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The Digest of Anti-Aging and Stem Cell Research
October 2010 |
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Our community of people interested in the new era of regenerative medicine and well-being keeps growing! We had a great crowd at the September meetingof our new dinner series. (Click here to learn more about the series, which continues all winter and spring.) We hope you will join us to learn more from experts on healing and well-being.
In a few weeks we'll also be unveiling our website, which will include not only the archives of Medicine for a New Era digest but also new content, guest writers, and a complete schedule of events. Announcement to follow. In the meantime, keep reading to discover the tremendous gains in scientific knowledge and practical applications that researchers are working on all over the world. Sincerely, Susan Schmidt
Editor
Medicine for a New Era
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 Harvard Announces Major Breakthrough
A group of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made so significant a leap forward in reprogramming human adult stem cells that HSCI will immediately begin using the new method to make patient and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells.
IPS cells are stem cells that can develop into different types of body cells and tissues--just as embryonic stem cells can. Induced pluripotent stem cells are created by researchers from adult stem cells: They are induced, or "persuaded," to be able to create a variety of cells. Researchers often use viruses to help the process, which can create some complications.
The research group at the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston has used synthetic mRNA (messenger RNA--cells use RNA to tell enzymes how to build a specific part of a cell) to reprogram adult human skin cells, turning them into cells that are apparently identical to human embryonic stem cells, the initial building blocks of all the organs of the body. They then used other mRNA to program the new cells, which they are calling RiPS (RNA-iPS), cells to develop into specific cell types. In the current study, they created muscle cells.
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 | | Researcher Techung Lee (courtesy SUNY-Buffalo) |
SUNY Buffalo Researchers Create "Ageless" Stem Cells
Techung Lee and colleagues at the State University of New York at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that grow continuously in a culture, potentially providing an unlimited supply for therapeutic purposes.
The researchers say the breakthrough overcomes a frustrating barrier to progress in the field of regenerative medicine: The difficulty of growing adult stem cells for clinical applications. UB researchers used the stem cells found in bone marrow--called mesenchymal stem cells--for their research. They found that by genetically modifying these cells, they do not "age" when placed in a culture. Dr. Lee calls them "MSC-Universal" cells.
Scientists and doctors who use the cells in research and treatments must continuously obtain fresh samples from bone marrow donors, a process both expensive and time-consuming. This discovery could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.
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| Treating Brain Injury with Stem Cells
Two-year-old Sparrow Morris nearly drowned in her family's swimming pool. Although she was rescued, doctors thought that she would never regain her mental and physical health because of severe oxygen deprivation. However, treating her with her own cord blood stem cells in a unique program has brought the toddler back to normal development, according to her mother.
The study is currently in its initial stages, but Tonya Morris, Sparrow's mother, believes that the treatment has been successful, according to the Cord Blood Registry. The treatment may have implications for treating other types of brain trauma or disorders.
Listen to an interview with Sparrow's mother here. |
| Germany: Treating Hearts Directly with Stem Cells
German scientists from the Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf reported at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting this year that they successfully treated 191 patients with chronic heart failure over a five-year period.
Using a control group of 200 patients, who received the same therapuetic treatments but without stem cell injections, doctors showed that the stem cell treatment group had improved heart performance compared to the group receiving standard treatments. Doctors also discovered that the mortality rate was reduced by 79% in patients treated with stem cells versus the patients treated with standard therapies. The researchers reported that there were no side effects for these patients.
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| England: Stem Cell Face Life
For a British reality show, So Would You Dump Me Now?, participant Pat Butler underwent stem cell treatments to tighten and lift the muscles in her face, giving her a more youthful appearance.
Before and after pictures of the reality show participant, who also had dental veneers, hair color, and makeup applied for her makeover |
According to skin care specialist Dr. Aamer Kahn, who operates a clinic in England, stem cells derived from Butler's blood were injected into fat tissue that had been removed from her stomach and thighs. The mixture was then injected into specific areas of her face.
