New Stem Cell Found in Brain: Finding Could Be Key to Developing Methods to Heal and Repair Brain Injury and Disease

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2012) — "Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new stem cell in the adult brain. These cells can proliferate and form several different cell types -- most importantly, they can form new brain cells. Scientists hope to take advantage of the finding to develop methods to heal and repair disease and injury in the brain.
Analyzing brain tissue from biopsies, the researchers for the first time found stem cells located around small blood vessels in the brain. The cell's specific function is still unclear, but its plastic properties suggest great potential.

"A similar cell type has been identified in several other organs where it can promote regeneration of muscle, bone, cartilage and adipose tissue," said Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair in Parkinson's Research at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), Head of the Neuronal Survival Unit at Lund University and senior author of the study.

In other organs, researchers have shown clear evidence that these types of cells contribute to repair and wound healing. Scientists suggest that the curative properties may also apply to the brain. The next step is to try to control and enhance stem cell self-healing properties with the aim of carrying out targeted therapies to a specific area of the brain.

"Our findings show that the cell capacity is much larger than we originally thought, and that these cells are very versatile," said Gesine Paul-Visse, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Lund University and the study's primary author. "Most interesting is their ability to form neuronal cells, but they can also be developed for other cell types. The results contribute to better understanding of how brain cell plasticity works and opens up new opportunities to exploit these very features."

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is of interest to a broad spectrum of brain research. Future possible therapeutic targets range from neurodegenerative diseases to stroke."

NOTE: To read the entire article, click on the title above.

NOTE: To access the Center for Disability Resources Library, click on this link.

Encouraging Results With Stem Cell Transplant for Brain Injury

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2012) — "Experiments in brain-injured rats show that stem cells injected via the carotid artery travel directly to the brain, where they greatly enhance functional recovery, reports a study in the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
The carotid artery injection technique -- along with some form of in vivo optical imaging to track the stem cells after transplantation -- may be part of emerging approaches to stem cell transplantation for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans, according to the new research, led by Dr Toshiya Osanai of Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Advanced Imaging Technology Lets Researchers Track Stem Cells
The researchers evaluated a new "intra-arterial" technique of stem cell transplantation in rats. Within seven days after induced TBI, stem cells created from the rats' bone marrow were injected into the carotid artery. The goal was to deliver the stem cells directly to the brain, without having them travel through the general circulation.
Before injection, the stem cells were labeled with "quantum dots" -- a biocompatible, fluorescent semiconductor created using nanotechnology. The quantum dots emit near-infrared light, with much longer wavelengths that penetrate bone and skin. This allowed the researchers to noninvasively monitor the stem cells for four weeks after transplantation.
Using this in vivo optical imaging technique, Dr Osanai and colleagues were able to see that the injected stem cells entered the brain on the "first pass," without entering the general circulation. Within three hours, the stem cells began to migrate from the smallest brain blood vessels (capillaries) into the area of brain injury."
NOTE: To read the entire article, click on the title above.

To access the Center for Disability Resources Library and its materials, please click this link

Nanosensors Made from DNA May Light Path to New Cancer Tests and Drugs

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — Sensors made from custom DNA molecules could be used to personalize cancer treatments and monitor the quality of stem cells, according to an international team of researchers led by scientists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

The new nanosensors can quickly detect a broad class of proteins called transcription factors, which serve as the master control switches of life. The research is described in an article published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

"The fate of our cells is controlled by thousands of different proteins, called transcription factors," said Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a postdoctoral researcher in UCSB's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who led the study. "The role of these proteins is to read the genome and translate it into instructions for the synthesis of the various molecules that compose and control the cell. Transcription factors act a little bit like the 'settings' of our cells, just like the settings on our phones or computers. What our sensors do is read those settings."

When scientists take stem cells and turn them into specialized cells, they do so by changing the levels of a few transcription factors, he explained. This process is called cell reprogramming. "Our sensors monitor transcription factor activities, and could be used to make sure that stem cells have been properly reprogrammed," said Vallée-Bélisle. "They could also be used to determine which transcription factors are activated or repressed in a patient's cancer cells, thus enabling physicians to use the right combination of drugs for each patient."

