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World’s First: Stem cells from own organ used to treat damaged heart

June 30, 2009 By: admin Category: Cord Blood Banking Comments

WASHINGTON – Doctors at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have for the first time repaired a heart damaged by a heart attack by growing specialised stem cells using tissue obtained from a patient’s own organ.

The minimally-invasive procedure was completed on the first patient on June 26, as part of a Phase I investigative study approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and supported by the Specialized Centers for Cell-based Therapies at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

“This procedure signals a new and exciting era in the understanding and treatment of heart disease,” said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who developed the technique and is leading the clinical trial.

“Five years ago, we didn’t even know the heart had its own distinct type of stem cells. Now we are exploring how to harness such stem cells to help patients heal their own damaged hearts,” Dr. Marban added.

Kenneth Milles, a 39-year-old controller for a small construction company in the San Fernando Valley, is the first patient on whom this procedure has been completed. He had experienced a heart attack on May 10 due to a 99 percent blockage in the left anterior descending artery, a major artery of the heart.

The patients will be monitored for six months, and complete results are scheduled to be available in late-2010.

There are 24 patients participating in the study, being conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University, where Dr. Marban worked prior to joining Cedars-Sinai in 2007.

All of them have hearts that were damaged and scarred by heart attacks. Once enrolled in the study, patients go through a three-step procedure.

The doctors first conduct extensive imaging to pinpoint the exact location and severity of the scars wrought by the heart attack, and then the patient undergoes a minimally-invasive biopsy, with local anaesthesia.

Using a catheter inserted through a vein in the patient’s neck, doctors remove a small piece of heart tissue, about half the size of a raisin. The heart tissue is then taken to a specialized lab at Cedars-Sinai, where heart stem cells are cultured using methods invented by Marban’s team.

Marban has revealed that it takes about four weeks for the cells to multiply to numbers sufficient for therapeutic use, approximately 10 to 25 million.

According to the researcher, the final step involves the re-introduction of the multiplied stem cells into the patient’s coronary arteries during a second catheter procedure.

Marban points out that unlike bone marrow cells, heart stem cells are naturally programmed to regrow heart tissue, so they could prove more effective in healing the injury caused by heart attacks.

“If successful, we hope the procedure could be widely available in a few years and could be more broadly applied to cardiac patients,” says the researcher. (ANI)

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World’s First: Stem cells from own organ used to treat damaged heart

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Stem Cell Research – Adult versus Embryonic Stem Cells / Pro-Life Educational Video PSA

June 30, 2009 By: admin Category: Cord Blood Videos Comments

This video presents the Catholic Church’s teaching on human life as it relates to adult and embryonic stem cell research — courtesy of the Michigan Catholic Conference. Please visit www.aodonline.org for more information. There are two different types of stem cell research adult and embryonic. Adult stem-cell research is ethical, because it does not harm the human embryo, and is proven as more than 70 different medical conditions are being treated with adult stem cells whereas …

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Stanford University opens its magic box in stem cell research

June 30, 2009 By: admin Category: Cord Blood Banking Comments

cantor_center__stanford_universitySTANFORD University, in California, USA, has been the pioneer for many researches in stem cell therapeutics. It is moving very fast, and aiming to make stem cell therapy available to the patients’ bed in almost every other case. Be it cancer or Parkinson’s, stem cell research and Stanford University is becoming synonyms for cure.

People whose dear ones are suffering from deadly diseases grope around to find an answer from stem cell research. Most of the time they end up helplessly with no solutions since they can’t find the right place. Often people ask us, where to go for, and what are the latest updates for stem cell research. As a start-up, we are trying to inform you about the latest developments, starting with Stanford University, Califormia.

Let us read about the recent top 10 remarkable events in stem cell research in Stanford University.

Stanford scientists pinpoint key proteins in blood stem cell replication (10/8/08)

“These studies, and additional experiments from our lab in other tissues and organs, indicate that Rb proteins play a critical role in suppressing tumors originating in adult stem cells populations,” said Sage, who is also a member of the Stanford Cancer Center.

The protein doesn’t work alone, however. Two other family members, p107 and p130, also help carry out the important duties. Their ability to fill in for one another makes it difficult to parse out exactly what the proteins are doing at a molecular level. Unfortunately, laboratory animals missing just one or two family members die soon after birth.

