Stem Cells Used to Treat Children With Life-Threatening, Blistering Skin Disease

Source: University of Minnesota
Date: August 12, 2010

Summary:

University of Minnesota Physician-researchers have demonstrated that a lethal skin disease can be successfully treated with stem cell therapy. Medical School researchers John E. Wagner, M.D., and Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D., in collaboration with researchers in Portland, Oregon, the United Kingdom, and Japan have for the first time used stem cells from bone marrow to repair the skin of patients with a fatal skin disease called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB. This is the first time researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells can home to the skin and upper gastrointestinal tract and alter the natural course of the disease. The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Below is a summary of media coverage of about this development:

Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2010, 1:59 p.m. PDT: "Stem cell therapy appears successful in treating rare, deadly skin disease":

Stem cell therapies hold enormous promise. But, so far, there are few confirmed stem cell treatments beyond traditional bone marrow transplantation. Researchers reported Wednesday, however, that they have been able to use stem cells to treat a rare, often-fatal skin disease in children. The results of the experimental therapy suggest that stem cells from bone marrow can travel to injured skin cells and repair damage to those cells.

Agence France Presse (AFP), August 11, 2010, 5:04 pm ET: "Doctors use bone marrow stem cells to treat skin disorder":

In what is believed to be a medical first, researchers have used stem cells from bone marrow to repair the skin of young patients with a painful and usually deadly skin disease, a study published Wednesday says. Researchers led by University of Minnesota doctors John Wagner and Jakub Tolar in 2007 began treating children with a rare genetic skin disorder, called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), with bone marrow stem cells that had been found in lab tests to repair skin in mice.

Reuters, August 11, 2010 5:27 pm EDT: "Stem cells may hold key for fatal skin disease":

High-risk bone marrow transplants partially cured five children with a potentially deadly genetic defect in which proteins that hold layers of skin together are absent, U.S. researchers said Wednesday. But one other child died from side effects of a drug used to prepare for a transplant and a second died from a post-transplant infection.

People with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB, are plagued by painful blisters on the skin, mouth and throat, caused by the slightest trauma that can expose the body to infection and, in some cases, an aggressive form of cancer. With the new treatment, "there was improved healing, fewer blisters, and their quality of life was positively affected. They could do things they couldn't do before, like ride a bicycle or go on a trampoline," said Dr. John Wagner of the University of Minnesota, who worked on the study.

It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 11, 2010 - 8:37 PM CDT: "U doctors find treatment for painful, lethal skin disease":

Two years ago, doctors at the University of Minnesota took an enormous risk by putting a little boy with a terrible skin disease through a bone marrow transplant. For that boy, Nate Liao, it worked out, and he is healthier now. Thursday, in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers are for the first time making public their results treating seven other children with the same genetic disease. In it, they acknowledge just how risky the procedure is: Two of the seven, including the older brother of the first patient, died as a result of the treatment. But in the others it worked -- a leap forward for a devastating and painful genetic disease for which there is no other treatment and a potentially significant advance for the use of adult stem cells.

HealthDay News, August 11, 2010: "Stem Cell Treatment May Offer Hope Against Fatal Skin Disorder":

A debilitating and usually fatal skin disorder may be treated by bone marrow stem cell transplant, a new study finds. The results may have implications for the treatment of other skin diseases and also for the potential of stem cells in bone marrow to turn into other cell types, according to the study published in the Aug. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Stem Cell Technology Yields First ‘Knockout’ Rats

Source: University of Southern California
Date: August 11, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have, for the first time, generated “knockout” rats — animals that are genetically modified to lack one or more genes — through embryonic stem (ES) cell-based gene targeting. The long-awaited achievement provides scientists with a far more effective animal model to study a range of human diseases.
The research was published online in the journal Nature and will appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal.

SCIENTISTS MAP EPIGENETIC CHANGES DURING BLOOD CELL DIFFERENTIATION

Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Date: August 11, 2010

Summary:

Having charted the occurrence of a common chemical change that takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, a Johns Hopkins-led team of scientists has produced the first-ever epigenetic landscape map for tissue differentiation. The details of this collaborative study between Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Harvard appear August 15 in the early online publication of Nature.

New Strategy to Fix a Broken Heart: Scaffold Supports Stem Cell-Derived Cardiac Muscle Cells

Source: University of Washington
Date: August 9, 2010

Summary:

Stem cells now offer hope for achieving what the body can't do: mending broken hearts. Engineers and physicians at the University of Washington have built a scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells. A description of the scaffold, which supports the growth of cardiac cells in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals, is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers built a tiny tubular porous scaffold that supports and stabilizes the fragile cardiac cells and can be injected into a damaged heart, where it will foster cell growth and eventually dissolve away. The new scaffold not only supports cardiac muscle growth, but potentially accelerates the body's ability to supply oxygen and nutrients to the transplanted tissue. Eventually, the idea is that doctors would seed the scaffold with stem cells from either the patient or a donor, then implant it when the patient is treated for a heart attack, before scar tissue has formed.

In breakthrough, nerve connections are regenerated after spinal cord injury

Source: University of California - Irvine
Date: August 8, 2010

Summary:

Researchers for the first time have induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary movement after spinal cord injury, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to paralysis and other motor function impairments. In a study on rodents, the UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Harvard University team achieved this breakthrough by turning back the developmental clock in a molecular pathway critical for the growth of corticospinal tract nerve connections. They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog), which controls a molecular pathway called mTOR that is a key regulator of cell growth. PTEN activity is low early during development, allowing cell proliferation. PTEN then turns on when growth is completed, inhibiting mTOR and precluding any ability to regenerate. Results of the study appear online in Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers announce stem cell breakthrough

Source: KGO-TV / ABC7 News - San Francisco, CA
Posted: August 5, 2010 11:48 PM PDT

Summary:

KGO-TV / ABC7 News - San Francisco, CA reported a news story about on the announcement by the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) that scientists have found a new way to make beating heart cells from the body's own cells that could help regenerate damaged hearts. A news video segment of the story follows below:

Two New Paths to the Dream: Regeneration

Source: New York Times
Date: August 5, 2010

Summary:

The New York Times reported a story on the discovery of new approaches to regenerating limbs using the body's own cells. The first, an announcement by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, the ability of newts to regenerate tissue was successfully replicated in mice:

Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells. Animals like newts and zebra fish can regenerate limbs, fins, even part of the heart. If only people could do the same, amputees might grow new limbs and stricken hearts be coaxed to repair themselves.

...In the first of the two new approaches, a research group at Stanford University led by Helen M. Blau, Jason H. Pomerantz and Kostandin V. Pajcini has taken a possible first step toward unlocking the human ability to regenerate. By inactivating two genes that work to suppress tumors, they got mouse muscle cells to revert to a younger state, start dividing and help repair tissue.

In a second experiment, a different technique to regenerating a tissue was announced by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco to regenerate heart tissue by reprogramming heart tissue cells into heart muscle cells reported in the journal Cell:

A second, quite different approach to regenerating a tissue is reported in Friday’s issue of Cell by Deepak Srivastava and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco. Working also in the mouse, they have developed a way of reprogramming the ordinary tissue cells of the heart into heart muscle cells, the type that is irretrievably lost in a heart attack.
The Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka showed three years ago that skin cells could be converted to embryonic stem cells simply by adding four proteins known to regulate genes. Inspired by Dr. Yamanaka’s method, Dr. Srivastava and his colleagues selected 14 such proteins and eventually found that with only three of them they could convert heart fibroblast cells into heart muscle cells.

Human embryonic stem cells purified in new, rapid technique

Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: August 5, 2010

Summary:

University of California, San Francisco researchers are reporting the first success in very rapidly purifying one type of embryonic stem cell from a mix of many different types of embryonic stem cells in the culture dish. The technique, which avoids the need to genetically alter the cells to distinguish them, is a key advance, the researchers say, for obtaining the appropriate cells for repairing specific damaged tissues.

