Category Archives: Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Busy beavers... what are the best options for cartilage repair for osteoarthritis? http://www.stemcellsarthritistreatment.com Busy beavers. That's what scientists are when it comes to stem cell treatment for arthritis. Among the clinically ... By: Nathan Wei … Continue reading →

By Amads Ma. Guerrero Philippine Daily Inquirer INFORMATION booth You feel like you have entered an attractive boutique hotel in miniature; everything is neat, clean, almost spotless and sparkling. This is the Asian Aesthetic Center in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City (contact number: 7099565) across the Ateneo de Manila. The equipment is state-of-the-art, and there are two main wings: The Dermatology Wing and the Surgical Wing. In the Dermatology Wing we have a Laser Room, Slimming Room, a Wellness Room and a Facial Treatment Room. The Surgical Room was what interested me mostbut only as a writer and not personally, because my cells are not dysfunctional (to my knowledge!). Unfortunately, colleague Neilsen and I could not enter the Surgical Wing because a procedure was under way. In this wing, we were told, is a stem cell laboratory unit with the stem cell extractor and activator machines, and a recovery room, along with other amenities. The clinic is cozy and family-run, you might say. It is headed by Dr. Amy B. Tinaza, a cosmetic surgeon and a stem cell specialist, and her partner (professional as well as personal) Dr. Jomar S. Tinaza, chief facial plastic surgeon and her husband. And the centers … Continue reading →

Giving patients stem cells packaged with silica nanoparticles could help doctors determine the effectiveness of the treatments by revealing where the cells go after theyve left the injection needle. Researchers from Stanford University report in a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine that silica nanoparticles taken up by stem cells make the cells visible on ultrasound imaging. While other imaging techniques such as MRI can show where stem cells are located in the body, that method is not as fast, affordable, or widely available as an ultrasound scanner, and more importantly, it does not offer a real-time view of injection, say experts. Stem cells have significant medical promise because they can be turned into other types of living cell. As well as helping doctors adjust therapeutic dosages in patients, the new technique could help scientists perfect stem cell treatments, says senior author Sanjiv Gambhir. For the most part, researchers shoot blindlythey dont quite know where the cells are going when they are injected, they dont know if they home in to the right target tissue, they dont know if they survive, and they dont know if they leak into other tissue types, says Gambhir. This, in … Continue reading →

March 21, 2013 redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a new visualization technique which they believe could eventually help make the repair of damaged hearts through regenerative medicine a reality. In a study published in Wednesdays edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine, senior author and Stanford radiology professor Sam Gambhir and colleagues describe how they plan to mark the stem cells which would be used in the repair process. By marking the cells, doctors would be able to track them by using standard ultrasounds as they leave the needle and enter a patients body. The process would allow for the stem cells to be guided to their intended destination more precisely, and would also allow doctors to monitor them using magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) technology for several weeks afterwards, the researchers explained. To date, both human and animal trials in which stem cells were injected into cardiac tissue to treat severe heart attacks or heart failure have been largely unsuccessful, said Gambhir. Were arguing that the failure is at least partly due to faulty initial placement, he explained in a statement. You can use ultrasound to visualize the … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, March 19, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dear NeoStem Shareholders, Regenerative medicine is the catalyst to radically change the practice of medicine from that of chronic treatment to that of cure. The shift is away from treating the symptoms with synthetic drugs towards treating the underlying cause of disease by using one's own natural cells. Cell therapy holds the promise of prolonging and, most importantly, enhancing quality of life. This is the future of medicine and it is our singular mission to lead the way. NeoStem (NYSE MKT:NBS) is an integrative force in the cell therapy industry. By vertically integrating the collection, storage and processing of cellular material with the development, manufacture, distribution, and delivery of cell therapy products, we are positioned to capitalize on the emerging cell therapy industry. We provide such contract development and manufacturing services for clients and we also have a proprietary pipeline of cell therapy products in development designed to address unmet medical needs, including cardiovascular disease (MI and CHF), immune disorders (type 1 diabetes, steroid resistant asthma, organ rejection) and tissue repair (wounds, osteoporosis, macular degeneration, etc). Our most advanced cardiovascular asset, AMR-001, is very exciting (see video at http://www.neostem.com/videos.html) and is built … Continue reading →