Muscle stem cell identity confirmed by Stanford researchers (9/17/08)

A single cell can repopulate damaged skeletal muscle in mice, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who devised a way to track the cell’s fate in living animals. The research is the first to confirm that so-called satellite cells encircling muscle fibers harbor an elusive muscle stem cell.

Identifying and isolating such a cell in humans would have profound therapeutic implications for disorders such as muscular dystrophy, injury and muscle wasting due to aging, disuse or disease.

“We were able to show at the single-cell level that these cells are true, multipotent stem cells,” said Helen Blau, PhD, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor of Pharmacology. “They fit the classic definition: they can both self-renew and give rise to specialized progeny.” Blau is the senior author of the research, which was published Sept. 17 in the online issue of Nature.

“We are thrilled with the results,” said Alessandra Sacco, PhD, senior research scientist in Blau’s laboratory and first author of the research. “It’s been known that these satellite cells are crucial for the regeneration of muscle tissue, but this is the first demonstration of self-renewal of a single cell.”

Cancer stem cells created with technique developed at Stanford (4/9/08)

229012-0-0-2With a bit of genetic trickery, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have turned normal skin cells into cancer stem cells, a step that will make these naturally rare cells easier to study

Howard Chang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology and senior author of the work, said being able to generate cancer stem cells from normal cells will help move that research forward. The upshot is that there may be a way to directly create cancer stem cells in the lab so you dont always have to purify these rare cells from patients in order to study them directly, he said.

Immune response to human embryonic stem cells in mice suggests human therapy may face challenge (8/18/08)

Human embryonic stem cells trigger an immune response in mice, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine report. The finding suggests that the effectiveness of human therapies derived from the cells could be limited unless ways are found to dampen the rejection response.

The researchers found the immune response in mice could be mitigated by the use of common antirejection medications. Overall, the work indicated that, contrary to previous suggestions, the immune system is not blind to the presence of foreign embryonic stem cells.

Neural stem cells helped repair stroke damage in rats’ brains (2/20/08)

Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells helped repair stroke-related damage in the brains of rats and led to improvements in their physical abilities after a stroke, according to a new study by researchers at the School of Medicine.”Human embryonic stem cell-based therapies have the potential to help treat this complex disease,” Steinberg said, adding that he hopes the cells from this study can be used in human stroke trials within five years.

Researchers find great granddaddy of human blood cells (1/9/08)

Researchers at the School of Medicine have isolated a human blood cell that represents the great-grandparent of all the cells of the blood, a finding that could lead to new treatments for blood cancers and other blood diseases.

This cell, called the multipotent progenitor, is the first offspring of the much-studied blood-forming stem cell that resides in the bone marrow and gives rise to all cells of the blood. It’s also the cell that’s thought to give rise to acute myelogenous leukemia when mutated.

Isolating this cell, which is well-known in mice but had yet to be isolated in human blood, fills in an important gap in the human blood cell family tree.

Cancer stem cells tracked down in colon tumors (6/6/07)

embryonic-stemcellResearchers at the School of Medicine have identified the cancer stem cells that propagate tumors in colon and rectal cancer, a discovery that could lead to improved treatment of this deadly cancer.

“This work will enable us to better understand how to identify these cells, and to do molecular studies to find potential new therapies,” said Clarke, the senior author of the paper and the Karel H. and Avice N. Beekhuis Professor in Cancer Biology.

Clarke was the first to find cancer stem cells in a solid tumorin this case, breast cancerin 2003 while working at the University of Michigan. Since coming to Stanford in 2005, he joined existing efforts that have resulted in finding cancer stem cells in head and neck, pancreatic and now colorectal tumors.

Stem cells turned into vessels (6/21/06)

Researchers have taken a first step toward growing blood vessels from stem cells that could eventually be transplanted into living organisms.

Starting with embryonic stem cells derived from mice, surgical resident Oscar Abilez, MD, and colleagues have successfully differentiated the stem cells into myocytes, one of the building blocks of blood vessels, after placing them in a life-like growth environment that the research team had created. The scientists hope to be able to eventually grow whole blood vessels that can be transplanted back into mice.

The work is being performed in the Clark Center laboratory of Bio-X faculty member Christopher Zarins, MD, professor of surgery.

