Category Archives: Stem Cell Human Trials

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Columbus, OH. Premature babies face a host of medical challenges at birth, but none as deadly and mysterious as a disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The condition creates an inexplicable combination of inflammation and infection that causes parts of the intestine to die. NEC progresses at a ruthless speed, leaving physicians with few options typically supportive care, emergency surgery or antibiotics. Only half of newborns who undergo surgery survive, and they often face serious life-long complications. In the fifty years since necrotizing enterocolitis was first identified, weve accomplished relatively little to change its devastating course. Even worse, we dont know which babies will get it. One minute, a child can appear healthy, but then be dead from NEC hours later, said Gail Besner, MD, chief of pediatric surgery at Nationwide Childrens Hospital. That may be about to change thanks to two major breakthroughs driven by Besner and Surgeon-in-Chief at Nationwide Childrens R. Lawrence Moss, MD. After nearly two decades of work, their separate efforts have yielded both the discovery of a biomarker that can help predict which babies will get the disease, as well as treatments that can restore the intestines natural … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise MADISON, Wis. A multidisciplinary team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research is creating a faster, more affordable way to screen for neural toxins, helping flag chemicals that may harm human development. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that the UW-Madison and Morgridge team is among 11 universities receiving support to continue the promising work as part of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program. The team will receive approximately $7 million over the three-year project. The next phase of the NIH program aims to improve ways of predicting drug safety and effectiveness. Researchers will collaborate to refine existing 3-D human tissue chips and combine them into an integrated system that can mimic the complex functions of the human body. "We aim to get more treatments to more patients more efficiently," says Christopher P. Austin, director of the NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). "That is exactly why we are supporting the development of human tissue chip technology, which could be revolutionary in providing a faster, more cost-effective way of predicting the failure or success of drugs prior to investing in human clinical trials." … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 19-Sep-2014 Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego @UCSanDiego Cellular therapeutics using intact cells to treat and cure disease is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling. In a paper published September 17 in the online journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere describe the first human tests of using a perfluorocarbon (PFC) tracer in combination with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track therapeutic immune cells injected into patients with colorectal cancer. "Initially, we see this technique used for clinical trials that involve tests of new cell therapies," said first author Eric T. Ahrens, PhD, professor in the Department of Radiology at UC San Diego. "Clinical development of cell therapies can be accelerated by providing feedback regarding cell motility, optimal delivery routes, individual therapeutic doses and engraftment success." Currently, there is no accepted way to image cells in the human body that covers a broad range … Continue reading →

A Japanese patient with severe eye disease is set to become the first person to be treated with induced pluripotent stem cells, Nature News reports. Cells of this type have been considered promising for future treatments since their creation eight years ago, which was itself a milestone. Thishuman test is set to be a historic moment in biotechnology. It's also an anxious one. Stem cell therapies carry the risk of creating tumors, although Nature News reports the scientists in charge of the Japanese trial found their treatment did not cause tumors in mice and monkeys. In addition, there might be other risks to the treatment that scientists aren't yet aware of; stem cell therapies of all types are only just being tried in humans. Induced pluripotent stem cells are special because they're not made from embryos. Instead, they come from harvesting skin cells from people, then treating those cells with genes that reverse the cell's life stage back to its stem cell state. That means scientists are able to make induced pluripotent stem cells from cells taken from a patient's own body. The resulting cells should be well matched to the patient's own genetics, although it's possible the "induction" part … Continue reading →

JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images Masayo Takahashi is the first to implant tissue derived from induced pluripotent stem cells into a person. Its awesome, its amazing, Im thrilled, Ive been waiting for this, says Jeanne Loring, a stem-cell biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She is one of several researchers around the world to welcome the news that a Japanese woman with visual impairment had become the first person to receive a therapy derived from stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. A lot rides on this trial. If the procedure proves safe, it could soften the stance of regulatory bodies in other nations towards human trials of iPS cells, and it could pave the way for treatments for other conditions, such as Parkinsons disease and diabetes. It could also cement Japan, recently plagued by a stem-cell scandal, as a frontrunner in iPS-cell research. Pioneered in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka, now director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Applications at Kyoto University, iPS cells are created by inserting certain genes into the DNA of adult cells to reprogram the cells back to an embryonic-like state. The cells can then be turned into almost any … Continue reading →

