According to Singapore-based pediatric hematologist-Oncologist consultant Dr. Anselm Chi-wai Lee, stem cell transplant therapy has made the treatment of cancer affected children less complicated.

Dr. Anselm told a press conference over the weekend that “Children with leukemia or other cancers, as well as some severe inherited immunodeficiency diseases and blood disorders, may benefit from a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells commonly known as a bone marrow transplant. The term hematopoietic stem cell transplant acknowledges the fact that the stem cells that are necessary to regenerate blood and immune functions can now be obtained from peripheral or umbilical cord blood as well as from bone marrow.”

Claiming to be the first person who used a person

A new study has found that the regeneration of tissue is enhanced when stem cells from the muscles from female mice are used as opposed to male mice.

The development of stem cell treatments for many conditions and diseases could be affected by this new discovery.

After almost exclusively using stem cells from female mice without giving it a second thought, scientists who had been conducting numerous studies with the cells made the interesting connection. They decided to investigate if there was any disparity between male and female cells and designed an experiment based on this premise.

Capable of developing into any type of cell in the body, embryonic stem cells are versatile. But more limited in what they can become, muscle stem cells are more specialized and instead of coming from an embryo, they are derived from adult tissue.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of 3,500 to 5,000 young boys in the United States, at least one is affected by Duchene muscular dystrophy. Using mice that had been engineered to have a similar disease, researchers injected stem cells from healthy mice into those that were sick.

In humans, the muscle’s cell structure collapses because the disease involves the deficiency of a crucial protein called dystrophin.

The early aging and loss of stem cell reservoirs in adult mice is dependent on the deletion of a gene important in embryo development. The discovery was made by researchers at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.

Specific varieties of cancer and other disorders in humans are consequences of protein mutations that transpire during DNA damage response. Critical for this response to damaged DNA is a gene called ATR. The inaugural issue of Cell Stem Cell has published the new findings.

“The reason we’re seeing the early signs of aging in these mice is that we’re exhausting their ability to renew tissues,” says Eric J. Brown, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology. “We believe these findings may be helpful to the aging and oncology fields since premature aging syndromes and many cancers involve the loss of DNA repair genes.”

Within three to four months, the mice used in the study began to exhibit signs of osteoporosis, graying hair, and hair loss. These were obvious characteristics of premature aging. All the symptoms occurred when the researchers deleted ATR in the adult mice tissue.

A reservoir of specific adult stem cells exists in most tissues for the function of self-renewal. Since multiple divisions lead to natural breaks in DNA, in order to preserve the integrity of the DNA, these stem cells don’t divide as frequently as other cell types. However, to replenish tissue with new cells, they are capable of rapid division when necessary.

Initially, 10 to 20 percent of cells that escaped ATR deletion were able to reconstitute tissues in the engineered mice explained Brown. But overall, the majority of mouse cells without ATR had an overwhelming amount of DNA damage and could not contribute to tissue renewal.

“Think of aging as a slow loss of stem cells, a deterioration of pools of cells that reside in each tissue type,” says Brown. We accelerated the aging process by wiping out a large fraction of these cells prematurely, in one fell swoop. Essentially, these mice start their young adulthood with two strikes against them in terms of long-term tissue maintenance, and so, they subsequently age before their time.”

Brown, first author Yaroslava Ruzankina, and Amma Asare will be using the new knowledge of how stem cells, DNA repair, and the aging process interconnect in the mouse model to discover compounds that preserve stem cells and may, consequentially, suppress aging.

Observing bone-marrow-derived stem cells, separate groups of U.S. and British scientists have shown that premature aging is caused by DNA damage.

The practice of adult stem cell transplantations will be affected by the discovery.

Small pools of slowly dividing stem cells are something that long-lived multi-cellular organisms depend on to replenish lost tissue. With negligible mutations throughout life, it is imperative that the reserves are maintained and self-renewed.

Using a mouse strain that had trouble repairing DNA damage, Richard Cornall and colleagues at Oxford University studied the bone-marrow-derived stem cells taken from the mouse. The scientists determined that un-repaired DNA damage in stem cells can lead the way to an age-dependent decline in their numbers.