“It’s very odd,” Abilez said. “We get these stem cells and grow them into contracting myocytes in cultures: You really see them contracting, you really know they’re alive, and you start to believe this stem cell stuff has possibilities.”

Treating deafness with stem cells (11/16/05)

As a leader in stem cell-based research on the inner ear, Heller, newly arrived at the School of Medicine direct from the Harvard faculty, has a step-by-step plan for making this dream come true. It will, at the very least, take another decade or so, but if anyone can do it, he’s the guy to place your bets on.

“Heller’s a world-class scientist and originator in this field,” said Robert Jackler, MD, the chair of the otolaryngology department who helped recruit Heller to spearhead research into possible cures for deafness. “He came here to assemble a team around his vision.”

Heller’s vision is to work together with the many experts on the Stanford campus to come up with a variety of possible cures for deafness from drug therapy treatmentwhich could be as simple as an application of ear dropsto stem cell transplantation into the inner ear to remedy hearing loss.

Stem cells from brain transformed to produce insulin (4/25/05)

Although the work is not yet ready for human patients, Seung Kim, MD, PhD, the lead author and assistant professor of developmental biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said it could lead to new ways of transplanting insulin-producing cells into people with diabetes, eventually providing a cure for the disease.

In past work, Kim and members of his lab enticed mouse embryonic stem cells to transform into insulin-producing cells. When transplanted into diabetic mice, these cells effectively made up for the lost insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, called islet cells, and treated the diabetes. However, embryonic stem cells are difficult to work with in the lab and most existing human embryonic stem cell lines are contaminated and cant be transplanted into humans.

Kim thought that human fetal neural stem cells may be one way to sidestep the more problematic embryonic stem cells. The study shows that his intuition was correct.

0309_stemcells_bheadWhen you look at islets cells you realize that they resemble neurons, Kim said. Like neurons, islet cells respond to external signals by changing their electrical properties and releasing packages of proteins. In the case of islets, that protein is insulin.

Whats more, some neurons in mice and humans take the first steps toward producing insulin. In insects such as fruit flies, the cells that produce insulin and regulate blood sugar are, in fact, neurons. Taken together, this evidence suggested to Kim that neural stem cells may be able to produce insulin.

The story described is a “Lilliput” to the “Gulliver” work that has already been undertaken in the field of stem cell research in the university. We hope the information helps to make you cognizant about some of the latest developments and will be there to tell some more story of other places. In the mean time if you have more queries about the researches going on in Stanford University, do not hesitate to contact us. We care for you..

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Stanford University opens its magic box in stem cell research

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Stem cells and extracts of bone marrow both can improve post heart attack cardiac disorders

June 30, 2009 By: admin Category: Cord Blood Banking Comments

heart-attackA new study conducted on mice by scientists from University of California, San Francisco (UCFS) has identified that an extract derived from bone marrow cells can effectively improve cardiac function after heart attack as bone marrow stem cells does accordingly.

Both the stem cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death, or apoptosis, than no therapy. The findings were published online and in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy.

The study also showed that heart function and formation of scar tissue benefited despite the finding that few of the injected cells remained in the heart at one month after therapy.

According to Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, study author, cardiologist and director of UCSF’s Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Development Program, there is always a general believe that that stem cell therapy with these cells results in some level of functional improvement after a heart attack, though the exact mechanism is not clear, and supporting that issue the Peer-reviewed medical literature is controversial as to whether bone marrow cells differentiate into cardiomyocytes, or cardiac muscle cells.

But the new results confirm that whole cells transplant could be avoided in order to see the beneficial effects of bone marrow cell therapy.

Yeghiazarians also added that current therapies can improve symptoms but do not replace scar tissue. Scientists looking forward to use stem cells to decrease the scar, minimize the loss of cardiac muscle and maintain or even improve the cardiac function after a heart attack.

Researchers are investigating these new therapies to improve cardiac function after heart attack in an effort to prevent heart failure.

The researchers are conducting further studies to evaluate bone marrow cell and extract therapies in order to identify the proteins and factors within the extract and gain insight into the possible mechanisms of cardiac functional improvement.

Source : ScienceDaily

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Stem cells and extracts of bone marrow both can improve post heart attack cardiac disorders

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Bone marrow extract improves cardiac function, shows study

June 30, 2009 By: Darren Warmuth Category: Cord Blood Banking Comments

WASHINGTON – Bone marrow extract is just as effective as bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, particularly after a heart attack, according to a group of researchers.

