Stem cell transplant – a chance for a new life

Featured

Posted on by

 

Hello, my name is Jean and I am one of the first women in New Zealand to undergo Adult Stemcell transplant treatment in a clinical trial right here in New Zealand.

This web site is an explanation in plain English of that process plus the costs of being involved in a clinical trial and a record of improvements from the time of my transplant on the 23rd of June 2012.

It also records the down side as I begin to realise that my improvements have been less than I hoped for, in the short time that has passed since the treatment.

Many people are cured or substantially helped through stem cell therapy but there is no guarantee – it doesn’t work for everyone. Lets see if it works for me.

Please, join me on my stem cell journey. Be there as my real life story unfolds!

 

I also include the most up to date stem cell news, video’s and information from the latest studies and research.

SPN – Tech, Social Media & Search Engine News

 

 

Stem cell transplant treatment before during after

Featured

Posted on by

Before Stem cell Treatment – 25 years of misery. 

Most of my life I have suffered with fibromyalgia as well as spinal degeneration for many years. 
Fibromyalgia, as sufferers know, has dozens of symptoms – particularly widespread muscle and joint pains as well as many “tenderpoints” all over the body.
 I also experience a metallic taste in the mouth, Stinging tongue, sore gums, sore throat, Constant indigestion, Headaches, Itchy skin, Dry painful eyes when waking, and Aching eyes severe insomnia and exhaustion, to name a few.   Continue reading →

Stem cell transplant treatment results fourth week- is it really working?

Featured

Posted on by

Obviously I’m disappointed to a degree as well as a bit anxious, because I don’t know if I can cope with my life if stem cell treatment doesn’t work in my case. I’ve read that some people don’t respond and it’s not known why. My lower spine affects me when I sit or lie on my side. If you’ve never been in the position of being unable to either sit or lie for very long, you won’t  understand how much it interferes with a normal life. Constant pain is the chief factor. Continue reading →

Stem Cell Therapies

Featured

Posted on by

Stem Cells Have Two Key Properties
1)The ability to self-renew, dividing in a way that makes copies of themselves,

2) The ability to differentiate, giving rise to the mature types of cells that makes up our organs and tissues.

Tissue-specific stem cells

Tissue-specific stem cells, otherwise known as “adult” or “somatic” stem cells, are already specialized to some degree and can produce most of the mature cell types found within the particular tissue or organ in which they reside. Because they are able to generate multiple, organ-specific, cell types, they are described as “multipotent.” For example, stem cells found within the adult brain are able to make neurons and two types of glial cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Continue reading →

Stem Cell Transplant – 5 months down the track

Featured

Posted on by

5 months down the track.
by Jean Beardsall

I’ve recently been much encouraged by a you-tube video of a man who is recovering his ability to walk 8 months after stem cell therapy!see link at page bottom
I say this because I have to admit I’ve been disappointed in the outcome of my own stem cell treatment. This is not to say I wasn’t warned by the surgeon that if it worked results would happen gradually over a year. Continue reading →

Will stem cells become standard treatment for many diseases?

Featured

Posted on by

A King’s College team suggests that it’s highly likely.Patients could be receiving stem cells treatment as standard, in a little more than a year from now, after new breakthroughs, say British scientists!

Scientists in England have made the first human embryonic stem cells of a high enough grade to use in patients and deposited them in a public stem cell bank. Continue reading →

Stem cell creation mapped

Posted on by
the creation and differentiation of stem cells,

Despite seven years of reprogramming adult cells, this is the first time scientists have mapped the process from mature cell to induced pluripotent stem cell in detail.

Process comprehensively mapped for the first time.

University researchers are shedding light on the complex processes that underpin the creation and differentiation of stem cells, bringing closer the promise of ‘miracle’ therapies.

Dr Jose Polo of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology and his team, with collaborators at Harvard, have comprehensively mapped, for the first time, the process by which mature cells are re-programmed to become an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell.

iPS cells behave almost exactly like embryonic stem cells – they can become any cell in the body – but come without the ethical and scientific pitfalls.

The re-programming process was developed in 2006; however, until now, it was unknown exactly how it worked.

Dr Polo has unravelled the precise molecular events occurring in an adult skin cells at almost every level throughout the re-programming process. The results were published in the prestigious journal Cell.

Every cell in the body contains a full genome or complete set of DNA. The differences between a brain neuron and a liver cell are down to the fact that although they contain the exact same genes, not all of these are active in each cell – a process known as transcription.

Read more…..

Ethical debate surrounds human stem cell clones

Posted on by

Scientists must ensure that they take the lead in the ethical debate surrounding the therapeutic use of stem cells derived from human clones.

