Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category

BROOKLINE Fighting for her life, a retired Brookline teacher who has been struggling with cancer for more than four years is hoping to find a donor for a stem cell transplant.

This week, Kathi Bond of Temple has undergone 96 hours of around-the-clock chemotherapy, but next week provides a new and unique opportunity for the 66-year-old woman battling a bone marrow cancer known as multiple myeloma.

A marrow donor registry drive will take place on Tuesday in an effort to find a match for Bond, who has undergone numerous, unsuccessful therapies throughout the past several years.

She is not the type that wants to be lying in a bed staring at a blank wall she would rather be climbing mountains, said Bonds husband, David Bond. She is a very vibrant woman, but on paper she is very ill.

Kathi Bond, who retired in 2013 from her environmental science teaching position in the Brookline School District because of the cancer, has already undergone an autologous stem cell transplant where her own cells were used for the procedure.

While this effort placed her in remission for more than a year, her body eventually began to reject the treatment and she fell ill again in the fall of 2016, and is now at stage 3 multiple myeloma.

I think emotionally, for any cancer patient, it is a roller coaster, said David Bond. You have good days and bad days glimmers of light and then news that things arent working.

Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell disorder that attacks cells in a persons bone marrow. Since traditional treatments are not working for Kathi Bond, doctors are now looking for radical ways to preserve her life, and a donor transplant is the next alternative.

Unfortunately, at this point, they have not found a match for Kathi, said her husband. But we have always felt that optimism is stronger than adversity. There will be a match out there somewhere.

A marrow donor registry drive will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Richard Maghakian Memorial School, 22 Milford St. in Brookline. Participants must be ages 18 to 44, and will have their cheek swabbed to determine compatibility.

Kathi Bond, who is currently hospitalized, is attempting to reduce the number of myeloma cancer cells in an effort to make the future transplant more successful. She is working with an oncologist in Nashua, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to determine the best course of action for an incurable illness.

She is fairly strong right now, but a transplant is desperately needed, said David Bond.

Cancer is no longer a private struggle, he said, adding it affects so many families. In 1984, Kathi Bond lost her older sister to lymphoma.

At the time, he said there were no donor drives, walks for cancer or fundraisers to research cancer treatments.

Today, we save lives because we share our story, and compassionate people step forward and join the fight, he said.

The Bonds are hopeful to find a match from next weeks marrow donor registry drive, but said even if they dont, the data may be useful in helping to find a match for someone else in desperate need.

Kathleen Milewski, a second-grade teacher at RMMS in Brookline, along with the Bonds two daughters, have been instrumental in helping to organize Tuesdays drive, according to David Bond.

Joining the registry is as simple as a cheek swab, and the donation process, should you be a match, is similar to giving blood in over 70 percent of the cases, said Milewski. Kathi needs a match in order to continue to live with multiple myeloma.

David Bond said a donor transplant is his wifes greatest hope for a life of near-normalcy. A donors stem cells will result in a total reboot of the patients marrow, and as new donor stem cells develop and mature, they will over-populate the bad cells.

khoughton@newstote.com

Original post:
Stem cell donor registry drive seeks to help retired Brookline teacher - NewHampshire.com

Scientists report another step in the use of stem cells to help treat people with debilitating heart failure.

In an early study of 27 patients, Japanese researchers used patients' own muscle stem cells to create a "patch" that was placed on the heart.

Over the next year, the patients generally showed small improvements in their symptoms -- including the ability to walk without becoming breathless and fatigued.

However, experts cautioned that while the results are encouraging, there's a lot of work left ahead before stem cells can be used to treat heart failure.

"They've shown that this approach is feasible," said Dr. Eiran Gorodeski, a heart failure specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

But it's not clear whether the stem-cell tactic was actually effective, said Gorodeski, who was not involved in the study.

RELATED: Antidepressant No Help to Heart Failure Patients

That's because the study didn't include a comparison group that did not receive stem cells.

So it's possible, Gorodeski explained, that the "modest" symptom improvements would have happened anyway. All of the patients were on standard medications, and some had heart devices implanted.

Stem cells are primitive cells that mature into the various cells that make up the body's tissues. In the past 15 years or so, scientists have tried to use the cells to help repair some of the damage seen in heart failure.

Heart failure is a progressive disease where the heart muscle is too damaged to efficiently pump blood throughout the body. It often arises after a heart attack.

Symptoms of heart failure include fatigue, breathlessness and swelling in the limbs. The condition cannot be cured, although medications and implantable devices can treat the symptoms.

In the new study, the researchers used stem cells from the patients' own thigh muscle to create a patch they placed on the heart.

That's in contrast to many past studies, where researchers have injected stem cells -- often from patients' bone marrow -- into the heart.

The patch tactic could have some advantages, said senior researcher Dr. Yoshiki Sawa, of Osaka University.

He said animal research suggests that cells in sheet form survive for a longer period, compared to injections.

To test the safety of the approach, Sawa's team recruited 27 patients who had debilitating symptoms despite standard heart failure therapies. The scientists extracted stem cells from each patient's thigh muscle, then cultured the cells so that they formed a sheet.

The sheet was placed on each patient's heart.

The tactic appeared safe, the researchers said, and there were signs of symptom improvements over the next six months to a year.

Why would stem cells from the thigh muscle affect the heart? It's not clear, Sawa acknowledged.

The stem cells don't grow into new heart muscle cells. Instead, Sawa explained, they seem to produce chemicals called cytokines that can promote new blood vessel growth in damaged areas of the heart. The theory, he said, is that "hibernating" cells in the heart muscle can then function better.

Still, it's too soon to know what the new findings mean, said Gorodeski.

This type of trial, called phase 1, is designed to look at the safety and feasibility of a therapy, Gorodeski said. It takes later-phase trials -- where some patients receive the treatment, and others do not -- to prove that a therapy actually works.

Those trials are underway, Sawa said.

Other studies are further along. Last year, researchers reported on a trial testing infusions of stem cells taken from the bone marrow of patients with severe heart failure.

Patients who received the therapy were less likely to die or be hospitalized over the next year, versus those given standard treatment only. But the study was small, and the stem cells had only a minor impact on patients' heart function.

So it's not clear why the stem-cell patients fared better, Gorodeski said.

For now, he stressed, all stem-cell therapies for heart failure remain experimental.

"There's no cell therapy that we can offer patients right now," Gorodeski said.

The message for patients, he added, is that heart failure can be treated, and researchers are looking for "innovative" ways to improve that treatment.

The study was published April 5 in theJournal of the American Heart Association.

More:
Can Stem Cell 'Patch' Help Heart Failure? - Everyday Health (blog)

The only practical way to scale-up volumes of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is by using microcarriers in single-use bioreactors, say scientists from A*STAR and Instituto Superior Tcnico.

MSCs are multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types which are being investigated for tissue engineering and cellular therapies.

Such cells come from bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood but are very rare, according to Ana Fernandes-Platzgummer, a research scientist for the Stem Cell Engineering Research Group at the Instituto Superior Tcnico in Lisbon, Portugal.

Totipotent cells can form all the cell types in a body, plus the extraembryonic, or placental, cells. The only totipotent cells are embryonic cells within the first couple of cell divisions after fertilisation.

Pluripotent cells can give rise to all of the cell types that make up the body. While embryonic stem cells are considered pluripotent, this class includes induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from skin or blood cells that have been reprogrammed back into an embryonic-like pluripotent state.

Multipotent cells are more limited than pluripotent cells but can develop into more than one cell type. This class includes mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood, and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) derived from mesoderm and located in the red bone marrow.

There are only about 100,000 stem cells in an umbilical cord, she told delegates at the 1st Stem Cell Community day in Germany this week. For cellular therapies we need doses of more than one million cells per kg [ideal (IBW) or actual (ABW) body weight] so we need to expand these cells.

