Inc.
Date: January 7, 2013

Summary:

ALAMEDA, Calif.-- BioTime, Inc. and its recently formed subsidiary BioTime Acquisition Corporation (BAC) jointly announced today that they have entered into a definitive Asset Contribution Agreement with Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) to acquire the intellectual property, including patents and patent applications, and other assets related to Geron’s human embryonic stem (hES) cell programs consistent with the financial terms outlined in the letter of intent announced on November 15, 2012.

Ordinary Heart Cells Become 'Biological Pacemakers' With Injection of Single Gene

Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Date: December 16, 2012

Summary:

LOS ANGELES – Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute researchers have reprogrammed ordinary heart cells to become exact replicas of highly specialized pacemaker cells by injecting a single gene (Tbx18) – a major step forward in the decade-long search for a biological therapy to correct erratic and failing heartbeats.  The advance will be published in the Jan 8 issue of Nature Biotechnology and also will be available today on the journal’s website.

Cedars-Sinai researchers, employing a virus engineered to carry a single gene (Tbx18) that plays a key role in embryonic pacemaker cell development, directly reprogrammed heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to specialized pacemaker cells. The new cells took on the distinctive features and function of native pacemaker cells, both in lab cell reprogramming and in guinea pig studies.

If subsequent research confirms and supports findings of the pacemaker cell studies, the researchers said they believe therapy might be administered by injecting Tbx18 into a patient’s heart or by creating pacemaker cells in the laboratory and transplanting them into the heart. But additional studies of safety and effectiveness must be conducted before human clinical trials could begin.

Salk Scientists Develop Faster, Safer Method for Producing Stem Cells

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Date: December 3, 2012

Summary:

LA JOLLA, CA—A new method for generating stem cells from mature cells promises to boost stem cell production in the laboratory, helping to remove a barrier to regenerative medicine therapies that would replace damaged or unhealthy body tissues.

The technique, developed by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, allows for the unlimited production of stem cells and their derivatives as well as reduces production time by more than half, from nearly two months to two weeks.

They and their colleagues, including Fred H. Gage, professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics, have published a new method for converting cells in this week's Nature Methods.

Stem Cell-Derived Dopaminergic Neurons Rescue Motor Defects in Parkinsonian Monkeys

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation

Date December 3, 2012

 Researchers have derived dopaminergic neurons from bone marrow stem cells in monkeys.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that is characterized by tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty walking. It is caused by loss of the neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine (known as dopaminergic neurons). One of the primary goals in Parkinson's disease research is to develop a replacement for dopaminergic neurons.

In a new study, researchers led by Takuya Hayashi at the RIKEN Center for Molecular Imaging Science in Kobe, Japan, derived dopaminergic neurons from bone marrow stem cells in monkeys. The cells were retrieved during a standard bone marrow aspiration and then treated with growth factors that directed the stem cells to become dopaminergic neurons. The monkeys that donated the stem cells were treated with a chemical to induce Parkinson's disease and then received a transplant of the new dopaminergic neurons that had been derived from their own bone marrow stem cells. Monkeys that received the transplant showed significant improvement in motor defects.

This study demonstrates that dopaminergic neurons derived from adult bone marrow stem cells can be safely used to improve motor function in Parkinson's disease in monkeys.

The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Neurons Made from Stem Cells Drive Brain Activity After Transplantation in Laboratory Model

Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Date: November 15, 2012

Summary:

Researchers and patients look forward to the day when stem cells might be used to replace dying brain cells in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Scientists are currently able to make neurons and other brain cells from stem cells, but getting these neurons to properly function when transplanted to the host has proven to be more difficult. Now, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have found a way to stimulate stem cell-derived neurons to direct cognitive function after transplantation to an existing neural network.

The study was published November 7 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers Develop Efficient, Protein-based Method For Creating iPS Cells

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
Date: October 25, 2012

Summary:

Coaxing a humble skin cell to become a jack-of-all-trades pluripotent stem cell is feat so remarkable it was honored earlier this month with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Stem cell pioneer Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, showed that using a virus to add just four genes to the skin cell allowed it to become pluripotent, or able to achieve many different developmental fates. But researchers and clinicians have been cautious about promoting potential therapeutic uses for these cells because the insertion of the genes could render the cells cancerous.

Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised an efficient and safer way to make these induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, by using just the proteins that the genes encode.

The research is published in the Oct. 26 issue of Cell.

Researchers at the Doorstep of Stem Cell Therapies for MS, Other Myelin Disorders

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center

Date: October 25, 2012

Summary:

When the era of regenerative medicine dawned more than three decades ago, the potential to replenish populations of cells destroyed by disease was seen by many as the next medical revolution. However, what followed turned out not to be a sprint to the clinic, but rather a long tedious slog carried out in labs across the globe required to master the complexity of stem cells and then pair their capabilities and attributes with specific diseases.

