February 18, 2011 by

UCL Scientists Develop Magnetic Nanoparticles to Track Neural Stem Cells

Azo Nanotechnology

Neural stem cells have recently been shown to possess qualities that make them promising candidates for stem cell replacement therapy and spinal cord reconstruction. Researchers at University College London have recently discovered magnetic nanoparticles that could be used to track neural stem cells following their injection. This would allow for the stem cells to be followed throughout the treatment and repair process. Nguyen TK Thanh of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory, UCL Physics and Astronoly and the Royal Institution believes that the hollow biocompatible cobalt-platinum nanoparticles that have been attached to stem cells will be a very efficient way of monitoring the progress of the cells.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) parameters were designed in order to optimize the conditions of monitoring. After establishing these parameters, the nanoparticles were transplanted into organotypic spinal cord slices, and the efficacies of the parameters of MRI were confirmed. ‘The new method demonstrates the feasibility of reliable, noninvasive MRI imaging of nanoparticle-labelled cells,’ says Thanh.

‘Magnetic nanoparticles are emerging as novel contrast and tracking agents in medical imaging,’ says Samir Pal at the California Institute of Technology, US, an expert in biological-nanoparticle interactions. ‘When used as a contrast agent for MRI, the nanoparticles allow researchers and clinicians to enhance the tissue contrast of an area of interest by increasing the relaxation rate of water.’

Thanh is hopeful that these nanoparticles will contribute to stem cell replacement therapy for many central nervous system diseases. She is also working towards developing nanoparticles that can be used to diagnose and treat these diseases.

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , , ,
February 17, 2011 by

World’s First Chemical Guided Missile Could Be the Answer to Wiping out Cancer

A research team at Deakin University has made a discovery that could have huge implications on the treatment and survival rates of cancer victims. The researchers, along with scientists in India and Australia have created the world’s first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that targets cancer stem cell marker epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). This marker is overexpressed in cancer cells, thus allowing the RNA aptamer to bind directly to the cell before being internalized. The implications of this are that the aptamer has the potential ability to deliver drugs directly to the cancer stem cells and can also be used to develop a more effective cancer imaging system for early detection of the disease.

“Despite technological and medical advances, the survival rates for many cancers remain poor, due partly to the inability to detect cancer early and then provide targeted treatment,” said Professor Wei Duan, the Director of the Deakin Medical School’s Nanomedicine Program. “Current cancer treatments destroy the cells that form the bulk of the tumour, but are largely ineffective against the root of the cancer, the cancer stem cells. This suggests that in order to provide a cure for cancer we must accurately detect and eliminate the cancer stem cells.”

The aptamer is the first part of the ‘medical smart bomb’ the researchers have been developing. “What we have created is the ‘guided missile’ part of the ‘smart bomb’,” Professor Duan explained. “The aptamer acts like a guided missile, targeting the tumour and binding to the root of the cancer. “The aim now is to combine the aptamer with the ‘bomb’ (a microscopic fat particle) that can carry anti-cancer drugs or diagnostic imaging agents directly to the cancer stem cells, creating the ultimate medical smart bomb.”

“The cancer stem cell-targeting missile and the smart bomb could revolutionise the way cancer is diagnosed,” he explained. “The minute size of the aptamer means it could locate cancer cells in their very early stages. Attaching radioactive compounds to the aptamer could lead to the development of sensitive diagnostic scans for earlier detection, more accurate pinpointing of the location of cancer, better prediction of the chance of cure and improved monitoring of the response to treatment. More accurate identification of the type of cancer present would lead to more personalised treatment that is more successful and cost-effective. This could ultimately lead to better cancer survival rates and greatly improved quality of life for patients.”

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
February 11, 2011 by

Test Tube Meat No Longer Science Fiction, Dutch Researchers Say

Rudy Ruitenberg

The idea of growing meat in a laboratory was developed in 1950, however was not patented until 1999. Due to more recent scientific discoveries, this idea is now becoming a reality. This development may help to ease environmental damage caused by the enormity of the animal farming market. Around 70 percent of farmland is used for the production of meat and livestock industry account for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions.

