Category Archives: Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Public release date: 22-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: William Gilroy gilroy.6@nd.edu 574-631-4127 University of Notre Dame Alumnus Michael Gallagher and his wife, Elizabeth, have made a $5 million gift to establish the Elizabeth and Michael Gallagher Family Professorships in Adult Stem Cell Research at the University of Notre Dame. Their gift, which will fund three new endowed professorships in adult and all forms of non-embryonic stem cell research, will strengthen Notre Dame's leadership in the field of stem cell research and enhance the University's effective dialogue between the biomedical research community and the Catholic Church on matters related to the use and application of stem cells and regenerative medicine. "As a Catholic university, Notre Dame carries a mantle of responsibility to use our scholarship and resources to help alleviate human suffering, and, in this area of research in particular, to do so with deep respect for the sanctity of all human life," said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the University's president. "These new professorships will enable us to effectively build upon an already strong foundation in this critically important field. We are tremendously grateful to the Gallaghers for making this possible with their transformative gift." Despite years … Continue reading →

It may be small, but is it perfectly formed? A tiny human liver, just 5 millimetres in size, has been grown inside a mouse. It remains to be seen whether the organ can replicate all liver functions and if it will be possible to scale up the tiny structure to useable dimensions. Hideki Taniguchi and Takanori Takebe at Yokohama City University generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin cells, then encouraged them to develop into liver precursor cells. They added two more types of cell mesenchymal cells, and endothelial cells from umbilical cord blood vessels. Without the aid of any underlying scaffold, the cells "guided themselves" and generated a microstructure almost identical to normal liver tissue, says Takebe. "We mixed and graded the cells onto the culture dish and they moved to form a cluster," he says. "It was a surprising outcome from what was, to be honest, an accident." The structure was then transplanted inside the skull of severe combined immunodeficiency mice, which would not mount an immune response to the tissue. Transplanting the structure here allowed the researchers to make use of the increased blood flow to the brain to encourage growth of the new tissue. Within … Continue reading →

It may be small, but is it perfectly formed? A tiny human liver, just 5 millimetres in size, has been grown inside a mouse. It remains to be seen whether the organ can replicate all liver functions and if it will be possible to scale up the tiny structure to useable dimensions. Hideki Taniguchi and Takanori Takebe at Yokohama City University generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin cells, then encouraged them to develop into liver precursor cells. They added two more types of cell mesenchymal cells, and endothelial cells from umbilical cord blood vessels. Without the aid of any underlying scaffold, the cells "guided themselves" and generated a microstructure almost identical to normal liver tissue, says Takebe. "We mixed and graded the cells onto the culture dish and they moved to form a cluster," he says. "It was a surprising outcome from what was, to be honest, an accident." The structure was then transplanted inside the skull of severe combined immunodeficiency mice, which would not mount an immune response to the tissue. Transplanting the structure here allowed the researchers to make use of the increased blood flow to the brain to encourage growth of the new tissue. Within … Continue reading →

The leading international family stem cell bank, Cryo-Save, celebrates the grand opening of its brand new headquarters office in Zutphen, the Netherlands, by honoring PhD. T.H.J. Nijhuis with the Young Investigator Award on June 22nd. Cryo-Save`s headquarters, located in Zutphen, the Netherlands, is celebrating the grand opening of its brand new, fully-renovated headquarters. On June 22nd, Arnoud van Tulder, CEO of Cryo-Save, and attorney-at-law C. Bieze, deputy in the province of Gelderland, will officially open the company`s new global headquarters office. To mark the occasion, the company will grant PhD. T.H.J. Nijhuis, winner of the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award, a prize of 5,000 euros. Mr. Nijhuis has focused his most recent research on umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and pursues his work at the Erasmus Medical Center, part of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Arnoud van Tulder, CEO of Cryo-Save, says "We are proud to name Mr. T.H.J. Nijhuis, as the winner of the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award. Research is a cornerstone of the stem cell industry, and it`s advancements like that of Mr. T.H.J. Nijhuis that makes us so optimistic for the future." As part of Cryo-Save`s educational and community outreach efforts, the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award … Continue reading →

Scientists have promised a lot of regenerative medicine will come from stem cells, but so far progress has been fairly slow: they can stimualte regrowth of heart tissue, make incredibly expesnive artifical blood, orat bestconstruct a short piece of vein. Now, though, scientists are claiming they can grow functional liver. Nature reports that a team of scientists from Japan has presented its works at a conference, and it's incredible. In fact, George Daley, director of the stem-cell transplantation program at the Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts, told Nature that "it blew [his] mind." Wow. The researchers used stem cells created from human skin cells, then placed the cells on growth plates in a specially designed culture medium. Over the course of nine days, the cells started producing chemicals that a typical liver cell, otherwise known as a hepatocyte, would produce. They then added endothelial and mesenchymal cellswhich form parts of blood vessels and other structural tissues within the bodyto the mix, in the hope that they would be incorporated and begin to help the cells develop a structure akin to the liver. The result was amazing: two days later, the researchers found the cells assembled into a 5-millimeter-long, three-dimensional lump. … Continue reading →