The new strategy links two existing technologies for the first time: the ability to identify specific embryonic stem cell types in a culture of different embryonic stem cells, and a way to efficiently sort them at a very high rate, a procedure known as “high throughput” processing.

The research finding is currently published online in the journal Stem Cells and Development and will appear later this year in a print edition of the journal. Embryonic stem cells, which replicate indefinitely in the culture dish, are capable of forming almost any tissue in the body. Over time, they begin to specialize as specific cell types, such as cardiomyocytes of the heart or neurons of the brain. One goal for stem cell therapy is to be able to identify cells that have begun to specialize in a particular way so that they could serve as a source of cells to repair specific damaged tissues.

Human embryonic stem cells and reprogrammed cells virtually identical

Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: August 5, 2010

Summary:

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells and adult cells reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state—so-called induced pluripotent stem or iPS cells—exhibit very few differences in their gene expression signatures and are nearly indistinguishable in their chromatin state, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Their results are published in the August 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell.

iPS cells are made by introducing three key genes into adult cells. These reprogramming factors push the cells from a mature state to a more flexible embryonic stem cell-like state. Like ES cells, iPS cells can then, in theory, be coaxed to mature into almost any type of cell in the body. Unlike ES cells, iPS cells taken from a patient are not likely to be rejected by that patient’s immune system. This difference overcomes a major hurdle in regenerative medicine.

Gladstone Scientists Discover New Method for Regenerating Heart Muscle by Direct Reprogramming

Source: Gladstone Institutes
Date: August 5, 2010

Summary:

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found a new way to make beating heart cells from the body's own cells that could help regenerate damaged hearts. Over 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure because the heart has virtually no ability to repair itself after a heart attack. Only 2,000 hearts become available for heart transplant annually in the United States, leaving limited therapeutic options for the remaining millions. In research published in the current issue of Cell, scientists in the laboratory of GICD director Deepak Srivastava, MD, directly reprogrammed structural cells called fibroblasts in the heart to become beating heart cells called cardiomyocytes. In doing so, they also found the first evidence that unrelated adult cells can be reprogrammed from one cell type to another without having to go all the way back to a stem cell state.

Biologists Discover MicroRNAs that Control Function of Blood Stem Cells

Source: California Institute of Technology
Date: August 4, 2010

Summary:

PASADENA, Calif.—Hematopoietic stem cells provide the body with a constant supply of blood cells, including the red blood cells that deliver oxygen and the white blood cells that make up the immune system. Hematopoietic—or blood—stem cells must also make more copies of themselves to ensure that they are present in adequate numbers to provide blood throughout a person's lifetime, which means they need to strike a delicate balance between self-renewal and development into mature blood-cell lineages. Perturb that balance, and the result can be diseases such as leukemia and anemia.

One key to fighting these diseases is gaining an understanding of the genes and molecules that control the function of these stem cells. Biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have taken a large step toward that end, with the discovery of a novel group of molecules that are found in high concentrations within hematopoietic stem cells and appear to regulate their production.

A paper about the work was published July 26 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Newts' Ability to Regenerate Tissue Replicated in Mouse Cells

Source: Stanford University
Date: August 4, 2010

Summary:

New research suggests a reason why mammals are unable to re-grow a limb or produce new heart muscle cells: Restricting cells' ability to pop in and out of the cell cycle at will -- a prerequisite for the cell division necessary to make new tissue -- reduces the chances that they'll run amok and form potentially deadly cancers.

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken a big step toward being able to confer this regenerative capacity on mammalian muscle cells; they accomplished this feat in experiments with laboratory mice in which they blocked the expression of just two tumor-suppressing proteins. The finding may move us closer to future regenerative therapies in humans -- surprisingly, by sending us shimmying back down the evolutionary tree. The research will be published in Cell Stem Cell.


Wired magazine published a news story based on this news release.

MicroRNA molecule increases number of blood stem cells, may help improve cancer treatment

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
Date: August 4, 2010

Summary:

Investigators have identified a new mechanism that controls the number of hematopoietic stem cells - cells that give rise to all blood and immune system cells. In a report in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute identify a tiny RNA molecule that increases the number of these blood stem cells, an advance that may improve treatment of blood system cancers.

Purified blood stem cells improve success of bone marrow transplants in mice, study shows

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
Date: August 2, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have challenged decades of accepted wisdom about bone marrow transplantation with a new study showing that mice receiving purified blood stem cells are less prone to complications than mice receiving stem cells plus purified T cells. The study, led by Judith Shizuru, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, will be published online Aug. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Synthetic bone graft recruits stem cells for faster bone healing

Source: Queen Mary, University of London
Date: 2 August 2010

Summary:

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have developed a material for bone grafts that could one day replace the 'gold standard' natural bone implants. A new study shows how particles of a ceramic called calcium phosphate have the ability to stimulate promising bone regrowth by attracting stem cells and 'growth factors' to promote healing and the integration of the grafted tissue.

The researchers tested natural bone grafts against ceramic particles with varied structural and chemical properties. They found that micro-porous ceramic particles composed of calcium phosphate, the primary component of bone ash, induced stem cells to develop into bone cells in the test tube and stimulated bone growth in live tissue in mice, dogs and sheep.

Bone injuries packed with the ceramic particles healed similarly to implants constructed from the animals' own bone, reports Professor de Bruijn along with collaborators from the University of Twente, Netherlands, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study also shows how it also matches a commercially available product that contains artificial growth factors and has the undesirable side-effect of causing bone fragments to form in nearby soft tissue, such as muscle.

New insights into how stem cells determine what tissue to become

Source: University of Michigan
Date: August 1, 2010

Summary:

Within 24 hours of culturing adult human stem cells on a new type of matrix, University of Michigan researchers were able to make predictions about how the cells would differentiate, or what type of tissue they would become. Their results are published in the Aug. 1 edition of Nature Methods.

In this study, the researchers examined stem cell mechanics, the slight forces the cells exert on the materials they are attached to. These traction forces were suspected to be involved in differentiation, but they have not been as widely studied as the chemical triggers. In this paper, the researchers show that the stiffness of the material on which stem cells are cultivated in a lab does, in fact, help to determine what type of cells they turn into.

Revolutionary Findings Prove Novel Mechanism of Stem Cells

Source: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Date: August 1, 2010

Summary:

researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have demonstrated exactly how mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow can repair the heart – a critical step in stem cell research that could in the near future help millions of patients with heart failure. The findings, published in the July 29 issue of Circulation Research, a journal of the American Heart Association, address an area that has been of enormous interest to cardiologists since the first suggestion that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells regenerate heart muscle damaged by a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Joshua M. Hare, M.D., director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the Miller School, led the discovery which settles several major controversies in the field and shows that the stem cells used can restore heart function back to normal very rapidly after heart attack.

Below is an excerpt of a news story published in the Miami Herald yesterday about the study:

A medical research team led by University of Miami doctors injected stem cells into the hearts of pigs that had been damaged by heart attacks. Within two months, the doctors said, the stem cells made the pigs' hearts good as new. ...The new study, published in the July 29 issue of Circulation Research, a journal of the American Heart Association, builds on another UM study published in December. In that study, immature ``mesenchymnal'' human stem cells extracted from bone marrow and infused into the hearts of human heart-attack victims made their hearts less prone to dangerous arrhythmias and better able to pump blood.

The new UM study found that the stem cells helped the heart in two ways. First, some of the stem cells -- injected into the heart via catheter into the groin and up the femoral artery -- actually turned into new, healthy heart cells themselves. They replaced heart tissue killed by the heart attack, and became part of the heart muscle that contracts and beats to circulate the blood. Another part of the injected stem cells didn't turn into new heart cells but instead induced stem cells already existing in the heart to greatly multiply, building more heart muscle.

