An international team of scientists have developed a synthetic material that speeds bone healing by recruiting adult stem cells to the site of the graft. The team developed various ceramic particles containing calcium phosphate and tested natural bone grafts against their ceramic particles. They found that the particles induced stem cells to develop into bone cells in the test tube and stimulated bone growth in live tissue in mice, dogs and sheep.

According to senior author Professor Joost de Bruijn at the University of London:

“The rate of bone repair we see with these materials rivals that of traditional grafts using a patients’ own bone. And what sets it apart from other synthetic graft substitutes is its ability to attract stem cells and the body’s natural growth factors, which coincide to form new, strong, natural bone around an artificial graft.”

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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There have been several recent developments in the potential treatment of spinal cord injury. A group of researchers showed they were able to enhance the regeneration of nerve connections after spinal cord injury by deleting an enzyme called PTEN. The enzyme controls a molecular pathway called mTOR that is a key regulator of cell growth. During development, when nerve growth and connections occur, PTEN activity is low, allowing cell growth. When growth is completed, PTEN is turned on to inhibit cell growth. Controlled stimulation of cell growth is important for tissue regeneration. The scientists disabled PTEN in mice and were able to achieve nerve growth past a spinal cord lesion. The study published in Nature Neuroscience points to possible strategies to encourage a damaged spinal cord to sprout new neuron growth for repair.

A Japanese group has shown that transplanting neural stem cells along with a chemical stimulus can enhance formation of new neurons and reform neuronal circuits in mice with spinal cord injury. The chemical stimulant valproic acid steered the transplanted neural stem cells to form neurons, and stimulated reconstruction of broken neural connections, resulting in significant recovery of hindlimb movement for the mice. The work was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

A UC-Irvine team showed they were able to use neural stem cells to restore some motor function in mice with chronic spinal cord injury. Most studies have focused on acute injuries, attempting to initiate treatment soon after injury. This acute phase is what the Geron trial that endangers patients will focus on, since rat data has shown the embryonic stem cells have no effect on chronic injury. In the UC-Irvine study, mice were treated 30 days after spinal cord injury with fetal neural stem cells; three months later the mice showed statistical improvement in recovery of walking ability. The paper is published in the journal PLOS One

Adult stem cells have already shown published success in patients with even older chronic spinal cord injuries, showing both their safety and effectiveness, including in patients with injuries up to 15 years.

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The recent announcement of Geron receiving FDA approval to inject cells derived from embryonic stem cells into newly-injured spinal cord patients received great media fanfare:

Media response for Embryonic Stem Cells

Less than a week later, TCA Cellular Therapy announced they had already enrolled the first patient into their own FDA-approved clinical trial to treat spinal cord injury, using the patient’s own adult stem cells.
The media’s response?

Media response for Adult Stem Cells

Years ago, there was a similar response when scientists said they had a rat that limped less after embryonic stem cell injections, while about the same time Carlos Lima published his first paper showing improvement of human spinal cord injury patients using adult stem cells (a second paper has since been published showing even more patients responding well to adult stem cells.)

Adult stem cells may not be getting the media attention, but adult stem cells are helping spinal cord injury patients now.

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Scientists at the Buck Institute in California have produced human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and used them to improve the condition of a rat model of Parkinson’s disease. The human iPS cells were made using samples of normal cells from skin and blood, and then a four-step procedure used to specialize the cells into dopaminergic neurons, the type of neurons missing or damaged in Parkinson’s disease. Approximately 30% of the cells formed the desired neurons. When injected into rats that are a model of the disease, there was some improvement in the rats over a 12-week period. A previous study by MIT researchers used mouse iPS cells to improve a rat Parkinson model.

Senior author of the study published in the journal Stem Cells, Dr. Xianmin Zeng, said:

“Human iPSCs may provide an end-run around immuno-rejection issues surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat disease. They may also solve bioethical issues surrounding hESCs.”

Adult stem cells have already shown success at treating Parkinson’s disease including adult stem cells from endometrial tissue and from nasal tissue, and a Parkinson’s patient’s own neural adult stem cells ameliorated his symptoms for almost five years.

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A group at the Mayo Clinic and their collaborators has published results showing that “guided” adult stem cells can effectively repair damaged heart tissue. The scientists isolated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the bone marrow of patients with coronary artery disease, “educated” the adult stem cells with a mixture of factors to stimulate growth as cardiac cells, and injected the cells into mice with damaged hearts. The hearts of the mice treated with the adult stem cells showed “superior functional and structural benefit without adverse side effects” over a 1-year follow-up. Compared to control mice, the hearts of the treated mice healed more effectively; with the human adult stem cells repairing and strengthening the hearts, including forming new heart cells. The paper is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

This new study provides another way to heal hearts with adult stem cells, perhaps increasing the efficiency of the treatment. Previous studies have already shown that bone marrow adult stem cells can effectively repair human hearts.