Last week’s announcement in Cell that a team in Oregon has successfully derived stem cells from a cloned human embryo raises many questions. Researchers must do their best to answer them. If they do not, then they risk a repeat performance of the misinformation, confusion and distraction that followed the birth in 1996 of the first mammalian clone, Dolly the sheep. Nonsense such as rumours that Saddam Hussein was going to copy himself, claims by the Raëlian sect that it had produced a cloned girl named Eve and declarations by physicist and entrepreneur Richard Seed that he would produce hundreds of thousands of human clones generated an environment of fear that distracted from the real debate and set back research.

The reaction to the Oregon team’s success has been predictably mixed. Some have lauded the achievement, others have been less enthusiastic. “Barbaric,” wrote one critic. Another called it a “terrible injustice”.

It is true that the research faces ethical controversy on three fronts: egg donation, embryo destruction and cloning. The work needs eggs to be donated by women, who must undergo a procedure that carries risks of complications.

Read more….

 

Experimental Stem-cell treatment restores sight.

Posted on by

20 May 2013 by Andy Coghlan

An experimental stem-cell treatment

has restored the sight of a man

stem cells cure man from blindness

Age-related macular degeneration can leave people with only peripheral vision (Image: Science Source/SPL)

blinded by the degeneration of his retinal cells. The man, who is taking part in a trial examining the safety of using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to reverse two common causes of blindness, can now see well enough to be allowed to drive.

People undergoing the experimental treatment had reported modest improvements in vision earlier in the trial, which began in 2011, but this individual has made especially dramatic progress. The vision in his affected eye went from 20/400 – essentially blind – to 20/40, which is considered sighted.

“There’s a guy walking around who was blind, but now can see,” says Gary Rabin, chief executive officer of Advanced Cell Technology, the company in Marlborough, Massachusetts that devised the experimental  treatment. “With that sort of vision, you can have a driver’s licence.”

In all, the company treated 22 patients who either have dry age-related macular degeneration, a common condition that leaves people with a black hole in the centre of their vision, or Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, an inherited disease that leads to premature blindness. The company wouldn’t tell New Scientist which of the two diseases the participant with the dramatic improvement has.

Read more:

 

 

 

 

 

Mitochondrial disease helped by new research

Posted on by

Last week’s big news about production of genetically matched human embryonic stem cells holds potential for treating mitochondrial disease, because the matching is not precise. Somatic cell nuclear transfer, the method that produced Dolly the sheep, duplicates nuclear DNA from the donor nucleus, but not the mitochondria, which are those of the egg cell receiving the nucleus.

Mitochondria are the asterisk in the textbook explanation that all DNA is packaged into chromosomes in the nucleus. Mitochondria contain their own DNA, reproduce on their own, and scientific evidence strongly suggests they evolved from invading bacteria that became symbiotic. While mitochondria have a tiny number of genes, their function is essential for human life.

Nearly all energy in the body comes from mitochondria, and defective mitochondria can cause serious diseases, some fatal. Some research implicates mitochondrial defects in Alzheimer’s disease. (MitoKor, a defunct San Diego biotech specializing in mitochondrial diseases, had researched a potential Alzheimer’s therapy.)

Embryonic stem cells generated by SCNT would have the same nuclear DNA as the donor cell, but healthy mitochondria. And that gives rise to the possibility of a new kind of gene therapy, said UC San Diego stem cell researcher Louise Laurant.

Read more…..

Stem Cell Donor to Meet Woman Whose Life He Helped Save

Posted on by
stem cell donor meets woman whose life he saved

Scott Berenson

Six years ago, Sharon-native Scott Berenson, 37, was helping his wife Alison by volunteering for one of the many projects she took on in her role as the the young adult program director for Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

This time it was a registration drive at Harvard Hillel in Cambridge for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation for stem cell donors.

Berenson was there, so he figured he would take the 90 seconds it took for a clinician to swab the inside of his mouth and send it off for testing. He didn’t really give it much thought after that.

“[Four] years probably went by and the only time I really consciously thought about the Gift of Life was when once a year I would get a call from a nice person on the other end who was just updating my personal information,” Berenson said. “I didn’t really think too much of it because I knew that the chances of being a match were pretty remote in the grand scheme of things. Then, in October of 2011, I got the call and they left a message and I knew immediately from the tone and the tenor of the call that this was a little bit different.”

Read more….