In a review article appearing today in the journal Science, University of Rochester Medical Center scientists Steve Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., ≈, and Martha Windrem, Ph.D., contend that researchers are now on the threshold of human application of stem cell therapies for a class of neurological diseases known as myelin disorders – a long list of diseases that include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, white matter stroke, cerebral palsy, certain dementias, and rare but fatal childhood disorders called pediatric leukodystrophies.

Scientists Pinpoint Key Player in Parkinson's disease neuron loss Stem cell study may help to unravel how a genetic mutation leads to Parkinson's Symptoms

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: October 19, 2012

LA JOLLA, CA—By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in the disease. The findings, reported online October 17, 2012 in Nature, may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.

The scientists found that a common mutation to a gene that produce the enzyme LRRK2, which is responsible for both familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease, deforms the membrane surrounding the nucleus of a neural stem cell. Damaging the nuclear architecture leads to destruction of these powerful cells, as well as their decreased ability to spawn functional neurons, such as the ones that respond to dopamine.

The Salk researchers found that a common genetic mutation involved in Parkinson's disease deforms the membranes (green) surrounding the nuclei (blue) of neural stem cells. The discovery may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.

StemCells, Inc. Announces First Transplant of Neural Stem Cells Into Patient in Clinical Trial for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: October 4, 2012

 Summary:

 NEWARK, Calif. -- StemCells, Inc. today announced that the first patient in its Phase I/II clinical trial in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been enrolled and transplanted. The trial is designed to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of the Company's proprietary HuCNS-SC® product candidate (purified human neural stem cells) as a treatment for dry AMD, and the patient was transplanted with the cells yesterday at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest (RFSW) in Dallas, Texas, one of the leading independent vision research centers in the United States. AMD afflicts approximately 30 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over 55 years of age.

Neuralstem Cells Induce Significant Functional Improvement In Permanent Rat Spinal Cord Injury, Cell Study Reports

Source: Neuralstem, Inc.
Date: September 13, 2012

Summary;

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Neuralstem, Inc. announced that its neural stem cells were part of a study, "Long-Distance Growth and Connectivity of Neural Stem Cells After Severe Spinal Cord Injury: Cell-Intrinsic Mechanisms Overcome Spinal Inhibition," published online today in a leading scientific journal CELL. In the study, rats with surgically transected spinal cords, which rendered them permanently and completely paraplegic, were transplanted with Neuralstem's spinal cord stem cells (NSI-566). The study reports that the animals recovered significant locomotor function, regaining movement in all lower extremity joints, and that the transplanted neural stem cells turned into neurons which grew a "remarkable" number of axons that extended for "very long distances" over 17 spinal segments, making connections both above and below the point of severance. These axons reached up to the cervical region (C4) and down to the lumbar region (L1). They also appeared to make reciprocal synaptic connectivity with the host rat spinal cord neurons in the gray matter for several segments below the injury.

Further study showed that re-transecting the spinal cord immediately above the graft abolished the functional gain, indicating that the regeneration of host axons into the human stem cell graft was responsible for the functional recovery. The cells that Neuralstem contributed to the study, NSI-566, are the same cells used in the recently completed Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). Neuralstem has also submitted an application to the FDA for a trial to treat chronic spinal cord injury with these cells.

Human embryonic stem cells could help to treat deafness

Source: University of Sheffield
Date: 12 September 2012

Summary:

In research funded by the Medical Research Council and leading UK research charity, Action on Hearing Loss, experts from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Biomedical Sciences developed a method to turn human embryonic stem cells into ear cells. They then transplanted them into deaf gerbils, obtaining a functional recovery that, on average, was of around 46 per cent. The improvement was evident about four weeks after administering the cells. As well as proving that stem cells can be used to repair damaged hearing, it is hoped the breakthrough – published in the journal Nature – will lead to new treatments and therapies in the future.

Stem Cell Researchers Use Gene Therapy to Restore Immune Systems in 'Bubble Boy' Disease

Source: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences
Date: September 11, 2012

Summary:

UCLA stem cell researchers have found that a gene therapy regimen can safely restore immune systems to children with so-called "Bubble Boy" disease, a life threatening condition that if left untreated can be fatal within one to two years.

