Category Archives: Mesenchymal Stem Cells

By Christian V. Esguerra Philippine Daily Inquirer La Union Rep. Eufranio Eriguel. Photo from congress.gov.ph MANILA, PhilippinesA congressman has joined the call to regulate stem cell therapy administered in the country. La Union Rep. Eufranio Eriguel has introduced House Bill No. 212, which would put up a bioethics advisory board that would establish ethical standards governing the practice of stem cell research and therapy. Under the proposed Stem Cell Research and Therapy Act of 2013, the board shall be responsible for addressing contentious ethical, scientific and legal issues in stem cell and cell-based or cellular research and therapies. There is much to be learned from stem cell therapy, its benefits and application in the cure of some of the most devastating diseases and conditions. As of now, the full promise of stem cell treatment remains unknown, Eriguel said in a statement. But the cost far outweighs its benefits because it is very expensive and only a few physicians are trained to do stem cell procedures here in the Philippines. In his proposal, the board will be headed by the health secretary and the National Transplant Ethics Committee, while the Food and Drug Administration director will serve as vice chairman. A … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --The Tisch MS Research Center of New York announced today that it has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence a Phase 1 trial using autologous neural stem cells in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a chronic human autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that leads to myelin damage and neurodegeneration and affects approximately 2.1 million people worldwide. "To my knowledge, this is the first FDA-approved stem cell trial in the United States to investigate direct injection of stem cells into the cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients, and represents an exciting advance in MS research and treatment," said Dr. Saud A. Sadiq, Senior Research Scientist at Tisch MS Research Center of New York and the study's principal investigator. The groundbreaking study will investigate a regenerative strategy using stem cells harvested from the patient's own bone marrow. These stem cells will be injected intrathecally (into the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the spinal cord) in 20 participants who meet the inclusion criteria for the trial. This will be an open label safety and tolerability study. All study activities will be conducted at the Tisch MS … Continue reading →

Manila, Philippines -- Hospitals and health facilities offering stem cell therapy have until August 31 to apply for accreditation from the Department of Health (DoH). DoH Secretary Enrique T. Ona said a number of hospitals in Metro Manila have already applied for accreditation to perform this "innovative" treatment that has not yet been accepted as standard mode of care in the country since it needs further tests and several more layers of research. In the first mid-year convention of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine at the Manila Hotel yesterday, Ona reiterated that stem cell therapy is "the future of medicine." "Stem cell therapy is not a cure-all medical treatment. Patients have yet to be presented first with standard of treatment, and in many cases, stem cell treatments have to be done in conjunction with other standard modalities of treatment," he said. The Bureau of Health Facilities and Services (BHFS) of the DoH is accepting the applications for accreditation while a bio-ethics committee and a hospital-based review board will go over the applications and decide on their approval. Five big hospitals in Metro Manila have already applied for accreditation, said Nick Lutero, chief of the BHFS. Lutero said initial … Continue reading →

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (OSIR) today announced that C.RandalMills,Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, will host a conference call to discuss the results of the interim analysis of its multicenter, randomized, controlled trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of Grafix for the treatment of chronic diabetic foot ulcers. The call will be held tomorrow, August 13, 2013 at 9:00a.m.ET. To access the webcast, visit the Investor Relations section of the company's website at http://investor.osiris.com/events.cfm. Alternatively, callers may participate in the conference call by dialing (877) 303-6133 (U.S. participants) or (970) 315-0493 (international participants). An archive of the webcast will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call. To access the archived webcast, visit the Investor Relations section of the company's website at http://investor.osiris.com/events.cfm. About Osiris Therapeutics Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., is the leading stem cell company, having developed the worlds first approved stem cell drug, Prochymal. Osiris currently markets Grafix and Ovation for wound and tissue repair, and Cartiform for cartilage repair. Osiris is a fully integrated company with capabilities in research, development, manufacturing and distribution of cell therapy products. Osiris has developed an extensive intellectual property portfolio to protect the company's technology, including 51 U.S. … Continue reading →