Heart failure occurs when cardiac muscle is damaged and scar tissue replaces beating cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells). As a scar replaces healthy tissue, it causes the heart to enlarge and lose its pumping capacity.

The studies were done on mice using a novel stem cell delivery method, developed by University of California – San Francisco (UCSF) researchers, to show that bone marrow cells’ extract is as beneficial to cardiac function as are intact, whole cells.

Both the cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death.

“The exact mechanism for this is not yet clear. Our results confirm that whole cells are not necessarily required in order to see the beneficial effects of bone marrow cell therapy,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, study author and director of UCSF’s

translational cardiac stem cell development program.

UCSF researchers are investigating these new therapies to improve cardiac function after heart attack in an effort to prevent heart failure, said a UCSF release.

These findings were published online and will appear in the July issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy.

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Bone marrow extract improves cardiac function, shows study

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DOR BioPharma Announces Publication Of OrBec(R) Clinical Pulmonary Data In Bone Marrow Transplantation

June 30, 2009 By: admin Category: Stem Cells Comments

DOR BioPharma, Inc. (DOR or the Company) (OTC Bulletin Board: DORB), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that investigators at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, published a paper this morning in Bone Marrow Transplantation in which they demonstrate that DOR’s lead product orBec(R) (oral beclomethasone dipropionate or BDP) decreases non-infectious inflammation of the lung in acute gastrointestinal Graft-versus-Host disease (GI GVHD) patients who received allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT). Non-infectious inflammation of the lung is a common and potentially fatal complication of HCT that decreases the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lung and blood and, in its severe form, may present as interstitial pneumonitis. The full article, entitled “Influence of Oral Beclomethasone Dipropionate on Early Non-Infectious Pulmonary Outcomes after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Among the data published:

1. A decrease in gas exchange as measured by the diffusion of carbon monoxide from the lung (DLCO) was observed in 33 of 42 (79%) of the placebo-treated patients, from pre-transplant to 80 days after randomization, as compared to 27 of 49 (55%) of the orBec(R)-treated patients (p = 0.02).

2. In the first 200 days after randomization, four of the patients treated with placebo developed non-infectious pulmonary complications, such as idiopathic pneumonia syndrome and cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, as compared to none of the orBec(R)-treated patients (p = 0.04).

The investigators, led by Dr. Jason Chien, reviewed data from two previous randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials evaluating orBec(R), for the treatment of acute GI GVHD. Data from 120 patients (sixty patients treated with orBec(R), sixty placebo) were available for this retrospective analysis. Patients were enrolled in these studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where pulmonary function testing is done prospectively and all patients with pulmonary complications are evaluated with a standard protocol. The investigators also evaluated adverse event reports of infectious and non-infectious inflammation of the lung.

These observations by Dr. Chien and colleagues on the preservation of pulmonary function among patients receiving orBec(R) is consistent with findings from the Phase 3 randomized trial reported by Hockenbery et al. (A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of oral beclomethasone dipropionate as a prednisone-sparing therapy for gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease. Blood 109: 4557 – 4563, 2007).

“While these trials were not designed to look at pulmonary endpoints, these observations suggest that a metabolite of oral BDP may be having a beneficial anti-inflammatory effect in the lungs of hematopoietic cell transplant recipients,” stated Jason W. Chien, MD, MS, Assistant Member, Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “There was convincing evidence of preservation of lung function and an absence of non-infectious pulmonary disease in those who had received oral BDP. The explanation for this benefit appears to be related to the delivery of a small amount of the potent metabolite, 17-beclomethasone monopropionate, from the intestinal mucosa to the pulmonary artery via the portal circulation and the superior vena cava.”

Dr. Chien added, “This finding has important implications for an alternative method for treatment of pulmonary inflammatory disease, that is, the delivery of a potent glucocorticoid to the pulmonary circulation after ingestion of an oral pro-drug (BDP). Clinical trials examining this novel pulmonary delivery system in patients with inflammatory lung diseases will be of interest.”

“The positive pulmonary effects that were observed were clearly of benefit to the GVHD patients,” said Brian L. Hamilton, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of DOR. “The publication of these pulmonary results is exciting as they lead the way to the potential development of new applications of oral BDP in a number of pulmonary inflammatory disorders, such as asthma or interstitial lung diseases, having significant market opportunity beyond the GI area.”

