Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category

Nigeria launches its first ever bone marrow registry, which should make it easier to find matches for black people around the world.

By Jef Akst | March 19, 2012

Bone marrow transplants, or hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCT), treat more than 70 different diseases, including some types of leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anaemia. But such treatment often requires the matching of strangers for their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. And while 70 percent of Caucasian patients are successfully matched, only 17 percent of black people in the United States are as lucky, according to The New York Stem Cell Foundation, likely because only 8 percent of donors in US registries are black.

The Bone Marrow Registry in Nigeria (BMRN), the countrys first ever bone marrow registry and the continents second (South Africa having the only other accredited registry), aims to change all that. The registry follows the excitement surrounding Nigerias first bone marrow transplant last October, in which a young sickle cell anaemia patient received bone marrow from a sibling. In addition to providing an invaluable service to the people of Nigeria, the registry, launched by Seun Adebiyi of Yale University, should help black patients around the world find matched donors. The launch of the registry was discussed at the NCD Child Conference currently being held in San Francisco.

Adebiyi also plans to establish another Nigerian source for stem cell transplantsan umbilical cord blood bank. With as little as $75,000, we could build [a cord blood bank] in Nigeria by the end of this year instead of discarding this valuable source of stem cells, he said in a Lancet press release. There are almost 400 distinct ethnic groups and over 154 million people in Nigeria alone, and there is a huge population of umbilical stem cells just waiting to be banked in the maternity wards of hospitals around the country.

By Hannah Waters

Replacing immune cells in a mouse model of Rett syndrome, a developmental brain disorder, improved symptoms, suggesting a new target for treatment.

By Megan Scudellari

The biomedical institute seeks up to 30 new investigators in its first nationwide search in 5 years.

By Cristina Luiggi

Read more from the original source:
New African Bone Marrow Registry

Lindsay Porter's kidneys were failing rapidly when a friend offered to donate one of his. Then she made an unusual request: Would he donate part of his immune system, too?

Every day for the rest of their lives, transplant recipients must swallow handfuls of pills to keep their bodies from rejecting a donated organ. The Chicago woman hoped to avoid those problematic drugs, enrolling in a study to try to trick her own immune system into accepting a foreign kidney.

It's one of a series of small, high-stakes experiments around the country that has researchers hopeful that they're finally closing in on how to help at least some transplant patients go drug-free. The key: Create a sort of twin immunity, by transplanting some of the kidney donor's immune-producing cells along with the new organ.

"I'm so lucky," says the 47-year-old Porter, who stumbled across the research at Chicago's Northwestern University. Porter was able to quit her pills last summer, a year after her transplant, and says, "I feel amazing."

These experiments are a big gamble. If the technique fails, patients could lose their new kidney, possibly their lives. Doctors stress that no one should try quitting anti-rejection drugs on their own.

AP

Why risk it even in a careful scientific study? Anti-rejection medications can cause debilitating, even deadly, side effects, from fatigue and infections to an increased risk of cancer and kidney damage.

Without the drugs, "the hope for me is I'm able to keep this kidney for the rest of my life," Porter says.

Across the country, Stanford University is testing a slightly different transplant method and hosted a reunion earlier this month for about a dozen kidney recipients who've been drug-free for up to three years.

"These people who are off their drugs, they're cured," says Dr. Samuel Strober, who leads the study of Stanford's approach. "If they have to be on drugs the rest of their life, it doesn't have the same meaning of 'cure.'"

Read more from the original source:
Transplant Patients Seek Life Without Drugs

Lindsay Porter's kidneys were failing rapidly when a friend offered to donate one of his. Then she made an unusual request: Would he donate part of his immune system, too?

Every day for the rest of their lives, transplant recipients must swallow handfuls of pills to keep their bodies from rejecting a donated organ. The Chicago woman hoped to avoid those problematic drugs, enrolling in a study to try to trick her own immune system into accepting a foreign kidney.

It's one of a series of small, high-stakes experiments around the country that has researchers hopeful that they're finally closing in on how to help at least some transplant patients go drug-free. The key: Create a sort of twin immunity, by transplanting some of the kidney donor's immune-producing cells along with the new organ.

"I'm so lucky," says the 47-year-old Porter, who stumbled across the research at Chicago's Northwestern University. Porter was able to quit her pills last summer, a year after her transplant, and says, "I feel amazing."

These experiments are a big gamble. If the technique fails, patients could lose their new kidney, possibly their lives. Doctors stress that no one should try quitting anti-rejection drugs on their own.

AP

Why risk it even in a careful scientific study? Anti-rejection medications can cause debilitating, even deadly, side effects, from fatigue and infections to an increased risk of cancer and kidney damage.