This project is being led by Henk Haagman at the University of Utrecht, he and his team are using stem cells to grow muscle tissue. The reality of buying lab-grown meat in the supermarket may be a few years away, however this development is the first step in the mass production of engineered meat.

“The project will be a success if in four years time it’s clear under what conditions consumers will eat in-vitro meat,” said Cor van der Weele, a philosopher leading the study of the ethical and social issues of cultured meat. Meat produced in a laboratory is “not a meat replacement, it’s real meat,” Van der Weele said. “I’ve been calling it in-vitro meat recently, that’s the technical name,” Van der Weele said. “Cultured meat isn’t appealing and creates too much of a ‘yuck’ reaction.”

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , ,
February 9, 2011 by

Curious? The Science of Skin Care

Caiti Currey

Stem cells have become a highly talked about subject in the treatment of many diseases and health problems, and have now come into the limelight as a possible treatment for skin rejuvenation. Men and women alike are constantly seeking a product that will reduce the signs of aging, and stem cells have now been proven to act as such.

Lilacs are a very popular flower for many reasons, but a new discovery has shown that stem cells in lilac leaves can reduce the signs of aging and rejuvenate the skin. The leaf stem cell is a very effective antioxidant, protecting the skin from the damage that can be caused by free radicals. Stem cells from grapefruits are also known to function as protection from damage. Swiss apple is also known for its ability to preserve, protect and stimulate the growth of human stem cells.

Dr. Jennifer Linder, Chief Officer for PCA SKIN has used these plant stem cells to develop products that have been proven to be beneficial to the skin. The Rejuvenating Serum uses epidermal growth factor technology to stimulate cell and skin renewal.

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , ,
February 8, 2011 by

France’s first ‘saviour baby’ is born in Paris

Antoine Mariotti , France 24 International

A ‘saviour baby’ is a relatively new term that has come in to practice with modern medical revelations allowing for genetic selection at the embryonic stage of development. The first savior baby in France was born in Paris on February 8, 2011. The boy, named Umut Talha, meaning “our hope” in Turkish was born to Turkish parents and has two siblings who suffer from a genetic blood disease called Beta thalassemia. Beta Thalassemia reduces the production of hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to cells throughout the body. People who suffer from this disease are generally anemic and have an increased risk of developing blood clots. Blood transfusions are required to frequently replenish the red blood cell supply, and is the treatment currently being delivered to Umut’s older sister.

With Umut’s birth, the need for these frequent blood transfusions will be eliminated. Umut’s parents’ began the process of having a saviour baby a little more than a year ago. The process involved screening embryos for the disease, and then genetically selecting an embryo free of the disease. Umut was indeed born disease free and the stem cells from his umbilical cord will be used to cure his sister of her disease. The process will be repeated soon to cure Umut’s four year old brother as well.

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Therapy Tagged With: , , , , ,
February 8, 2011 by

Skin-cell spray gun drastically cuts healing time for burns

In the past, the most common way to treat first to second degree burns is with skin grafts, a process that includes taking pieces of skin from uninjured parts of the patient’s body or grafting artificial skin and grafting them over the burned area. This treatment was somewhat effective, however resulted in a recovery period of several weeks to several months. A new treatment has been developed that drastically decreases the amount of time required for a burn to heal.

A “gun” that has been developed to spray a layer of the patient’s own skin stem cells onto the wounded area has proved to be very successful. This type of treatment has been used since 2002 in Australia, Dr. Fiona Wood uses an aerosol system to spray on cultured skin cells.

The process necessary to initiate this treatment is very minimal, a biopsy is taken from the patient’s undamaged skin, healthy stem cells are isolated and an aqueous solution containing the cells is inserted into the gun and then sprayed on. The “gun” uses an electronically controlled pneumatic device that functions similar to a paint ball gun. After the cells are applied, a specially developed dressing is applied along with two sets of tubes, one functioning as an artery, supplying electrolytes, antibiotics, amino acids and glucose to the wounded area, and one set acting as a vein.

Currently, the treatment is only effective on second-degree burns, healing these within days rather than weeks or months required with previous treatments.