In the 11-year study, researchers were able to test two therapy regimens for 10 children with ADA-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). During the study, they refined their approach to include a light dose of chemotherapy to help remove many of the blood stem cells in the bone marrow that are not creating an enzyme called adenosine deaminase (ADA), which is critical for the production and survival of healthy white blood cells, said study senior Dr. Donald Kohn, a professor of pediatrics and of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics in Life Sciences and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

The refined gene therapy and chemotherapy regimen proved superior to the other method tested in the study, restoring immune function to three of the six children who received it, Kohn said. Going forward, an even further refined regimen using a different type of virus delivery system will be studied in the next phase of the study, which already has enrolled eight of the 10 patients needed.

The study appears Aug. 30 in the advance online issue of the peer-reviewed journal Blood.

New Genetic Mechanism for Controlling Blood Cell Development and Blood Vessel Integrity Found

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: September 10, 2012

Summary:

The protein GATA2 is known as a "master regulator" of blood cell development. When a mutation occurs in the gene that makes GATA2, serious blood diseases such as acute myeloid leukemia can result. Zooming in on the GATA2 gene, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and their collaborators at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered unexpectedly that a small DNA sequence drives this powerful master regulator. The sequence plays an essential role in controlling GATA2 production and generating self-renewing blood stem cells responsible for the earliest steps in the development of blood cells of all kinds — red cells to transport oxygen and white cells to fight infection.

The researchers also found that the DNA sequence, which they call the +9.5 GATA2 switch site, ensures that blood vessels function properly to prevent hemorrhaging. Until now, GATA2 had not been implicated in blood vessel integrity. The study appears in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (online Sept. 10, 2012).

StemCells, Inc. Reports Positive Interim Data From Spinal Cord Injury Trial Cells and Procedure Well Tolerated; Gains in Sensory Function Confirmed

Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: September 3, 2012

Summary:

NEWARK, Calif. -- StemCells, Inc. today announced that interim six-month data from the first patient cohort in the Company's Phase I/II clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC® product candidate (purified human neural stem cells) for chronic spinal cord injury continues to demonstrate a favorable safety profile, and shows considerable gains in sensory function in two of the three patients compared to pre-transplant baselines. The third patient remains stable. The data was presented by Armin Curt, M.D., principal investigator for the clinical trial, at the 51st Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Spinal Cord Society in London, England. The trial represents the first time that neural stem cells have been transplanted as a potential therapeutic agent for spinal cord injury.

Patients in the study's first cohort all suffered a complete injury to the thoracic (chest-level) spinal cord. In a complete injury, there is no neurological function below the level of injury. All three patients were transplanted four to nine months after injury with a dose of 20 million cells at the site of injury. The surgery, immunosuppression and the cell transplants have been well tolerated by all the patients. There were no abnormal clinical, electrophysiological or radiological responses to the cells, and all the patients were neurologically stable through the first six months following transplantation. Changes in sensitivity to touch, heat and electrical stimuli were observed in well-defined and consistent areas below the level of injury in two of the patients, while no changes were observed in the third patient. Importantly, tests of perception of different sensory stimuli as well as measures of electrical impulse transmission across the site of injury correlate with the clinical examination, providing independent and objective confirmation of the changes in sensory function.

Scientists Discover 'Missing Link' Between Stem Cells and the Immune System

Source: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences
Date: September 2, 2012

Summary:

UCLA researchers have discovered a type of cell that is the "missing link" between bone marrow stem cells and all the cells of the human immune system, a finding that will lead to a greater understanding of how a healthy immune system is produced and how disease can lead to poor immune function. The studies were done using human bone marrow, which contains all the stem cells that produce blood during postnatal life.

Understanding the process of normal blood formation in human adults is a crucial step in shedding light on what goes wrong during the process that results in leukemias, or cancers of the blood. The study appears Sept. 2 in the early online edition of Nature Immunology.

New Hope For Spinal Cord Injury Patients

Source: Monash University
Date: 29 August 2012

Summary:

A new antibody could reverse the damage caused by trauma to the central nervous system, according to new research. After a neurotrauma event, such as a spinal cord injury, the body produces an inflammatory response that often leads to scarring and permanent nerve damage. There are currently no treatment options.

Research published in The American Journal of Pathology and led by Monash University's Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) details how a new antibody, created by the US therapeutic antibody company Lpath, blocks the effects of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). A molecule released in response to injury, LPA promotes inflammation and nerve cell death.

The research team, led by Dr Yona Goldshmit of ARMI and Dr Alice Pébay of CERA, demonstrated that by administering the antibody soon after the injury occurred, it was possible to preserve nerve cells and limit the amount of scarring, while substantially reducing the losses in motor function.

First Lung Cells Grown Using Stem Cell Technology

Source: The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
Date: August 26, 2012

Summary:

New stem cell research paves the way towards individualized medicine for patients with cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. The study, led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is the first to successfully use stem cells to produce mature lung cells that could potentially be used to study the disease and test drugs. The study is published in the August 26 advance online edition of Nature Biotechnology.