Without the drugs, "the hope for me is I'm able to keep this kidney for the rest of my life," Porter says.

Across the country, Stanford University is testing a slightly different transplant method and hosted a reunion earlier this month for about a dozen kidney recipients who've been drug-free for up to three years.

"These people who are off their drugs, they're cured," says Dr. Samuel Strober, who leads the study of Stanford's approach. "If they have to be on drugs the rest of their life, it doesn't have the same meaning of 'cure.'"

See more here:
Transplant Patients Seek Life Without Drugs

HUNTSVILLE Tomi Garrison had no idea what her future would hold when she agreed to have her mouth swabbed during a bone marrow donor drive in the spring of2010.

The Sam Houston State University softball player and psychology major was a sophomore when the Be The Match Registry did a presentation in her health class, calling on volunteers to start the process that would determine if they had compatible bone marrow to someone who desperately needed it.

My friend and I said yeah well do it, never thinking wed be called on, because statistically the chances of us being a match were so slim, said Garrison, now a senior at SHSU.

But the unlikely scenario became reality a year later when Garrison got an email that would soon change not only her life but also someone elses.

The email said I was a possible match and asked if I would do more testing. So I went in for testing at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where they took a lot of blood and tested to see if the antigens matched up, she said. Even then the chances of being an accurate match werent good, but I was hoping I would be a match.

Garrisons hopes came true in October 2011, when she received word that she had compatible bone marrow to a 59-year-old woman who suffers frommultiple myeloma.

She quickly agreed to become a donor for a woman shed never met.

My mom cries about everything, said Garrison. So she started crying because she was just proud of me because this was solely my decision.

The tears continued when Garrison shared the news with SHSU health instructor Susie Stone and Roseanne Keathley, acting chair of the SHSU Department of Health and Kinesiology.

We just screamed and cried, Keathley said. We were so excited that one of our students here in the health department was a match and that she was willing to take the time away from school to do this.

Read more here:
SHSU senior donates bone marrow to cancer victim

For about three days in January, Matt Ladd said he didnt know whether it was day or night, what was top or bottom.

I was probably as sick as Ive ever been, said Ladd, a Billings game warden, in a telephone interview from Seattle. As things got progressively worse and worse, I was really concerned about what was going on right then.

Ladd was headed to Seattle for stem cell bone marrow transplant surgery when an infection he was being treated for worsened. The infection started around a catheter inserted into his chest to deliver chemotherapy drugs. The chemo was battling Ladds acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, which was diagnosed in September. His bone marrow wasnt producing enough red blood cells.

The chemo worked. He was in remission and on his way to Seattle for a bone marrow transplant when the infection sent him into a rapid downward spiral. Because of the location of the catheter, the infection attacked his heart valves. During the struggle with the infection, his kidneys failed, his body retained water and he swelled up.

The infection scuttled plans for the bone marrow transplant surgery. With his kidneys failing, he had to undergo dialysis. As a final insult to his immune system, he had to take more chemotherapy since the surgery had been delayed and doctors feared the MDS might return.

My body and kidneys didnt respond well to the chemo, he said.

More than a month after he was scheduled to undergo surgery, Ladd is living in an apartment north of Seattle as family members rotate caretaking duties. His wife, Maureen, a math teacher at Billings West High, is holding down the fort at home, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for their sons, Dylan, Logan and Jack.

What was going to be a short process has become a very long process, Maureen said.

Now the Ladds are waiting to hear whether Matt and his sister, Jessica Cook, will take part in a Seattle Cancer Center Alliance study of a new method of bone marrow transplantation. Since Ladds kidneys have been injured, he would normally have to have a reduced-intensity transplant used for the elderly and those with health issues, Maureen explained.

The experimental method would treat Cook, Ladds only sibling and a bone marrow transplant match, with Lipitor prior to the surgery. The cholesterol-lowering drug has shown promise in preventing reactions to transplants. If they are accepted for the study, it would mean a further delay of surgery, since Cook would have to be on the drug for a couple of weeks prior to the operation.

Read more from the original source:
Billings game warden fights cancer complications

For David and Mary Hubbell of Fisher, every day spent with their 18-year-old daughter, Katy, feels like a treasure.

Katy Hubbell was 4 years old in 1997 when doctors diagnosed her with a life-threatening bone marrow disease called aplastic anemia.

The disease prevented Katy's body from producing enough blood cells to keep her alive, and at least one doctor gave the Fisher girl a year to live.

But Katy and her family received new hope when she received a bone marrow transplant in Houston, followed by rounds of chemotherapy treatment. Community members offered their prayers and put on fundraisers to help pay for the family's bills.