Coverage Summary: Geron Corporation Embryonic Stem Cell Clinical Trial

Below is a summary of media coverage from various sources of the recent announcement by Geron Corporation that it received federal regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration to begin resuming human clinical trials using human embryonic stem cells to attempt to treat spinal cord injuries:

New York Times, July 30, 2010, 11:21 AM EDT: "F.D.A. Clears Way for Embryonic Stem Cell Trial Using Patients":

The world’s first authorized test in people of a treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells has been cleared to begin by the Food and Drug Administration. The trial will test cells developed by Geron Corporation and the University of California, Irvine in patients with new spinal cord injuries.

United Press International, July 30, 2010 at 9:28 PM: "FDA: Stem cell trial can proceed":

The Food and Drug Administration has given approval to proceed with the world's first human clinical trial of a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy. Geron Corp., headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., says it will proceed with its trial of GRNOPC1, a stem-cell therapy intended to treat patients with acute spinal cord injury, a company release said Friday.

Bloomberg News, July 30, 2010: "FDA: Stem cell trial can proceed":

Geron Corp. said it was cleared by U.S. regulators to proceed with the first human test of an embryonic stem-cell therapy, aimed at patients with spinal-cord injuries. The shares rose 17 percent. The Food and Drug Administration lifted a clinical hold on the study imposed last August when the company revealed that mice used in experimental work had developed cysts, Geron said in a statement. The company may start recruiting patients with new spinal cord injuries in about one month, said Thomas Okarma, Geron’s president and chief executive officer, in a telephone interview today.

The FDA’s action will allow the company to proceed with a long-awaited milestone -- the first authorized clinical trial in the world using stem cells derived from human embryos. The approval comes after almost a year of Geron’s testing and genetic analysis to resolve FDA questions, and paves the way for future trials.

San Jose Mercury News, July 31, 2010 : "FDA approves Geron's groundbreaking study of embryonic cells":

A Menlo Park biotech firm said Friday that federal regulators will let it proceed with the world's first human test of a treatment made from embryonic stem cells, a much-anticipated but controversial study of patients with spinal cord injuries that had been placed on hold for nearly a year because of safety concerns.

If the treatment from Geron works, it 'would be revolutionary,' said Dr. Richard Fessler, a neurological surgeon at Northwestern University, who will lead the study of a stem-cell treatment designed to be injected into patients with spinal injuries to restore their motor function. "The therapy would provide a viable treatment option for thousands of patients who suffer severe spinal cord injuries each year."

Associated Press, July 30, 2010: "Geron says FDA lifts hold on stem cell trial":

NEW YORK — Regulators on Friday gave the all-clear to a clinical trial that will test embryonic stem cells as a treatment for spinal cord injury, potentially the first time embryonic stem cells are tested on humans. The developer of the treatment, Geron Corp., said the Food and Drug Administration removed a clinical hold on its GRNOPC1 therapy. The FDA accepted Geron's study application in January 2009, which gave the company clearance to test GRNOPC1 on humans. But the FDA placed any potential study on hold in August because some mice treated with GRNOPC1 developed microscopic spinal cysts.

Geron hopes to start testing GRNOPC1 on humans by year-end. The company plans to enroll eight to 10 patients in the study at sites nationwide. The trial will take about two years, with each patient being studied for one year. Early-stage clinical trials are primarily designed to test a therapy's safety, although Geron said it will also measure the effectiveness of GRNOPC1.
A successful test would lead to larger and longer studies that would focus on the effectiveness of GRNOPC1. The company plans to continue monitoring patients for a total of 15 years for safety.

KGO-TV, San Francisco, CA, July 30, 2010: "Menlo Park-based Geron resumes stem cell trials":

MENLO PARK, CA (KGO) -- The Food and Drug Administration has given Menlo Park-based Geron the green light to resume trials of a stem cell treatment that could help repair injured spinal cords. The new drug by Geron will be injected into patients within seven days of a spinal cord injury.

Researchers Build New Joint with Stem Cells

Source: Columbia University
Date: July 30, 2010

Summary:

A pioneering study published "Online First" in The Lancet this week shows that failing joints can be replaced with a joint grown "naturally," using the host's own stem cells. The work paves the way for future joints that would last longer than today's artificial joints. The work was carried out in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor at Columbia University, along with his team at Columbia University Medical Center, and colleagues from the University of Missouri and Clemson University.

Geron to Proceed with First Human Clinical Trial of Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Therapy

Source: Geron Corporation
Date: July 30, 2010

Summary:

Geron Corporation announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has notified the company that the clinical hold placed on Geron's Investigational New Drug (IND) application has been lifted and the company's Phase I clinical trial of GRNOPC1 in patients with acute spinal cord injury may proceed.

The FDA notification enables Geron to move forward with the world's first clinical trial of a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based therapy in man. The Phase I multi-center trial is designed to establish the safety of GRNOPC1 in patients with "complete" American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale grade A subacute thoracic spinal cord injuries.

Scientists find cell of origin for human prostate cancer

Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: July 29, 2010

Summary:

University of California, Los Angeles scientists have identified for the first time a cell of origin for human prostate cancer, a discovery that could result in better predictive and diagnostic tools and the development of new and more effective targeted treatments for the disease. The researchers, from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, proved that basal cells found in benign prostate tissue could become human prostate cancer in mice with suppressed immune systems, a finding that bucks conventional wisdom.

The study appears July 30 in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

Researchers Make Progress Toward Regenerating Tissue to Replace Joints

Source: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Date: July 29, 2010

Summary:

A team of NIH-funded researchers has successfully regenerated rabbit joints using a cutting edge process to form the joint inside the body, or in vivo. Regenerative in vivo procedures are performed by stimulating previously irreparable organs or tissues to heal themselves. In this study, bioscaffolds, or three-dimensional structures made of biocompatible and biodegradable materials in the shape of the tissue, were infused with a protein to promote growth of the rabbit joint. The experiment demonstrated the feasibility of an approach to growing dissimilar tissues, such as cartilage and bone, derived entirely from the host’s own cells. Results of the study are in the July 29 issue of The Lancet.

Rabbits grow their own joint replacements in study

Source: Reuters
Posted: July 28, 2010 6:32pm EDT

Summary:

Reuters reports rabbits implanted with artificial bones re-grew their own joints:

Rabbits implanted with artificial bones re-grew their own joints, complete with cartilage, researchers reported on Thursday. Only a single compound called a growth factor was needed to induce the rabbits' bodies to remodel the joint tissue, said the team at Columbia University in New York, Clemson University in South Carolina and the University of Missouri.

Gene essential to stem cell health discovered

Source: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Date: July 28, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) have discovered a gene that is essential to keeping stem cells healthy. The gene, hypoxia inducible factor 1, helps keep levels of telomerase constant. Telomerase is an enzyme that is critical to a stem cell’s lifespan, helping to prevent or slow deterioration in the cells. When telomerase is reduced in a stem cell, the stem cell ages faster. The research results are published in July’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Irradiating brain's stem cell niche doubles survival time for patients with brain cancers

Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: July 26, 2010

Summary:

Patients with deadly glioblastomas who received high doses of radiation that hit a portion of the brain that harbors neural stem cells had double the progression-free survival time as patients who had lower doses or no radiation targeting the area, a study from the Radiation Oncology Department at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

Patients who underwent high doses of radiation that hit the specific neural stem cell site, known as the stem cell niche, experienced 15 months of progression-free survival, while patients receiving lower or no doses to this region experienced 7.2 months of progression-free survival, said Dr. Frank Pajonk, an associate professor of radiation oncology, a cancer center researcher and senior author of the study.

Pajonk said the study, published in the early online edition of the journal BMC Cancer, could result in changes in the way radiation therapy is given to patients with these deadly brain cancers.

Scientists isolate the first stages of tissue production in human embryonic stem cells

Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: July 20, 2010

Summary:

Scientists at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center have described a population of cells that mark the very first stage of differentiation of human embryonic stem cells as they enter a developmental pathway that leads to production of blood, heart muscle, blood vessels and bone.