Researchers were able to induce human embryonic stem cells to become mature lung cells, that contained a gene, called CFTR that when mutated is responsible for cystic fibrosis (CFTR gene was discovered at SickKids in 1989). They then took the experiment a step further, by using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from the skin of patients with cystic fibrosis. They prompted these stem cells to become lung cells, which contain mutations specific to the patients involved. (Induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells genetically induced to function like embryonic stem cells.)

Once researchers found that they could create lung cells derived from individual patients they then used a compound that resembles an investigational drug that is currently being tested for cystic fibrosis to see if it would rescue the CFTR gene mutation.

The Winnipeg Free Press published a news story today on this development.

Astrocytes Control the Generation of New Neurons from Neural Stem Cells

Source: University of Gothenburg
Date: 22 August 2012

Summary:

Researchers from the Laboratory of astrocyte biology and CNS regeneration headed by Prof. Milos Pekny at the University of Gothenburg just published a research article in a journal Stem Cells on the molecular mechanism that controls generation of new neurons in the brain. Astrocytes are cells that have many functions in the central nervous system, such as the control of neuronal synapses, blood flow, or the brain's response to neurotrauma or stroke.

Reduces brain tissue damage
Prof. Pekny's laboratory together with collaborators have earlier demonstrated that astrocytes reduce the brain tissue damage after stroke and that the integration of transplanted neural stem cells can be largely improved by modulating the activity of astrocytes.

Generation of new neurons
In their current study, the Sahlgrenska Academy researchers show how astrocytes control the generation of new neurons in the brain. An important contribution to this project came from Åbo Academy, one of Sahlgrenska's traditional collaborative partners.

Researchers Return Blood Cells to Stem Cell State

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Date: August 21, 2012

Summary:

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body. The work, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Public Library of Science One (PLoS One), is "Chapter Two" in an ongoing effort to efficiently and consistently convert adult blood cells into stem cells that are highly qualified for clinical and research use in place of human embryonic stem cells, says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the Kimmel Cancer Center.

For the new study, the Johns Hopkins team took cord blood cells, treated them with growth factors, and used plasmids to transfer four genes into them. They then delivered an electrical pulse to the cells, making tiny holes in the surface through which the plasmids could slip inside. Once inside, the plasmids triggered the cells to revert to a more primitive cell state. The scientific team next grew some of the treated cells in a dish alone, and some together with irradiated bone-marrow cells.
When scientists compared the cells grown using the blood cell method with iPS cells grown from hair cells and from skin cells, they found that the most superior iPS cells came from blood stem cells treated with just four genes and cultured with the bone marrow cells. These cells converted to a primitive stem cell state within seven to 14 days. Their techniques also were successful in experiments with blood cells from adult bone marrow and from circulating blood.

Stem Cells Can Become Anything, but Not Without This Protein

Source: University of Michigan Health System
Date: August 21, 2012

Summary:

How do stem cells preserve their ability to become any type of cell in the body? And how do they "decide" to give up that magical state and start specializing? If researchers could answer these questions, our ability to harness stem cells to treat disease could explode. Now, a University of Michigan Medical School team has published a key discovery that could help that goal become reality.

In the current issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, researcher Yali Dou, Ph.D., and her team show the crucial role of a protein called Mof in preserving the 'stem-ness' of stem cells, and priming them to become specialized cells in mice.

Their results show that Mof plays a key role in the "epigenetics" of stem cells -- that is, helping stem cells read and use their DNA. One of the key questions in stem cell research is what keeps stem cells in a kind of eternal youth, and then allows them to start "growing up" to be a specific type of tissue.

The researchers have zeroed in on the factors that add temporary tags to DNA when it's coiled around tiny spools called histones. In order to read their DNA, cells have to unwind it a bit from those spools, allowing the gene-reading mechanisms to get access to the genetic code and transcribe it. The temporary tags added by Mof act as tiny beacons, guiding the "reader" mechanism to the right place.

Neuroscientists Find Brain Stem Cells that May Be Responsible for Higher Functions, Bigger Brains

Source: The Scripps Research Institute
Date: August 7, 2012

Summary:

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a new stem cell population that may be responsible for giving birth to the neurons responsible for higher thinking. The finding also paves the way for scientists to produce these neurons in culture -- a first step in developing better treatments for cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, which result from disrupted connections among these brain cells. Published in the August 10, 2012 issue of the journal Science, the new research reveals how neurons in the uppermost layers of the cerebral cortex form during embryonic brain development.