Nearly 13 years after the life-changing procedure, Katy Hubbell is a senior at Fisher High School, where she has a part in the school play, completes anime drawings and plans to go to college.

"Katy continues to amaze us, and every day with this smiling girl is a gift," said Katy's mother, Mary Hubbell. "The experience changed us as people and made us realize that life is so short."

David Hubbell took his daughter to a pediatrician at Carle after she began receiving an abnormal number of bruises in 1997. Blood tests showed Katy's platelet level was dangerously low.

When her red and white cell counts started to fall, Katy was transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, along with lymphoma.

"Patients with severe aplastic anemia have no immune system," Mary Hubbell said. "They can't be outside of a hospital environment, and any kind of infection can be very life-threatening."

Katy was kept at home to avoid infection, and visitors had to scrub themselves before entering the home.

More:
13 years after a bone-marrow transplant, Katy Hubbell plans for college

Rett syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, causes problems with communication, coordination and movement.

AP Photo/The Idaho Statesman

A bone-marrow transplant can treat a mouse version of Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder that affects roughly 1 in 10,00020,000 girls born worldwide (boys with the disease typically die within a few weeks of birth).

The findings, published today in Nature1, suggest that brain-dwelling immune cells called microglia are defective in Rett syndrome. The authors say their findings also raise the possibility that bone-marrow transplants or other means of boosting the brains immune cells could help to treat the disease.

If we show the immune system is playing a very important role in Rett patients and we could replace it in a safe way, we may develop some feasible therapies in the future, says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, who led the study.

Mutations in a single gene on the X chromosome,MECP2, cause the disease. Because they have only one X chromosome, boys born with the mutation die within weeks of birth. Girls with one faulty copy develop Rett syndrome.

Symptoms of Rett syndrome typically set in between 6 and 18 months of age. Girls with the disease have trouble putting on weight and often do not learn to speak. They repeat behaviours such as hand-washing and tend to have trouble walking. Many develop breathing problems and apnoea. Rett syndrome is classified as an autism spectrum disorder, and treatments focus on symptoms such as nutritional and gastrointestinal problems.

The MECP2 protein orchestrates the activity of many other genes, but how its alteration causes Rett syndrome is a mystery. I wish I knew, says Kipnis.

Neurons express more MECP2 than any other cell in the brain, and restoring the genes function in mouse neurons reverses some disease symptoms2.Recently, however, scientists have begun to suspect that other brain cells are also involved. Re-activating MECP2 in brain-support cells called astrocytes treats gait problems and anxiety in mice3.

Kipnis and his team focused on another class of brain cell microglia. They are the brains macrophages, a type of immune cell that sops up the detritus created by other cells. Studies have linked various immune cells to brain function, including repetitive and compulsive behaviour4, which led Kipnis to test whether replacing an immune system in mice lacking Mecp2 with cells containing the gene could improve symptoms.

Continued here:
Bone-marrow transplant reverses Rett syndrome in mice

For David and Mary Hubbell of Fisher, every day spent with their 18-year-old daughter, Katy, feels like a treasure.

Katy Hubbell was 4 years old in 1997 when doctors diagnosed her with a life-threatening bone marrow disease called aplastic anemia.

The disease prevented Katy's body from producing enough blood cells to keep her alive, and at least one doctor gave the Fisher girl a year to live.

But Katy and her family received new hope when she received a bone marrow transplant in Houston, followed by rounds of chemotherapy treatment. Community members offered their prayers and put on fundraisers to help pay for the family's bills.

Nearly 13 years after the life-changing procedure, Katy Hubbell is a senior at Fisher High School, where she has a part in the school play, completes anime drawings and plans to go to college.

"Katy continues to amaze us, and every day with this smiling girl is a gift," said Katy's mother, Mary Hubbell. "The experience changed us as people and made us realize that life is so short."

David Hubbell took his daughter to a pediatrician at Carle after she began receiving an abnormal number of bruises in 1997. Blood tests showed Katy's platelet level was dangerously low.

When her red and white cell counts started to fall, Katy was transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, along with lymphoma.

"Patients with severe aplastic anemia have no immune system," Mary Hubbell said. "They can't be outside of a hospital environment, and any kind of infection can be very life-threatening."

Katy was kept at home to avoid infection, and visitors had to scrub themselves before entering the home.

Read the rest here:
13 years after a bone-marrow transplant, Katy Hubbell plans for college

Rett syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, causes problems with communication, coordination and movement.

AP Photo/The Idaho Statesman

A bone-marrow transplant can treat a mouse version of Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder that affects roughly 1 in 10,00020,000 girls born worldwide (boys with the disease typically die within a few weeks of birth).