Andrew Bonham, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSB and co-first author of the study, explained that many labs have invented ways to read transcription factors; however, this team's approach is very quick and convenient. "In most labs, researchers spend hours extracting the proteins from cells before analyzing them," said Bonham. "With the new sensors, we just mash the cells up, put the sensors in, and measure the level of fluorescence of the sample."

To read the entire article, please click on the above title.

New Discovery May Eliminate Potentially Lethal Side Effect of Stem Cell Therapy

ScienceDaily (Aug. 15, 2011) — Like fine chefs, scientists are seemingly approaching a day when they will be able to make nearly any type of tissue from human embryonic stem cells. You need nerves or pancreas, bone or skin? With the right combination of growth factors, skill and patience, a laboratory tissue culture dish promises to yield therapeutic wonders. But within these batches of newly generated cells lurks a big potential problem: Any remaining embryonic stem cells -- those that haven't differentiated into the desired tissue -- can go on to become dangerous tumors called teratomas when transplanted into patients.

Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a way to remove these pluripotent human embryonic stem cells from their progeny before the differentiated cells are used in humans. ("Pluripotent" describes cells that are able to become all types of adult tissue.)

"The ability to do regenerative medicine requires the complete removal of tumor-forming cells from any culture that began with pluripotent cells," said Irving Weissman, MD, director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. "We've used a combination of antibodies to weed out the few undifferentiated cells that could be left in the 10 or 100 million differentiated cells that make up a therapeutic dose."

To read more about stem cell research, please click on the above title.

Stem Cells May Show Promise for People With Rapidly Progressing Multiple Sclerosis

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2011) — A long term study reports about the effectiveness of replacing bone marrow, purposely destroyed by chemotherapy, with autologous (self) stem cell rescue for people with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the March 22, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the treatment, chemotherapy drugs are used to kill all of the patient's blood cells, including the immune cells that are believed to be attacking the body's own central nervous system. Bone marrow stem cells removed from the patient are purified and transplanted back into the body, which saves life by replacing the blood cells and also is proposed to 'reboot' the immune system.

The study followed 35 people for an average of 11 years after transplant. The study involved people with rapidly progressive MS who had tried a number of other treatments for MS with little or no effect. All were severely disabled by the disease, with an average score of six on a scale of disease activity that ranges from zero being a normal neurological examination to 10 meaning death due to MS. A score of six means able to walk with a cane or crutch; a seven is mainly in a wheelchair. All had worsened by at least one point on the scale in the year prior to the transplant.

Patient's Own Bone Marrow Stem Cells May Provide Treatment for Brain Injuries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2011) — Stem cells derived from a patient's own bone marrow were safely used in pediatric patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to results of a Phase I clinical trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The results were published in this month's issue of Neurosurgery, the journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons."Our data demonstrate that the acute harvest of bone marrow and infusion of bone marrow mononuclear cells to acutely treat severe TBI in children is safe," said Charles S. Cox, Jr., M.D., the study's lead author and professor of pediatric neurosurgery at the UTHealth Medical School. The clinical trial, which included 10 children aged 5 to 14 with severe TBI, was done in partnership with Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, where Cox is director of the pediatric trauma program.All the children were treated within 48 hours of their injury with their own stem cells, which were collected from their bone marrow, processed and returned to them intravenously. UTHealth's Department of Neurology is also currently testing the same bone marrow stem cell procedure in adults with acute stroke. In a separate trial, Cox is testing the safety of using a patient's own cord blood stem cells for traumatic brain injury in children.

NOTE: To read the entire article, click on the title above.

