Resembling an embryonic stem cell, a new pluripotent cell has been generated using a mouse skin cell by researchers at Kyoto University in Tokyo, Japan.

A U.S. scientific journal named Cell recently noted in their online issue that Prof. Shinya and Assistant Prof. Kazutoshi created a new pluripotent cell that has comparable characteristics as embryonic stem cells. This will give the new cell the capability to grow into organs and tissues just like embryonic cells. The professors named the new cell induced Pluripotent Stem, or iPS for short.

Extracted from an embryo, the use of the embryonic stem cell in medicine is ethically controversial. Since an embryo is not involved, the iPS cells would purge any ethical concerns. Although the new cells are derived from mouse skin cells, the future may bring the emergence of human iPS cells.

Adult-stem cell therapy has shown its effectiveness, but the thought of converting adult stem cells and making them function similar to embryonic stem cells would open even larger doors for treating patients. Individuals undergoing transplants could have new organs with identical genes as their own. There would be no immune response clearing the issue of post operative rejection, and also, no ethical dilemma.

The group speculated that amid the important gene factors in an embryonic stem cell, there should be a number that can reprogram somatic cells and induce pluripotency that are characteristic to the factors in an embryonic stem cell in early development.

Taking a skin cell extracted from a mouse tail, the researchers picked up 24 candidate gene factors and implanted four of those gene factors, including Sox2, into the selected skin cell and cultivated it.

Taking on a comparable pattern to embryonic stem cells after only two weeks, the skin cell with the four gene factors changed.

In three weeks, the new iPS cells formed tumors called teratomas containing nerves, digestive tissues and cartilage after it was reintroduced to the mouse body. The cell also developed heart muscle cells and nerves, and displayed signs of a pulse on a culture dish. This would validate the cells pluripotency.

iPS cells can be created without involving a generative cell using this method.

Yamanaka said, “We’ll continue the research and try to make iPS cells from human skin cells, and then be able to offer regenerative medical treatment using the cell.”

“It’s been considered impossible to create an ES cell from a somatic cell without using cloning technology, but (Shinya’s group) succeeded in generating a cell similar to an ES cell from a mouse somatic cell. This brought hopes that the same technique could be applied to human cells,” stated Teruhiko a team leader of Riken Center for Developmental Biology.

He added, “Regenerative medicine will definitely make progress in this direction in the future.”

In a ground-breaking trial at a Shropshire hospital, patients with complicated bone fractures are being helped to evade permanent disability.

Oswestry’s Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital is conducting the stem cell therapy research.

The trial is set to involve 40 patients total and twelve have taken part thus far.

The trial involves using a patient’s bone marrow to literally reproduce their own bones in an attempt to assist the fracture and the healing process.

Faced with having her leg amputated after suffering a complex fracture in a fall down a set of stairs, Warwickshire mother Jane is one patient who will be gaining from the trial.

After suffering five years of pain and undergoing 15 separate operations, Jane, from Bidford-on-Avon was told the only alternative was to have the limb amputated.

“I realized that I would go through a lot of emotional and mental anguish,” she said.

She can lead a full life again now that the revolutionary treatment has saved her leg.

The treatment is unlike embryonic stem cell treatment, involving the use of stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow. The cells are then stimulated in a laboratory, implanted back into her leg, and therapeutic benefits are achieved.

The stem cells help knit the fracture site together by growing new bone.

“These patients have already had several operations on fractures that haven’t healed over several years and are facing amputation or a lifetime of pain and disability,” Paul a clinical scientist at the hospital said.

“Having just completed the tenth stem cell implant, the initial results are extremely encouraging. In fact, three of our patients have already handed back their crutches.”

For the first time in the country, Thailand is planning to conduct clinical trials to treat three major neural diseases confirmed the Prasat Neurological Institute.

“Well, actually, we have started,” Dr. Maiyadhaj, the director of the institute told the annual academic conference of the Department of Medical Services, held in Bangkok from Tuesday to Thursday.

Maiyadhaj explained that the procedures entail transplanting developed stem cells into the patients’ central nervous system. The trials will aid victims of stroke, spinal cord injuries, and Parkinson’s disease, with the project anticipated to commence this year.

Related studies from all over the world are currently being evaluated and assessed by Maiyadhaj and his team of 12 neurological and stem cell experts.

The institute’s ethics committee must endorse the project proposal that is at present being drafted prior to the start of patient trials planned for later this year.

The proposal includes a 10 million baht budget requirement for the first year, or roughly 270,000 in United States currency.

Ahnond, the secretary-general of the National Research Council of Thailand, confirmed that the Mahidol University’s cell engineering and tissue growth laboratory will develop the appropriate type of stem cells for the project.

“Don’t hold your breath, we’re just at the beginning,” said neurosurgeon Smarn of the Prasat Neurological Institute. “Though the efficacy of stem-cell transplant remains uncertain, it’s proved to be safe so far.”

Neurologist Akravudh, also from Prasat Neurological Institute added that neural organs like nerve cells are the most difficult to handle, contrasting other parts of the body.

“And the idea of replacing damaged human organs with new man-made ones cannot apply to the nervous system. The only way so far is stem-cell therapy,” he said.

Akravudh said that tumors were the most feared side effect of a stem cell transplant, since there is a possibility the transplanted cells could grow uncontrollably.

“With Parkinson’s we’re determining whether to grow dopaminergic neurons outside and then inject them into the patient’s bodies, or inject premature cells and then program them to become the proper nerve cells later,” Akravudh said.

Does your baby’s umbilical cord hold a miracle?