The findings, published today in Nature1, suggest that brain-dwelling immune cells called microglia are defective in Rett syndrome. The authors say their findings also raise the possibility that bone-marrow transplants or other means of boosting the brains immune cells could help to treat the disease.

If we show the immune system is playing a very important role in Rett patients and we could replace it in a safe way, we may develop some feasible therapies in the future, says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, who led the study.

Mutations in a single gene on the X chromosome,MECP2, cause the disease. Because they have only one X chromosome, boys born with the mutation die within weeks of birth. Girls with one faulty copy develop Rett syndrome.

Symptoms of Rett syndrome typically set in between 6 and 18 months of age. Girls with the disease have trouble putting on weight and often do not learn to speak. They repeat behaviours such as hand-washing and tend to have trouble walking. Many develop breathing problems and apnoea. Rett syndrome is classified as an autism spectrum disorder, and treatments focus on symptoms such as nutritional and gastrointestinal problems.

The MECP2 protein orchestrates the activity of many other genes, but how its alteration causes Rett syndrome is a mystery. I wish I knew, says Kipnis.

Neurons express more MECP2 than any other cell in the brain, and restoring the genes function in mouse neurons reverses some disease symptoms2.Recently, however, scientists have begun to suspect that other brain cells are also involved. Re-activating MECP2 in brain-support cells called astrocytes treats gait problems and anxiety in mice3.

Kipnis and his team focused on another class of brain cell microglia. They are the brains macrophages, a type of immune cell that sops up the detritus created by other cells. Studies have linked various immune cells to brain function, including repetitive and compulsive behaviour4, which led Kipnis to test whether replacing an immune system in mice lacking Mecp2 with cells containing the gene could improve symptoms.

More here:
Bone-marrow transplant reverses Rett syndrome in mice

For about three days in January, Matt Ladd said he didnt know whether it was day or night, what was top or bottom.

I was probably as sick as Ive ever been, said Ladd, a Billings game warden, in a telephone interview from Seattle. As things got progressively worse and worse, I was really concerned about what was going on right then.

Ladd was headed to Seattle for stem cell bone marrow transplant surgery when an infection he was being treated for worsened. The infection started around a catheter inserted into his chest to deliver chemotherapy drugs. The chemo was battling Ladds acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, which was diagnosed in September. His bone marrow wasnt producing enough red blood cells.

The chemo worked. He was in remission and on his way to Seattle for a bone marrow transplant when the infection sent him into a rapid downward spiral. Because of the location of the catheter, the infection attacked his heart valves. During the struggle with the infection, his kidneys failed, his body retained water and he swelled up.

The infection scuttled plans for the bone marrow transplant surgery. With his kidneys failing, he had to undergo dialysis. As a final insult to his immune system, he had to take more chemotherapy since the surgery had been delayed and doctors feared the MDS might return.

My body and kidneys didnt respond well to the chemo, he said.

More than a month after he was scheduled to undergo surgery, Ladd is living in an apartment north of Seattle as family members rotate caretaking duties. His wife, Maureen, a math teacher at Billings West High, is holding down the fort at home, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for their sons, Dylan, Logan and Jack.

What was going to be a short process has become a very long process, Maureen said.

Now the Ladds are waiting to hear whether Matt and his sister, Jessica Cook, will take part in a Seattle Cancer Center Alliance study of a new method of bone marrow transplantation. Since Ladds kidneys have been injured, he would normally have to have a reduced-intensity transplant used for the elderly and those with health issues, Maureen explained.

The experimental method would treat Cook, Ladds only sibling and a bone marrow transplant match, with Lipitor prior to the surgery. The cholesterol-lowering drug has shown promise in preventing reactions to transplants. If they are accepted for the study, it would mean a further delay of surgery, since Cook would have to be on the drug for a couple of weeks prior to the operation.

See the original post here:
Billings game warden fights cancer complications

18-02-2011 06:00 What is the difference between stem cell transplantation and bone marrow transplantation?

Read more:
Bone Marrow Transplantation: Stem Cell Transplantation - Video

The same species that submitted itself to experimentation for treatments to human cancers is now getting a cure with N.C. State's first canine bone marrow transplant.

In 2008, Dr. Steven Suter, assistant professor of oncology, began performing bone marrow transplants, BMT, on dogs. N.C. State is the only university in the world that offers this treatment. While private practices do exist, mainly on the west coast, they have treated few dogs. People have traveled from across the country to utilize these services.

Once I became an oncologist, I realized that this could probably be done now in a clinical setting if the appropriate machines could be found, apheresis machines. Once I got a hold of some of these machines, I started collecting peripheral blood progenitor cells from a few research colony dogs. After I showed we could do that, we moved on to start transplanting client-owned dogs. We opened our canine BMT unit in October 2008, Suter said.