Scale-up challenges

Stem cells can be successfully cultivated using flasks and labscale-volume bioreactors but there are many problems in monitoring and controlling growth, and issues with productivity and cell harvest. Therefore scale-up is a problem, hindered further due to a lack of technologies and processes available to cell therapy makers.

The event in Hamburg organised by bioprocessing tech firm Eppendorf looked to address these challenges in stem cell cultivation and scale-up by bringing together industry and academia.

And Fernandes-Platzgummer said that research by the Instituto Superior Tcnico together with Thermo Fisher-owned Life Technologies showed positive results in the expansion of human MSCs from different sources using a fully-controlled stirred-tank bioreactor combined with microcarrier technology.

The advantage of this is its easy scalability, the high surface area [of the microcarrier], the ability to monitor and control cultivation, and the reduced labour costs and risks of contamination, she said.

After five days cultivation the team produced clinically-relevant cell numbers, she added, using an 800ml spinner flask bioreactor, Thermo Fishers serum-free medium StemPro and reagent TrypLE Select CTS, and plastic microcarriers coated with the xeno-free substrate CELLstart (also made by Thermo Fisher).

'10,000 doses per year, each of a billion cells'

In a separate presentation, Steve Oh principal scientist and associate director at the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), part of Singapores Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) said a similar set-up had shown promise in moving MSC cultivation into scalable technologies and his team is trying to move to a 15L scale.

However, the goal for MSC-based therapies would be producing commercial volumes of 10,000 doses per year, each of a billion cells from the onset, he added.

We looked at all the approaches and really the only practical experience I have of a technology that will succeed is microcarrier technology using single-use bioreactors, he said.

Oh added microcarriers produce higher cell densities with the same amount of media while allowing greater control of the process by providing another metric to configure.

Furthermore, having only thin layers of cells between each carrier offers benefits in the harvesting of stem cells which he said is as problematic as cultivation due to the large aggregates of cell clusters formed which are difficult to break up.

See more here:
Stem cells: Single-use bioreactors and microcarriers can overcome scale-up issues, experts - BioPharma-Reporter.com

April 6, 2017 7:01 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) Theres potentially exciting news for the two and a half million people around the world struggling with multiple sclerosis.

There is no known cure, but now an experimental treatment in Israel may be able to reverse the symptoms, CBS2s Dr. Max Gomez reports.

MS is a progressive degenerative disease where the insulation around nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord starts to break down. Its the immune system attacking the insulation.

Medications can slow the disease but dont stop it. Stem cells may be much better.

As Dr. Max reports, walking on a treadmill is a big step for Malia Litman. She had been a top trial attorney in Dallas until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 18 years ago. Slowly, the disease robbed her of her balance, her mobility and her energy.

You can imagine how contracted my world had become, she says.

After she fell and broke her leg, she was in a wheelchair for weeks. Her MS medicines werent really working anymore.

Her search for alternative treatments led toDr. Dimitrios Karussis.

Answers for our diseases and our medical problems are hidden inside our body, hesays.

Karussis heads the experimental stem cell research atHadassah Medical Organization in Israel. He harvests an MS patients own adult stem cells from their bone marrow, then injects them back into their spinal fluid.

As neurologists, we have never seen or even believed that it is possible to reverse any disability, he says.

Litman says within 24 hours of her first treatment, I picked up my leg and went, Oh my god, and I just started crying.

She says her speech is more clear and she has more energy, and shes adamant its not a placebo effect, pointing to a number of tests before and after treatment that show improvement.

Karussis says one patient was even able to walk again.

Researchers are now collaborating with teams at the Mayo Clinic and Harvard, finishing a double-blind study to prove its effectiveness.

Look what I can do now! Its amazing, Litman says.

She still uses her walker but can now get on her rowing machine. After four treatments, shes reactivated her law license and is taking on a case.

I feel like I have my life back. I dont care if I walk with a walker the rest of my life. Although I think I may actually be able to walk again with a couple more treatments, she says.

As Dr. Max reports, the theory is that the stem cells are somehow spurringthe regeneration of the insulating nerve sheaths that are deteriorating in MS.

However, the course of the disease is so variable that Litmans improvement may not be due to the stem cell treatment. Thats why the double-blind studyis so important.

Hadassah Medical Organizations researchers are also looking at the treatments effect on ALS patients.

Visit link:
Stem Cell Treatment Might Reverse Symptoms Of Multiple Sclerosis ... - CBS New York

Bone marrow transplantation, also referred as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the process of replacing diseased or damaged bone marrow or bone marrow stem cells with healthy tissue. Bone marrow is a soft vascular tissue present in the interior of long bones, which is primarily responsible for hematopoiesis (formation of blood cells), production of lymphocytes, and storage of a fat. Bone marrow transplantation procedure is recommended to treat severe stages of leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, multiple myeloma, aplastic and sickle cell anemia, thalassemia etc. In 2015, more than 75,000 bone marrow transplants were performed globally and the count is expected to increase by approximately 25% by the end of 2020. Depending on the source of bone marrow or stem cells, bone marrow transplant procedures are classified as peripheral stem cell transplant (PSCT) or conventional bone marrow transplant. The high potential of the bone marrow transplants and the ongoing researches in the field to reduce the risks and side effects of the procedure will take the market to a new high and provide better healthcare to millions of people in the world.

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Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Drivers and Restraints

Increasing worldwide prevalence of cancers and anemia is the major driver for the growth of global bone marrow transplant market. Moreover, advances in technology, improving healthcare infrastructure, emerging indications of bone marrow transplant for heart and neuronal disorders, growing investment in logistic services, increasing per capita healthcare expenditure are some other factors expected to flourish the global bone marrow transplantation market. However, tremendous cost of the treatment, scarcity of bone marrow donors and uncertainty of reimbursement in several countries are some major restraints for the growth of global bone marrow transplantation market,

Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Overview

Autologous bone marrow transplant segment of transplant type is expected to hold the major share in the global bone marrow transplant market owing to low treatment cost and high success rate. Leukemia being the most potential disease eligible for bone marrow transplant, is anticipated to contribute highest share in the global bone marrow transplant market. Hospital end user segment contributes major market share in global bone marrow transplant market owing to the requirement for advanced healthcare infrastructure for the procedure. Commercialization of stem cell therapies and expansion of them for clinical use is anticipated to cause surge in global bone marrow transplant market over the forecast period of 2016-2026.

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Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Region wise Overview

Geographically, global bone marrow transplant market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa.Europe will continue to lead the global bone marrow transplant market due to high density of bone marrow transplant centers and expanding bone marrow registries. Latin America is anticipated to witness rapid increase in volume of bone marrow transplant market owing to high number of potential candidates for the procedure. Increasing number of bone marrow transplant teams in North America is foreseen to boost the bone marrow transplant market in the region.

Bone Marrow Transplant Market: Key Players

Some of the key players in global bone marrow transplant market are Lonza Group Ltd., Merck Millipore Corporation, Sanofi-Aventis LLC., AllCells LLC., STEMCELL Technologies, ATCC Inc., Hemacare Corporation, Cellular Dynamics International, ReachBio LLC., Conversant Bio, abm Inc., PromoCell GmbH, Cruline Human biospecime PRO, Lifeline Cell Technology, Mesoblast Ltd. and others.

See the article here:
Bone Marrow Transplant Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report ... - MilTech

April 5, 2017 Stem cells (red) on polycaprolactone-based microcarriers. Credit: Elsevier

Bone tissue engineering is theoretically now possible at a large scale. A*STAR researchers have developed small biodegradable and biocompatible supports that aid stem cell differentiation and multiplication as well as bone formation in living animal models.

Mesenchymal stem cells self-renew and differentiate into fat, muscle, bone, and cartilage cells, which makes them attractive for organ repair and regeneration. These stem cells can be isolated from different sources, such as the human placenta and fatty tissue. Human early mesenchymal stem cells (heMSCs), which are derived from fetal bone marrow, were thought to be best suited for bone healing, but were not readily accessible for therapeutic use.