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French scientists have used a new microscopic technique to observe the beginning of life, in this case of a zebrafish. The new technique, published in Science allows rapid capture of microscopic images, which can be stitched together to form videos. Nature”s blog has more details.

Here is one of the videos, showing the zebrafish from a one-cell embryo to the 512-cell stage.

Now if this is considered the “beginning of life” for a zebrafish, starting at the one-cell embryo stage, what does that say about the human embryo?

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This video of a fantastic storm cloud structure is interesting in itself:

But fans of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” may see a resemblance to the energy cloud around “Vger”…

Has anyone kept track of that spacecraft lately?

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Adult stem cells have been used successfully to treat children with a deadly skin disease known as recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB; one of the most severe forms of epidermolysis bullosa, a set of genetic skin diseases.) EB affects the skin and lining of the mouth and esophagus. It causes skin to blister and scrape off with the slightest friction. The blistering, peeling skin also leads to recurrent infections, and an aggressive form of skin cancer. Most children with EB do not live past their 20′s. Previously, there was no treatment and it was considered incurable.

Now University of Minnesota researchers led by Dr. John E. Wagner and Dr. Jakub Tolar, along with international colleagues, have used adult stem cells from donor bone marrow or donor umbilical cord blood to treat EB successfully. Since 2007, they have transplanted a total of ten children with the most aggressive forms of EB; all of the children have responded to the therapy to varying degrees. Wagner said:

“To understand this achievement, you have to understand how horrible this disease actually is. From the moment of birth, these children develop blisters from the slightest trauma which eventually scar. They live lives of chronic pain, preventing any chance for a normal life. My hope is to do something that might change the natural history of this disease and enhance the quality of life of these kids.”

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.

Tolar said:

“This discovery is more unique and more remarkable than it may first sound… what we have found is that stem cells contained in bone marrow can travel to sites of injured skin, leading to increased production of collagen which is deficient in patients with RDEB.
“Bone marrow transplantation is one of the riskiest procedures in medicine, yet it is also one of the most successful. Patients who otherwise would have died from their disease can often now be cured. It’s a serious treatment for a serious disease.”

Added Wagner:

“This discovery expands the scope of marrow transplantation and serves as an example of the power of stem cells in the treatment of disease.”

Yes, ADULT STEM CELLS.

The paper is published in the New England Journal of Medicine

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The political science (as opposed to real science) has dominated in the stem cell debate, especially regarding promotion of human embryonic stem cell research. In the stem cell debate, claims for human embryonic stem cell research advanced a political agenda — legitimizing and guaranteeing federal funding for ethically contentious research. For the same political reasons, the increasingly strong evidence of actual therapeutic benefits to patients from ethically non-contentious adult stem cell research was distorted or concealed. For example, the patterns of behavior promoting public funding of human embryonic stem cell research show extreme politicization of the science involved–selective use of data, manipulation of the peer review process, demonizing colleagues who questioned the prevailing orthodoxies and appeals to a bogus scientific “consensus,” among others. Those who questioned this supposed “consensus” were dismissed as scientifically ignorant and accused of playing politics with science.

For a lengthy discussion, see this article in The American Thinker.

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A Louisiana group has announced that they have enrolled their first spinal cord injury patient for a clinical trial using the patient’s own adult stem cells for treatment. The first patient enrolled is a paralyzed Iraqi war veteran, Marine veteran Matt Cole, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2005 insurgent attack in Iraq.

The FDA-approved clinical trial will primarily assess the safety of the method, and secondarily evaluate if the treatment can provide functional improvements. TCA Cellular Therapy is the sponsor of the trial.

Note that this is still a clinical trial; a report of results is expected in 2012.

Adult stem cells from olfactory tissue have also been used to successfully treat spinal cord injury patients.

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Dick Van Dyke, legendary Emmy-award winning actor, is speaking up in support of adult stem cell research. He will be a spokesperson for the Cell Therapy Foundation, and will focus on educating the public that adult stem cells are leading to new therapies for many diseases. Mr. Van Dyke said:

“I am truly impressed by the potential that adult stem cell research has already shown and am hopeful that by getting the message to more people, we can fund additional research that could positively impact thousands of lives around the world.”

You can see his initial video at the website of the Cell Therapy Foundation

Dick Van Dyke is known for numerous movie and TV projects that showcased his singing, dancing, and comedic talents. He is also an avid graphic artist and animation hobbyist, and will use those interests in publicizing adult stem cells as well.