 

Sports Medicine New Frontiers: Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) and Stem Cell Therapy

Posted on by

/PRNewswire/ — Sports Medicine is always at the forefront of innovative medical technology.  Athletes are constantly striving to improve. Records are broken as humans run faster, jump higher, and strive for higher levels of performance. Athletes expose their bodies to more wear and tear as performance increases. Scientific training principles and diet have changed drastically over time. Technological breakthroughs have also impacted the rehabilitation process. The use of regenerative medicine has grown significantly in recent years. The popularity of Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) has escalated as many high profile elite athletes from a diverse array of sports have opted for this treatment. The likes of Kobe Bryant, Rafael Nadal, and Tiger Woods garner ample press coverage when they are treated for injuries. Stem Cell Therapy becomes headlines when Peyton Manning undergoes this treatment. The goal of regenerative medicine therapies is to aid the body to heal itself. Understanding and accepting stem cell therapies for athletic injuries and sports medicine is gathering keen interest.

Dr. Dennis Lox, www.drlox.com a Sports and Regenerative Medicine Physician in the Tampa Bay Florida area, comments that the scientific backdrop of cell signaling and inflammatory mediators has led to a new understanding of how tissues heal.

Read more….

Cat Takes Part In Stem Cell Study

Posted on by
cat takes part in transplant study

Sabrina Recovering From Stem Cell Surgery

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A stem cell transplant study led to a Lowcountry cat taking part in a ground-breaking treatment Monday morning.

Last year, 14-year-old cat, Sabrina was diagnosed with kidney disease and not given a positive prognosis. Now, the experimental study might give her a new lease on life.

During surgery, stem cells were harvested from a four-ounce sample of her fat.

“We took a fairly large sample of fat, which is what the stem cells are derived from. When you compare that to a 10 pound cat that’s a quite large sample of tissue,” said Dr. Ruth Roberts, the veterinarian who performed the surgery.

Now the cells will be modified as Sabrina undergoes more treatment.

In the future, doctors hope that similar treatments can be used to help some of the 20 million Americans suffering from kidney disease.

Sabrina is recovering on a heating pad, doctors said.

Source……

Explainer: What are stem cells?

Posted on by
embryonic stem cells have been created from human skin

Human Embryo

In a paper published in Cell yesterday, scientists from the US and Thailand have, for the first time, successfully produced embryonic stem cells from human skin cells.

Sounds interesting, but what are stem cells and where do they come from?

If you take a limb from a rose tree, and put it in soil, it will grow into a thriving bush.

You might say: “Plants are special. This won’t work with animals.” Or will it? If you cut off a lizard’s tail, a new tail may grow. A lobster can grow back a lost claw.

There is a special type of  that can be cut in half, again and again hundreds of times. Each half grows back into a full worm.

Similarly, if you cut out half a human liver, it will grow back. The story of Prometheus, whose liver was eaten away by eagles and regrew each day, suggests that the Greeks of ancient times knew about  of organs.

This sort of regeneration is attributed to special cells called “stem cells”.

Reprogramming the workers

Most of our cells are like many professional workers – they are hardened in their ways and can’t manage career changes.

Read more….

 

 

 

Bone marrow stem cell donation saves distant life

Posted on by

BY ANNE STANTON astanton@record-eagle.comTraverse City Record-Eagle

stem cell donor saves woman's life

Fred Koch Craig Foerster donated bone marrow stem cells to save the life of Pam Whitmore.

SUTTONS BAY – Craig Foerster was a “little nervous” when he drove to a Traverse City hotel last fall to meet the woman whose life he saved.

Pam Whitmore understood.

“How do you say ‘thank you’ to somebody who has saved your life?” Whitmore said. “It equates to somebody pulling you out of a burning accident.”

So Whitmore of Buckingham, Iowa, simply gave the stranger a big hug and told him she had a lot of questions.

“He said, ‘Ask away. I have a lot of answers,’” she said.

The story of how Foerster, 47, of Suttons Bay donated life-saving bone marrow to Whitmore, 69, began 15 years ago, when Foerster lived in Grand Blanc. He had read about a bone marrow donor and then happened upon a bone marrow donation booth in the mall.

“They took a cheek swab and that was it, a little Q-tip inside my cheek for a DNA sample,” he said.

In September 2011, Foerster learned his bone marrow hit a match. He agreed to the procedure, knowing nothing about Whitmore’s desperate struggle to live.

Whitmore was diagnosed with pre-leukemia in 2006. By May 2011, the disease progressed to acute myeloid leukemia,…..

Read more…..

Stem cells: Back to the future

Posted on by

Is  producing stem cells by cloning the way of the future?

IN THE world of TV soap operas, it’s a familiar storyline. A brilliant but troublesome character who was written out of the script years ago makes an unexpected comeback, sending ripples of excitement through the community but also reopening old wounds.

That, in essence, is what happened in stem cell research this week, with the return of a technique called therapeutic cloning. What comes next should make for compelling viewing.