Filed Under: Adult Stem Cells, News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , , ,
February 6, 2011 by

UW Researchers Make Stem Cell Breakthrough

Seung Park, Badger Herald

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have made a breakthrough in stem cell research. Igor Slukvin headed the team that has successfully reprogrammed bone marrow cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). “This is important because blood banks have huge amounts of samples of bone marrow,” he said. “You can select as many types of cells as you want and make stem cells out of them.”

This regression was a major accomplishment, as reprogramming a cell is similar to an adult human reversing development and becoming a child again, according to Timothy Kamp, an associate professor of medicine. “When our organs develop, it’s a one-way street as you go from a precursor stem cell which grows and forms specialized tissues for various systems,” Kamp said. “As these cells grow progressively more specialized, they can’t go back and return to being a stem cell.” Obviously, this problem has been overcome, the concept behind the reprogramming comes from a set of DNA binding proteins that regulate gene expression.

Slukvin also took cells from a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia and generated transgene-free iPSCs from their bone marrow. These cells show a unique translocation of a chromosome while also maintaining the pluripotency of an embryonic stem cell. The implication of this being that the disease can now be followed, as they have regressed back into stem cells, the redevelopment of the disease will be able to be observed.

Filed Under: News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , ,
February 3, 2011 by

New Stem Cells Found in Ovary

Parte et al. Stem Cells Dev.

Very small embryonic like cells (VSEL) are a type of stem cell that appears to be found in bone marrow and other tissues of the body, presumably as a remnant of embryonic or embryonic-like cells left over from development. In a recent paper it was demonstrated that these cells may be found in the ovary surface epithelium in adult rabbit, sheep, monkey and menopausal human.

Indian scientists found two distinct populations of putative stem cells of variable size were detected in the ovary surface epithelium: one being smaller in size around the range of 1-3 micrometers and the other being of a size approximate to the surrounding erythrocytes.

The smaller cells resembled VSELs and were pluripotent in nature with nuclear Oct-4 and cell surface SSEA-4. The larger cells were 4-7micrometers and possessed cytoplasmic localization of Oct-4 and minimal expression of SSEA-4. The scientists believed that the larger cells were possibly the progenitor germ cells.

The VSEL cells were capable of spontaneously differentiating into oocyte-like structures, parthenote-like structures, embryoid body-like structures, cells with neuronal-like phenotype and embryonic stem (ES) cell-like colonies. They expressed Oct-4, Oct-4A, Nanog, Sox-2, TERT, and Stat-3 as detected by RT-PCR.

Germ cell markers like c-Kit, DAZL, GDF-9, VASA and ZP4 were immuno-localized in oocyte-like structures formed from the VSEL.

These studies are interesting because prior to this there were reports of bone marrow derived cells being implicated in production of oocytes. Specifically, Jonathan Tilley from Harvard reported that bone marrow transplantation can give rise to new oocytes that are donor derived http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17664466.

If these studies are reproducible it may be that adult stem cells could be useful in the treatment of infertility. Conversely it may be possible to repair oocytes of women who have undergone chemo/radiation therapy. Interestingly, Tilly’s group also published that ovarian tissue contains VSEL-like cells http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20188358

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February 2, 2011 by

Injured Liver Calls in Bone Marrow For Help?

Li et al. Cells Tissues Organs

It is known that administration of bone marrow cells into patients with liver failure has the ability to improve enzyme function and overall health http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdH6Mm4w98I. Additionally, numerous animal models have demonstrated that injection of various types of stem cells can result in regeneration of injured liver tissue. For example, Manuelpillai et al demonstrated that injection of human mesenchymal stem cells derived from the amnionic membrane into immune competent mice whose livers were damaged by carbon tetrachloride results in reduction in liver injury http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20447339. Even more interesting, administration of compounds that “instruct” bone marrow cells to enter circulation such as G-CSF, have been demonstrated to improve liver function and actually prevent mortality after liver injury http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20881764. This is relevant because G-CSF is a medication that is FDA approved and possesses a favorable safety profile.