Researchers hope that these cells could one day be used for clinical treatments of a wide range of medical conditions as the discovery may help scientists create better and safer tissues for use in regenerative medicine. It also will allow scientists to better understand the differences between pluripotent stem cells, which can become every cell in the body, and cells that have lost their pluripotency and are on their way to becoming specific types of tissue cells.

The study appears today in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Natural Substance NT-020 Aids Aging Brains in Rats, Study Finds

Source: University of South Florida
Date: July 19, 2010

Summary:

A combination of nutrients called NT-020 promoted adult neural stem cell proliferation in aged rats and boosted their memory performance, reported University of South Florida researchers studying natural therapeutic approaches to promoting the health of neurons in the aging brain.

Researchers from the USF Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair tested two groups of aged laboratory rats; one group received NT-020 and another, the control group, did not. In the NT-020 group, the process by which neurons are generated -- called neurogenesis -- increased. The study was published in the current issue of Rejuvenation Research (Vol. 13 No. 5, June, 2010). The NT-020 formula was patented by USF and licensed to Natura Therapeutics, Inc.

Reprogrammed Cells 'Remember,' Retain Characteristics of Their Cells of Origin

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
Date: July 19, 2010

Summary:

Investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Regenerative Medicine have confirmed that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) retain some characteristics of the cells from which they were derived, something that could both assist and impede potential clinical and research uses. In their report that will be published in Nature Biotechnology and has received early online release, the researchers also describe finding that these cellular "memories" fade and disappear as cell lines are cultured through successive generations.

Unearthing King Tet: Key Protein Influences Stem Cell Fate

Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Date: July 16, 2010

Summary:

Take a skin cell from a patient with Type 1 diabetes. Strip out everything that made it a skin cell, then reprogram it to grow into a colony of pancreatic beta cells. Implant these into your patient and voilà! She’s producing her own insulin like a pro.
This type of personalized therapy is the ultimate goal of most stem cell research. But to reliably achieve that goal for treating diabetes and other diseases, there’s a whole network of genes, proteins and miniscule chemical reactions to decipher first.
Findings published today in the journal Nature put us a step closer to untangling that web. University of North Carolina biochemist Yi Zhang, PhD and his team have discovered that a protein called Tet 1 helps stem cells renew themselves and stay pluripotent—able to become any type of cell in the body.

Blind Mice Can 'See' Thanks to Special Retinal Cells

Source: Johns Hopkins University
Date: July 15, 2010

Summary:

A study published July 15 in the journal Neuron, provides new hope to people who have severe vision impairments or who are blind. The study shows mice without rods and cones function can still see -- and not just light, but also patterns and images -- thanks to a third kind of photosensitive cell in the retina. Johns Hopkins University researchers found that mice that didn't have any rods and cones function could still see -- and not just light, but also patterns and images -- courtesy of special photosensitive cells in the rodents' retinas. Until now, it was presumed that those cells, called intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells, (or ipRGCs), didn't play a role in image formation, but instead served other functions, such as dictating when the animals went to sleep or woke up. (All mammals, including humans, have ipRGCs, as well as rods and cones.)

Stanford Develops New Method To Grow Adult Stem Cells

Source: KGO AM 810 - San Francisco, CA
Date: July 15, 2010

Stanford researchers have come up with a better petri dish. KGO's Jenna Lane explains it's a special surface for growing stem cells.

New discovery brings hope to treatment of incurable blood cancer

Source: Uppsala University
Date: July 15, 2010

Summary:

Multiple myeloma is one of the most common blood cancers, and at present considered to be incurable. In a new study from Uppsala University, researchers now present a conceptually new model for the development and progression of multiple myeloma. The study was done in collaboration with Vrije Universitet Brussels and is published in the July edition of the on-line journal PLoS ONE.

Using large cohorts of myeloma patients the researchers have identified a profile of genes that are silenced by epigenetic mechanisms in the malignant plasma cell. The silenced gene profile was compared and contrasted to normal plasma cells, which are highly specialised and for which growth and lifetime is tightly controlled.

The silenced genes have a common denominator in being targets and controlled by the Polycomb repressor complex (PcG). This complex has previously been implicated in self-renewal and division of normal embryonic stem cells. In the study the researchers found that inhibitors of PcG also could decrease the growth of tumour cells in an animal model of myeloma.

Scientists develop new way to grow adult stem cells in culture

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: July 15, 2010

Summary:

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a technique they believe will help scientists overcome a major hurdle to the use of adult stem cells for treating muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting disorders that accompany aging or disease: They've found that growing muscle stem cells on a specially developed synthetic matrix that mimics the elasticity of real muscle allows them to maintain their self-renewing properties.

Adult stem cells already exist in the body, and are important in regenerating tissues like blood, muscles and neurons in the brain. But scientists have struggled to produce them in quantities needed for therapies because the cells differentiate and lose their "stemness" as soon as they're placed in a tissue culture dish. This new method of growing the cells creates a way to study the behavior of many types of adult stem cells in culture and may revolutionize the ability to produce these cells for future therapies, say the researchers. The research will be published online July 15 in Science Express.

Researchers Reverse Cognitive Decline in Fruit Flies With Alzheimer’s Gene Mutation

Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Date: July 15, 2010

Summary:

PHILADELPHIA – Investigators have found that fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) males -- in which the activity of an Alzheimer’s disease protein is reduced by 50 percent -- show impairments in learning and memory as they age. What’s more, the researchers were able to prevent the age-related deficits by treating the flies with drugs such as lithium, or by genetic manipulations that reduced nerve-cell signaling.

The research team -- Thomas A. Jongens, Ph.D., associate professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Sean M. J. McBride M.D, Ph.D. and Thomas McDonald M.D., at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Catherine Choi M.D., Ph.D. at Drexel University College of Medicine – worked with the familial form of Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), an aggressive form of the disease that is caused by mutations in one of the two copies of the presenilin (PS) or amyloid precursor protein (APP) genes. Studies in animal models have previously shown that the FAD-linked PS mutations lead to less presenilin (psn) protein activity.

Their findings are published in this week’s issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Stem cells to aid study of Parkinson's

Source: University of Oxford
Date: 15 July 2010

Summary:

A new stem cell technology is to be used by Oxford University researchers to better understand the causes of Parkinson’s disease. The technique will use skin samples to grow the brain cells thought to be responsible for the onset of Parkinson’s disease, allowing these important neurons to be studied in detail.

Researchers will gather data from over 1,000 patients with early stage Parkinson’s disease and take small samples of skin tissue to grow special stem cells – induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). iPS cells can be generated from accessible tissue such as the skin and then used to generate specific types of cell. The researchers will use the iPS cells to grow dopamine neurons, the brain cells responsible for the production of dopamine. It is these cells which die in patients with Parkinson’s, leading to the onset of the disease.

Genetic mechanism once thought rare may allow rapid cell production

Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: July 8, 2010

Summary:

We take our blood for granted, but its creation requires a complicated series of steps, starting with the formation of blood stem cells during early embryonic development, followed by progressive differentiation into the progenitors of red cells, white cells and platelets, and ultimately the full set of blood cells. Now, in the July 9 issue of Cell, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report a surprising twist in how mature red blood cells form - which may explain the body's ability to rapidly replenish them in response to injury.

Researchers identify factors behind blood-making stem cells

Source: University of Montreal
Date: July 6, 2010

Summary:

A team of researchers from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal have made significant progress in the understanding of blood-producing (hematopoietic) stem cells. The study led by IRIC Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Dr. Guy Sauvageau, identifies factors that control the production of hematopoietic stem cells. Published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the research offers interesting insight critical to the development of novel regenerative therapies and treatments for leukemia.

Neural stem cells attack glioblastoma cells

Source: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Date: July 6, 2010

Summary:

In their latest research, scientists of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have demonstrated how the brain's own stem cells and precursor cells control the growth of glioblastomas. Of all brain tumors, glioblastomas are among the most common and most aggressive. Dr. Sridhar Reddy Chirasani, Professor Helmut Kettenmann and Dr. Rainer Glass have now shown in cell culture and mouse model experiments just how the body's own protective mechanism they identified in an earlier study, actually works (Brain, July 6, 2010).