A few years ago, therapeutic cloning looked like the future of medicine. It promised to realise the dream of repairing damaged tissues and organs using a patient’s own cells. But it also had a dark side: producing its supply of stem cells required the creation of human embryos which were later destroyed.

Ethical concerns led the US to severely restrict funding for therapeutic cloning research. Then, in 2006, the problem magically disappeared. First the technique’s leading researcher, Woo Suk Hwang, was exposed as a fraud. Then a team in Japan reported success using a very different technique that did not require donated human eggs or the creation of embryos.

Read more here….

 

Time to legislate on stem cells

Posted on by

Is it time to legislate on stem cells? The news of another breakthrough in Oregon in stem-cell technology – the cloning of embryos using human tissues and then the ability to harvest stem cells from them – opens up new possibilities in the personalisation of therapeutic cloning. But, closer to home, it serves to draw attention once again to the lacunae in Irish law that have left most of a field of fast-developing research and the whole area of assisted reproduction unregulated, Irish scientists unable to pursue cutting edge science, funding withheld, and potential patients vulnerable to unscrupulous scientists.

Ironically the breakthrough comes as our legislators battle with abortion legislation. Both issues, tied up as they are with thorny ethical issues around where life begins and when and how embryos acquire rights, are equally politically toxic. Both have also been the subject of urgent injunctions from the frustrated courts to politicians to fulfil their responsibility to legislate. Both, crucially, also require a willingness and courage on the part of politicians to move beyond absolutist moral positions to a new legislative ethics based on pluralist values and real social needs

Read more….

 

 

Could humans be cloned?

Posted on by
  • it is likely biologically possible to clone a human being.

    Actresses Tricia Helfer (left) and Grace Park (right), who played humanoid Cylons with countless clones on the TV show “Battlestar Galactica.”

    The first step during SCNT is enucleation or removal of nuclear genetic material (chromosomal) from a human egg. An egg is positioned with holding pipette (on the left) and egg’s chromosomes are visualized under polarized microscope. A hole is made in the egg’s shell (zone pellucida) using a laser and a smaller pipette (on the right) is inserted through the opening. The chromosomes then sucked in inside the pipette and slowly removed from the egg. (Cell, Tachibana et al.)

The news that researchers have used cloning to make human embryos for the purpose of producing stem cells may have some people wondering if it would ever be possible to clone a person.Although it would be unethical, experts say it is likely biologically possible to clone a human being. But even putting ethics aside, the sheer amount of resources needed to do it is a significant barrier.
Since the 1950s when researchers cloned a frog, scientists have cloned dozens of animal species, including mice, cats, sheep, pigs and cows.In each case, researchers encountered problems that needed to be overcome with trial and error, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer…..

Read more…..

 

 

.

 

Saved by a Stranger

Posted on by
donation from a stranger saved her life

McKensie Straka of Kearney

By ADAM KONRUFF Hub Staff Writer | 0 comments
KEARNEY — McKensie Straka doesn’t know his name or anything other than his age, 32 years old two years ago, but hopes to someday meet the man who saved her life by donating stem cells to replace the cancerous blood cells that were diagnosed early in 2011.
“It’s amazing to think that the actions of a total stranger saved my life,” said Straka of Kearney. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on Feb. 5, 2011.
Her cancer went into remission that July, thanks to a stem-cell donation from an unknown man. “I feel like I have a second chance at life,” she said.
Straka was brought back to Omaha after she was first diagnosed with AML to undergo intensive chemotherapy. She spent the next 41 days in Bergan Mercy Medical Center in Omaha. Tubes were inserted into her body at her shoulders and above her left breast. The tubes allowed doctors to treat her in various ways without repeatedly sticking her with a needle.

“They were basically IV lines for fluids and medication and another line that expelled bad cells and brought good ones in,” Straka said.

Read more….

 

 

 

Cloning stem cells: What does it mean?

Posted on by

(CNN) — A human embryo, containing about a couple hundred cells, is smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Scientists need strong microscopes to see these precursors to life, and to take from them stem cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the body.

Earlier this week a breakthrough in this field was announced. A group of researchers published in the journal Cell proof that they had created embryonic stem cells through cloning. The scientists produced embryos using human skin cells, and then used the embryos to produce stem cell lines.
“It is an incredibly powerful approach with potential to generate almost any tissue in the body, genetically identical to the patient,” said Jeff Karp, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Creating an embryo just from an egg and a skin cell seems like magic, but just how practical would the subsequent stem cells be? And does it actually amount to cloning?

Watch video……

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130516021731-intv-cloning-research-mitalipov-00031324-story-top.jpg

Read more….