About orBec(R)

orBec(R) represents a first-of-its-kind oral, locally acting therapy tailored to treat the gastrointestinal manifestation of GVHD, the organ system where GVHD is most frequently encountered and highly problematic. orBec(R) is intended to reduce the need for systemic immunosuppressive drugs to treat GI GVHD. Beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) is a highly potent, topically active corticosteroid that has a local effect on inflamed tissue. BDP has been marketed in the US and worldwide since the early 1970s as the active pharmaceutical ingredient in a nasal spray and in a metered-dose inhaler for the treatment of patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma. orBec(R) is formulated for oral administration in GI GVHD patients as a single product consisting of two tablets; one tablet is intended to release BDP in the proximal portions of the GI tract, and the other tablet is intended to release BDP in the distal portions of the GI tract.

In addition to issued patents and pending worldwide patent applications held by or exclusively licensed to DOR, orBec(R) also benefits from orphan drug designations in the US and in Europe for the treatment of GI GVHD, which provide for seven and 10 years of post-approval market exclusivity, respectively. DOR is also continuing to actively build intellectual property around oral BDP in other inflammatory conditions.

About DOR BioPharma, Inc.

DOR BioPharma, Inc. (DOR) is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing products to treat life-threatening side effects of cancer treatments and serious gastrointestinal diseases, and vaccines for certain bioterrorism agents. DOR’s lead product, orBec(R) (oral beclomethasone dipropionate or BDP), is a potent, locally acting corticosteroid being developed for the treatment of GI GVHD, a common and potentially life-threatening complication of hematopoietic cell transplantation. DOR expects to begin a confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial of orBec(R) for the treatment of acute GI GVHD and a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of DOR201 in acute radiation enteritis in the second half of 2009. orBec(R) is also currently the subject of an NIH-supported, Phase 2, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in the prevention of acute GVHD. Oral BDP may also have application in treating other gastrointestinal disorders characterized by severe inflammation. Additionally, DOR has a Lipid Polymer Micelle (LPM(TM)) drug delivery technology for the oral delivery of leuprolide for the treatment of prostate cancer and endometriosis.

Through its Biodefense Division, DOR is developing biomedical countermeasures pursuant to the Project BioShield Act of 2004. DOR’s biodefense products in development are recombinant subunit vaccines designed to protect against the lethal effects of exposure to ricin toxin, botulinum toxin and anthrax. DOR’s ricin toxin vaccine, RiVax(TM), has been shown to be well tolerated and immunogenic in a Phase 1 clinical trial in normal volunteers.

Source: DOR BioPharma, Inc

DOR BioPharma Announces Publication Of OrBec(R) Clinical Pulmonary Data In Bone Marrow Transplantation

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Why Australia curing humans with stem cells while US testing on mouse?

June 29, 2009 By: admin Category: Cord Blood Banking Comments

stem-cell-researchThe ban on embryonic stem cell research has pushed back US almost a decade in stem cell research. It feels heavy competition from other European countries and from Australia who has taken the highest leap in this field of research. So why the “Bio tech Giant”- US faltering behind in stem cell research? Its because the last eight year lag.

The upsurge of thinkers and ethical issue proponents, against the embryonic stem cell research in 2001, has made life difficult for the present day scientist to cope up with the rapid development in stem cells research. They in order to find their personal gains, made Bible their shield and with some abstruse issues, time and again they played with common men’s emotion in order to halt the ES cell research. As a result the then US President George W. Bush, stopped funding the ES cell research.

But this was not the whole story. In other parts of the world, even in all the major Christian countries, ES cell research went on as in Australia. And presently Australia is working upon:

  • regenerating damaged cardiac (heart) tissue
  • blood and bone marrow regeneration to
    • improve bone marrow transplantation techniques
    • generate safer blood cell products for patients needing transfusion
  • kidney and lung disease
  • neural (brain) diseases such as Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis

In this year, March, 2009, the US government realized their wrong decision, and has nodded its head in favor of ES cell research. Its better late than never kind of case at present to console the US researchers. Thus, research has been triggered but according to many the chances of US competing with others and coming out as forerunners is a big question mark.