Glioblastomas are brain tumors that are most common in adults in their mid-fifties or early sixties. The causes for developing the disease are not yet known. Researchers assume that misdirected neural stem cells / precursor cells mutate into cancer cells and can form glioblastomas.

Researchers Create HIV-Resistant Cells

Source: University of Southern California
Date: July 6, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC successfully have transplanted blood stem cells modified to be resistant to HIV into mice, allowing the animals to control HIV infections. If the approach can be translated to human patients, it would enable the long-term generation of HIV-resistant T cells in a patient’s body, and the potential for the patient’s own cells to suppress HIV. The strategy is explained in a new study published online in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The approach targets a gene called CCR5, one of the two gateway molecules that HIV uses to enter human cells. Cannon’s strategy arose from the observation that people with a mutation in a gene called CCR5 are naturally resistant to infection with the most common strains of HIV and do not develop AIDS.

The team used enzymes called zinc finger nucleases — which physically cut DNA — to knock out the the CCR5 gene in human blood stem cells. The researchers transplanted these modified stem cells into mice, where they developed into mature cells of the human immune system, including the T cells that HIV infects. When the researchers then infected the animals with HIV, they found that the mice were able to maintain normal levels of the human T cells and suppress HIV to very low levels, unlike control mice that received unmodified stem cells.

Biologists Find Way to Lower Tumor Risk in Stem Cell Therapies

Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: July 2, 2010

Summary:

One of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells is their ability to form unusual tumors called teratomas. These tumors, which contain a mixture of cells from a variety of tissues and organs of the body, are typically benign. But they present a major obstacle to the development of human embryonic stem cell therapies that seek to treat a variety of human ailments such as Parkinson’s, diabetes, genetic blood disorders and spinal cord injuries.

Now a team of biologists at UC San Diego funded by a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem-cell funding agency, has discovered a way to limit the formation of teratomas. In this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that they have identified a new signaling pathway critical for unlimited self propagation of embryonic stem cells. Using small molecule compounds that inhibit this pathway, the scientists were able to dramatically reduce the potential of embryonic stem cells to form teratomas.

Scientists uncover important clues in the biology of stem cells

Source: Samuel Lunenfield Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital
Date: July 2, 2010

Summary:

Mount Sinai Hospital researchers including Drs. Andras Nagy and Jeff Wrana have discovered new insights into the genesis of stem cells, which will improve the efficiency of stem cell creation for use in tissue regeneration and in the development of new drugs. The study was published today in the leading biomedical journal Cell Stem Cell.

The goal of the study was to explore the process of changing fully mature cells of the body (known as somatic cells) into a pluripotent state (i.e., cells that can develop into most other cell types), and understand the molecular and genetic changes that occur during the cells’ reprogramming. Understanding this process will help researchers identify limitations in making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are a source of great hope for use in regenerative medicine, as well as in the development of new drugs to prevent and treat various diseases.

Biologists discover how T cells make a commitment

Source: California Institute of Technology
Date: July 1, 2010

Summary:

PASADENA, Calif.—When does a cell decide its particular identity? According to biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in the case of T cells—immune system cells that help destroy invading pathogens—the answer is when the cells begin expressing a particular gene called Bcl11b. The activation of Bcl11b is a "clean, nearly perfect indicator of when cells have decided to go on the T-cell pathway," says Ellen Rothenberg, the Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology at Caltech and senior author of a paper about the discovery that appears in the July 2 issue of the journal Science.

Work-life balance: Brain stem cells need their rest, too

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: July 1, 2010

Summary:

LA JOLLA, CA—Stem cells in the brain remain dormant until called upon to divide and make more neurons. However, little has been known about the molecular guards that keep them quiet. Now scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified the signal that prevents stem cells from proliferating, protecting the brain against too much cell division and ensuring a pool of neural stem cells that lasts a lifetime.

The research, which will be published in the July 1 issue of Cell Stem Cell, highlights the importance of bone morphogenetic factor protein (BMP) signaling for the maintenance of a neural stem cell reservoir throughout adult life and may provide the key to understanding the interplay between exercise, aging and neurogenesis.

Gene regulating human brain development identified

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: July 1, 2010

Summary:

With more than 100 billion neurons and billions of other specialized cells, the human brain is a marvel of nature. It is the organ that makes people unique. Now, writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell (July 1, 2010), a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified a single gene that seems to be a master regulator of human brain development, guiding undifferentiated stem cells down tightly defined pathways to becoming all of the many types of cells that make up the brain.

The new finding is important because it reveals the main genetic factor responsible for instructing cells at the earliest stages of embryonic development to become the cells of the brain and spinal cord. Identifying the gene — known as Pax6 — is a first critical step toward routinely forging customized brain cells in the lab. What's more, the work contrasts with findings from animal models such as the mouse and zebrafish, pillars of developmental biology, and thus helps cement the importance of the models being developed from human embryonic stem cells.

Patients With Treatment-Resistant Chronic Leukemia Respond Positively to Stem Cell Transplants

Source: American Society of Hematology.
Date: July 1, 2010

Summary:

(WASHINGTON) – Allogeneic (donor-derived) stem cell transplant (alloSCT) may be a promising option for patients with treatment-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), regardless of the patient’s underlying genetic abnormalities, according to the results of a study published online today in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.

In alloSCT, blood stem cells are collected from a donor and then infused into the patient where they travel to the bone marrow and begin to produce new blood cells, replacing those that have been affected as a result of the disease. This type of treatment can pose serious complications, some of which are potentially fatal. In this prospective phase II study, a total of 90 patients with treatment-resistant CLL received alloSCT, and stem cell donors were either healthy siblings or unrelated, but matched, volunteers.

Prior to the transplant, patients in this study received conditioning, a standard therapy administered immediately before a stem cell transplant to help prepare the body to receive and accept the transplanted cells. The research team used a reduced-intensity conditioning approach with two common chemotherapies (fludarabine and cyclophosphamide) to reduce complications and allow the donor stem cells to fight the disease themselves.

After treatment with alloSCT, more than 40 percent of participants with this otherwise fatal disease enjoyed long-term freedom from relapse. These findings suggest that alloSCT is a feasible and potentially curative treatment for patients with high-risk CLL and should be considered for this patient population.

Stem cells from fat may help heal bone

Source: University of California - Davis
Date: June 30, 2010

Summary:

Wounded soldiers may one day be treated with stem cells from their own fat using a method under development at UC Davis. The method employs a gel-like material to encourage stem cells from fat to regenerate damaged bone. The stem cells have been shown to stimulate the growth of small blood vessels in developing bone, encouraging healing. The gel keeps the stem cells at the injury site; as the bone heals, the gel breaks down.

Melanoma-Initiating Cell Identified

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
Date: June 30, 2010

Summary:

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a cancer-initiating cell in human melanomas. The finding is significant because the existence of such a cell in the aggressive skin cancer has been a source of debate. It may also explain why current immunotherapies are largely unsuccessful in preventing disease recurrence in human patients. The research will be published in the July 1 issue of Nature.

Turning back the cellular clock: Method developed for tracking adult stem cells as they regress

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Date: June 29, 2010

Summary:

Scientists at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University have succeeded in tracking the progression of reprogrammed stem cells through live imaging to learn more about how they are reprogrammed, and how the new cells evolve over time. This will allow researchers to develop techniques and choose the right cells for replacement therapy and give invaluable insight into how these cells will eventually react in the human body.