Existing approaches to expand stem cells for industrial applications tend to use two-dimensional materials as culture media, but their production yields are too low for clinical demand. Furthermore, stem cells typically need to be harvested with enzymes and attached to a scaffold before they can be implanted.

To bring commercially viable cell therapies to market, Asha Shekaran and Steve Oh, from the A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute, have created directly implantable microscopic spheres in collaboration with the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. These spheres, which acted as heMSC microcarriers, consist of a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer called polycaprolactone.

According to Shekaran, their initial aim was to expand stem cells on microcarriers in bioreactors to scale up production. However, this strategy threw up difficulties, especially when attempting to effectively dissociate the cells from the microcarriers and transfer them to biodegradable scaffolds for implantation.

"A biodegradable microcarrier would have a dual purpose," Shekaran says, noting that it could potentially provide a substrate for cell attachment during scalable expansion in bioreactors, and a porous scaffold for cell delivery during implantation.

The researchers generated their microcarriers by synthesizing polycaprolactone spheres and coating them with two proteins polylysine and fibronectin. These proteins are found in the extracellular matrix that assists cell adhesion, growth, proliferation, and differentiation in the body.

Microcarriers that most induced cell attachment also promoted cell differentiation into bone-like matrix more strongly than conventional two-dimensional supports. In addition, implanted stem cells grown on these microcarriers produced an equivalent amount of bone to their conventionally-derived analogs.

"This is encouraging because microcarrier-based expansion and delivery are more scalable than two-dimensional culture methods," says Shekaran.

The team now plans to further investigate the therapeutic potential of these microcarrierstem cell assemblies in actual bone healing models.

Explore further: Study shows adipose stem cells may be the cell of choice for therapeutic applications

More information: Asha Shekaran et al. Biodegradable ECM-coated PCL microcarriers support scalable human early MSC expansion and in vivo bone formation, Cytotherapy (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2016.06.016

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Spherical biodegradable carriers support scalable and cost-effective stem cell expansion and bone formation - Medical Xpress

The search continues.

Gabi Ornelas was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in February 2015.

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Girl still in need of bone marrow match - Temple Daily Telegram

April 5, 2017

Stem cell differentiation can now be seen thanks to a combination of machine learning and microfabrication techniques developed by scientists at the RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center in Japan. The results, published in PLOS One, followed the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) which are easily obtained from adult bone marrow.

MSCs have proven to be important for regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy because they can potentially repair many different types of organ damage, as they have the ability to differentiate into various cell types including bone, muscle and fat. Depending on the way the cells are grown the results can be quite different and so controlling differentiation is an important goal.

Observing MSC differentiation under different conditions is an essential step in understanding how to control the process. However, this has proved challenging on two fronts. First, the physical space in which the cells are grown has a dramatic impact on the results, causing significant variation in the types of cells into which they differentiate. Studying this effect requires consistent and long lasting spatial confinement. Second, classifying the cell types which have developed through manual observation is time consuming.

Previous studies have confined cell growth with fibronectin on a glass slide. The cells can only adhere and differentiate where the fibronectin is present and are thus chemically confined. However, this procedure requires high technical skill to maintain the confinement for an extended period of time. To overcome this, the first author of the study, Nobuyuki Tanaka, decided to look for a new way to confine them. Using a simple agarose gel physical confinement system, he found that he could maintain them for up to 15 days. Tanaka says, "It was wonderful to be able to do this, because agarose gel is a commonly used material in biology laboratories and can be easily formed into a micro-cast in a PDMS silicone mold."

He continues, "The advantage of this system is that once the PDMS molds are obtained the user only needs agarose gel and a vacuum desiccator to create highly reproducible micro-casts." The vacuum pump pulls the agarose gel into the mold. He explains, "We provided the protocol to our coauthors at ETH Zurich and they performed the agarose micro-casting and conducted the stem cell differentiation study. Stem cells were captured in the micro-structures and their differentiation was controlled under the captured condition."

Tanaka's paper also describes an automated cell type classification system, using machine learning, which reduces the time and labor needed to analyze cells. "Combined together, these tools give us a powerful way to understand how stem cells differentiate in given conditions."

According to Yo Tanaka, leader of the Laboratory for Integrated Biodevice, where the research was conducted, "We hope this will break down the barriers that have hindered research in this area so far and help to establish harmony between biologists and engineers. The focus of engineers has traditionally been to develop new technologies, but scientists prefer to use well established technologies. However, if our newly developed technology is simple enough it can spread rapidly, this is our goal."

Explore further: Stem cells seem speedier in space

More information: PLOS One (2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173647

Journal reference: PLoS ONE

Provided by: RIKEN

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This is really great! Getting stem cells to differentiate in to desired adult cells is what is holding back stem cell therapies. This is a MAJOR step in that direction!

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New technique helps researchers determine how stem cells ... - Phys.Org

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This is Stephan and his 18-month-old daughter Hannah.

Hes a designer from Dublin who likes to put his kid in various precarious situations, from crawling up ladders to chilling with a set of knives.

Or at least, he does on Photoshop.

Stephan is superimposing Hannah into marginally dangerous situations to raise awareness of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) the very rare immune disorder that shes been battling with.

She had a very rare immune disorder called HLH and spent six months of her first year in hospital, receiving chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, which is the only possible cure.

Of 27 million worldwide donors, three were deemed suitable, and an anonymous German lady donated.

Because we missed out on so much normal stuff of the first year, we take tonnes of photos now that were able to do normal things out of isolation.

She is doing much better now (although shes in and out of hospital), but shes lots of fun, always smiling, and has a great sense of humour given what shes been through so far.

Stephan says that he thought it would be funny to worry his family by putting Hannah in precarious situations.

Most of the reactions have been positive, with the odd person not getting the joke and commenting that I should be shot.

Hes hoping that as well as making people laugh, his photos will help raise awareness of bone marrow donation.

And 75% of those in need wont find a matching donor in their families so they need to be found donors from outside.

Once you register to become a donor, its by no means a done deal that youll be parting ways with your marrow. Youve got a 1 in 790 chance of being chosen.

If you want to find out more about how to donate, just click here.

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A dad has been photoshopping his kid into marginally dangerous situations - Metro

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By Malak Abason April 5, 2017

Lungs are a crucial organ in many animals, including humans. While their function has always seemed pretty straightforward to take in oxygen, transfer it into blood, and exhale carbon dioxide scientists have found a previously unrecognized function of the lungs of mice: blood production.

The study, which was published in Nature by researchers at the University of California San Francisco, was performed by inserting fluorescent protein into the mouses genome.

The protein caused the platelets (small blood cells that bind together to help create blood clots when a blood vessel is damaged), in the mouse to glow, allowing scientists to trace the platalets paths. What they found was a massive number of megakaryocytes, a stem cell that produces in the lungs.

When researched further, scientists found that the lung was producing over 10 million blood-producing platelets per hour, and the platelets produced by the lung accounted for the majority of platelets in the mouses circulatory system. Researchers are theorizing that the megakaryocytes are created in the bone marrow, but then travel to the lung to produce platelets.

While it is known that human lungs produce platelets and produce blood, as small amounts of megakaryocytes have been found in lungs before, if these findings are reproduced in humans, it will prove that the sheer amount that lungs produce has been greatly underestimated.

The study also found a reservoir of stem cells with the ability to become blood cells in the lungs. Researchers implanted lungs with the fluorescent megakaryocyte cells into mice that had been engineered to have no blood stem cells in their bone marrow, and found that the fluorescent cells travelled from the lungs to the marrow, and helped to produce platelets and other ingredients in blood, including neutrophils. In cases where the bone marrow is dealing with platelet or stem cell deficiency, these stem cells were able to leave the lung and contribute to the refilling of platelets in the marrow.

If further research indicates that these findings also apply to humans which they very well may, considering the genetic and biological similarities between mice and humans it will not only disprove the current theory that states the bone marrow accounts for most of the human bodys platelet production, but it will also affect how scientists approach treating blood diseases in humans, particularly ones that result in a platelet deficiency, such as thrombocytopenia.