Functional Motor Neuron Subtypes Generated from Embryonic Stem Cells

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — Scientists have devised a method for coaxing mouse embryonic stem cells into forming a highly specific motor neuron subtype. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 3rd issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provides new insight into motor neuron differentiation and may prove useful for devising and testing future therapies for motor neuron diseases.
Motor neurons in the spinal cord communicate with other neurons in the central nervous system and send long projections out to muscles, transmitting signals that are essential for proper control of movement and posture. Like other neuron classes, motor neurons are known to exhibit tremendous diversity. "The existence of dozens of muscle groups in the limbs of most mammals demands an equivalent diversity of motor neuron pool subtypes," explains the senior study author, Dr. Hynek Wichterle from Columbia University in New York.

NOTE: To read the entire article click on the title above.

Plain cells turned into beating heart cells: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two studies published on Thursday show new ways to fix damaged hearts, one by turning structural heart cells into beating cells and another by restoring a primordial ability to regenerate lost tissue.

The two approaches need more work before they can be tried in humans, but they represent big steps forward in the new field of regenerative medicine.

Stem cell researchers know they can reprogram these ordinary cells by adding three or four genes to take them back to an embryonic-like state. Teams are working to fine-tune these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells.

Taking this approach a step further, Dr. Masaki Ieda and colleagues found the genes that, in a developing embryo, turn an immature cell into a beating heart cell or cardiomyocyte.

They used these three genes called Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 to convert mouse heart fibroblasts -- which provide structure but which cannot beat -- into the beating cells.

"Scientists have tried for 20 years to convert nonmuscle cells into heart muscle, but it turns out we just needed the right combination of genes at the right dose," Ieda, now at the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan, said in a statement

To view the full article, follow the link in this post's title.

Scientists Use Stem Cells to Help Rabbits Grow New Joints

WEDNESDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, scientists have been able to grow an entire joint from stem cells, albeit in rabbits not humans. And the joints worked.

"The rabbits were able to hop and walk and bear weight, virtually like normal rabbits," said Dr. Jeremy Mao, senior author of a paper published online July 29 in The Lancet. "This was the first regeneration of the entire joint with restored functioning."

If replicated in humans, the researchers are hoping these regenerated joints would last longer than artificial joints, which have a life span of about 10 to 15 years right now.

This is especially important given the number of younger people (65 and younger) who are now requiring joint replacements, often because of osteoarthritis, the authors stated.

Currently, damaged joints are replaced with joints made of titanium or stainless steel. They have a number of drawbacks, including limited life span.

To view the full article, follow the link in this post's title.

New Way to Generate Abundant Functional Blood Vessel Cells from Human Stem Cells Discovered

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2010) — In a significant step toward restoring healthy blood circulation to treat a variety of diseases, a team of scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has developed a new technique and described a novel mechanism for turning human embryonic and pluripotent stem cells into plentiful, functional endothelial cells, which are critical to the formation of blood vessels. Endothelial cells form the interior "lining" of all blood vessels and are the main component of capillaries, the smallest and most abundant vessels. In the near future, the researchers believe, it will be possible to inject these cells into humans to heal damaged organs and tissues.

The new approach allows scientists to generate virtually unlimited quantities of durable endothelial cells -- more than 40-fold the quantity possible with previous approaches. Based on insights into the genetic mechanisms that regulate how embryonic stem cells form vascular endothelial cells, the approach may also yield new ways to study genetically inherited vascular diseases. The study appears in the advance online issue of Nature Biotechnology.

To view entire article, please click on the title above.

Stem cell stroke therapy assessed

BBC News (Jan. 18, 2009) -- A Glasgow team is to launch a major trial to assess whether stem cells can be used to treat stroke patients, the BBC has learned.
They hope it will put the UK at the forefront of developing stem cell therapy for incurable disease.

Cells made from a human foetus will be injected into patients' brains.
It is hoped the cells will regenerate areas damaged by stroke, and increase patients' movements and mental abilities.

The trial, due to start in the middle of this year, will initially involve four groups of three patients over two years.

Doctors are primarily testing the safety of the procedure but there is the possibility that some patients may benefit from the treatment.

To View the Entire Article, Please Click on the Title Above