Dr. Iftach Nachman of TAU's Department of Biochemistry says that this represents a huge stride forward. It will not only allow researchers to develop techniques and choose the right cells for replacement therapy, increasing the efficiency of cell reprogramming, but will give invaluable insight into how these cells will eventually react in the human body. Results from the research project were recently published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Embryonic cell and adult pig islet transplants cure diabetes in rats

Source: Washington University School of Medicine
Date: June 28, 2010

Summary:

In a step toward curing diabetes in humans, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have alleviated the disease in rats using transplants from both embryonic and adult pigs. The rats adopted the pig transplants as their own and produced enough insulin to control their blood sugar – all without the need for anti-rejection drugs. The researchers report their findings online in the American Journal of Pathology.

Using a two-step approach, the researchers first transplanted a cluster of embryonic pig pancreatic cells into diabetic rats. These cells grow to become the pancreas, which houses the islet cells that produce insulin. The embryonic cells primed the rats’ immune system to accept a second implant of islets from adult pigs several weeks later.

The new research – the first long-term, successful cross-species transplant of pig islets without immune suppression – raises the prospect that it may one day be possible to cure diabetes in humans using a similar strategy. Pig cells could overcome the shortage of human islets available from deceased donors and the need for transplant patients to take anti-rejection drugs for life.

Ronin recruits protein allies to sustain embryonic stem cell growth

Source: Baylor College of Medicine
Date: June 25, 2010

Summary:

Ronin, crucial to the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells, and a co-regulator called Hcf-1, binds to a small strand of DNA called a hyperconserved enhancer element to control a gene "program" that stimulates growth of the stem cells and may even play a role in cancer, said a group of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a current report in the journal Genes and Development.

Mechanism that may trigger degenerative disease identified

Source: Penn State University
Date: June 25, 2010

Summary:

A mechanism that regulates stem-cell differentiation in mice testes suggests a similar process that may trigger degenerative disease in humans, according to researchers at Penn State University. Research involved manipulating a protein called STAT3 that signals stem cells to decide whether to differentiate into a specialized type of cell or self-renew and remain stem cells. By manipulating STAT3, researchers identified a key regulator of spermatogonial stem cell self-renewal. Every time a stem cell divides, it produces two new cells. The findings were published in the June online issue of Biology of Reproduction.

Researchers create breathing lungs in lab

Source: University of Minnesota
Date: June 25, 2010

Summary:

Scientists with the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center and Medical School have achieved another research first – creating breathing lungs in the laboratory. This innovation comes two years after another group of University of Minnesota researchers used a similar technique to create a beating heart in the laboratory. Lead scientist Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari, Ph.D., and assistant scientist Andrew Price used a process called whole organ decellularization to remove cells from the lungs of dead adult mice and implant healthy stem cells derived from unborn mice into the decellularized matrix, the natural framework of the lungs. After about seven days in an incubator, the infused cells attached themselves to the matrix while breathing with the aid of a tiny, make-shift ventilator. The scientists’ work is in the online version of the journal Tissue Engineering (hard copy to be released August 6, 2010).

Scientists Implant Regenerated Lung Tissue in Rats

Source: Yale University
Date: June 24, 2010

Summary:

A Yale University-led team of scientists reports that it has achieved an important first step in regenerating fully functional lung tissue that can exchange gas, which is the key role of the lungs. Their paper appears in the June 24 issue of Science Express.

The Yale team's goal was to see if it was possible to successfully implant tissue-engineered lungs, cultured in vitro, that could serve the lung's primary function of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. They took adult rat lungs and first removed their existing cellular components, preserving the extracellular matrix and hierarchical branching structures of the airways and vascular system to use later as scaffolds for the growth of new lung cells.

They then cultured a combination of lung-specific cells on the extracellular matrix, using a novel bioreactor designed to mimic some aspects of the fetal lung environment. Under the fetal-like conditions of the bioreactor, the cells repopulated the decellularized matrix with functional lung cells. When implanted into rats for short intervals of time (45-120 minutes), the engineered lungs exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide similarly to natural lungs.

The team found that the mechanical characteristics of the engineered lungs were similar to those of native tissues and, when implanted, were capable of participating in gas exchange.

Scientists grow new lungs using 'skeletons' of old ones

Source: University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Date: June 24, 2010

Summary:

Tissue engineers' progress toward growing new lungs for transplantation or research has long been frustrated by the problem of coaxing stem cells to develop into the varied cell types that populate different locations in the lung Now, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have demonstrated a potentially revolutionary solution to this problem. As they describe in an article published electronically ahead of print by the journal Tissue Engineering Part A, they seeded mouse embryonic stem cells into "acellular" rat lungs — organs whose original cells had been destroyed by repeated cycles of freezing and thawing and exposure to detergent. The result: empty lung-shaped scaffolds of structural proteins on which the mouse stem cells thrived and differentiated into new cells appropriate to their specific locations.

Stem cells made without new genes

Source: Nature
Date: 21 June 2010

Summary:

Researchers have transformed human skin cells into stem cells similar to those in an embryo without using any reprogramming genes, just the viral vector normally used to deliver them. The findings, reported last week at the International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting in San Francisco, California, challenge the conventional wisdom about what it takes to produce stem cells that are compatible with a specific patient.

Researchers find that bone marrow transplantation combined with islet cell transplantation shows promise for treating late-stage type 1 diabetes

Source: City of Hope
Date: June 18, 2010

Summary:

City of Hope researchers have found that bone marrow transplantation with islet cell transplantation shows promise as a treatment for late-stage type 1 diabetes. This combination may enable patients to make their own insulin again. Results from laboratory research led by Defu Zeng, MD, associate professor in the departments of Diabetes Research and Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope, were published online this month in the journal Diabetes.

Human Embryonic-Like Extracellular Matrix Significantly Inhibits Tumor Growth and Cancer Cell Proliferation

Source: Histogen, Inc.
Date: June 17, 2010

Summary:

Histogen, Inc., a regenerative medicine company developing solutions based on the products of newborn cells grown under embryonic conditions, will present findings tomorrow at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting. Studies of the human extracellular matrix (hECM) produced under proprietary conditions of hypoxia and suspension have demonstrated its ability to diminish or eliminate tumor load in melanoma, breast cancer, colon cancer and glioma, both in vitro and in vivo.

Tumor growth was significantly inhibited across these cancer cell lines, with a 50-80% reduction in tumor weight seen in the tumor chorioallantoic membrane (tumcam) model (p<0.05) and a 70-90% reduction seen in subcutaneous mouse xenograft experiments (p<0.02). In studies of a carcinomatosis model established with a human colon carcinoma line, treatment with the hECM resulted in reduced tumor number and size, reduction of ascites, and, to date, a doubling in lifespan, as compared to untreated and cisplatin-treated mice.

Clinical trial of gene therapy for AIDS-related lymphoma shows promising results against cancer and HIV infection

Source: City of Hope
Date: June 16, 2010

Summary:

City of Hope researchers demonstrated the first successful long-term persistence of anti-HIV genes in patients with AIDS-related lymphoma. In the investigational therapy, patients underwent autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in which their own blood stem cells were harvested and genetically engineered with three anti-HIV ribonucleic acids (RNAs) that block HIV from infecting new cells. The study appears online June 16 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The gene therapy was developed by City of Hope’s John Rossi, Ph.D., Lidow Family Research Chair and chair and professor, molecular and cellular biology, with technology that uses ribozymes and short strands of RNA, also known as small interfering RNA (siRNA), to selectively silence specific genes against HIV infection. The ribozyme molecule prevents the patient’s white blood cells from producing a protein called CCR5, which HIV needs to enter a cell. The new CCR5-deficient immune cells the patient produces are effectively resistant to HIV infection. Additionally, the siRNA inactivates the virus directly, and a third component, called a TAR decoy sequesters the HIV regulatory Tat protein from the virus. The goal of the therapy is to reboot the immune system to once again identify HIV and mount a response to the infection by lowering the viral load.

Researchers develop functional, transplantable rat liver grafts

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
Date: June 13, 2010

Summary:

A team led by researchers from the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a technique that someday may allow growth of transplantable replacement livers. In their report that will be published in Nature Medicine and is receiving early online release, the investigators describe using the structural tissue of rat livers as scaffolding for the growth of tissue regenerated from liver cells introduced through a novel reseeding process.