Until recently, the transplants used stem cells from the dogs' own blood, so only those who had a disease in remission could be treated. The treatment was typically used on dogs with lymphoma.

The cure rate of dogs with lymphoma treated with chemotherapy is less than 5 percent, so I felt we could do better on that front with BMT, Suter said. We have modified the protocol extensively since the first 24 dogs, so we are hoping it will now be better.

However this all changed with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Chip and Zeke, earlier this year. Zeke was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in December 2011. This disease could only be treated by use of donor bone marrow. Chip, a littermate, was the prime choice.

We do require a donor, since we can not harvest progenitor cells from the patient. Leukemia patients have too many cancer cells floating around in their blood, so the machine would harvest them also. So, we find a matched donor who does not have cancer obviously, and harvest the cells from them, Suter said. We don't use this procedure regularly to treat dogs with leukemia ... we've treated two dogs with leukemia. We use it mainly to treat dogs with lymphoma, which is a very different disease."

The owners of the dogs met for the first time at N.C. State for the procedure to take place.

Jason Hefner, a fourth year in veterinary medicine, worked with Zeke while he was here.

To our knowledge, only one previous case has been treated with a donor. Zeke had a great disposition, and I looked forward to visiting him each morning for his treatments. Zeke is now in New York and looking forward to a happy and healthy life, Hefner said.

Link:
University gives dog a bone marrow transplant

14 March 2012 Last updated at 09:00 ET By Jane O'Brien BBC News, Maine

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

One of Doreen Flynn's daughters, 13-year-old Jordan, says the whole transplant process scares her

A mother in the US is desperate to find bone marrow donors to save the lives of her three daughters who are critically ill from a rare blood disorder. Now, she is challenging a federal law barring her from compensating prospective donors.

Thousands of Americans who need transplants die every year because they cannot find a suitable donor, advocates say.

They propose a controversial way to encourage more people to come forward: Pay them.

"It is widening the donor pool. A lot of times employers don't pay for the time off that these donors take from work," says Doreen Flynn of Lewiston, Maine.

"So I think in those instances those people can say, 'you know I can do that,' knowing that there will be a support system for them at the end."

Ms Flynn's three daughters have a rare genetic blood disorder called Fanconi Anaemia. Their bone marrow does not make enough blood cells to keep them healthy and their only hope for survival is a transplant.

It is against US law to sell body parts - including bone marrow. But last year, Ms Flynn won a court ruling in favour of compensating donors whose blood stem cells are collected using a process called aphaeresis.

Read the original here:
Should it be legal to pay for bone marrow donations?

Edited by M. A. Hayat 384 pp, $209 New York, NY, Springer, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-9-4007-2015-2

Stem cells and cancer stem cells are 2 distinct, evolving, and promising areas of research. Hematopoietic stem cells are already used in the treatment of bone marrow failure and hematologic malignancies, and there is now great interest in isolating stem cells from other organs for use in replenishing damaged tissue in the heart, brain, bones, and other organs and structures. In contrast, cancer stem cells, a newly recognized component of some cancers, have some properties of pluripotent stem cells in that they replicate without normal cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Moreover, they are naturally resistant to chemotherapy because of drug-exuding pumps, DNA repair proteins, and dormancy; thus, these cells are now suspected to be the root cause of relapse and metastasis after conventional therapies in some malignancies, especially leukemia. Targeting cancer stem cells in addition to cancer cells may therefore lead to better eradication of cancer than is presently possible.

Read more:
Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells: Therapeutic Applications in Disease and Injury, Volume 2 [Book and Media Reviews]

06-12-2011 15:55 If you thought that a bone marrow donation was a painful process, think again. CBS4, Denver, shows you the easy way to a donate that might surprise you. Brought to you by MedCenterNetwork.

See more here:
Stem Cell Donation - Video

Lesley Domiano

By Ben Bodart, Special to the Independent

Perhaps the previous seven days were the most important in the life of Lesley Domiano. The 66 year-old Laguna Beach resident organized three separate events in town last week to lure a potential bone marrow donor for a transplant she absolutely needs if she is to see 2013.

She packed them altogether because this past Monday Domiano knew she would be submitting to yet another chemotherapy session and unable to meet donors face to face. And I really wanted to meet all the people that came to be potential donors, she said on Wednesday at Mozambique restaurant, which hosted a donor invite on her behalf. I am so blessed that the community where I live is so amazing. You cannot believe it touches me! It makes me feel so good about the world.

Domianos life has been a battle since she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare type of cancer known as bone marrow failure disease. She thought the most difficult part was behind her when she went to remission for more than a year. But last August, the disease reoccurred. Recently, she was told she would need a bone marrow transplant to live more than four or six months.