Combining all of those gifts, here is one of his great scenes from Mary Poppins

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Geneticist Craig Venter recently gave an interview to Der Spiegel, and discussed the Human Genome Project, what we’ve learned from sequencing the human genome, making synthetic cells, and a few other topics. The interview is vintage Venter and worth reading to get his perspective.

One example, his view on the significance of having the human genome sequence:

SPIEGEL: Why is it taking so long for the results of genome research to be applied in medicine?

Venter: Because we have, in truth, learned nothing from the genome other than probabilities. How does a 1 or 3 percent increased risk for something translate into the clinic? It is useless information.

And one other example, his opinion of NIH Director Francis Collins, faith, and science:

SPIEGEL: Some scientist don’t rule out a belief in God. Francis Collins, for example …

Venter: … That’s his issue to reconcile, not mine. For me, it’s either faith or science – you can’t have both.

SPIEGEL: So you don’t consider Collins to be a true scientist?

Venter: Let’s just say he’s a government administrator.

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The infertility industry in the U.S. is a multi-billion-dollar business. This unregulated industry targets young, vulnerable women for a precious commodity–human eggs. Young women on university campuses are targeted with advertisements for egg donors with desirable genetic traits, attractive appearance and a high IQ. Lured by the large sums of money, the thought of helping a couple have a baby, and assured of the safety of the egg donation procedure, many young women answer these ads. Egg donation is presented as a safe procedure, but the reality is quite the opposite. Egg donation has significant health risks and exploits young women for their eggs.

Eggsploitation is a new documentary that profiles three highly educated young women–Calla, Alexandra and Sindy–all who suffered extreme health consequences related to their egg donation. The film, by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, exposes the dangers, health risks and exploitation of young women for egg donation.

Eggsploitation premieres August 9, 2010.

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The title is straight from Malcolm Ritter and the Associated Press, a story out today that highlights some of the real successes and promise of adult stem cells, as opposed to the wishful thinking and hype of embryonic stem cells.

The lead story is Dr. Thomas Einhorn at Boston University Medical Center, injecting a patient’s bone marrow into a broken ankle that wouldn’t heal; four months later the ankle was healed.

Einhorn, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Boston University Medical Center, credits ”adult” stem cells in the marrow injection. He tried it because of published research from France.

As the AP piece notes, it’s an example of many innovative therapies doctors are studying with adult stem cells; stem cells taken from body tissue and umbilical cord blood, not embryos. As the AP story notes:

For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it’s adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.

A few of the examples highlighted include multiple sclerosis, heart damage, juvenile diabetes, and blindness from chemical burns.

Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.

Many of the treatments, including new ones being tested in clinical trials now, rely on the idea that stem cells can form other cell types. That seems to be the case for Einhorn’s ankle-repair technique, with the adult stem cells forming new bone and blood vessels. But adult stem cells also seem to have abilities to stimulate tissue repair or suppress the immune system. According to Dr. Rocky Tuan of the University of Pittsburgh:

”That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don’t have.”

That stimulation of tissue repair may be the mechanism for the published adult stem cell success treating spinal cord injury, including long-term injury up to 15 years.

To learn more and see some examples of adult stem cell success stories, watch the three videos at Stem Cell Research Facts.

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The Navy has been testing a sea-based laser defense system, somewhat of a companion system to the airborne laser weapon system.

In this video, the solid-state laser was mounted on a warship gun turret and targeted a remotely piloted unmanned aerial vehicle until it caught fire, lost control, and plummeted into the sea.

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Italian doctors have announced the use of patients’ own adult stem cells to fabricate new tracheas for two cancer patients. The surgical team was led by Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, has used this technique in prior surgeries, though not for cancer patients. The two patients were a 31-year-old Czech woman with a 6-month-old son, and a 19-year-old British woman. The surgeries took place on July 3 and 13, and both patients are in good condition and have been released from the hospital in Florence just weeks after the surgery. The hospital said that the British woman was speaking after only three or four days.

To grow a new trachea, the doctors started with a donor trachea and removed all of the cells. The cartilage scaffold left after the procedure was then bathed in the patient’s bone marrow adult stem cells prior to transplantation. Over a period of 2-3 months the adult stem cells cover the scaffold with new tissue, grown within the body of the patient. Using the patient’s own adult stem cells removes any problems with tissue rejection. According to Dr. Walter Giovannini, director of the AOU Careggi hospital where the surgeries took place:

“This is a unique solution for a problem that had none, except the death of the patient.”

Dr. Macchiarini told the press conference in Florence that the procedure could in the future be applied to other organs.

“I’m thinking about the larynx or surgeries involving lungs.”