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardium Therapeutics (NYSE MKT: CXM) today reported on a research collaboration with researchers at Boston Children's Hospital, to assess the medical utility of Excellagen as a delivery scaffold to seed autologous mesenchymal fetal stem cells for ex-vivo engineering of tissue grafts for transplantation into infants to repair prenatally diagnosed birth defects. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20051018/CARDIUMLOGO) Autologous mesenchymal fetal stem cells are derived prenatally from infants with a medical defect requiring life-saving tissue repairs. These stem cells are sourced from amniotic fluid, the placenta or umbilical cord blood. The stem cells are then seeded into a scaffold to promote the growth of an engineered tissue graft. These grafts will potentially be used to surgically repair, either in the fetus or immediately following birth, certain prenatally diagnosed birth defects that could include congenital diaphragmatic hernia, tracheal and chest wall defects, bladder extrophy and various cardiac anomalies. Preliminary pre-clinical research has confirmed that Excellagen collagen homogenate maintains mesenchymal fetal stem cell viability. Additional proof of concept studies are currently underway. "Boston Children's team has made remarkable progress in the field of tissue regeneration and surgical repair of prenatally diagnosed congenital defects. We believe that Excellagen has an opportunity … Continue reading →

Stem cell therapy shows promise in repairing brain damage even hours after stroke occurs Durham, NC Stroke is a major health concern and is a leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. Despite significant research efforts, developing treatments that ensure complete recovery for stroke patients poses an extreme challenge, especially when more than a few hours have passed between onset of the stroke and administration of treatment. However, a new study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine indicates that endothelial precursor cells, which are found in the bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and as very rare cells in peripheral blood, could make a significant difference for these patients recovery even in the later stages of stroke. In animal studies, the treatment minimized the initial brain injury and helped repair the stroke damage. Previous studies indicated that stem/progenitor cells derived from human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) improved functional recovery in stroke models, noted Branislava Janic, Ph.D., a member of Henry Ford Health Systems Cellular and Molecular Imaging Laboratory in Detroit and lead author of the study. We wanted to examine the effect of hUCB-derived AC133+ endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on stroke development … Continue reading →

By: InterAksyon.com August 9, 2013 10:02 AM InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5 MANILA, Philippines - The controversy over unregulated stem cell procedures in the country, including the role of unlicensed foreign doctors, has reached Congress, from where several alleged victims of malpractice came. The vice chairman of the House blue-ribbon panel is set to deliver a privileged speech Monday ahead of hearings on the current state of things in the stem cell therapy practice in the country, where experts warned earlier the "fad-like" atmosphere poses serious threat to public health and safety. Rep. Doy Leachon of Oriental Mindoro is expected to train his sights on, among others: the unethical practice of stem cell therapy without Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and on unapproved indications; the charging of exorbitant fees for still-experimental procedures; the criminal liabilities of doctors who prey on the miseries of desperate sick patients; a review of the potential conflict of interest, unethical conduct of self-promotion and violation of FDA rules in pushing stem cell therapy and charging of fees involving the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM). Leachon wants the academe, ethics experts and the Philippine College of … Continue reading →

Public release date: 7-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research Damage or loss of photoreceptor cells is one of main culprits of visual impairment in many retinal degenerative diseases. Pharmacological treatment and surgical intervention are traditionally used to treat these retinal diseases, but they are not curative. It has been increasingly recognized that Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells may differentiate into several cell lineages from all three germ layers. However, the capacity of Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into retinal progenitor cells remains undetermined. A new study reported in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 19, 2013) used serum-free neural stem cell-conditioned medium or neural stem cell-conditioned medium supplemented with Dkk-1 and LeftyA to induce neural differentiation from Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells. Inverted microscopy showed that after induction, the spindle-shaped or fibroblast-like Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells changed into bulbous cells with numerous processes. Immunofluorescent cytochemical staining and reverse-transcription PCR showed positive expression of retinal progenitor cell markers, Pax6 and Rx, as well as weakly down-regulated nestin expression. These results demonstrate that Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells are capable of differentiating into retinal progenitor cells in vitro, and … Continue reading →

6 weeks post-op Adipose Stem Cell Therapy "Dugan" 6 weeks post-op Adipose Stem Cell Therapy. Visit Kindred-caninesinmotion.org. By: Joyce Gerardi … Continue reading →

Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Spastic Cerebral Palsy by Dr Alok Sharma, Mumbai, India. Improvement seen in just 5 day after Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Spastic Cerebral Palsy by Dr Alok Sharma, Mumbai, India. After Stem Cell Therapy 1. Droo... By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute … Continue reading →