According to reports, Butler noticed an immediate improvement as well as longer term changes over the next few months.
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How It All Works
As we described last month, stem cells are found in most of the tissues and organs in our bodies. 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.
But how does this work? What does "intervention by doctors" mean? Researchers have different avenues to harvest and use adult stem cells, but all methods involve three basic steps: harvesting the existing adult stem cells, isolating the stem cells from surrouding cells and tissue, and coaxing the adult stem cells to return to their undifferentiated state, like embryonic stem cells.
1. Obtain adult stem cells
 | Adipose tissue--human fat--is a rich source of stem cells. Similar to (or even during) a liposuction procedure, fat cells are extracted from the belly or thighs. Compared to obtaining stem cells from skin, obtaining them from fat is about twice as efficient. In addition, doctors are able to harvest 20 times more colonies of stem cells from fat than from skin cells--and nearly 100 times more cells than from bone marrow. | |
2.  Isolate cells
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To isolate the stem cells from the fat, scientists mince and wash the cells, then add enzymes; next, the cells are washed and placed in a centrifuge to extract the stem cells from the surrounding material.
To reprogram the fat stem cells back to stem cells that have the potential to grow into other kinds of tissue, scientists often inject Trojan-horse-like viruses into smooth muscle cells found in the fat that surrounds blood vessels. Once inside, the viruses introduce genes that reprogram the cells, spurring them to grow into new forms. These are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. | | | 3. Reprogram cells
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These iPSCs have been genetically reprogrammed to a state similar to an embryonic stem cell. Like embryonic stem cells, these iPSCs can then differentiate--or change into--a host of other types of cells.
Stem cells derived from fat are capable of turning into fat, heart, bone, and muscle tissues. Directed to differentiate into specific cell types, they offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. |
Each month, it seems, researchers are perfecting better, more efficient, and safer ways to harvest, store, or change adult stem cells. As recently as last week, Harvard scientists described a new method that creates iPSCs without altering its genes (see first story above).
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Stem Cells Used Successfully in Working Dogs, Race Horses
Veteran Chicago police dog Dasty was nearly retired from his job after arthritis made the five-year-old German shepherd virtually immobile. Thanks to stem cell treatment with his own fat cells, Dasty is now back at work as a service dog, sniffing out illegal narcotics for the Chicago PD. After undergoing steroid and other unsuccessful treatments that also had serious side effects, Dasty was taken to Vet-Stem, a California company specializing in treating service animals and pets with stem cells. There Dasty underwent a procedure that removed fat cells from his abdomen, which were sent to Vet-Stem for processing. The returned cells were then adminstered intravenously and injected back into Dasty's body. Within two weeks, Dasty was back at work for the police department. He has had three treatments and periodically goes back for checkups. Stem cell therapies have been used to treat traumatic and degenerative diseases, including bowed tendons, ligament injuries, osteoarthritis, and osteochondral defects in horses and dogs. Relying on techniques similar to those used to treat human injury and illness, veterinarians take stem cells from adipose tissue--otherwise known as fat--from the animal to be treated. In one study, published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, eight horses were treated for tendinitis, a condition of inflammation in the leg tendons that usually means the end of a race horse's career. Researchers determined that the stem cell treatment helped the tendons become more structurally sound as well as helped reduce the inflammation of the tissue. Another rigorous animal study compared stem cell treatment to a placebo in treating dogs with osteoarthritis (which affects about 12 million dogs in the U.S.). Scientists used a "double-blind" research type, which means that they did not know which dogs received which treatment. Their results found that dogs treated with fat-derived stem cells had improved ability to walk, less pain, and larger range of motion than dogs in the same study not treated with stem cells. Like clinical trials and research studies of adult stem cell therapies in humans, these animal studies continue to add to scientists' knowledge about the regenerative and reparative applications of stem cells. Although dogs and horses can't tell doctors they are feeling better, the treatment benefits for working animals like Dasty are clear to the humans around them. |
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