Where US has delved deep into Adult stem cell research which is far less effective than ES cells, Australia has advanced by far the most compared to other countries of the world. We hope those people would realize their mistakes, and should repent about their wrongdoings. They must confess and ask for mercy from the US citizens and researchers, whom they have betrayed.

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Why Australia curing humans with stem cells while US testing on mouse?

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Molecular Machinery Related To Stem Cell Fate Revealed By Xie Lab

June 29, 2009 By: admin Category: Stem Cells Comments

The Stowers Institute’s Xie Lab has revealed how the BAM protein affects germline stem cell differentiation and how it is involved in regulating the quality of stem cells through intercellular competition. The work was published by PNAS Early Edition.

Maintaining the proper balance between stem cell self-renewal and differentiation is critical for normal homeostasis. An imbalance between the two can lead to tissue degeneration and to the development of tumors. It has long been known that the BAM protein is necessary for germline stem cell differentiation, but the specific molecular mechanism underlying BAM function had remained a mystery until now.

Examining the fruit fly ovary, the Xie Lab established that BAM controls stem cell differentiation and competition by interfering with the function of the protein translation initiation factor eIF4A. EIF4A and BAM antagonize each other to regulate the balance between self-renewal and differentiation by promoting proper expression of E-cadherin – a molecule crucial to the stem cell’s ability to attach to its microenvironment (its niche).

“Our studies contribute to the understanding of stem cell fate control,” said Run Shen, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Xie Lab and lead author on the paper. “Many protein translation initiation factors have been reported to be unregulated in different human cancer tissues, so our study may help to understand how translational initiation factors participate in stem cell misregulation and the development of tumors.”

“Our studies have established the role of BAM as a protein translational repressor using biochemical and genetic tests,” said Ting Xie, Ph.D., Investigator and senior author on the paper. “Translational control is very important in regulating gene expression. Many genes critical for stem cell development in the fruit fly germline are suggested to be translational regulators, but their exact roles have not been carefully studied. The knowledge generated by this work and the tests we have developed give us great advantage in tackling many additional questions.”

Ting Xie, Ph.D., Investigator, also is a Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology at The University of Kansas School of Medicine.

Source:
Marie Jennings

Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Molecular Machinery Related To Stem Cell Fate Revealed By Xie Lab

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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155642.php

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New York Becomes First State To Allow Payment For Donating Eggs For Stem Cell Research

June 29, 2009 By: admin Category: Stem Cells Comments

New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board earlier this month decided to allow embryonic stem cell researchers who receive state funding to compensate women for donating their eggs for use in research, making New York the first state to enact such a policy, the Washington Post reports (Stein, Washington Post, 6/26). According to the New York Times, the New York state Legislature in 2007 allotted $600 million for an 11-year stem cell research plan (Nelson, New York Times, 6/26). Under the board’s decisions, researchers receiving the state funding may pay women up to $10,000 to compensate them for the time, discomfort and expenses associated with egg donation. David Hohn, vice chair of the board’s two committees that endorsed the decision, said that the board “could not distinguish ethically between the payment for in vitro fertilization, which is very well precedented, and the compensation for donation for research.” The board said researchers should follow the same guidelines as infertility clinics that receive donated eggs for infertile couples. Under those guidelines, payments exceeding $5,000 must be justified, and those exceeding $10,000 are considered excessive (Washington Post, 6/26). Robert Klitzman, director of the master’s degree program in bioethics at Columbia University and a member of the stem cell board’s ethics committee, said the payments will be carefully evaluated by an institutional review board (New York Times, 6/26).

The Post reports that the decision goes against policies in other states that offer funding for embryonic stem cell research, as well as against current guidelines from scientific organizations like the National Academy of Sciences (Washington Post, 6/26). NAS guidelines, for example, prohibit paying women for eggs used in stem cell research. Similarly, the internal guidelines for New York-based groups like Rockefeller University, Cornell University and the Sloan-Kettering Institute prohibit financial compensation for donated eggs. However, researchers say that efforts to recruit unpaid donors have been unsuccessful and that the board’s decision will give New York an advantage in stem cell research (New York Times, 6/26).