Determining that the blood-forming stem cells from the bone marrow of mice build up DNA damage with age was Stanford University

The equivalent of embryonic stem cells have been produced in mice with the use of skin cells. This advance in stem cell research does not entail the controversial destruction of embryos. The findings were reported Wednesday be three independent teams of scientists.

Without the controversial political and ethical debates surrounding the use of embryos, the method could show the way to breakthrough medical treatments if it can be duplicated in humans. However, that would be a considerable leap.

None the less, the achievement impressed many experts.

Helping his significant other with the daily chores would be a dream come true for Andrew. This may seem odd, but running out for groceries, mowing the lawn, even a day spent cleaning the gutters would be ideal.

It was these activities, or work as most would put it, that Andrew took for granted a year and a half ago. Not surprisingly, most of us probably feel the same way. But then a motorcycle crash left the 41-year-old paralyzed, and unable to experience even the mundane things in life.

But a private Indian hospital has accepted him as a patient, and on June 20th he will receive stem cell treatment that will potentially restore his ability to walk.

When a driver changed lanes without checking, he swerved his motorcycle to avoid an accident, but lost control of his bike changing his life forever on October 1, 2005.

“I’ve gone down a big ditch on the shoulder of the round-about and I don’t remember this, but I ran through a tree and came back onto the road. All I remember is coming to and trying to get up and then it was like, ‘hang on, I can’t move my legs’.”

He was told that he would be paralyzed from the chest down after being flown to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He had damaged his spinal cord between the T6 and T7 vertebrae.

At the hospital Andrew met an important woman. Following stem cell therapy, Sonya regained sensation in her legs and her control over her bowel and bladder as well. After being treated by Dr. Geeta Shroff at the Delhi Nu-Tech Medicare facility, she made international headlines due to her amazing progress.

Sonya’s life was similar to Andrew’s once. She was told that she would need to figure out a way to live with her disability, and Andrew knew her when she was in the same state. After stem cell therapy, when she was once again wiggling her toes, Andrew watched a news story about her on television. By this time, Andrew had already talked to her about her stem cell treatment after tracking her down while she was still in India.

“She told me about Dr. Shroff and her treatment and obviously she was over the moon,” he said.

“She had gone from being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, to standing again. In two years she has been told she will be walking, unassisted. It may not be a normal gait, but who cares? It’s something.”

Andrew ended up booking his own procedure after doing extensive research on stem cell therapy and contacting Dr. Shroff himself.

He will start his first series of stem cell injections a day after he arrives in India with the rest of his young family. His household partner, Sarah-Jayne Matthews will fly with him as well on June 19th.

He will need to stay in India for 2-3 months to complete the entire course of treatment. They are admittedly a bit short on cash for the entire endeavor despite numerous fundraising efforts and the help of friends and family.

They want to be able to afford a camcorder to track Andrew’s progress. So they can keep in touch with friends and family, a 3G phone would also be nice. And the children need to continue their school work while overseas so purchasing a notebook computer is also in order.

Within the medical community, Dr. Shroff refuses to publish her results and this has drawn criticism from medical professionals. Andrew understands he is taking a risk, but he has seen all the proof he needs.

Andrew has seen and talked to patients who have gotten better, dramatically in some cases. So the fact that Shroff has been labeled as a quack by experts is irrelevant to Andrew, and misleading.

Any chance he has to regain the part of his life he lost is worth taking according to Andrew. He spent his life before the accident being active and will travel to India to potentially restore his body.

“I’ve never ever given up hope that I will walk again and I never will,” he said.

“From day one, I have researched all the different stem cell procedures around the world and this is my best chance. This is the best chance that is available to me.”

“There is a fear factor in everything you do. That’s normal. There could be repercussions from it, but I’m willing to accept that.”

“I don’t expect to go in there and suddenly be able to walk out. That’s aiming too high. But it’s a ‘what if’ situation. What if I didn’t go and what if I was one of the ones who did get out of their wheelchair?”

“For that, I’m willing to take the risk. Because I have nothing to lose and any improvement is 200% on what I have now.”

In a letter published on May 22nd, a man named Greg equated embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research. The difference could not be more apparent and thus a correction is in order.