Italy may rein in rogue stem-cell therapy

Posted on by

A controversial decree allowing severely ill patients to continue treatment with an unproven, and possibly unsafe, stem-cell therapy may be amended, if the Italian parliament’s Chamber of Deputies has its way.

Yesterday (16 May) the Chamber’s social affairs committee unanimously passed amendments to the decree which would allow the Brescia-based Stamina Foundation, which developed the therapy, to continue administering it. However, Stamina would be required to do so within regular clinical trials, under the oversight of regulatory agencies, and using cells manufactured according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). A supervisory ‘observatory’ comprising experts and patient representatives would oversee clinical trial procedures.

The proposal is intended to defuse the tensions between, on one side, terminally ill patients and their families, who believe the Stamina treatment is their only hope, and on the opposite side,  scientists and regulators who believe it to be dangerous and almost certainly not efficacious.

Stamina claims to have treated in the last six years more than 80 patients with diseases ranging from Parkinson’s disease to muscular dystrophy. Many of the patients have been young children. In the therapy, mesenchymal stem cells are extracted from the bone marrow of the patients, manipulated in the laboratory and re-infused into the patients.

Read more….

 

Method Allows Closer Look at Developing Embryos

Posted on by
new method to advance biological research and the search for new treatments for genetic diseases.

X-ray phase-contrast tomography: Early frog embryo in cellular resolution (left) and cell and tissue motion captured and visualized using flow analysis (right). (Source: Argonne National Lab/KIT/Alexey Ershov)

An international team of scientists using a new X-ray method recorded the internal structure and cell movement inside a living frog embryo in greater detail than ever before.

This result showcases a new method to advance biological research and the search for new treatments for genetic diseases.
Scientists at Northwestern University and the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie in Germany, in collaboration with the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, released the most precise depiction ever of the embryonic development of African clawed frogs, one of the most frequently studied model organisms in biology.
The results, titled “X-ray phase-contrast in vivo microtomography probes new aspects of Xenopus gastrulation,” were published in the journal Nature.
The team X-rayed an embryo during gastrulation, the period when its hundreds of cells start to organize into differentiated tissues that eventually form the nervous system, muscles and internal organs. Studies of African clawed frog embryos provide clues to the evolution of vertebrates and how human genes turn on or off to create diseases.

Until now, however, it has been difficult to study these embryos. Classical absorption imaging requires a contrast agent and large X-ray dose that can harm living organisms.

Read more….

Treatment offers new way to save fertility

Posted on by

 

NASHVILLE — Younger women diagnosed with cancer take risks in the hope of becoming a mother.

They delay chemotherapy and radiation, gambling that their cancer won’t spread during the month they undergo fertility preservation. A new option doesn’t require aspiring mothers to have to wait.

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is so new it has yet to bring a baby into the world. Tissue samples containing stem cells are removed from an ovary, frozen and shipped to a storage bank in Minnesota.

The Center for Reproductive Health at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., is the only facility in Tennessee offering the treatment. The treatment is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, so it is free to patients.

The stem cells can later be surgically re-implanted or nurtured outside the body to grow an egg for in vitro fertilization. The preservation process is much quicker than the current method….

Read more….

 

 

Bringing together stem cell researchers to accelerate translation to the clinic

Posted on by

13 May 2013

Stem Cell Experts Meet 

This week experts from around Australia, and two international leaders in the field, will meet to discuss stem cell science and just how close we are to delivering on the promise of this exciting field. Leading scientists, doctors and industry members will share ideas and experiences in an effort to broaden understanding and accelerate progress towards the ultimate goal of new therapies.

Therapeutic Potential of Stem Cells: Prospects & Pitfalls is a symposium co-hosted by Stem Cells Australia and the Bio21 Cluster that will be held at The University of Melbourne on 16 & 17 May.

Australian stem cell research continues to be a vibrant component of our medical research sector. Stem cells are used in laboratories across the country to better understand normal development and what goes wrong in disease, as well as exploring potential new stem cell therapies for a range of conditions.

This two-day scientific symposium provides a unique opportunity to learn the latest about stem cell applications in sports medicine, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, vision loss, drug discovery and cord blood banking.

Read more….

 

German stem cell scientists a step closer to hair re-growth

Posted on by

 Scientists from Berlin’s Technical University have announced that they have been successful in cloning hair follicles from stem cells for the first time.

Science Lab

The German scientists used stem cells from animals to create new hair follicles in a laboratory, something which has never before been achieved. Previous hair cell regeneration research by companies such as Aderans and Intercytex has used tissue from a patient’s own hair follicles to grow new cells capable of stimulating hair follicle re-growth, but this research using stem cells represents a remarkable breakthrough.