I do not want to think about it, Domiano said. Time is really important because if we find a donor, I have to be in good enough condition to receive and recover from the surgery.

Excerpt from:
A Firebrand Media Publication

Public release date: 12-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Jackson press_releases@the-jci.org 919-684-0620 Journal of Clinical Investigation

EDITOR'S PICK Restoring what's lost: uncovering how liver tissue regenerates

The liver is unique among mammalian organs in its ability to regenerate after significant tissue damage or even partial surgical removal. Laurie DeLeve and her colleagues at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles wanted to better understand which cells are specifically responsible for driving liver regeneration. A specialized cell type, known as liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, has generally been thought to promote regeneration of liver tissue. However, the DeLeve team suspected that stem cells and progenitor cells, which have the capacity to differentiate into mature cell types, might be responsible for stimulating liver regeneration by generating hepatocyte growth factor. Using a rat model system, they first identified the presence of stem and progenitor cells that give rise to liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in both the liver and the bone marrow. They next sought to determine which population of stem and progenitor cells are required for regeneration. DeLeve and colleagues found that the bone marrow-derived cells were not required for liver cell proliferation in the absence of damage. In contrast, following surgical removal of a portion of the rat liver, an infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells was required for liver regeneration. These results improve our understanding of how liver tissue can regenerate following damage and may shed light on liver complications in patients with suppressed bone marrow tissue.

TITLE: Liver sinusoidal endothelial cell progenitor cells promote liver regeneration in rats

AUTHOR CONTACT: Laurie D. DeLeve University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA Phone: 323-442-3248; Fax: 323-442-3238; E-mail: deleve@usc.edu

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/58789?key=21e2857b21106f232595

ONCOLOGY New Determinant of Human Breast Cancer Metastasis Discovered

Researchers at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, KY have provided new insight as to why the most severe subtype of breast cancer in humans frequently metastasizes. Tumor cells can exploit a cellular program that promotes cell migration and reduces adhesion between cells to spread to distant sites in the body (metastasis). This cellular program, known as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, is normally restricted to wound healing, tissue remodeling and embryonic development. Increasing cell motility requires a decrease in E-cadherin, which functions to promote cell-cell adhesion. Led by Binhua Zhou, the research team identified G9a as a major repressor of E-cadherin expression. They found that G9a interacts with Snail, which can repress gene expression, to modify the E-cadherin promoter and block expression of the E-cadherin gene. Their findings establish that G9a is an important determinant of metastasis in the most severe sub-type of breast cancer, and suggest the development of new therapeutics targeting this pathway could potentially disrupt the metastatic disease.

TITLE: G9a interacts with Snail and is critical for Snail-mediated E-cadherin repression in human breast cancer

See the rest here:
JCI early table of contents for March 12, 2012

Public release date: 12-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Jackson sarah.jackson@the-jci.org 919-684-0620 Journal of Clinical Investigation

The liver is unique among mammalian organs in its ability to regenerate after significant tissue damage or even partial surgical removal. Laurie DeLeve and her colleagues at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles wanted to better understand which cells are specifically responsible for driving liver regeneration. A specialized cell type, known as liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, has generally been thought to promote regeneration of liver tissue. However, the DeLeve team suspected that stem cells and progenitor cells, which have the capacity to differentiate into mature cell types, might be responsible for stimulating liver regeneration by generating hepatocyte growth factor. Using a rat model system, they first identified the presence of stem and progenitor cells that give rise to liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in both the liver and the bone marrow. They next sought to determine which population of stem and progenitor cells are required for regeneration. DeLeve and colleagues found that the bone marrow-derived cells were not required for liver cell proliferation in the absence of damage. In contrast, following surgical removal of a portion of the rat liver, an infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells was required for liver regeneration. These results improve our understanding of how liver tissue can regenerate following damage and may shed light on liver complications in patients with suppressed bone marrow tissue.

###

TITLE: Liver sinusoidal endothelial cell progenitor cells promote liver regeneration in rats

AUTHOR CONTACT: Laurie D. DeLeve University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA Phone: 323-442-3248; Fax: 323-442-3238; E-mail: deleve@usc.edu View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/58789?key=21e2857b21106f232595

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

More:
Restoring what's lost: Uncovering how liver tissue regenerates

Public release date: 12-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Jackson press_releases@the-jci.org 919-684-0620 Journal of Clinical Investigation