SAN BRUNO, Calif., June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty years ago this month, CBR (Cord Blood Registry) in partnership with the University of Arizona, processed the first cord blood stem cell sample in the world to be stored specifically for family use. Since 1992, the number of conditions treated with cord blood stem cells has greatly expanded, and so has CBR. Today, CBR is the largest family cord blood bank in the world with more than 425,000 samples in storage a population the size of a major city like Miami. What distinguishes the "city of individuals" with newborn stem cells banked at CBR is the exclusive opportunity to participate in a growing number of ground-breaking clinical trials. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120620/SF27549-INFO) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120216/AQ54476LOGO) "As the leader and innovator in family banking, we believe every newborn deserves a healthy future and that we have a responsibility to lead the way," said Heather Brown, vice president of scientific & medical affairs at CBR. "Looking back, the creation of our bank allowed families for the first time to preserve a genetically-related source of newborn stem cells, ready and available if needed for a lifesaving transplant to regenerate a person's immune system after radiation or chemotherapy. … Continue reading →

Image: NASA, Johnson Space Center From Nature magazine Japanese scientists have used induced stem cells to create a liver-like tissue in a dish. Although they have yet to publish their results and much work remains to be done, the achievement could have big clinical implications. If the results bear out, they would also constitute a significant advance in the ability to coax stem cells to self-organize into organs. The work was presented by Takanori Takebe, a stem-cell biologist at Yokohama City University in Japan, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Yokohama last week. It blew my mind, said George Daley, director of the stem-cell transplantation programme at the Boston Childrens Hospital in Massachusetts, who chaired the session. It sounds like a genuine advance, says Stuart Forbes, who studies liver regeneration at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Forbes, who also works as a consultant for Scotlands liver-transplantation unit, says that the advance could one day help to avoid the bleak outcome currently experienced by the many patients who dont survive long enough to get a new liver. But the liver described by Takebe has a long way to go before that. Takebe told how … Continue reading →

Japanese scientists have used induced stem cells to create a liver-like tissue in a dish. Although they have yet to publish their results and much work remains to be done, the achievement could have big clinical implications. If the results bear out, they would also constitute a significant advance in the ability to coax stem cells to self-organize into organs. Induced pluripotent stem cells could be a useful source of human organs such as livers. STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The work was presented by Takanori Takebe, a stem-cell biologist at Yokohama City University in Japan, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Yokohama last week. It blew my mind, said George Daley, director of the stem-cell transplantation programme at the Boston Childrens Hospital in Massachusetts, who chaired the session. It sounds like a genuine advance, says Stuart Forbes, who studies liver regeneration at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Forbes, who also works as a consultant for Scotlands liver-transplantation unit, says that the advance could one day help to avoid the bleak outcome currently experienced by the many patients who dont survive long enough to get a new liver. But the liver described by Takebe … Continue reading →

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs) cultured on a Polyacrylamide gel for 7 days: Cells stained in blue are ALP positive which is a marker for osteogenic differentiation, while the cells that contain red oil droplets underwent adipogenic differentiation. Credit: Bojun Li and Prof. Viola Vogel / ETH Zurich (Phys.org) -- Researchers were positive: a substrates softness influences the behaviour of stem cells in culture. Now other researchers have made a new discovery: the number of anchoring points to which the cells can adhere is pivotal. How stem cells differentiate is evidently not so much a question of the stiffness of the substrate upon which they thrive, as the cells mechanical anchoring on the substrate surface. This is shown in a study recently published in Nature Materials by researchers from various European universities, including ETH Zurich. Since 2006 the research community has been convinced that stem cells can feel the softness of materials they grow upon. Scientists mainly drew this conclusion from correlations between the softness of the substrate and the cells behavior. The new research project, to which ETH-Zurich professor Viola Vogel and her doctoral student Bojun Li made a key contribution, has come to another conclusion. It reveals that the … Continue reading →

RIO DE JANEIRO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cryopraxis established in 2001 as the pioneer private umbilical cord blood bank in Brazil will be present at Bio 2012 in Boston. Eduardo Cruz, chairman of the board, will be a speaker at the Brazilian break-out session speaking about The Brazilian Biotechnology Sector and showing the results of the company's commitment to R&D. Cryopraxis has already collected and processed more than 25000 cord blood units (CBU) and is actively involved in several R&D projects in Brazil and abroad. A spin-off of Cryopraxis, Cellpraxis, has recently finished one of the world's first cell therapy project clinical trials in Brazil: ReACT. ReACT is a stem cell formulation. This regenerative medicine pioneer product aims on treating an orphan disease condition called refractory angina. Refractory angina patients suffer from untreatable severe chest pain and the results of the clinical trial in a 5 years follow up proved ReACT to positively interfere in the course of the pathology. Most of the individuals treated experienced relief in pain and better quality of life. ReACT will be presented at Bio2012 as an example of Brazil's dynamic biotechnology research. Cryopraxis is accredited by the American Association of Blood Bank since 2009. According to Tatiana … Continue reading →