Clinical trial preparations “already in motion”

Though this latest German research used stem cells taken from animals, the scientists from the Technical University are confident that they can do the same with human stem cells in order to create human hair follicles within a year. Furthermore, they claim that a hair re-growth treatment utilising the technique could be available within five years, theoretically enabling those suffering from total baldness to re-grow a full head of hair. Speaking to German newspaper Die Welt, the project’s leader, Dr Roland Lauster, announced that the necessary groundwork for clinical trials to commence were, “already in motion.”

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are the building blocks of all living things. Every cell in the human body begins as a stem cell, or undifferentiated cell, before turning into any one of the body’s specialist cells, such as a blood cell, skin cell or muscle cell. In addition to this ability to change into any other cell, stem cells  can also self-replicate. Because of these unique properties, the ability to manipulate them in a laboratory has long been heralded as a modern day panacea to all of mankind’s ills, from spinal injuries to cancer.

However, despite these intriguing and sensational claims, sceptics may look back at the long list of supposed ‘baldness cures’ announced in the past which have failed to materialise. Furthermore, stem cell research remains a grey moral area for many, and it may be some time before mainstream society is ready to accept its widespread use.

In addition to this, those with only partial hair loss are unlikely to see any benefits from such a treatment, as the underlying causes of their hair loss would remain. While this new research is interesting it is perhaps not the miracle baldness cure that some excited journalists have speculated it is.

All Products New LaserComb Medium-SmallCurrently available hair re-growth treatments

Fortunately, hair loss sufferers need not wait to see if stem cell research is the real deal, as a number of proven and effective hair re-growth treatments are already available, such as the pharmaceutical products, Minoxidil and Propecia, the only treatments licensed by the MHRA and FDA. The Belgravia Centre uses these treatments and other highly effective ‘hair boosters’ in combination with close trichological monitoring to stabilise hair loss and provide significant levels of hair re-growth.

If you’ve experienced hair loss and wish to investigate what re-growth options are currently available, get in touch with Belgravia for a consultation or complete an online diagnosis form. Our success stories are testamony to the kind of regrowth results that so many treatment user achieve.

Source…..

 

Mum of autistic boy ‘in shock’ over stem-cell centre closure

Posted on by

EDEL O’CONNELL – 09 MAY 2011

 

A MOTHER who raised more than €30,000 for experimental treatment for her autistic son is “in shock” after the controversial centre where he received his treatment was closed down.

 

German stem cell clinic closes down

Deirdre O’Dwyer with her son Evan

Deirdre O’Dwyer’s eight-year-old son Evan suffers from a rare neurological disorder which means the left side of his brain has failed to develop properly.

Evan, from the Commons Road, Cork, also developed severe epilepsy andautism as a result of the disorder.

His mother took him to Germany last week to undergo stem-cell treatment at the XCell Centre in Dusseldorf.

However, the centre — which offers unlicensed treatments — has closed after being ordered to cease operating by German authorities.

“I am very frightened now,” said Mrs O’Dwyer, who felt the centre gave her son a “chance” by offering treatment he could not get elsewhere.

“I need to know exactly what happened here. We just wanted our son to have the best possible chance,” she said.

The German centre claims its technique for stem-cell transplantation has had success in treating 17 different diseases, including cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, autism and spinal-cord injuries.

Read more….

 

 

Isabella Kruger, 3-Year-Old Cloned Skin Recipient, To Leave Hospital

Posted on by

Pippie Kruger who suffered 80% burns recovering after revolutionary ‘grown skin’ grafts

Doctors did not expect little Isabella ‘Pippie’ Kruger

to survive after the horrific accident at a family barbecue in Johannesburg, South Africa.

She underwent a groundbreaking operation that saw 41 pieces of skin flown in from America and grafted onto her back, face, chest, arms and legs

These are the first pictures of the three-year-old South African girl who suffered burns to 80 per cent recovering after being given a new layer of cloned skin.

Isabella ‘Pippie’ Kruger defied medics after she was seriously injured on New Year’s Eve when a container of fire lighting fluid exploded at her home in Johannesburg during a barbeque.

She suffered 80 per cent burns to her body and doctors feared she may not have survived.

The toddler has been in hospital since New Year’s Eve and earlier this month underwent a groundbreaking operation that saw 41 pieces of skin grafted onto her back, face, chest, arms and legs.

Pippie Kruger suffered 8% burns to her body

Recovering: Pippie Kruger sits up in her hospital bed with mother Anice after undergoing a skin graft to repair 80 per cent burns to her body

Doctors have now said that the artificial skin grafts have ‘taken well’ to her body.

Read more….