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Lungs of mice found to produce blood - The Manitoban

A small, but promising study suggests that stem cells from a childs own cord blood may offer an effective treatment for autism symptoms.

Most children on the spectrum who received an infusion from their own umbilical cord blood showed improvements in behavior, communication and socialization, among other measures, while experiencing no significant downsides from the treatment.

The findings come from a study of 25 kids with autism ages 2 to 5 published Wednesday in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

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All of the children who participated in the research had their cord blood banked at birth. For the trial, the kids were given a series of behavioral and functional assessments before receiving a one-time cord blood infusion. Follow-up assessments were conducted at six and 12 months after the infusion.

Not only did the researchers find that the treatment was safe, but parent reports as well as clinical assessments indicated that more than two-thirds of the children saw improvements in autism symptoms.

Most of the behavioral gains were seen in the first six months after the infusion, the study found, but they were sustained over the following six months.

We are pleased that this study demonstrated the safety of treating children with ASD with their own cord blood, said Joanne Kurtzberg, a pediatric bone marrow transplant specialist at Duke Health who worked on the study. Were also encouraged that, while small and non-randomized, there were observed improvements in a majority of the children reported by clinicians and parents.

While the findings are encouraging, researchers said that further study involving more participants is needed before any firm conclusions can be reached about the effectiveness of cord blood infusions.

We are now hoping to replicate these preliminary results in a Phase II randomized clinical trial for which enrollment is nearly complete, Kurtzberg said.

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Stem Cells Show Promise For Treating Autism - Disability Scoop

For about half a decade, its been something of an open secret in baseball that playerspitchers especiallyregularly undergo stem-cell therapy to stave off surgeries and lost playing time. Its a cutting-edge medical procedure, done by everyone from high-school standouts to major-league all-stars. Its rarely discussed by players, or by their coaches, parents, doctors, or employers.

So when the Los Angeles Angels went public in 2016 with the news that first Andrew Heaney and then Garrett Richards were undergoing stem-cell therapy for torn ulnar collateral ligaments (UCLs), it was both anticlimactic and a revelation. For the first time, baseball pitchers and their employers were openly admitting trying this novel procedure that, while fairly well-proven anecdotally, has yet to be validated by any well-designed scientific study.

By now, that so-called Tommy John surgery for a torn or damaged UCL has become a rite of passage for the top-flight professional baseball pitcher is a cliche of sports punditry. Every young arm that can fold and then unfold itself into tortuous patterns that facilitate throwing baseballs at 95 miles per hour or faster is bound for the knife, once those upper body contortions inevitably tear the tissue on the inside of their elbows connecting their upper and lower arms, the UCL.

The first Tommy John surgery (or more properly, UCL reconstruction) was performed in 1974 by the orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe, then the team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers, on the eponymous pitcher. It was a great success; Tommy John came back to pitch 14 more years in the pros, racking up 164 wins with four different teams.

TJ surgery is fairly straightforward: the connective tissue that makes up the UCL is either replaced with a tendon taken from elsewhere in the patients own body or from the donated tissue of a cadaver.

Nevertheless through the mid-1970s and into the 80s, TJ was something of a rarity; just a handful of baseball players underwent that particular knife. In the 1990s the numbers started to tick up, and then in the 2000s, they exploded. From 1995 to 2005, there was an average of 28 TJ surgeries per year across all levels of pro baseball; from 2005 to 2015, there was an average of 84 TJ surgeries per year.

Then something strange happened. In 2016, the total number of TJ surgeries performed dropped to 90, from 127 the year before, a 30% decline. Only one other year in Tommy John history, 2008, saw such a precipitous drop from the previous year. By 2009, TJ numbers were back to 2007 levels; obviously it remains to be seen whether 2017 will look more like 2015 or more like last year. But the data suggest that if TJ surgery numbers are in fact starting to trend downward, it might have something to do with the rise of stem-cell therapy.

What makes stem cells unique is that they are whats called undifferentiated; they can become other specialized cells depending on the bodys need at the time. There are two types of human stem cells, embryonic and adult. Embryonic stem cells come from a very early-stage embryo; these are what you likely think of when you hear the term stem cellstheyre at the center of one of most exciting fields of medical science research today. Embryonic stem cells are now used or are being studied for a shockingly wide range of applications, from Alzheimers and autism to vision impairment and infertility. However, thanks to the religious right-driven opposition to the harvesting, study, and use of embryonic stem cells, theyve been mired in controversy in the US.

On the other hand, the use of adult stem cellswhich can be harvested from bone marrow, fat, or blood of any person of any age (the name is a bit misleading)is widely accepted by both the medical community and politicians. They have less range, so to speak, than embryonic stem cells; they are primarily to repair and replace damaged tissue in the area they are found. That makes them just about perfect for repairing a torn UCL.

The first pro baseball player known to have undergone stem-cell therapy for a UCL weakness was Bartolo Colonand he was basically forced into talking about it. Following a long run of success culminating with a Cy Young Award season in 2005, Colon had four frustrating years racked with injury and ended up unsigned after 2009. He took a year off to recuperate and in spring of 2011, he was back, signed with the New York Yankees and feeling good. Serge Kovaleski, an investigative reporter with the New York Times, started digging into how Colon had made his comeback, and uncovered the name of Joseph Purita, an orthopedic surgeon and stem-cell therapy pioneer.

As Purita tells it, there was nothing illegal or nefarious about the work hed done on Colon; there was just never a plan to broadcast it, either. Then, he recalls, the Times called me up and said were going to write a story whether or not. So, Purita offered details. In April 2010, he told the paper, a team of Dominican doctors used stem-cell therapy to help repair Colons ligament damage and torn rotator cuff.

Colons recovery was a resounding success. Hes been an all-star twice, is the current active leader in major league wins, and, at age 44, is signed to a $12.5 million contract to be the Atlanta Braves number two starter for the 2017 season.

I cant give names but there are some professionalsBut instead of thrusting stem-cell therapy into the mainstream, the Colon incident forced it to stay underground. The treatment was not well understood at that point, and the circumstancesthat it was done offshore, that it was unearthed by investigative reporting, and that, in 2012, Colon was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for testosterone useclouded public opinion on it. Many were convinced Colon had gotten performance-enhancing drugs in the Dominican Republic. Purita denies this vociferously, and MLB inquiries back him up.

The upshot is that every doctor I spoke to who studies and performs stem-cell therapy for torn-ligament repair says some version of the same thing: I cant give names but there are some professionals who have come in for treatment, says Joshua Dines, an orthopedic surgeon at New Yorks Hospital for Special Surgery, and an assistant team physician for the New York Mets.

Purita says that since Colon, hes worked with some players that had team approvaland some just come on their own, but none wanted to go public about the procedure.

If use of your arm is mostly limited to spreadsheet jockeying and lifting forkfuls of pasta or salad from plate to maw, TJ is no big dealin that case, youre ready to go back to work in six weeks. But if you throw a ball at top speed past another pro athlete for a living, youre going to be out of commission for 18 months or more as you regain strength in your money arm.

And money is the (post) operative word. In 2016 alone, MLB teams lost nearly $60 million in player value because they had to fulfill dozens of contracts of players recovering from Tommy John. Thats nearly enough to field an entire pro teamdefinitely enough to roster a top-of-league pitching staff. And that $60 million doesnt come close to accounting for the losses suffered by players who had to undergo the knife during the last year of a contract, and found themselves released by their previous teams with no new offers on the table while they recovered.

There was never going to be a way to prevent the need for Tommy John surgeries. Baseball players throw far too hard, with far more breaking pitches, starting at far too young an age, to realistically stop UCLs from tearing (though all sports medicine experts do now warn coaches and parents to keep kids and teens at low pitch counts). The alternative was always going to be something that could cure ligament tearsbut better than TJ surgery, with a faster recovery time.