Mar. 20, 2013 Using adult stem cells is a good way of culturing better-quality cartilage to repair worn hips and knees. New cartilage that has good properties can be grown in particular by cultivating adult stem cells in combination with a small quantity of cells from the patient's own cartilage. In the long run this increases the likelihood of a cartilage implant being successful, provided it is carried out in time. These are the findings put forward by PhD student Nicole Georgi, who did her research at the University of Twente's MIRA Institute for Biomechanical Technology and Technical Medicine. She is to receive her PhD on 22 March. Over a million people in the Netherlands have pain in their hips or knees due to osteoarthritis, i.e. wear and tear and damage to cartilage. In many cases a prosthesis is needed, as cartilage does not heal readily. Experiments with implanting cartilage cells are taking place on a limited scale: these involve culturing a few cartilage cells from the patient outside the body so as to grow a quantity of tissue, which is then replaced to repair the damage. The results have been mixed: outside the body the cells are seen to … Continue reading →

Stem cell therapy has been found useful in over 60 per cent of the patients due for liver transplant, as per a paper submitted by doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi recently. Not only is the treatment less cumbersome and risky, its cost is also comparatively very reasonable. According to the papers principal author and chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases at the Hospital, Dr. Anil Arora, a large number of patients requiring liver transplantation cannot afford it for two reasons cost and donor availability. A living donor is needed in such plantation cases with a matching blood group and he or she also has to be a family member or a first or second degree relative. They have to donate the liver. Since Rs.20 lakh is the average cost of liver transplantation, a majority of liver cirrhosis patients can not afford it. Many times they also do not have a donor, he said. In view of the logistical problems faced by such patients, Dr. Arora said: We started looking at the feasibility of alternative methods like using reserve cells in the body called stem cells for such treatment as it costs even less than … Continue reading →

Public release date: 18-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair The study appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation, and is now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/ct0832liu. "Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can cure many hematologic diseases," said study co-author Dr. Qifa Liu of the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China. "However, poor graft function is a complication that occurs in five to 27 percent of patients receiving allo-HSCT and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality." According to the researchers, graft function may be poor after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation because of slow or incomplete reconstitution of blood counts or decreasing blood counts. PGF, which is poorly understood, is a potentially life-threating condition when it leads to graft vs. host disease (GVHD). In this study, when 20 patients demonstrated risk factors for PGF, researchers infused them with MSCs derived from bone marrow from third-party donors. PGF had developed in five patients with acute GVHD and two patients had chronic GVHD. "The patients receiving the MSCs achieved either complete responses or improved GVHD," said the researchers. "However, the PGF did not improve … Continue reading →

New research may result in bio-engineered replacement teeth which are generated from a persons own gum cells (Photo: Shutterstock) New research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and King's College London, UK, may result in bio-engineered replacement teeth which are generated from a persons own gum cells. Though artificial whole-tooth implants are currently available to people who are missing a tooth, such implants are unable to fully reproduce the natural root structure of a tooth. This means that in time, friction caused by eating and other movement of the jaw can result in a loss of jaw bone. Previous research toward producing bio-engineered teeth (or bioteeth) has focused on the growing of new teeth by using embryonic cells inserted into an adult jaw as pellets. Despite the marked difference in environment, such immature teeth (teeth primordia) can develop into normal adult teeth given the right conditions. However, embryonic cells are typically considered unappealing for widespread use, so whats really needed is a an adult source of tooth cells. "What is required is the identification of adult sources of human epithelial and mesenchymal cells that can be obtained in sufficient numbers to make biotooth formation … Continue reading →

Cell Therapy for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant by Dr Richard Champlin Dr Richard Champlin, Professor and Chair of the department of Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy gave an update on the role of Cell Therapy in improvi... By: TheMedalGroup … Continue reading →