Stem cells for first time used to create abnormal heart cells for study of cardiomyopathy

Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Date: June 9, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time differentiated human stem cells to become heart cells with cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle cells are abnormal. The discovery will allow scientists to learn how those heart cells become diseased and from there, they can begin developing drug therapies to stop the disease from occurring or progressing. The study is published in the June 9th issue of Nature.

The Mount Sinai team used skin cells from two patients with a genetic disorder known by the acronym LEOPARD syndrome. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or thickening of the heart muscle, is experienced by 80 percent of patients with LEOPARD syndrome and is the most life-threatening aspect of the disorder. The Mount Sinai team took patient skin cells and reprogrammed them to become pluripotent stem cells. Such cells can then develop into almost any type of cell in the human body. The researchers then created heart cells that had characteristics of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Researchers Convert Stem Cells into Cartilage

Source: University of Connecticut
Date: June 8, 2010

Summary:

For the millions of aging Americans who suffer from joint pain, stem cells may be riding to the rescue. Scientists at the University of Connecticut Health Center have recently developed a technique that reliably converts stem cells into cartilage cells. Someday, that might allow doctors to grow replacement cartilage in a laboratory for the surgical repair of joints lost to injury or impaired by degenerative diseases such as arthritis.

Stem cells have an unlimited capacity for self-renewal, as well as the ability to become any type of cell in the human body, so they are ideal for generating replacement cartilage tissue to repair damaged cartilage. Developmental biologists, like Dr. Caroline Dealy, an associate professor at UConn’s Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development, are attempting to understand the signals and conditions that regulate how stem cells differentiate into articular chondrocytes – which make up the unique type of cartilage present at the surface of joints.

Research published in the Journal of Cellular Physiology in April details how Dealy and her colleague, Dr. Robert Kosher, a former professor at the Health Center, successfully developed a methodology to direct “substantially uniform and progressive in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) into the chondrogenic lineage.”

New type of human stem cell may be more easy to manipulate

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
Date: June 8, 2010

Summary:

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine (MGH-CRM) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have a developed a new type of human pluripotent stem cell that can be manipulated more readily than currently available stem cells. As described in the June 4 Cell Stem Cell, these new cells could be used to create better cellular models of disease processes and eventually may permit repair of disease-associated gene mutations.

TAU research is inventing a tool to control the risk of "runaway" stem cells

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Date: June 8, 2010

Summary:

Stem cell research holds promise for improving the quality of human life -- especially embryonic stem cells, which can potentially develop into any tissue in the human body. Basic scientific problems still remain unresolved -- but Tel Aviv University researchers are leading the way to inventive solutions. The implications of this research can provide the basis for a new kind of research tool, one that biologists around the world could use to define and grow the specific kinds of neural stem cells they require.

Gene Related To Aging Plays Role In Stem Cell Differentiation

Source: Thomas Jefferson University
Date: June 4, 2010

Summary:

A gene shown to play a role in the aging process appears to play a role in the regulation of the differentiation of embryonic stem cells, according to researchers from the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. In the study, published online in the journal Aging Cell, the researchers identified a protein interaction that controls the silencing of Oct4, a key transcription factor that is critical to ensuring that embryonic stem cells remain pluripotent. The protein, WRNp, is the product of a gene associated with Werner syndrome, an autosomal recessive disorder hallmarked by premature aging. The gene expression in Werner syndrome closely resembles that of normal aging, and as a result, Werner syndrome is an accepted model of aging.

Synthetic peptide may regenerate brain tissue in stroke victims

Source: Henry Ford Hospital
Date: June 2, 2010

Summary:

A synthetic version of a naturally occurring peptide promoted the creation of new blood vessels and repaired damaged nerve cells in lab animals, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In the latest study, adult rats were dosed with Thymosin beta 4 one day after they were subjected to a blockage in the cerebral artery, then given four more doses, once every three days. Rats treated only with saline were used as a control group.

After eight weeks, the Thymosin beta 4 group showed significant overall improvement compared to the control group. The researchers concluded that the peptide improved blood vessel density as well as promoted a certain type of immature brain cells called oligodendrocyte progenitor cells to differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes, which produces myelin to protect axons in nerve cells. These experiments conclude that the peptide repairs and regenerates stroke-injured brain tissue.

City of Hope receives FDA approval for first human neural stem cell clinical trial to treat brain tumors

Source: City of Hope National Medical Center
Date: June 2, 2010

Summary:

DUARTE, Calif., — City of Hope researchers received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct the first-in-human study of a neural stem cell-based therapy targeting recurrent high-grade gliomas, the most aggressive type of brain tumor.

Immune system helps transplanted stem cells navigate in central nervous system

Source: University of California - Irvine
Date: June 1, 2010

Summary:

— Irvine, Calif., — By discovering how adult neural stem cells navigate to injury sites in the central nervous system, UC Irvine researchers have helped solve a puzzle in the creation of stem cell-based treatments: How do these cells know where to go?
Tom Lane and Kevin Carbajal of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center found the answer with the body’s immune system.
Their study not only identifies an important targeting mechanism in transplanted stem cells but also provides a blueprint for engineering stem cell-based therapies for multiple sclerosis and other chronic neurological diseases in which inflammation occurs. Results appear in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cancer Researchers in Pittsburgh Identify Method of Blocking Cancer Stem Cell Differentiation, Could Lead to More Effective Treatment

Source; Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Date: May 27, 2010

Summary:

Scientists from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered an unprecedented method of permanently blocking cancer stem cells so they remain stem cells instead of differentiating into other types of tumor-forming cells. The discovery, published in the June issue of the journal Stem Cells, is significant because it will allow researchers to further study and characterize cancer stem cells, as well as screen drugs that could specifically target them.

Researchers create retina from human embryonic stem cells

Source: University of California - Irvine
Date: May 26, 2010

Summary:

UC Irvine scientists have created an eight-layer, early stage retina from human embryonic stem cells, the first three-dimensional tissue structure to be made from stem cells. It also marks the first step toward the development of transplant-ready retinas to treat eye disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration that affect millions.

In the study, researchers utilized the differentiation technique to create the multiple cell types necessary for the retina. The greatest challenge, Keirstead said, was in the engineering. To mimic early stage retinal development, the researchers needed to build microscopic gradients for solutions in which to bathe the stem cells to initiate specific differentiation paths. The UCI researchers are testing the early-stage retinas in animal models to learn how much they improve vision. Positive results would lead to human clinical trials.

The study appears online in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

Discovery of stem cell illuminates human brain evolution, points to therapies

Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: May 24, 2010

Summary:

UCSF scientists have discovered a new stem cell in the developing human brain. The cell produces nerve cells that help form the neocortex – the site of higher cognitive function—and likely accounts for the dramatic expansion of the region in the lineages that lead to man, the researchers say. Future studies of these cells are expected to shed light on developmental diseases such as autism and schizophrenia and malformations of brain development, including microcephaly, lissencephaly and neuronal migration disorders, they say, as well as age-related illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies also will allow scientists to track the molecular steps that the cell goes through as it evolves into the nerve cell, or neuron, it produces. This information could then be used to prompt embryonic stem cells to differentiate in the culture dish into neurons for potential use in cell-replacement therapy. The study is reported in a recent issue of the journal Nature, (vol. no. 464, 554-561; issue 7288).

Harnessing the power of stem cells to unlock the secrets of motor neuron disease

Source: University of Edinburgh
Date: 24 May 2010

Summary:

University of Edinburgh researchers are leading a study that will enable them to model motor neurone disease in the laboratory.
The research focuses on a gene which, while causes motor neuron disease in a small group of inherited cases, is believed to be relevant to more than 90 per cent of cases. Scientists will model motor neurone disease in a dish by taking skin cells from patients with the hereditary TDP-43 form of the disease.