 

 

 

Japan researchers close in on stem cell trials

Posted on by

Researchers in Japan have moved one step closer to clinical stem cell trials

Japanese researchers will soon be using adult stem cells in a therapy they hope will prove a cure for common sight problems, an official said Thursday.

The ethics committee at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation in Kobe, west Japan, on Wednesday approved a trial treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells.

The trial is aimed at creating retinal cells that can be transplanted into the eyes of patients suffering from AMD, a presently incurable disease that affects mostly middle-aged and older people and can lead to blindness.

The institute, together with the government-backed research institute Riken, “will submit an application for a clinical trial with Riken to the Health Ministry by the end of next month,” hospital official Kosuke Nagi told AFP.

If a clinical trial using iPS cells is approved, it “would be the first ever”, a health ministry official said, adding a trial using embryonic stem cells — harvested from human embryos — had been undertaken by a US firm.

The ministry’s deliberation process will take a few months before approval, the official said.

 

Human Stem Cells to Generate Immune System in Mice

Posted on by

 UC San Francisco researchers have created the first functioning human thymus tissue from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. 

researchers create first functioning thymus tissue

Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, left, and Matthias Hebrok, PhD

Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, left, and Matthias Hebrok, PhD

The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions.

The scientists who developed the thymus cells — which caused the proliferation and maturation of functioning immune cells when transplanted — said the achievement marks a significant step toward potential new treatments based on stem-cell and organ transplantation, as well as new therapies for type-1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, and for immunodeficiency diseases.

Starting with human embryonic stem cells, UCSF researchers led by Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, an immunologist, and Matthias Hebrok, PhD, a stem-cell researcher and the director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, used a unique combination of growth factors to shape the developmental trajectory of the cells, and eventually hit upon a formula that yielded functional thymus tissue.

The result, reported in May 16, 2013 online edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell, is functioning tissue that nurtures development of the white blood cells known as T cells.

Read more….

 

 

 

 

 

Embryonic stem cells: Advance in medical human cloning

Posted on by
cloning produces human embryos


An embryo at the blastocyst stage

Embryonic Stem Cells Produce Early Embryos

Human cloning using embryonic stem cells has been used to produce early embryos, marking a “significant step” for medicine, say US scientists.

The cloned embryos were used as a source of stem cells, which can make new heart muscle, bone, brain tissue or any other type of cell in the body.

The study, published in the journal Cell, used methods like those that produced Dolly the sheep in the UK.

However, researchers say other sources of stem cells may be easier, cheaper and less controversial.

Opponents say it is unethical to experiment on human embryos and have called for a ban.

Stem cells are one of the great hopes for medicine. Being able to create new tissue might be able to heal the damage caused by a heart attack or repair a severed spinal cord.

Trials Taking Place

There are already trials taking place using stem cells taken from donated embryos to restore people’s sight.

However, these donated cells do not match the patient so they would be rejected by the body. Cloning bypasses this problem.

The technique used – somatic cell nuclear transfer – has been well-known since Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996.

Read more….

 

At Geneva auction of actress’s jewelry collection, historic diamond fetches almost $3 million

Posted on by
At Geneva an auction by Sotheby’s of $78 million in jewels on Tuesday night, fetched just under $3 million for a historic yellow diamond belonging to actress Gina Lollobrigida that was once owned by a shah of Persia and she hoped would now bring more support for stem cell research.The diamond was a highlight in a collection of 23 jewels that the 85-year-old actress, who starred opposite Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and other top actors in the 1950s and 1960s, was selling partly to fund an international hospital for stem cell treatment.
Jewelry, and  luxury items are sold every spring by the big auction houses at Geneva’s elegant lakefront hotels — seemingly a world away from some European countries whose economies are shrinking as their governments enact often tough budget austerity measures to get a handle on their debts.The 74.53-carat fancy yellow diamond that was sold, once belonged to Ahmad Shah Qajar, the shah of Persia from 1909 to 1925 and the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty. Its sale for $2,985,750 set both an auction record and a record price per carat — an eye-popping $40,061 per carat — for a yellow diamond, according to a statement Sotheby’s at the conclusion of the auction.

Alzheimer’s Slowed By New Drug

Posted on by
new drug slows Alzeimer's

Salk scientists developed J147, a synthetic drug shown to slow Alzeimers in mice. 

A drug developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, known as J147, reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer’s disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings, published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy, may pave the way to a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

“J147 is an exciting new compound because it really has strong potential to be an Alzheimer’s disease therapeutic by slowing disease progression and reversing memory deficits following short-term treatment,” says lead study author Marguerite Prior, a research associate in Salk’s Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory.
Despite years of research, there are no disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s. Current FDA-approved medications, including Aricept, Razadyne and Exelon, offer only fleeting short-term benefits for Alzheimer’s patients, but they do nothing to slow the steady, irreversible decline of brain function that erases a person’s memory and ability to think clearly.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the country and the only one among the top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed.