Few news stories today present the two types accordingly and instead fail to distinguish the significant differences between the two. It is crucial to understand the difference and the media has perhaps contributed to the confusion today.

The most important distinction to make is that unlike embryonic stem cell treatment, adult stem cell treatment is effective. As a result of adult stem cell research, more than 70 existing medical treatments have been developed. Even one simple treatment has yet to be yielded as a result of embryonic stem cell research.

Contrary to the comments made in Greg’s letter, the statement “great future potential” can be tied exclusively to adult stem cell research, not embryonic.

The second important point to make note of is the ethical nature of adult stem cells. Without causing harm to anyone, the placenta at birth, umbilical cord blood, and other types of non-embryonic tissue, are all sources of adult stem cells. However, without destroying human embryos, embryonic stem cells cannot be obtained.

Responsible for producing the almost bursting biceps of body builders and the wash board abs of fitness fanatics, a new report confirms the existence of some uncommitted stem cells residing amongst those of the muscle. For people that suffer from muscular dystrophies and an assortment of other muscle-wasting diseases, the discovery could show the way to new muscle-regenerating therapies. These would include stem cell-replenishing drugs and cell transplantation regimens. According to researchers, these treatments could also serve a dual purpose by also keeping people strong as they age.

A mix of cells already dedicated to their muscular destiny and other cells that behave more like versatile stem cells make up part of the so called satellite stem cells. The breakthrough was made by an Ottawa Health Research Institute team led by Michael Rudnicki. The cells had commonly been considered by scientists as a homogeneous population of devoted muscle progenitors. In the lab, the regenerative reservoir of cells that mice have was successfully replenished when Rudnicki’s team injected the “satellite stem cells” into the muscles of the mice.

“We’ve found that there are two types of satellite cell–90% that are already committed to becoming muscle and another 10% with characteristics normally attributed to stem cells,” Rudnicki said. “It’s not been shown yet, but these muscle stem cells might even have the capacity to make other tissues, such as bone and fat.”

“We’ve also shown that these satellite stem cells, when transplanted into muscle, can repopulate the regenerative cell niche. This is a very significant advance in our understanding of satellite cell biology that will require us to rethink decades of research. It also opens new avenues for therapeutic treatment of muscular diseases.”

Each of which includes hundreds of nuclei, skeletal muscle fibers are essentially long tubular cells. Satellite cells are found in between the coating of glycoproteins and collagen that surrounds the muscle fiber. Responsible for the repair, growth, and maintenance of skeletal muscle after birth, the existence of satellite cells were first revealed in the 1960’s. When the stress of trauma or weight-bearing presents itself, the cells which are by and large quiet, jump into action.

Still, Rudnicki said that uncertainty still exists in regards to the mechanisms that control the development and identity of the satellite cells. Muscle cells that had changed back into a more primitive state by reverting or dedifferentiating was once thought to be the path that satellite cells followed from their original muscle cell state. This was suggested by earlier studies.

Isolated from mouse muscle, the molecular profiles of the satellite cells was closely observed by researchers in the new study.

Defined by the inactivity or activity of a gene called Myf-5, the satellite cells consist of two classes.

A significant difference in the satellite cells’ behavior was made clear by the genetic difference. A characteristic commonly seen among stem cells, asymmetric division, was observed in the satellite cells without active Myf-5. Exhibiting another Myf-5 positive cell and stem cell-like capacity for self renewal, the lopsided cell division produced one “daughter” like its parent.

The satellite cells continued on the path to becoming muscle tissue when they were injected into the muscles of mice with the Myf-5 switched on.

In contrast, transplantation of Myf-5 negative cells “extensively contributed to the satellite cell reservoir throughout the injected muscle.”

Diseased muscle can be directly transplanted with satellite stem cells. Researchers made this conclusion while noting that the identification of markers enabling their prospective isolation from human muscle tissue could be found in the molecular characterization of satellite stem cells.

“Alternatively,” they added, “understanding the molecular regulation of satellite stem cell symmetric versus asymmetric cell division will lead to identification of biologics or small drugs that specifically target the relevant pathway leading to satellite stem cell expansion.”