Everything weve seen in the past decade or so suggests stem-cell therapy is exactly that. At this point, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are common first-line defenses against UCL injuries. The procedure entails harvesting PRP from the player and injecting it into the injured part of the body. PRP is dense with proteins specialized for injury repair.

You can think of these injections as a precursor to stem-cell therapy; both are considered biologic treatments and entail wielding the bodys own weapons against injury. Many of the doctors now doing stem-cell therapy started off with PRP procedures. When baseball players have a torn ligament, they typically try PRP first. If that fails, its Tommy John time.

Everyone in the field says that at this point PRP is last decades technologyExcept, everyone in the field says that at this point PRP is last decades technology, more than ready to be replaced by stem-cell therapy, which does much the same thing but better. Adult stem cells essentially are there for the very purpose of tissue repair. Why not take them from a part of the body thats all good, and send them to a region where reinforcements are desperately needed?

Dines says that in his own practice, hes been able to cut down the need for Tommy John surgery by about a third, thanks to his reliance on stem-cell therapy. He doesnt believe that the procedure will lower the number of players that have to have TJ, but it will limit the number of overall TJ surgeriesbecause at this point, many pitchers have to get the surgery twice in their career. Dines says stem-cell therapy can get 15- or 16-year-old pitchers through their first partial tear. They may still need to get a full TJ surgery by age 24, but avoiding that first one is still a huge victory. (A growing number of middle-age first-time TJ patients could also explain the overall drop in Tommy John surgeries.)

Purita is even more optimistic. While most orthopedic surgeons say that, right now, stem-cell therapy is effective on partial, but not full, ligament tears, Purita is confident his version can handle any UCL. He sent Quartz a photo showing a patientan MLB pitcher who wishes to remain anonymous, Purita sayswho had a full UCL tear in November 2011 and, after receiving stem-cell therapy at Puritas clinic, made a full recovery by February 2013.

You never say something replaces something else entirely, Purita says. Stem-cell therapy is not going to replace every case [of Tommy John], but it could probably replace the majority of cases.

Talk to anyone who knows the field and theyll rattle off the same reasons why stem-cell therapy for UCL tears isnt already the standard of care: One reason is that, relative to the population, the number of UCL tear patients is extremely small, which means theres only a tiny pool from which to draw potential study participants. Two, a trial for a new medical treatment is typically only considered well-designed if the subjects are blindthat is, they dont know if they are getting the real treatment or a placebo. But what kind of team or player is going to risk a million-dollar arm on a properly designed study where theres a 50% chance that the injury gets a placebo?

Thats not to say that this is some sort of back-alley procedure. Its performed by some of the most prestigious orthopedic surgeons and medical research centers in the US, and the US Food and Drug Administration approves its use: US doctors are allowed to harvest a persons stem cells and use those cells to treat that same person, as long as you dont manipulate (e.g. genetically modify) the cells.

Someone making $20 million a year is not going to do something he hasnt checked out wellThe lack of literature on the procedure hasnt exactly inspired the confidence of players and teams to go public with their decision to pursue it; nor does the fact that the procedure for years had, as Dines puts it, a bad rap[it] would get lumped in with things that were illegal. There was this specter of cheating. But Dines, and others, say thats changing.

The needle is moving towards this being a valid way of treating things, says Purita. People are starting to recognize that someone making [or risking] $20 million a year is not going to do something he hasnt checked out well.

Amadeus Mason, a sports medicine and biologics expert at Emory University, compares stem-cell therapy today to Tommy John in the 1980s. It was, Okay, were going to try this and see, says Mason, who trained with orthopedic surgeon James Andrews. (Andrews is the Michael Jordan of ligament repairhes saved the arms and careers of some of the greatest pitchers in major league baseball history.) There wasnt a big fanfare going in when players started with Tommy John surgeries, Mason says, but when players came back to pitch [there] was. Same thing here.

Mason thinks stem-cell therapy hasnt quite reached the inflection point, but it is near. Here, too, he sees a comparison with Tommy John: It took a while for them to perfect the procedure so that more and more doctors could do the surgery and reproduce the results well.

Right now, Mason says, there is a relatively small handful of doctors who can do stem-cell therapy for UCL tears, but that list is growing rapidly. For example, the annual conference of the Orthobiologic Institutea professional organization for regenerative medicine researchers and practitionersstarted in 2009 with 20 or so doctors; last years event had nearly 1,000.

Some players can throw faster after they have the surgeryThe Angels didnt want to talk to me about why they decided to go public with Heaney and Richards stem-cell therapies. Perhaps thats because Heaneys, on May 2, 2016, was unsuccessful. The 25-year-old former first-round draft pick underwent Tommy John surgery in July of that year after failing to regain strength in his left arm. Hell miss the entire 2017 season, setting back a promising young career.

Richards had his stem-cell procedure just 14 days after Heaney. So far, it seems to have worked. He didnt return to pitch in 2016, but in spring training this year, he was throwing nearly 100 miles per hour. Probably the Angels best starting pitcher, Richards will take the mound on April 5, and all eyes will be on his right throwing armand on his face, to see if it is registering any pain.

If Richards stays healthy this yearand next year, and the year after thathe could become something like the 21st-century Tommy John. Every team will have a stem-cell therapy expert on its medical staff, or at least one on speed dial. Careers will be saved, and so will millions of dollars.

But wider use of stem-cell therapy also will force the MLB to confront an interesting potential side effect of the procedure. Some players can throw faster after they have the surgery, says Purita. By definition, its making the performance better. Right now, major league baseball does not include stem-cell therapy in its list of banned performance enhancers (pdf). But what happens when a baseball player, perhaps a fringe pitching prospect in the low minors, feels some elbow pain one day and gets an MRI, and is diagnosed with nothingbut decides to get stem-cell therapy anyway, since it could give him an extra four miles per hour on his fastball?

The MLB will have a decision to make: To accept potential competitive imbalances to save young arms, or to seek to preserve a level playing field (or even just the fiction of one) at the cost of some of the games best players. The question is all but inevitable.

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Stem-cell therapy is poised to disrupt the Tommy John epidemic in baseball - Quartz

Mumbai, Apr 4 (PTI) Three Bangladeshi patients, suffering from an incurable muscular dystrophy, today underwent first stem cell therapy at a Navi Mumbai based treatment centre.

"We applied a simple therapy to the patients. We took out the stem cells from their bone marrow in the hip bone and after the required processing we injected it back into their body.

"We will wait for the results as to how they respond to such treatment. Meanwhile, physiotherapy and occupational therapy is being offered to them as well," Avantika Patil, coordinator between the patients and the treating centre told PTI.

Patil, is part of the team of NeuroGen, a brain and spine institute that keeps the track of its patients.

"We learnt about the patients through an article in an international newspaper and decided to contact them as we specialise in treating such diseases.

"I am also in contact with one Noor Khan from Bangladesh, an activist who helped the three patients to furnish documents and visa procedures," she said.

A Mumbai-based organisation specialising in such diseases, Meditourz, in collaboration with NeuroGen based in Navi Mumbai, offered to provide treatment to them.

The trio have been suffering from a rare disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy since their birth. This is a genetic disorder which causes progressive muscle degeneration and patients rarely live beyond 30 years of age, Patil said.

Among the three, Shorab (8 year old) is having a mild disorder and early medical intervention will definitely help in terms of less painful life. Compared to him, the disease is progressive in other two patients, she said.

Tofazzal Hossain, a fruit vendor from rural Meherpur in Bangladesh, had sought mercy killing for his sons - Abdus (24) and Rahinul (14) - and grandson Shorab from his government as he could not afford the cost of their treatment.

The Navi Mumbai based centre approached the three patients through Indian government and expressed willingness to provide treatment to the disease.

Air India also offered free round trip tickets to the six persons -- three patients and three caretakers accompanying them to Mumbai from Kolkata following an appeal from Alok Sharma, neurosurgeon at the NeuroGen.

