Last month, Minnesota researchers reported success in using adult stem cells to treat a debilitating and usually fatal skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB). Reported in the August 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study used bone marrow stem cells to treat the disease. Through bone marrow transplants, researchers were able to significantly reduce the blistering of children with EB.

 

A rare genetic skin disease, EB is caused by mutations in the gene for collagen, a protein meant to keep the top layers of skin together. The skin of people with EB blisters and scrapes off during everyday activities. Theses patients are at high risk of infection and aggressive skin cancer. Most people with severe forms of the disease do not live beyond their 20s or 30s.

 

For more information, see the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

 

The Emory University ALS Center announced that it has begun Phase 1 of a clinical trial that will use adult stem cells to treat ALS patients. Five patients have been injected with spinal cord stem cells so far, and all are doing well with no reported side effects. Phase 1 of the study is designed to test the safety of injecting stem cells directly into the spinal cord. The stem cells used in the study, developed by the Maryland-based biotech company, Neuralstem, Inc., were prepared from cultured neural stem cells and may have the ability to mature into various types of cells in the nervous system.

 

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease after the famous baseball player, is a motor neuron disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Its symptoms include muscle weakness, muscle twitching and cramping, difficulty speaking, and difficulty breathing.

 

Visit Emory University to learn more about the trial and its recruitment of patients. 

 

Researchers in Ottawa and Toronto suggest that adult stem cells may be able to help treat sepsis, a deadly condition that can occur when an infection spreads throughout the body. The findings, reported in a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, show that these cells can triple survival rates in an experimental model of sepsis. 

 

Mesenchymal stem cells are bone marrow stem cells that influence immune system functions and also help repair tissues. Canadian scientists induced sepsis in mice and then treated them with antibiotics. One group of mice was also injected with stem cells. That group of mice had a 50% survival rate, whereas the group that did not receive stem cell injections had only a 15% survival rate. The mice treated with stem cells also had better overall health and function after recovery.

 

 

Bone marrow stem cells may help treat people with chronic heart failure, a new study finds. The 391-person study is the largest to date that demonstrates success in using stem cells to treat damaged hearts.

 

At the European Society of Cardiology Congress, held in Sweden in late August, researchers reported that injecting patients with their own stem cells helped increase heart function and extend their lives. None of the patients experienced any side effects or rejection of the injected stem cells.   

 

For more information, read the article in WebMD.

 

Each week scientists learn more about using adult stem cells in the treatment of injury and disease as well as in the development of regenerative therapies. But where do those adult stem cells come from?

 

Stem cells are found in most of the tissues and organs in our body. Until recently, however, scientists believed that those cells could only keep creating new cells for that same organ or tissue. Now scientists have found that these stem cells can be reprogrammed into forming other types of body cells. Bone marrow stem cells, for example, can be induced to form brain or liver cells. Even cells from human fat can be transformed into "pluripotent" cells--cells that can still differentiate into specialized cells. (Click here for the 2009 CNN story on fat cells.)

 

Scientists were naturally delighted to find that these cells have a greater application potential than just the tissues they come from. That means that a stem cell from healthy tissue in one part of a person's body can potentially be used to treat disease or injury in another part of the body--with a bit of intervention by doctors. When a person's own stem cells are used in this way, the chance that his or her body will reject the biological treatment is completely eliminated.

 

In the past, researchers have had a common constraint on this work because of the difficulties of keeping harvested adult stem cells in an appropriate growing medium (see below) so that they can develop. Despite these difficulties, more and more clinical trials of new treatments--research that has moved beyond laboratory experiments to involve human volunteers--continue to be announced. (See this announcement on heart disease trials at the Texas Heart Institute.)

 

The crucial truth is that stem cells already exist in all parts of our body. Their only purpose is to help the body heal. Research and clinical trials simply find new pathways for them to do their job.