EDITOR'S PICK Restoring what's lost: uncovering how liver tissue regenerates

The liver is unique among mammalian organs in its ability to regenerate after significant tissue damage or even partial surgical removal. Laurie DeLeve and her colleagues at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles wanted to better understand which cells are specifically responsible for driving liver regeneration. A specialized cell type, known as liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, has generally been thought to promote regeneration of liver tissue. However, the DeLeve team suspected that stem cells and progenitor cells, which have the capacity to differentiate into mature cell types, might be responsible for stimulating liver regeneration by generating hepatocyte growth factor. Using a rat model system, they first identified the presence of stem and progenitor cells that give rise to liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in both the liver and the bone marrow. They next sought to determine which population of stem and progenitor cells are required for regeneration. DeLeve and colleagues found that the bone marrow-derived cells were not required for liver cell proliferation in the absence of damage. In contrast, following surgical removal of a portion of the rat liver, an infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells was required for liver regeneration. These results improve our understanding of how liver tissue can regenerate following damage and may shed light on liver complications in patients with suppressed bone marrow tissue.

TITLE: Liver sinusoidal endothelial cell progenitor cells promote liver regeneration in rats

AUTHOR CONTACT: Laurie D. DeLeve University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA Phone: 323-442-3248; Fax: 323-442-3238; E-mail: deleve@usc.edu

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/58789?key=21e2857b21106f232595

ONCOLOGY New Determinant of Human Breast Cancer Metastasis Discovered

Researchers at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, KY have provided new insight as to why the most severe subtype of breast cancer in humans frequently metastasizes. Tumor cells can exploit a cellular program that promotes cell migration and reduces adhesion between cells to spread to distant sites in the body (metastasis). This cellular program, known as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, is normally restricted to wound healing, tissue remodeling and embryonic development. Increasing cell motility requires a decrease in E-cadherin, which functions to promote cell-cell adhesion. Led by Binhua Zhou, the research team identified G9a as a major repressor of E-cadherin expression. They found that G9a interacts with Snail, which can repress gene expression, to modify the E-cadherin promoter and block expression of the E-cadherin gene. Their findings establish that G9a is an important determinant of metastasis in the most severe sub-type of breast cancer, and suggest the development of new therapeutics targeting this pathway could potentially disrupt the metastatic disease.

TITLE: G9a interacts with Snail and is critical for Snail-mediated E-cadherin repression in human breast cancer

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JCI early table of contents for March 12, 2012

Public release date: 12-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Jackson sarah.jackson@the-jci.org 919-684-0620 Journal of Clinical Investigation

The liver is unique among mammalian organs in its ability to regenerate after significant tissue damage or even partial surgical removal. Laurie DeLeve and her colleagues at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles wanted to better understand which cells are specifically responsible for driving liver regeneration. A specialized cell type, known as liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, has generally been thought to promote regeneration of liver tissue. However, the DeLeve team suspected that stem cells and progenitor cells, which have the capacity to differentiate into mature cell types, might be responsible for stimulating liver regeneration by generating hepatocyte growth factor. Using a rat model system, they first identified the presence of stem and progenitor cells that give rise to liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in both the liver and the bone marrow. They next sought to determine which population of stem and progenitor cells are required for regeneration. DeLeve and colleagues found that the bone marrow-derived cells were not required for liver cell proliferation in the absence of damage. In contrast, following surgical removal of a portion of the rat liver, an infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells was required for liver regeneration. These results improve our understanding of how liver tissue can regenerate following damage and may shed light on liver complications in patients with suppressed bone marrow tissue.

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TITLE: Liver sinusoidal endothelial cell progenitor cells promote liver regeneration in rats

AUTHOR CONTACT: Laurie D. DeLeve University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA Phone: 323-442-3248; Fax: 323-442-3238; E-mail: deleve@usc.edu View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/58789?key=21e2857b21106f232595

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Restoring what's lost: Uncovering how liver tissue regenerates

For months we've been following the story of a Little Rock mom diagnosed with leukemia just hours before giving birth to a healthy baby boy. Sunday dozens turned out at a bone marrow drive for her.

Leslie Harris, 29, is now on a mission to get as many people as she can to swab their mouths to see if they could be a potential donor match not just for her but for the thousands of others in need of a transplant.

Doctors have told her she has only months to live unless she has a bone marrow transplant.

Leslie Harris said, "They told me my odds were 1 in 21,000 of finding a donor and my mom got real worried and I told her all we need is one."

Sunday she stopped by a bone marrow drive in North Little Rock to thank everyone who got swabbed to see if they could be a match.

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Community Rallies Behind LR Mom Battling Leukemia

Cancer sufferer Pamela Bou Sejean wants your help to save her life

Pamela Bou Sejean has Hodgkin's Lymphoma and needs a stem cell transplant. Picture: Alison Wynd Source: News Limited

PAMELA Bou Sejean is fighting for her life.