"The three patients and the three persons accompanying them took this evenings Air India flight from Kolkata to Mumbai and will also return by an Air India flight after treatment - entirely free of any charges," Air India said in a statement. PTI ND RMT

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Three Bangladeshi patients undergo stem cell therapy in Mumbai - India Today

LORENA, Texas (KWTX) Lorena residents and others from around Central Texas turned out Monday to register as bone marrow donors in support of a first grade teacher with a rare medical condition, the only cure for which is a bone marrow transplant.

Melinda Colyer, who teaches at Lorena Primary School, was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome with myelofibrosis about two weeks ago.

"It's actually a disease that causes the destruction of your stem cells in your bone marrow. They do consider it a form of cancer. The only cure that will be provided is through a bone marrow transplant, Colyer said.

She said receiving the news was tough, but she says shes a fighter.

I decided to pick myself up and was able to go forward and that's what I'm doing at this point, said Colyer.

Lorena Primary School Principal Liza Cunningham said Colyer shines with positivity despite the diagnosis.

"Ms. Colyer is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet in your entire life. She always has a positive attitude, she has a love for kids. It's very apparent in everything she does, said Cunningham.

More than 100 prospective donors responded to the drive Monday at Midway High Schools Distance Learning Center.

The process takes less than five minutes, and involves a mouth swab to collect DNA samples.

Prospective donors must be in good health and between the ages of 18 to 44.

Anyone interested in becoming a bone marrow donor can sign up with Scott & Whites Marrow Donor Program.

"She wants everybody to go out and be tested because even if we are not a match for her, we would be a match for somebody else. And that's really what she's been telling us about this whole event and that's very selfless of her, Cunningham said.

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Lorena: Residents support teacher who needs bone marrow transplant - KWTX

Image courtesy UP Health System - Marquette.

Image courtesy UP Health System - Marquette.

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April 4, 2017 - MARQUETTE - UP Health System Marquette will host a bone marrow registry drive on April 12th, 2017 on the 3rd floor of the North Entrance to the hospital.

Every four minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer in the US. For thousands of patients with leukemia or other blood diseases like sickle cell anemia, a marrow transplant is their only hope.

Joining the bone marrow registry takes roughly 10 minutes of paperwork and a cheek swab. Only 1 in 430 registry members go on to donate.

If you match with a patient in need, you will receive a phone call asking to donate. Donation is always voluntary. Surgery is not always required for bone marrow donation; almost 80% of donors donate their blood stem cells in a non-surgical procedure that is very similar to donating plasma.

Please note that UP Health System - Marquette is not affiliated with the National Marrow Donor Program or the Be The Match organization. Our presence here will be to help facilitate and educate those interested in joining the Be The Match registry.

Be The Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) which manages the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world, working to save lives through transplant.

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Bone Marrow Registration Drive to be held at UP Health System - UPMatters.com

Three Bangladeshis suffering from a highly debilitating muscular dystrophy, who arrived in Mumbai on Sunday have begun their treatment at a Navi Mumbai spine clinic.

Abdus, Rahinul and Shorab aged 24, 14 and 8 respectively were diagnosed with this crippling disease at the time of their birth.

They arrived on Sunday evening and we started the treatment on Monday, said Avantika Patil, spokesperson NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute in Seawoods, Navi Mumbai, who is treating them for free.

They are undergoing an autologous bone marrow derived stem cell treatment. Stem cells are taken from the bone marrow in their hip bone, treated in our lab and then injected into to the patients again. We will provide a combination of stem cell therapy and neuro-rehabilitation which will also includes yoga and speech therapy sessions, Patil explained.

While the hospital is not willing to say what kind of progress can be expected in these particular cases, they revealed that in one case, a bed-ridden patient was able to walk slowly after six years of treatment.

In January, fruit seller Tofazzal Hossain sparked a rare debate about euthanasia in conservative Bangladesh in January when he pleaded with the authorities to allow his grandson and two sons to die.

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Stem cell treatment begins for dystrophy patients from Bangladesh - Daily News & Analysis

Around 6,000 hematopoietic stem cell transplantations are carried out annually in Iran using the patients own cells, and a far higher number are performed using cells from donors who are often close relatives of the patient, according to the Hematology-Oncology Research Center and Stem Cell Transplantation (HORCSCT) affiliated to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Ardeshir Qavamzadeh, head of the center, said the number of stem cell transplants is on par with developed countries. The success rate in the treatment of diseases requiring transplant is 67% at HORCSCT, ISNA quoted him as saying. Referring to the fast and progressive development of stem cell discipline in Iran, he said since 1983, when the adult leukemia specialty was initiated in the country, nearly 300 specialists have been trained in the field and there is at least one specialist in each province now. Today, one cannot find a treatment method of stem cell transplant in the worlds advanced research centers that is not available or practiced in Iran. We have reached a level where we can compete with the developed nations. HSCT Hubs There are 10 hubs for hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) in the country. Each includes medical universities from the provinces with one as the focal point. Medical universities of Zanjan, Qazvin, Alborz and Qom comprise one of the hubs with Zanjan as the center, said Mehdi Eskandari, education deputy at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. HSCT is the transplantation of multi-potent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood. It may be autologous (when the patients own stem cells are used) or allogeneic (stem cells from a donor). It is a medical procedure in the field of hematology, most often performed for patients with certain cancers of the blood or bone marrow, such as multiple myeloma or leukemia. Since HSCT is a relatively risky procedure with many possible complications, it is reserved for patients with life-threatening diseases. However, as the survival rate following the procedure has increased, its use has expanded beyond cancer, including in autoimmune diseases, blood diseases like thalassaemia major, metabolic disorders, alcoholic liver, and even rheumatism.

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Stem Cell Transplant Making Rapid Progress - Financial Tribune

A new method of producing red blood cells outside the body on a large scale has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol.

'We have demonstrated a feasible way to sustainably manufacture red cells for clinical use We've grown litres of it,' saidDr Jan Frayne, one of the authors of the research which waspublished in Nature Communications.

Previously the most effective technique involved taking stem cells from bone marrow, which makes blood cells in the body,and inducing them to do the same in lab conditions. This was of limited practical success because each stem cell will only make about 50,000 blood cells before dying by comparison, a few drops of blood can contain around one billion red cells.

Working with NHS Blood and Transplant, the Bristol team overcame this limitation by engineering the stem cells to make them 'immortal', using DNA. from the human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer. Red blood cells cannot continue to divide in the bloodstream, and as they mature they shed their nuclei and with it the virus DNA. Thus the adult cells that might in the future be given to patients, if the technique is applied in clinical trials, would not contain the any of the HPV genetic material.

'It's a brilliant approach, and they seemed to have solved several of the really important bottlenecks,' said Dr Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who was not involved in the project.

The lab-grown blood is likely to be much more expensive than donated blood, but there may be a number of potential applications. Lab-grown blood could be used for patients with rare blood types for whom a match is difficult to find. It could also be useful in military or disaster situations where there is no time for blood typing people who are critically injured. Interest has also been expressed by researchers of malaria and other blood-borne diseases.

The first studies to assess the safety of manufactured blood are due to begin at the end of this year, although the first trial will not test this new type of blood cell. Even if safety is established, for the time being there is not currently enough capacity to produce it and industrialising the process could be costly.

'To make big huge vats of it would be outside of our ability in a research lab,' said Dr Frayne. 'We'd have to have company interest.'

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Stem cells could be used to create 'endless supply of blood' - BioNews

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB) April 03, 2017

Retired orthopedic spine surgeon, Kenneth Pettine, M.D. is excited to release the three year results of his bone marrow stem cell treatment study. Dr. Pettine has been a pioneer in the use of bone marrow concentrate stem cell injections. He was the first surgeon to inject biologics into the human spine as part of an FDA Study in the U.S. almost seven years ago. He has the only U.S. Patent on the method of treating orthopedic and spine pathology with a patient's own stem cells.