J147 was developed at Salk in the laboratory of David Schubert, a professor in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory.

Read more….

Scientists Claim They Have Cloned Human Embryos for Stem Cells

Posted on by

Researchers in Oregon claimed they have succeeded in producing cloned human embryos and obtained their embryonic stem cells.

They have engaged in the grisly research with the goal of producing genetically matched stem cells for research and possible therapies — even though embryonic stem cells have never helped human patients and cause tumors when injected.

human embryos cloned for research then killed

Human embryos

The Oregon Health & Science University  scientists published today a paper in the online journal Cell reporting on the use of cloning techniques to produce human embryos, 21 of whom they were able to sustain to the point in development at which stem cells were present, after which the human embryos were killed and the stem cells harvested.

Leading pro-life advocates quickly condemned the clone and kill methods that destroyed unique human beings.

“These researchers created many human embryos, male and female, and allowed them to grow for up to seven days, for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their stem cells,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “We will certainly continue to oppose attempts in Congress to provide federal funds to create human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their cells — which is a step towards human embryo farms.”

Read more….

 

Stem Cells: Hope or Hype?

Posted on by

In free public lecture on May 30 at UC Riverside stem-cell expert Nicole zur Nieden will discuss the enthusiasm and caveats surrounding stem cell therapy

are stem cells the miracle cure? Or is that an exaggeration? How do we separate fact from fiction and hope from hype when it comes to stem cell therapy?

Nicole zur Nieden is an assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience at UC Riverside.
PHOTO CREDIT: ZUR NIEDEN LAB, UC RIVERSIDE.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Stem cells are mother cells that can become specialized cells with a more specific function, such as brain cells, blood cells, heart muscle or bone. Because they can be used to regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissues in people, they have, at times, been portrayed as a miracle cure for a variety of conditions and disabilities.

But are they the miracle cure?  Or is that an exaggeration?  How do we separate fact from fiction and hope from hype when it comes to stem cell therapy?

Nicole zur Nieden, an assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside, will give a free public lecture at UC Riverside on May 30 in which she will discuss whether the claims for stem cells can be justified.

Read more….

 

Can Clay Grow Into Bone?

Posted on by
First Posted: May 14, 2013 02:05 PM EDT

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) are the first to report that synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (also known as layered clay) can induce stem cells to become bone cells without the need of additional bone-inducing factors.

Synthetic silicates are made of simple or complex salts of silicic acids, and have been used extensively for various commercial and industrial applications, including food additives, glass and ceramic filler materials, and anti-caking agents.

Silicate nanoplatelets cause stem cells to become bone cells, as determined by the formation of bone matrix (in red). Image courtesy of Khademhosseini lab.

synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (also known as layered clay) can induce stem cells to become bone cells without the need of additional bone-inducing factors.

Human embryonic stem cell.

“With an aging population in the US, injuries and degenerative conditions are subsequently on the rise,” said Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, senior study author. “As a result, there is an increased demand for therapies that can repair damaged tissues. In particular, there is a great need for new materials that can direct stem cell differentiation and facilitate functional tissue formation. Silicate nanoplatelets have the potential to address this need in medicine and biotechnology.”

Read more….

 

 

Stem cell hamburger grown in lab to be eaten soon

Posted on by
lab grown hamburger will be eaten soon

A proof-of-concept lab-grown stem cell hamburger is slated to be eaten soon, after many delays and $325,000 in research and development.

 

The race for a lab-grown meat alternative has been on for years. Modern Meadow, for example, has gone after a type of 3D-printed meat using bio-printing techniques. Dutch tissue engineer Mark Post is making a lab-grown stem cell hamburger, one that may be actually going down someone’s gullet very soon.

Post’s Cultured Beef Project has been in development at Maastricht University in the Netherlands for some time thanks to $325,000 in funding from an anonymous donor. Cow muscle stem cells are grown into miniscule strips of tissue. Each strip can take several weeks to grow. It takes 20,000 of these to make a single hamburger. It’s a time-consuming and expensive product at this stage.

The resulting stem cell hamburger will probably have more in common taste-wise with a patty from McDonald’s than a gourmet burger from a fancy restaurant. At this point, it’s not about the flavor so much as the proof that it could be created at all. Making it delicious will come later. Post has said he plans to add only salt and pepper before cooking it.

Originally, the engineered patty was scheduled to be cooked last year. The New York Times reports it could now happen within a few weeks.

Read more….