After 16 months battling an aggressive form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the 26-year-old has turned to Facebook in a last ditch bid to find the stem cell donor to keep her alive.

TheVictorian woman in Belmont does not match with any registered bone marrow donor in the world so is now pleading for the public to come forward to be blood tested for a possible match.

"I don't know how much time I have, I get too afraid to ask," Ms Bou Sejean told the Geelong Advertiser.

"I want to focus on what we're doing now.

"The waiting process is hard."

With her life in the balance, Ms Bou Sejean's brother Matt a week ago set up the Facebook page How You Can Help Cure Pamela.

There, Facebook users are told about her fight and how to be blood tested for a possible stem cell match.

Read the original here:
Stem cells are my last hope. Can you help?

Pamela Bousejean has Hodgkin's Lymphoma and needs a stem cell transplant. Picture: Alison Wynd Source: News Limited

PAMELA Bou Sejean is fighting for her life.

After 16 months battling an aggressive form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the 26-year-old has turned to Facebook in a last ditch bid to find the stem cell donor to keep her alive.

TheVictorian woman in Belmont does not match with any registered bone marrow donor in the world so is now pleading for the public to come forward to be blood tested for a possible match.

"I don't know how much time I have, I get too afraid to ask," Ms Bou Sejean told the Geelong Advertiser.

"I want to focus on what we're doing now.

"The waiting process is hard."

With her life in the balance, Ms Bou Sejean's brother Matt a week ago set up the Facebook page How You Can Help Cure Pamela.

There, Facebook users are told about her fight and how to be blood tested for a possible stem cell match.

Mr Bou Sejean who, like the rest of the family, does not match with his sister said "the cure for Pamela is in the body of hundreds of people out there."

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BE THE CHANGE: Stem cells are Pamela's last hope - can you help?

by Maggie Ruper

WHAS11.com

Posted on March 7, 2012 at 11:50 PM

Updated yesterday at 12:01 AM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- New research published Wed. in the journal Science Translation Medicine, shows organ transplant recipients may not require anti-rejection medication after surgery.

The study, authored by University of Louisville professor Suzanne Ildstad, M.D., suggests bone marrow stem cells are able to trick the recipients immune system into thinking the donated organ is part of the patients natural self. It therefore eliminates the need for patients to take dozens of daily anti-rejection drugs.

Normally, if I have to transplant a kidney into a patient they have to take immunosuppression drugs for their lifetime and that's about 15 to 25 pills a day, said Ildstad.

Louisville native and father of four, Rob Waddell underwent the procedure in 2009 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He suffered from Polycystic Kidney Disease since he was 11 years old. His new kidney and the stem cells were donated to him by his next door neighbor.

It was a match and the rest is history. He's what I call my guardian angel," said Wadell.

The results were considered important because the technique worked for patients who did not have well-matched or related donors.

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UofL Professor’s study: Stem cells eliminate need for anti-rejection drugs

Nature | Health

Bone-marrow transfers prior to organ transplants could end the need for lifelong immunosuppression

March 7, 2012

By Elie Dolgin of Nature magazine

Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a common and often deadly complication of bone-marrow transplantation that occurs when immune cells from an unrelated donor attack the transplant recipient's tissue. Now, researchers have for the first time managed to completely replace people's bone-marrow-derived stem cells with those from unrelated donors without causing GvHD. And because of this, the recipients could also accept kidneys from the same donors without the need for drugs that suppress the immune system.

"The outcome has been amazing," says Lindsay Porter, a 47-year-old Chicago resident with polycystic kidney disease who was one of the study subjects. She has been off immunosuppressive drugs for seven months. "I feel so normal, it feels like it's not a big deal."

But according to experts in the field, the findings, published today in Science Translational Medicine, are a huge deal. "It's kind of difficult to believe," says Tatsuo Kawai, a transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who wrote a commentary to accompany the paper. "It's almost common sense to have GvHD in mismatched individuals."

Facilitating tolerance

The latest study builds off of work Kawai and his colleagues began fourteen years ago, when they launched the first clinical trial that attempted to use bone marrow to induce immune tolerance for kidney recipients, to avoid the sometimes dangerous side effects of life-long immosuppressive therapy.

Working first in people with perfectly immune-matched siblings and then with partially mismatched donor-recipient pairs, the researchers showed that the majority of individuals could achieve stable kidney function and successfully wean off of their immunosuppressants with few problems -- in one case for up to nine years. But the study subjects only maintained noticeable levels of the foreign bone marrow for a few weeks, and the protocol didn't work for everybody. Some researchers speculated that maintaining higher levels of donor immune cells for longer could help to improve the success rate.

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Treatment Allows Drug-Free Transplant Patients to Elude Graft-versus-Host Disease