Monthly Archives: February 2012

It started when Deborah Bishop was still in her 20s. Always athletic -- she had participated in field hockey, speed skating and baseball -- Ms. Bishop was doing jumping jacks when she noticed to her embarrassment that she had leaked urine. As the weeks wore on, the Canadian woman began to have more and more of these accidents. It wasn't just strenuous exercise that caused them, but also being tickled or coughing or sneezing. The condition is known as stress urinary incontinence, and researchers say it may affect hundreds of millions of people around the world, primarily women, who are more susceptible because of their anatomy. Today, Ms. Bishop, 54, is "90 percent" normal on her urinary leakage, she said -- all because of an injection of her own stem cells that she received three years ago. The cells, known officially as autologous muscle-derived cells, were taken out of her thigh, multiplied several times over in the lab, and then injected into the muscles around her urethra, the opening at the neck of the bladder. While many people still associate the phrase "stem cells" with ethical debates over using embryos, these stem cells have nothing to do with that. All … Continue reading →

US researchers have begun a groundbreaking trial to test the potential of umbilical cord blood transplants, a kind of stem cell therapy, to treat and possibly reverse hearing loss in infants. The phase I trial follows promising studies on mice showing that such transplants were able to rebuild the structures of the inner ear, and some anecdotal evidence from humans, sparking hope of a cure for some forms of deafness. One of those people is two-year-old Finn McGrath, who suffered brain damage after being deprived of oxygen during a prolonged and complicated delivery, according to his mother, Laura. "His doctors told us he was at high risk for cerebral palsy, vision issues, hearing problems and mental retardation," she said in an interview with AFP. Finn's early days were an all-out struggle to survive, so for his parents, learning that he had failed his hearing tests and had damaged hair cells -- the sensory receptors in the inner ear that pick up sounds -- was almost an afterthought. He had organ failure, breathing problems, and his cerebral palsy left him unable to roll, crawl or walk, hold his head up, talk or eat. As his parents searched for ways to help … Continue reading →

MANILA, Philippines - US researchers have begun a groundbreaking trial to test the potential of umbilical cord blood transplants, a kind of stem cell therapy, to treat and possibly reverse hearing loss in infants. The Phase I trial follows promising studies on mice showing that such transplants were able to rebuild the structures of the inner ear, and some anecdotal evidence from humans, sparking hope of a cure for some forms of deafness. One of those people is two-year-old Finn McGrath, who suffered brain damage after being deprived of oxygen during a prolonged and complicated delivery, according to his mother, Laura. "His doctors told us he was at high risk for cerebral palsy, vision issues, hearing problems, and mental retardation," she said in an interview with AFP. Finn's early days were an all-out struggle to survive, so for his parents, learning that he had failed his hearing tests and had damaged hair cells - the sensory receptors in the inner ear that pick up sounds - was almost an afterthought. He had organ failure, breathing problems, and his cerebral palsy left him unable to roll, crawl, or walk, hold his head up, talk, or eat. As his parents searched for … Continue reading →

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (NasdaqGM:OSIR - News) recently provided an update on its development and commercialization agreement with Genzyme, a Sanofi (NYSE:SNY - News) company, for its phase III candidate, Prochymal. The update was triggered by Sanofi’s R&D update in its fourth quarter press release. Sanofi, in its press release, said that it has discontinued the development of Prochymal, a mesenchymal stem cell being evaluated for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). Osiris said that the announcement was made without its knowledge or advice. Osiris’ President and CEO clarified that Prochymal’s development has not been discontinued. Although Osiris is yet to receive any communication from Sanofi regarding the termination of their agreement, Osiris has, in fact, gone ahead and notified Sanofi that it is treating Sanofi’s statement as an intention to terminate the agreement. According to Osiris, all rights to Prochymal will return to Osiris without the company being required to compensate Sanofi. Osiris believes it can now pursue commercialization agreements for Prochymal with other parties. We note that besides GvHD, Prochymal is being evaluated for a range of indications including type I diabetes, Crohn’s disease, acute myocardial infarction and acute radiation syndrome. The collaboration agreement with Genzyme was signed in October 2008 for … Continue reading →

BILLERICA, Mass., Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BD Biosciences, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), announced today the availability of the new BD Mosaic™ Mesenchymal Stem Cell Serum-Free (hMSC SF), a complete cell culture environment for human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) derived from bone marrow. The BD Mosaic hMSC cell culture environment is designed to provide cell expansion in a shorter culture time—about half the time of traditional serum-based media. Starting with a low minimum seeding density (3,000–4,000 cells / cm2), BD Mosaic can achieve two or more doublings per passage without re-feeding between passages. Such performance can help deliver experimental results faster and lower total cost, as well as reduce handling and potential contamination. "An intrinsic property of mesenchymal stem cells is their ability to differentiate into various somatic tissues," said Gregory Crescenzi, Marketing Manager, BD Biosciences. "Mesenchymal Stem Cells expand using the BD Mosaic hMSC SF cell culture environment and reliably retain their multipotency, even after many passages." The performance provided by the BD Mosaic hMSC cell culture environment, coupled with its lot-to-lot consistency, can offer reliable results with speed and confidence. The serum-free composition lessens variability and potential contamination events to further streamline the cell … Continue reading →

University of Queensland scientists have developed a world-first method for producing adult stem cells that will substantially impact patients who have a range of serious diseases. The research is a collaborative effort involving UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and is led by UQ Clinical Research Centre's (UQCCR) Professor Nicholas Fisk. It revealed a new method to create mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which can be used to repair bone and potentially other organs. ?We used a small molecule to induce embryonic stem cells over a 10 day period, which is much faster than other studies reported in the literature,? Professor Fisk said. ?The technique also worked on their less contentious counterparts, induced pluripotent stem cells. ?To make the pluripotent mature stem cells useful in the clinic, they have to be told what type of cell they need to become (pre-differentiated), before being administered to an injured organ, or otherwise they could form tumours. ?Because only small numbers of MSCs exist in the bone marrow and harvesting bone marrow from a healthy donor is an invasive procedure, the ability to make our own MSCs in large number in the laboratory is an exciting step in the future widespread clinical … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2012) — In a new study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers have reported that early transplantation of human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells into the lateral ventricles of neonatal rats with birth-related brain damage is possible, and that the donor cells can survive and migrate in the recipient's brain. The study was designed to have the rat's brain damage mimic brain injury in infants with very low birth weight. One of the major causes of neonatal brain damage is preterm delivery. Despite enormous efforts to prevent it, brain injury accounts for a major part of the clinical problems experienced by survivors of premature birth. The enormity of this problem is indicated by the occurrence of: cognitive, behavioral, attention related and/or socialization deficits in twenty-five to fifty percent of cases in this group; and major motor deficits in five to ten percent of cases in this group. The majority of neonatal encephalopathy cases are found in infants with a very low birth weight, and include both hypoxia-ischemia and inflammation, a double-hit. Approximately 63,000 infants are born in the United States with a very low birth weight (one … Continue reading →