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain, said Dr. Pettine. Thats terrific news for patients who up until now only had the option of undergoing expensive and invasive back fusion or artificial disc surgery.

Degenerative disc disease is a common back pain diagnosis in the United States and affects millions of patients. The symptoms of the condition can become so painful that patients may be forced to miss work and are prevented from participating in regular daily activities. Treatment is often limited to palliative care such as chiropractic, physical therapy, narcotics, injections or invasive surgical procedures to try to decrease the daily chronic low back pain. Numerous studies have shown surgery improves back pain in the average patient only 40%. Stem Cell therapy improved the average patient 70% with long term follow up.

Dr. Pettines treatment uses a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to help reduce inflammation in the spine and stimulate the creation of new tissue in the spinal disc to help reverse the effects of the disease. The office procedure is performed with I.V. sedation and usually takes 45 minutes. The study noted that patients who received higher concentrations of stem cells in their injections saw a greater improvement in their back pain.. This three year follow-up research study shows utilizing a patient's own stem cells can provide long-term back pain relief and prevented the need for invasive surgery in 77% of the patients.

If you live in the Northern Colorado area and are experiencing neck or back pain due to degenerative disc disease, you can learn more about Dr. Pettines treatment and research by visiting his website at http://www.KennethPettine.com.

About Dr. Kenneth Pettine Dr. Pettine has been the principal investigator of 18 FDA studies about stem cells and their uses and is considered a pioneer in the field. He founded The Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine in 1991 to offer patients a non-fusion surgical option for their neck and back pain. He co-invented the FDA-approved Prestige cervical artificial disc and the Maverick Artificial Disc. He is currently focused on the use of Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for patients desiring to avoid orthopedic or spine surgery. You can learn more about the therapy and Dr. Pettine at his website, http://www.KennethPettine.com.

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Northern Colorado Surgeon Releases Three Year Results of Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment - PR Web (press release)

A benefit dinner will be held April 1 in honour of seven-month-old Madalayna Ducharme. The Warrior Princess fundraiser starts Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Parkwood Gospel Temple. All proceeds will support the family's ongoing expenses related to her medical treatment.

Madalayna suffers from malignant infantile osteoporosis, a rare genetic disorder of bone development in which the bones become thickened and unhealthy. It leads to bone fractures, short stature, poor bone growth and a thicker skull which may delay development of teeth. Left untreated, it could be fatal.

Early this year, her family started a Facebook campaign that went viral asking for people to sign up to become stem cell or bone marrow donors. Thanks to the number of people who volunteered to be tested, a match was found and Madalayna underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this month.

The recovery is expected to be lengthy as the transplant process is grueling on an infants body. Its expected that she will need to stay in a Toronto hospital for three months while she undergoes treatment.

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Benefit dinner will help family of baby girl recovering from bone marrow transplant - CTV News

In Brief Studies are being done on the value of replacing older blood with younger blood via transfusions. Other researchers are studying the effects of a certain protein, osteopontin, on blood cell production. 1000 Ways To Live Forever

Society is gradually changing its classification of aging as a natural phenomenon to a disease. We have made strides in our research on preventing and potentially reversing the effects of aging.In addition to the ongoing research in molecular biology ontelomeres, there is the interesting idea of utilizing young blood to combat aging. Ironically, the legends of Dracula might be vindicated in light of new research involving young blood to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, which has inspiredclinical trials that may give patients a chance at beating the Grim Reaper.

Ambrosia, a company inspired by the work done by Stanford University neuroscientistTony Wyss-Coray with parabiosis in mice, charges $8,000 per patient for its human clinical trial ofparabiosis. Although there may be 600 people whotake part in the study transfusing 1.5 liters of plasma with donors between the ages of 16 and 25, thestudy is being done without the blessing of Wyss. He believes that the study does not genuinely represent the science and that, theres just no clinical evidence, and youre basically abusing peoples trust and the public excitement around this.

While Ambrosia is operatingwithout clinical evidence to support the trials, the science behind utilizing young blood in repairing and restoring aged cellular processes is worth taking a look at.

Red and white blood cells are produced from stem cellswithin bone marrow, and as we grow older, our bodys ability to replenish the number of red and white blood cells greatly depletes. Similar to the mouse trials ran by Wyss-Coray, researcherHartmut Geigerand his team at the University of Ulm in Germany looked at the bone marrow in mice at varying ages and determined that older rodents produce very low levels of the protein osteopontin.

Rather than looking at blood transfusions for apossible solution like Wyss-Corays team, Geigers team looked the potential of stem cells to test the importance of the deficient protein.The team introduced fresh stem cells into mice that had little to no osteopontin and noticed that the stem cells aged very quickly. When older stem cells were introduced to a dish with osteopontin and anactivator protein, the stem cells began to propagate blood cells.

While companies like Ambrosia are testing blood transfusions on humans to mimic an experiment that utilized a shared circulatory system between an older mouse and a younger mouse, Geigers team notes that long-term studies must be done on their work to verify the effect of osteopontin on rejuvenating cells completely.

The team is developing a drug with the protein and its activating factor, but they do not promise a fountain of youth. They do believe that there would be benefits for the immune systems of the elderly, which may be better positioned to fight diseases that are linked with cardiovascular agingafter takingthe drug.

While all this talk about immortality is exciting, it might be a while before we can actually reap the benefits of researchers studiesin the way we hope. In the meantime, we can keep dreaming away death.

The rest is here:
If Young Blood Can Combat Aging, It May Be Thanks to Just One Protein - Futurism

Alexes Harris tells KUOW's Katherine Banwell her story.

When ProfessorAlexes Harris learned she had a rare form of leukemia, she knew she was in a fight for her life. But she didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a bone marrow match as a woman of color. This is her story.

I have a rare blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome.

I was diagnosed in May 2016 after a year of various tests.Prior to being diagnosed, my only health complaints were a random onset of what felt like asthma attacks during my cycling classes (the only reason I went to the doctor), feeling very tired, and not always thinking clearly. I was told that if I did not begin treatment right away I would have two years to live.

Im a 41-year-old mother of a 9 year old and 5 year old (and wife to an amazing husband), so my only true option was to begin treatment.

After being presented with treatment options, we opted for an intensive round of in-patient chemotherapy, which I underwent in June 2016 and managed symptoms in July, 2016.During my initial diagnosis I learned that I would eventually need a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. This would be my only hope of a cure.

We immediately started research to learn about how matches were found and I discovered that because I am a person with a mixed race and ethnic background (African American, Filipino and white) I would have a difficult time finding a full donor match.

While whites have a 75 percent chance of finding a full match in the existing bone marrow registry, African Americans only have a 19 percent likelihood of finding a match. African Americans comprise only 7 percent of the United States registry.

And, it is projected that by 2017 our likelihood of finding a match will only raise to 21 percent. Within the United States registry, the likelihood for finding a full match is higher for people of Mexican (37 percent), Chinese (41 percent), South Asian (33 percent), Hispanic Caribbean (40 percent) and Native American (52 percent) ancestry than for African Americans, but still significantly lower than the likelihood for whites.

Finding a non-related full match is difficult if you are a person of color, especially people of mixed race origin. Having a 100 percent match is crucial in predicting positive outcomes post-transplant. While the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance has been searching for a match, today, I still do not have a full bone marrow donor match and am moving forward with an alternative stem cell transplant using donated umbilical cord blood. My transplant for using cord blood was in September.

This is why we are organizing a national bone marrow donation registry campaign.I want to make my cancer matter, so my great friends stepped in to make this happen. Our goal is to have 4,000 new people registered by this effort. We need people of all backgrounds to become potential matches to help people like me live.

I am a professor of sociology and teach about social stratification, inequality and racial outcomes in institutional processing.I research class and racial differences in criminal justice processing and outcomes. I am the daughter of a black and Filipino man, wife to a black man, sister to black men, and mother of a black son and daughter.I live in the United States and, as many of us know, understand the racial inequalities in our broader society.Many times I feel overwhelmed about the lack of ability to make institutional differences, be it in our systems of education, criminal justice and health care.