The skin cells are reprogrammed to create induced pluripotent stem cells. These are similar to embryonic stem cells, which have the ability to form different cells in the body. The cells will be differentiated to form motor neurones as well as support cells, which are believed to play a key role in the spread of the disease spread.

Body’s Own Stem Cells Can Lead to Tooth Regeneration

Source: Columbia University Medical Center
Date: May 19, 2010

Summary:

NEW YORK - A technique pioneered in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, can orchestrate stem cells to migrate to a three-dimensional scaffold infused with growth factor, holding the translational potential to yield an anatomically correct tooth in as soon as nine weeks once implanted.

An animal-model study has shown that by homing stem cells to a scaffold made of natural materials and integrated in surrounding tissue, there is no need to use harvested stem cell lines, or create an environment outside of the body (e.g., a Petri dish) where the tooth is grown and then implanted once it has matured. The tooth instead can be grown “orthotopically,” or in the socket where the tooth will integrate with surrounding tissue in ways that are impossible with hard metals or other materials.

This study is published in the most recent Journal of Dental Research, the top-rated, peer-reviewed scientific journal dedicated to the dissemination of new knowledge and information on all sciences relevant to dentistry, the oral cavity and associated structures in health and disease.

Geron Annonces Positive Study Data on GRNCM1

Source: Geron Corporation
Date: May 13, 2010

Summary:

Geron Corporation reported positive preclinical study data showing that GRNCM1, Geron's cardiomyocyte product derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), does not cause cardiac arrhythmias after transplantation into a model of chronic heart damage designed to test this potential safety concern. GRNCM1 is being developed for the treatment of heart failure. The data were presented today at the 31st Annual Scientific Sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, CO by Geron collaborator Dr. Michael Laflamme from the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle, WA.

Aiming to cure deafness, scientists first to create functional inner-ear cells

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: May 13, 2010

Summary:

Deep inside the ear, specialized cells called hair cells detect vibrations in the air and translate them into sound. Ten years ago, Stefan Heller, PhD, professor of otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, came up with the idea that if you could create these cells in the laboratory from stem cells, it would go a long way toward helping scientists understand the molecular basis of hearing in order to develop better treatments for deafness.

After years of lab work, researchers in Heller’s lab report in the May 14 issue of Cell that they have found a way to develop mouse cells that look and act just like the animal’s inner-ear hair cells — the linchpin to our sense of hearing and balance — in a petri dish. If they can further perfect the recipe to generate hair cells in the millions, it could lead to significant scientific and clinical advances along the path to curing deafness in the future, they said.

New findings complicate use of stem cells

Source: Linköping University
Date: May 11, 2010

Summary:

A hitherto unknown function that regulates how stem cells produce different types of cells in different parts of the nervous system has been discovered by researchers at Linköping University. The results improve our understanding of how stem cells work which is crucial for our ability to use stem cells to treat and repair organs. Stefan Thor, professor of Developmental Biology, and graduate students Daniel Karlsson and Magnus Baumgardt are now publishing the findings of their research in the prestigious scientific journal PLoS Biology.

Stem cells: in search of a master controller

Source: Rice University
Date: May 7, 2010

Summary:

With thousands of scientists across the globe searching for ways to use adult stem cells to fight disease, there's a growing emphasis on finding the "master regulators" that guide the differentiation of stem cells. New research from Rice University and the University of Cambridge suggests that a closely connected trio of regulatory proteins fulfills that role in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), the self-renewing cells the body uses to make new blood cells. The results appear today in the online journal PLoS Computational Biology. Working with experimentalists at Cambridge, Rice bioengineers Oleg Igoshin and Jatin Narula created a computer model that accurately describes the observed behavior of the three regulatory proteins that are collectively known as the "Scl-Gata2-Fli1 triad."

Transplanted Adult Stem Cells Provide Lasting Help to Injured Hearts

Source: University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Date: May 7, 2010

Summary:

HOUSTON – Human adult stem cells injected around the damage caused by a heart attack survived in the heart and improved its pumping efficiency for a year in a mouse model, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online ahead of publication in Circulation Research. The study, with researchers at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, used innovative imaging techniques developed by researchers at MD Anderson to track the stem cells’ location and performance over time.

New nerve cells - even in old age Max Planck researchers find different types of stem cells in the brains of mature and old mice

Source: Max Planck Society
Date: May 6, 2010

Summary:

After birth the brain looses many nerve cells and this continues throughout life - most neurons are formed before birth, after which many excess neurons degenerate. However, there are some cells that are still capable of division in old age - in the brains of mice, at least. According to scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg, different types of neuronal stem cells exist that can create new neurons. While they divide continuously and create new neurons in young animals, a large proportion of the cells in older animals persist in a state of dormancy. However, the production of new cells can be reactivated, for example, through physical activity or epileptic seizures. What happens in mice could also be applicable to humans as neurons that are capable of dividing also occur in the human brain into adulthood. The research is reported in the current issue of Cell Stem Cell.

Endometrial Stem Cells Restore Brain Dopamine Levels. Mouse Study May Lead to New Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease

Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Date: May 6, 2010

Summary:

Endometrial stem cells injected into the brains of mice with a laboratory-induced form of Parkinson’s disease appeared to take over the functioning of brain cells eradicated by the disease. The finding raises the possibility that women with Parkinson’s disease could serve as their own stem cell donors. Similarly, because endometrial stem cells are readily available and easy to collect, banks of endometrial stem cells could be stored for men and women with Parkinson’s disease.

This is the first time that researchers have successfully transplanted stem cells derived from the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus, into another kind of tissue (the brain) and shown that these cells can develop into cells with the properties of that tissue. The findings appear online in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

Bone marrow stem cells in MS show promise

Source: University of Bristol
Date: 5 May 2010

Summary:

A groundbreaking trial to test bone marrow stem cell therapy with a small group of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been shown to have possible benefits for the treatment of the disease. Bone marrow stem cells have been shown in several experimental studies to have beneficial effects in disease models of MS. The research team, led by Neil Scolding, Burden Professor of Clinical Neurosciences for the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust, have now completed a small trial in patients with MS to begin translating these findings from the laboratory to the clinic.

The Bristol team report on this pioneering trial in an article published online in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The paper, Safety and feasibility of autologous bone marrow cellular therapy in relapsing-progressive multiple sclerosis was performed at the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, Frenchay Hospital, Bristol and the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre.

Embryonic stem cells reveal oncogene’s secret growth formula

Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: April 29, 2010

Summary:

A comprehensive new gene expression study in embryonic stem cells has uncovered a transcription control mechanism that is not only more pervasive than once thought but is also heavily regulated by the cancer-causing gene c-Myc. In research published in the April 30th edition of Cell, a team of Whitehead Institute researchers describes a pausing step in the transcription process that serves to regulate expression of as many as 80% of the genes in mammalian cells.

Scientists have long known that DNA-binding transcription factors recruit the RNA polymerase Pol II (which prompts copying of DNA into mRNA protein codes) to promoters in order to kick off the transcription process. Now researchers in the lab of Whitehead Member Richard Young have found that additional factors recruited to the promoters serve to stop transcription in its tracks shortly after it’s begun.

NIH Study Confirms Location of Stem Cells Near Cartilage-Rich Regions in Bones

Source: NIH / National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Date: April 26, 2010

Summary:

Working with mice, a team of researchers has pinpointed the location of bone generating stem cells in the spine, at the ends of shins, and in other bones. The team also has identified factors that control the stem cells' growth. The research was conducted at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Researchers have long known that stem cells from bone marrow give rise to bone cells and to red and white blood cells. The current study is the first to identify the location of bone stem cells in the adult mouse skeleton. The researchers refer to the newly identified cells as bone stromal cells. "Stroma" is a term used to describe a supportive or connective structure in biological tissue. The term distinguishes the cells from hematopoietic stem cells, which give rise to blood cells, and which are found in bone marrow. The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.