One of the main scientific questions in the area of liver failure is whether the liver is actually “calling in” bone marrow stem cells to try to heal it after liver damage, or whether the therapeutic effects of stem cells in liver failure are an epiphenomena. In situations of cardiac damage after an acute myocardial infarction it has been demonstrated that the injured tissue causes upregulation of the protein SDF-1, which recruits bone marrow stem cells into the heart in order to promote healing. Whether similar mechanisms are at play in liver injury is not known. Part of the puzzle has to do with the fact that liver injury is a more chronic process than heart attacks and therefore recruitment of stem cells may be occurring at a much lower level. Alternatively, it is also known that chronic inflammatory processes actually suppress stem cell activity. So it may be that in chronic liver failure the stem cells are actually inhibited from possessing regenerative function.

This question was addressed in a recent study in which the gene expression profile of bone marrow cells was examined in animals with liver failure induced by administration of the hepatotoxin D-galactosamine to rats. To assess gene expression the Affymetrix GeneChip Rat Genome 230 2.0 Array was used, which quantifies gene expression of every gene in the rat genome. The scientists found that more than 87.7% of the genes/probe sets that were upregulated more than 2-fold in the bone marrow cells of rats with liver failure were also expressed by the liver cells, including 12 genes involved in liver development, early hepatocyte differentiation and hepatocyte metabolism. The concurrent upregulation of these genes was verified by the technique of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

The scientists also found that 940 genes were expressed in both the bone marrow cells of rats with liver failure and the hepatocytes of rats with liver failure but not in control cells. Specifically, many of the genes that were uprgulated in both the bone marrow and the liver seemed to be involved in regeneration of damaged tissue.

These data support the concept that the bone marrow stem cells can respond in similar ways to liver cells to injury. The hypothesis has been proposed by the authors that the bone marrow acts as a reservoir for the stem cells that are capable of regenerating liver. The mass amount of data in this publication is very interesting and requires detailed analysis to make sense of.

Filed Under: Adult Stem Cells, Liver, News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , ,
February 1, 2011 by

Scientists look to stem cells to mend broken hearts

Cardiac medicine has traditionally been associated with innovative procedures that sometimes where considered heretical to the present day dogma. For example, the first heart transplant, the use of the balloon catheter, the introduction of thrombolytics, all met substantial resistance from the “establishment” in their time. It appears that the next revolution in cardiac medicine is the use of stem cells. Aside from the obvious ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding embryonic tissues, the major controversy has been the belief that heart tissue does not repair itself after it has been lost. However, slowly but surely it appears that support behind the use of stem cells for heart conditions is gaining momentum.

One sign of this is the recent announcement that Britain’s leading heart charity, the British Heart Foundation (BHF), launched a 50 million pound ($80 million) research project into the potential of stem cells to regenerate heart tissue and “mend broken hearts”.

“Scientifically, mending human hearts is an achievable goal and we really could make recovering from a heart attack as simple as getting over a broken leg,” said Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the BHF.

One example of research in this area being performed in England is the work of Professor Paul Riley of the Institute of Child Health at University College London (UCL) who has identified a natural protein, called thymosin beta 4, that plays a role in developing heart tissue. He said his researchers had already had some success in using this protein to “wake up” cells known as epicardial cells in mice with damaged hearts. “We hope to find similar molecules or drug-like compounds that might be able to stimulate these cells further,” he told reporters at the briefing.

Currently the most advanced type of stem cell therapy for the heart involves administration of the patient’s own bone marrow cells into the area of heart damage after a heart attack. This work, which was performed in England and internationally, seems to suggest that cardiac muscle may be preserved when cells from the bone marrow produce various growth factors that stimulate stem cells that are already existing in the heart.

Other methods of administering stem cells into the heart include direct injection into the heart muscle during bypass surgery. This is performed experimentally in patients with severe angina on the hope that the injected stem cells will provide support for formation of new blood vessels, called collaterals, which are anticipated to increase the blood flow to the heart and thereby reduce angina.

Currently embryonic or fetal derived stem cells have not been used for treatment of heart conditions in humans. Therefore, at least for now, ethical issues do not seem to be a major obstacle to advancement of stem cell medicine for hearts.

Filed Under: Adult Stem Cells, Bone Marrow, Heart Disease, News, Stem Cell Research Tagged With: , , , , ,
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