Yet, when it comes to bone marrow donation, and other blood products and organ donation, we can make a difference. We can, for ourselves, save ourselves. Becoming involved in donation empowers us in a way like no other to alleviate health care disparities.

You can learn a lot about my story and this campaignatteamalexes.com. We had bone marrow registries in five cities last fall Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Please consider signing up for the bone marrow registry. You can literally be a superhero and save someones life.

Dr. Alexes Harris is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. This essay was originally published on her personal website.

Link:
I'm a woman of color with cancer. Here's why I can't find a bone marrow donor - KUOW News and Information

"Dancing With the Stars" pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy has been posting pictures on social media while getting treatment for his calf injury and now he's speaking out for the first time.

In exclusive video obtained by "Good Morning America," the past Mirror Ball champ is talking via video to his "DWTS" partner Heather Morris and telling her that he does not intend to lose this season.

Chmerkovskiy sat out Monday's show and Morris was paired up with pro stand-in Alan Bersten.

"I still feel like we have a chance," he tells Morris and Bersten in the video. "You deserve it and I want to give you 150 percent effort and be physically active as I was at my best."

"I want to come back and win," he says.

Chmerkovskiy has been posting several selfies from the hospital, with one captioned, "Gettin' un-broken."

Chmerkovskiy's fiancee Peta Murgatroyd previously told "Access Hollywood" that he is getting surgery for what could be tears in his calf muscle.

"It's gonna take a couple of weeks at least to get better," she said. "He's having a surgery done," but she added that he's a fighter and will be back as soon as he can.

"GMA" anchor Lara Spencer said today that doctors made a concentrate from Chmerkovskiy's bone marrow stem cells and injected them into his calf to speed up the recovery process.

Earlier in the week, the dancer thanked his fans for all their "love and support!"

"Please rest assured that I'm taking this thing very seriously and, although I don't have a concrete return date, I'll give it my all!" he said on Wednesday.

"Dancing With the Stars" returns Monday night on ABC.

Link:
Exclusive: 'Dancing With the Stars' pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy speaks out about injury - ABC News

BRADENTON, Fla. By now, the time line for recovery from Tommy John surgery is familiar even to the casual baseball fan. It takes at least a year, usually more. It takes tedious, monotonous work on the part of the player.

Alternatives exist, but until now their use among established major leaguers has been limited if tried at all. This season could provide a referendum on two of them. One surgical procedure could cut the recovery time in half. Another treatment could help a player avoid surgery altogether.

I think it can definitely help the game, right-hander Seth Maness, who had a modified elbow ligament surgery in August, said by phone from spring training in Arizona. But the circumstances have to be right.

Maness had a surgery on his right elbow known as a primary repair or primary brace. The procedure reattaches the elbows ulnar collateral ligament to the bone with collagen-coated Arthrex tape. Los Angeles Angels starter Garrett Richards received a stem cell injection into his right elbow to heal his damaged UCL. So far, its working.

The last thing you want to do is have surgery, and if you do what your body does naturally, thats going to be stronger than any replacement surgery, Richards said, also by phone from spring training in Arizona. I just hope that this further gives guys a little bit of knowledge that you have options.

Neither procedure will replace Tommy John. Stem cells dont work in every case, and if the UCL is torn across the middle of the ligament, it needs to be replaced. The sample size for both is also small. But both provide options involving less recovery time for pitchers whose injuries fit a certain profile.

Maness, 28, spent four seasons pitching out of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen and signed a minor league contract with the Kansas City Royals in February. Maness ligament had pulled away from the bone rather than tearing across the middle. Instead of needing a full Tommy John surgery, which requires grafting a tendon from the wrist or hamstring into the elbow to replace the UCL and at least a year of recovery, Maness was a candidate for a primary repair.

Really this primary brace technology had been used more widely in Europe, particularly for ligament injuries of the knee and the ankle, said Dr. George Paletta, St. Louis Cardinals head orthopedic surgeon who performed Maness surgery. So the concept or the idea was, OK, its working well there, is there a way to adapt it to the elbow?

Paletta had done roughly 60 primary repairs on amateur pitchers prior to operating on Maness and saw an average recovery time of 6 months. That background helped him establish three criteria he needed a young pitcher, an otherwise healthy ligament and, most importantly,the ligament needed to pull off the bone on one end rather than tear in the middle.

Weve had a lot of experience with ligaments healing directly to bone and we have a good understanding of that timetable, so we knew that by about 12 weeks after surgery, this repair should be pretty well healed and pretty solid at that point, Paletta said.

Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris also had the primary repair, as did a third pitcher with major league experience, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with whom Maness first discussed the procedure in January. Cardinals non-roster outfielder/pitcher Jordan Schafer had the procedure this month.

The UCL in Richards right elbow had a tear running along the ligament, not across it. He sought second opinions from noted orthopedic surgeons Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

Dr. Andrews pretty much told me, Hey Garrett, if you were my son, I would try the stem cell first, Richards said.

Doctors removed stem cells from his pelvis and injected them into his elbow, in hopes the cells would heal the UCL. Stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, are able to develop into multiple different tissues and can promote healing.

It just feels tight. Youre putting fluid into a place that pretty much doesnt have any room for any more fluid, Richards said of the injection. If you can imagine youre just overfilling a certain area with this nice special sauce.

Teams sometimes use platelet-rich plasma injections, where blood is spun in a centrifuge to isolate growth factors Takashi Saitos PRP injection in 2008 was believed to be the first for a major league pitcher, and Masahiro Tanaka also has pitched successfully with a partially torn UCL after PRP treatment but stem cells are less common. Bartolo Colon, soldiering into his 20th major league season at 43 years old, had a stem cell treatment in 2010. Boston Red Sox left-hander Drew Pomeranz had a stem cell injection in his elbow this winter to address lingering soreness.But Pomeranz went on the disabled list Thursday with left forearm flexor strain.

It doesnt always work. Richards teammate, lefty Andrew Heaney, needed Tommy John last summer after stem cells didnt do the trick.

Richards six-week exam showed significant growth. His three-month check showed even more. He reported no issues this spring, his high-90s mph fastball is back and he is on track to open the season in the rotation.

Everything feels great, Richards said. Basically I took the year off, let my arm heal and now Im back doing what I always do. I just feel refreshed.

Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.

Continued here:
How new-age medicine is helping Major League Baseball pitchers avoid injury - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Screenshot of Taigas website.

A startup at University of Colorado Anschutz is in the middle of a substantial capital raise.

Taiga Biotechnologies, which is developing new therapies for cancer, HIV and other diseases, has raised $6 million and is looking for an additional $14 million, according to a recent SEC filing.

The date of the first sale was March 16, and so far, the startup has 14 individual investors.

Founded in 2006, Taiga creates therapies for cancer, immune diseases and other serious medical conditions using stem cells, proteins and other molecular compounds.

In 2012, the firmreceived a patent to produce significant amounts of adult blood stem cells using blood from umbilical cords or bone marrow. Blood samples could be stored and expanded to be used after chemotherapy or radiation treatment, instead of having multiple bone marrow transplants.

Last summer, Taiga developed a product to help children with severe immune deficiencies, forcing them to live in protected and sterile environments. The product, which garnered an Orphan Drug Designation from the Food and Drug Administration, was approved for clinical trial in Israel.

Taiga is led by co-founders Brian Turner and Yosef Refaeli.

The company received $12 million in a raise ending in 2015, as well as $246,000 in 2010, according to SEC filings.

Taiga is basedat 12635 E. Montview Blvd. at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Kate Tracy is a BusinessDen reporter who covers nonprofits, startups and the outdoors industry. She is a graduate of Corban University. Email her at kate@BusinessDen.com.

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UC Anschutz startup gets $6M boost to fight disease with stem cells - BusinessDen