By restoring the decaying brain cells of a 65-year-old to the levels of an 18-year-old, Australian scientists believe they have cracked the code to preventing dementia.

Dementia is a group of degenerative brain disorders that includes Alzheimer’s disease. More than 200,000 Australians suffer from these conditions, but new hope may be on the way in the form of breakthroughs which were presented to pharmaceutical chiefs at a closed event last week.

Facilitating the boost of mental functions such as understanding and memory, the scientists have developed two ways to stimulate stem cells and regenerate the brain.

Increasing the number of stem cells in young and middle-aged brains could help stave off dementia according to leading stem cell scientist Dr. Rod Rietze and his team at the University of Queensland.

“The idea is not to transplant anything

A cure for Crohn’s Disease could be found with the use of stem cells. Scientists are evaluating the efficacy of stem cell treatment on Crohn’s Disease when they are used to ‘re-boot’ the immune system.

The possibility of long-term remission for tens of thousands of people in the UK, and many more worldwide, is being investigated in a major clinical trial by University of Nottingham researchers. The experiments will involve taking stem cells from a patient’s own body and using them as a form of treatment.

The first of it’s kind to treat Crohn’s, the study is currently recruiting patients for its Europe-wide trial. Most commonly affecting the colon and small intestines, the condition is a chronic ongoing disease. The main symptoms are weight loss, fatigue, diarrhea, and pain in the abdomen. These are caused by inflammation, deep ulcers and scarring to the wall of the intestine.

About 3,000 to 6,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and currently, about 60,000 people in the UK suffer from the condition. Immune suppressant drugs, and steroids which can only be administered in the short term are current treatments. There is no cure for the disease.

But a cure for up to 50 percent of sufferers could be in the making according to Professor Chris Hawkey and colleagues Dr. Paul Fortun and Dr. Tony Shonde who are together, conducting the Nottingham-led stem cell therapy.

Professor Hawkey said:

In advanced aging, a cognitive decline is typically observed as the years go by. But scientists may have an answer for this dilemma as stem cell research has found a novel approach to slow and possibly prevent this phenomenon.

Giving rise to new nerve cells every single day, the adult brain contains highly “regenerative” stem cells. As the brain ages, the number of stem/progenitor cells and their progeny decline dramatically according to previous studies. The number of stem cells we have in old age could be preserved in by boosting the number of stem cells when we are young or middle aged according to Dr. Rietze and his team.

The number of stem cells typically found in the brain is increased by using two separate approaches. Stimulating resident stem cells to divide and increase in number, the first approach used by Dr. Rietze and his team involves performing an acute infusion of growth hormone directly into the brain. These results indicate that a new target for stem cell-related treatments may be growth hormone, which may also play an integral role in regulating brain stem cells.

Engineers who figure out how to take the delicate results of lab experiments and make them robust enough to survive the onslaught of industry, have a long road to follow in order to get from breakthrough to application. Thus, the news last week that adult skin cells had been reprogrammed using a novel technique, to transform them into embryonic stem cells, was seen as only the beginning and not the end by biomedical engineer PeterZandstra and others like him.

Germany’s research minister wants to ease restrictions on stem cell research after recent research revealed that common skin cells can be modified to have embryonic like power. The U.S. and Japanese research has also prompted a pledge to invest more money in adult stem cell research.

“We will double research funds for the technology for reprogramming adult cells from 5 to 10 million euros ($7 to 15 million) a year, so that work can proceed quickly,” Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan told the newsmagazine Focus.

“Germany should become the motor of adult stem-cell research,” she added, noting that the recent scientific developments are a means of ending the embryonic stem cell debate.

The two teams, one from Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, and another from the University of Wisconsin, both worked independently in what could be described as a “race” to be the first to reprogram skin cells. Both announcements were made on November 20th.

Since embryos are discarded in the process, embryonic stem cell research has come under harsh scrutiny. Their versatility has prompted support of equal force as well. The two sides may soon have little to debate about.

The ethical controversy surrounding the research would be eliminated with the use of reprogrammed skin cells.

Stem cell research is strictly regulated in Germany. Not scientific research with embryos can be conducted, unless the embryos were imported into the country prior to January 1st, 2002. A one time change to extend the cut-off date was proposed, however, that may no longer be necessary.

“What’s important is that there is now greater hope of being able one day to do without tests on embryonic stem cells,” she said.

More countries should benefit form the finding other than Germany. Regulatory bodies around the world have unanimously supported the research, which will take the cap off funding in some cases, and allow scientists to access cells that have embryonic power.

Some 25,000 Malaysians have registered to have their stem cells stored 5 years after it was introduced to the country.

The ecstatic reaction of researchers, who are normally a less animated bunch, may be a good indicator of the importance and impact of a recent independently verified discovery: that common skin cells may be used instead of embryonic stem cells for research.

“This is a tremendous scientific milestone, the biological equivalent to the Wright Brothers first airplane,” said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts., a statement echoing the view of many of his colleagues.

Federal funding has been restricted amidst political and social controversy over embryonic stem cell research and the ethical implications that the science entails. Today, the issue is more mainstream than it has ever been, so a solid understanding of biology is not necessary to understand the enthusiasm surrounding the research. Without the use of a woman’s eggs or human embryos, embryonic stem cells have been created by converting normal human skin cells using a simple technique developed by researchers in Wisconsin and Japan.

A limitless supple of research material will more than likely be created, and ethical issues will be completely eliminated, as the experiments are repeated and the methods perfected in giving embryonic power to skin cells.

Embryonic stem cells are considered to have the potential to develop into every type of human cell. Developing treatments for a long list of diseases and injuries which affect virtually every organ is the focus of scientists using embryonic stem cells for research. But ethical concerns, and more importantly, scientific/technical roadblocks have plagued the science, which has yet to produce even one successful treatment.

Stem cell research as a whole should be accelerated thanks to the new discovery. Many researchers who once had their hands tied because of limited cell lines, limited funding, and ethical concerns, will have now have an entire new frontier open in front of them. A much broader scope of expertise will be brought to the laboratory, which will lead to a much wider array of funding.

The discovery could be the catalyst for a new era in medicine, and Mr. Lanza’s Wright Brothers analogy may be spot on. It took 42 years for humans to walk on the moon after Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean 24 years after the Wright brothers’ maiden flight. But society should not be accustomed to this rate of innovation. Medicine and technology, with today’s global reach, could set a new precedent for the pace of discovery.