A four year old boy will become the recipient of stem cells extracted from the umbilical cord of his baby sister who was just born last week in Athens. The boy is afflicted with chronic granulomatous disease, a congenital heterogeneous immunodeficiency disorder resulting from the failure of phagocytes to kill ingested microbes, resulting in increased susceptibility to severe infections that eventually leads to untimely death.

Being administered by geneticist Costas Pangalos and gynecologist Costas Pantos, the procedure will be the world’s first for this particular disease.

Dr. Pantos told ANA-MPA that the parents of the sick toddler’s parents also have a healthy older child. In the procedure, the mother’s ova (eggs) are fertilized in vitro. The fertilized ovaries then undergo a PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis) to determine which fertilized ova are free of this particular hereditary disease, as well as a histocompatibility test for compatibility with the ailing child. The disease-free, compatible ovum is than implanted into the woman’s uterus.

The procedure was innovative given that no tissue or blood was taken from the infant itself, Pantos explained. Instead the treatment was of the kind where stem cells from the blood contained in either the umbilical cord or the placenta — both of which are discarded after the birth takes place — are used to save lives.

Given traditional treatment, the 4-year-old boy’s prognosis would not be good due to the fact that the disease becomes fatal when the patient reaches the age of 10-15, However, the countdown for the boy will be stopped as soon as the stem-cell transplantation takes place at Athens’ Agia Sophia Children’s Hospital in the following weeks.

In seven months’ time for a comparable reason, a second baby will be born into another family in Ilioupolis, Athens. Again, the specialized tests conducted before the in-vitro-fertilized ovum was implanted in the mother’s uterus came out exceptional like in the first case, according to Pangalos and Pantos.

According to Pangalos, this is a world-first and it is a major scientific achievement showing that Greece has great technological potential. “A single cell can provide the information that an embryo is healthy and histocompatible, a state or condition in which the absence of immunological interference permits the grafting of tissue or the transfusion of blood without rejection,” he said. “Only two or three research centers in the United States, one in France, an Italian, a German and we, have the necessary technological capability,” added Prof. Pangalos. “From now on, the greatest application of this method will be the treatment of children suffering from cancer. There are not enough donors, and unfortunately children die. This technique can save their lives,” he stressed.

Prof. Pangalos will announce this world first achievement by Greek doctors and geneticists at the American Geneticists Conference in October.

Does your baby’s umbilical cord hold a miracle?

Through brochures and advertisements purposefully positioned in doctor’s offices and pregnancy magazines, the aforementioned question is delivered to expectant parents every single day.

The ad states that your child can wait for science to develop cure-alls using the cord blood stem cells to treat a host of illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and even spinal injuries. The fee is up front and usually about $2000 with a $125 fee every year thereafter. The company will freeze and store the stem cells extracted from your baby’s umbilical cord.

A simple idea. Pay for possibility.

Depending on whom you ask, these private cord-blood banks are either capitalizing on the buying power of nervous parents or selling an almost priceless form of medical insurance.

You have to understand what stem cells do before you can understand the marketing behind the miracle.

Stem cells, the blank slates of the cell world. They’re the cells that, as a human embryo becomes a baby, transform into the cells that form the brain, nerves and other parts of the body.

Some – known as adult stem cells – go partway toward making a particular organ but remain undeveloped. The body naturally uses these cells to repair damaged or diseased tissue in that organ.

Stem cell infusions from stored cord blood someday could encourage that same process as a medical treatment, or at least that is the idea cord-blood banking companies pitch.

Viable medical uses for stem cells already exist. Since 1988, cord-blood stem cells – usually from a sibling or unrelated donor – have been used to treat patients with rare blood disorders and cancers, such as sickle cell anemia and leukemia. Comparable to bone marrow transplants for cancer patients the stem cell procedure is less difficult due to the fact that a matching donor is easier to find. Stem cells are also less likely to be rejected and the treatment process is also less painful.

More than 600 Americans a year receive cord-blood infusions, frequently from unrelated families who donated their babies’ cord blood to public banks.

With the probability of a baby or a sibling (who has a 25 percent chance of being a viable match) becoming sick, an industry grew around parents’ banking their own babies’ cord blood as new treatments utilizing stem cells developed.

Stem cells have become a hot topic thanks to scientific advances and the political and religious debate surrounding discarded embryos. The stem cell craze of the 21st century has started.

Two years ago California voters approved Proposition 71 to fund stem cell research. Last year, President Bush approved a $79 million national databank for public stores of cord blood so patients can seek out matching donors.

Regulated by the FDA, the uproar launched the fledgling industry of private cord-blood banks.

“The marketplace changed. The value increased because stem cells were seen as a resource for emerging therapies,” said Stephen, 43, executive vice president of San Bruno, Calif.-based Cord Blood Registry, one of the largest private banks.

Some European countries have banned private storage of cord blood in favor of nonprofit banks for public use. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend private banking.

But banking in the U.S. is big business. More than $600 million have been paid by expectant parents to the three largest banks. They have stored the cord blood of more than 300,000 babies.

Competition has cord-blood storage companies suing each other over which has the best technology and which stores the most blood. Several of the two dozen banks have “feeder” Web sites that lead you to their business sites.

So far, it’s estimated that fewer than 100 withdrawals of privately stored cord blood have been made in the U.S., most for siblings with leukemia. But the near future may prove that this is one insurance policy that will not go to waste and may quite possibly be the most valuable insurance one can buy. This will prompt the rise of many more withdrawls for theraputic use and consequently many more people will choose to bank their blood.

“It’s peace of mind knowing it’s there just in case,” Stephen said.