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Geron has apparently been released from its safety hold by the FDA, and intends to go ahead with its dangerous clinical trial injecting human embryonic stem cell derivatives into newly-injured spinal cord patients.

Whether Geron actually moves ahead with its trial (not a single patient has yet been injected) remains to be seen. In fact, because the treatment can only be done within the first two weeks after the injury, the potentially endangered patients are still walking around.

Even many pro-embryonic stem cell scientists have expressed concerns about Geron’s trial, that it is
not proven even in rats, and could cause harm to the patients. Dr. John Kessler, chairman of neurology and director of the stem cell institute at Northwestern University, has said:

“We really want the best trial to be done for this first trial, and this might not be it.”

And Dr. Kessler is not alone in his trepidation about the Geron trial. Geron seems bent on endangering patient’s health as well as their very lives, to make a political point and help their bottom line (their stock price went up soon after their press release).

Meanwhile, in terms of real effectiveness, even for patients injured years previously, adult stem cells have already shown published scientific evidence not only for safety, but for the reality of successful repair of spinal cord injury in patients.

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A recent report from Swiss researchers casts doubt on the ability of embryonic stem cells to treat stroke. Neural precursors derived from mouse embryonic stem cells were implanted into the brains of mice. After nine months, the implanted cells had engrafted and even extended axons into different portions of the brain, although the evidence indicated that the implanted cells did not develop into mature neurons but remained in an early developmental stage. When a stroke was induced in the mouse brains, the embryonic stem cells were actually expelled from the brain. The results, published in the journal Stroke, suggest that embryonic stem cells are ineffective at forming mature brain neurons and treating stroke damage.

In contrast, results with adult stem cells show effective treatment of stroke damage, and early results of a clinical trial with stroke patients are encouraging.

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Two papers published online recently in Nature journals indicate that the technology to produce iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) is still a work in progress, but also highlight the confusion among journalists and even some scientists about stem cells–iPS cells, embryonic stem cells (ES cells), and Adult stem cells..

iPS cells provide a relatively easy and inexpensive method for creation of ES-type cells directly from virtually any tissue source or individual. They were first developed in 2006 in mice by the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, and in November 2007 both Yamanaka’s lab and the lab of James Thomson in the U.S. showed that this same technique could work for human cells as well. The original technique to reprogram a normal to become an iPS cell involves adding four genes directly to a human cell such as a skin fibroblast cell, with the genes added using a viral vector.

The iPS cells behave like ES cells, but the technique does not use embryos, eggs, or cloning, making it an ethical way to produce “pluripotent” stem cells (cells that potentially might form any body tissue.) In contrast, the usual way to produce ES cells is by taking an embryo (produced by the normal process of fertilization, or by cloning, a.k.a. “somatic cell nuclear transfer”) and destroying the embryo to extract the ES cells (that’s why they’re called “embryonic” stem cells.)
[Click on the figure to enlarge]

Continue reading »

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In a proof-of-concept study using a rabbit model, researchers have successfully regenerated a functioning limb joint grown naturally using the host’s own adult stem cells. Prof. Jeremy J. Mao and his team at Columbia University Medical Center, along with colleagues from the University of Missouri and Clemson University, published their report online in The Lancet. They fabricated an anatomically correct 3-dimensional bioscaffold infused with the protein growth factor TGFβ3, and implanted the scaffolds into rabbits that had their forelimb thigh joint removed. Other rabbits had scaffolds implanted without the added protein, or no bioscaffold at all. Four weeks later, rabbits that received the protein-laden scaffolds were able to resume normal movements, like rabbits with normal functional joints.

The treated rabbits had grown their own joint using their own adult stem cells. The authors said their findings showed regeneration “without cell transplantation.” The rabbits’ own adult stem cells were attracted to the scaffold joint site by the protein growth factor, “homed” to the location of the missing joint, and regenerated cartilage and bone in two separate layers.

The published results actually show two new findings: regenerating a limb joint for the first time, with the animals resuming normal function with the new joint, and also the regenerated limb joint being created from the animal’s own endogenous stem cells, not stem cells that are harvested and manipulated outside the host’s body. According to Prof. Mao:

“This is the first time an entire joint surface was regenerated with return of functions including weight bearing and locomotion. Regeneration of cartilage and bone both from the host’s own stem cells, rather than taking stem cells out of the body, may ultimately lead to clinical applications.”

In an accompanying published commentary, Dr Patrick Warnke of Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia, described the work as “a renaissance of use of the host as a bioreactor and recruitment of the host’s endogenous cells, including stem or progenitor cells, for tissue regeneration”.

Professor Molly Stevens of Imperial College London said:

“This is the latest study to have shown that there are stem cells in the body that can be harnessed to grow bone and tissue if they are given the right sort of signals.”

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