The decision was welcomed by scientists and other proponents of stem cell research, who said it will allow them to further research in areas like therapeutic cloning. The process, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, involves replacing the genetic material in a human egg with genes from the nucleus of a patient’s cell. The egg is then developed into an early embryo, which, in theory, could be used to produce stem cells that the patient’s immune system would not reject. Although the procedure has been unsuccessful so far, researchers say the board’s decision will help attract more donors, which will allow for more experiments. Egg donation involves weeks of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and a painful egg extraction procedure, which carries rare but serious risks. Other attempts at soliciting women to donate eggs for stem cell research have been unsuccessful, according to the Post.

Some critics of the board’s decision said that paying women for eggs could lead to exploitation, especially for low-income women. Thomas Berg — a Roman Catholic priest who is director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person and a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board’s ethics committee — said that in the current economic recession, paying a woman $10,000 to participate in a research project is an “undue inducement.” He added that he thinks it “manipulates women” and “creates a trafficking in human body parts.” Other opponents of the decision questioned if compensating women who donate eggs for research is indeed equivalent to the process for infertility treatments. Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said that donors recognize that egg donation for infertility treatments is a “very concrete good for society” but that “you can’t be sure any biological material you collect for research will be part of a medical breakthrough.”

Supporters of the decision said that researchers frequently compensate participants in clinical trials and that donation eggs for research is no different. Ronald Green, a bioethicist at Dartmouth College, said, “It is discriminatory against women to ban them from receiving payment.” He added, “The idea that women cannot make that decision on their own strikes me as sexist” (Washington Post, 6/26).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

New York Becomes First State To Allow Payment For Donating Eggs For Stem Cell Research

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Stem Cell Surprise For Tissue Regeneration

June 28, 2009 By: admin Category: Stem Cells Comments

Scientists working at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Embryology, with colleagues, have overturned previous research that identified critical genes for making muscle stem cells. It turns out that the genes that make muscle stem cells in the embryo are surprisingly not needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury. The finding challenges the current course of research into muscular dystrophy, muscle injury, and regenerative medicine, which uses stem cells for healing tissues, and it favours using age-matched stem cells for therapy. The study is published in the June 25 advance on-line edition of Nature.

Previous studies have shown that two genes Pax3 and Pax7, are essential for making the embryonic and neonatal muscle stem cells in the mouse. Lead researcher Christoph Lepper, a predoctoral fellow in Carnegie’s Chen-Ming Fan’s lab and a Johns Hopkins student, for the first time looked at these two genes in promoting stem cells at varying stages of muscle growth in live mice after birth.

As Christoph explained: “The paired-box genes, Pax3 and Pax7 are involved in the development of the skeletal muscles. It is well established that both genes are needed to produce muscle stem cells in the embryo. A previous student, Alice Chen, studied how these genes are turned on in embryonic muscle stem cells (also published in Nature). I thought that if they are so important in the embryo, they must be important for adult muscle stem cells. Using genetic tricks, I was able to suppress both genes in the adult muscle stem cells. I was totally surprised to find that the muscle stem cells are normal without them.”

The researchers then looked at whether the same was true upon injury, after which the repair process requires muscle stem cells to make new muscles. For this, they injured the leg muscles between the knee and ankle. They were again surprised that these muscle stem cells, without the two key embryonic muscle stem cell genes, could generate muscles as well as normal muscle stem cells. They even performed a second round of injury and found that the stem cells were still active.

The scientists then wondered when these genes become unnecessary for muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles. It turned out that these embryonic genes are important to muscle stem cell creation up to the first three weeks after birth. What makes the muscle stem cells different after three weeks? The scientist believe that these two embryonic muscle stem cell genes also tell the stem cells to become quiet as the organism matures. After that time is reached, they “hand over” their jobs to a different set of genes. The researchers suggest that since the adult muscle stem cells are only activated when injury occurs (by trauma or exercise), they use a new set of genes from those used during embryonic development, which proceeds without injury. The scientists are eager to find these adult muscle stem cell genes.

“We are just beginning to learn the basics of stem cell biology, and there are many surprises,” remarked Allan Spradling, director of Carnegie’s Department of Embryology. “This work illustrates the importance of carrying out basic research using animal models before rushing into the clinic with half-baked therapies.”

The research was funded by the Carnegie Institution, NIH, and the Riley Children’s Foundation.

Listen to the scientist in his own words here.

Source:
Christoph Lepper
Carnegie Institution

Stem Cell Surprise For Tissue Regeneration

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155545.php

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