Surgeons implanted retinal tissue created after reverting the patient's own cells to a "pluripotent" state Researchers were able to grow sheets of retinal tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells, and have now implanted them for the first time in a patient. Credit: RIKEN/Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation A Japanese woman in her 70s is the world's first recipient of cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, a technology that has created great expectations since it could offer the same advantages as embryo-derived cells but without some of the controversial aspects and safety concerns. In a two-hour procedure starting at 14:20 local time today, a team of three eye specialists lead by Yasuo Kurimoto of the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, transplanted a 1.3 by 3.0 millimeter sheet of retinal pigment epithelium cells into an eye of the Hyogo prefecture resident, who suffers from age-related macular degeneration. The procedure took place at the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital, next to the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) where ophthalmologist Masayo Takahashi had developed and tested the epithelium sheets. She derived them from the patient's skin cells, after producing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and then getting them … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 9-Sep-2014 Contact: Lauren Anderson lauren.anderson@europeanlung.org 1-142-672-876 European Lung Foundation http://www.twitter.com/EuropeanLung Munich, Germany: A new study has revealed how stem cells work to improve lung function in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Previous studies have shown that stem cells can reduce lung inflammation and restore some function in ARDS, but experts are not sure how this occurs. The new study, which was presented at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress today (09 September 2014), brings us a step closer to understanding the mechanisms that occur within an injured lung. ARDS is a life-threatening condition in which the efficiency of the lungs is severely reduced. It is caused by damage to the capillary wall either from illness or a physical injury, such as major trauma. ARDS is characterised by excessive and dysregulated inflammation in the lung and patients require mechanical ventilation in order to breathe. Although inflammation is usually a method by which the body heals and copes with an infection, when the inflammation is dysregulated it can lead to severe damage. Immune cells known as macrophages can coordinate the inflammatory response by driving or suppressing inflammation, depending on the stimulation. The researchers investigated whether stem cells can affect … Continue reading →

Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a novel technique to promote tissue repair in damaged muscles. The technique also creates a sustainable pool of muscle stem cells needed to support multiple rounds of muscle repair. The study, published September 7 in Nature Medicine, provides promise for a new therapeutic approach to treating the millions of people suffering from muscle diseases, including those with muscular dystrophies and muscle wasting associated with cancer and aging. There are two important processes that need to happen to maintain skeletal-muscle health. First, when muscle is damaged by injury or degenerative disease such as muscular dystrophy, muscle stem cells -- or satellite cells -- need to differentiate into mature muscle cells to repair injured muscles. Second, the pool of satellite cells needs to be replenished so there is a supply to repair muscle in case of future injuries. In the case of muscular dystrophy, the chronic cycles of muscle regeneration and degeneration that involve satellite-cell activation exhaust the muscle stem-cell pool to the point of no return. "Our study found that by introducing an inhibitor of the STAT3 protein in repeated cycles, we could alternately replenish the pool of satellite cells and promote … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise La Jolla, Calif., September 7, 2014Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a novel technique to promote tissue repair in damaged muscles. The technique also creates a sustainable pool of muscle stem cells needed to support multiple rounds of muscle repair. The study, published September 7 in Nature Medicine, provides promise for a new therapeutic approach to treating the millions of people suffering from muscle diseases, including those with muscular dystrophies and muscle wasting associated with cancer and aging. There are two important processes that need to happen to maintain skeletal-muscle health. First, when muscle is damaged by injury or degenerative disease such as muscular dystrophy, muscle stem cellsor satellite cellsneed to differentiate into mature muscle cells to repair injured muscles. Second, the pool of satellite cells needs to be replenished so there is a supply to repair muscle in case of future injuries. In the case of muscular dystrophy, the chronic cycles of muscle regeneration and degeneration that involve satellite-cell activation exhaust the muscle stem-cell pool to the point of no return. Our study found that by introducing an inhibitor of the STAT3 protein in repeated cycles, we could … Continue reading →

Human trials on the effectiveness of using adult stem cells in the fight against cornea transplant rejection could be under way within the next five years. Corneal eye disease is the fourth most common cause of blindness in the world and affects more than 10 million people worldwide. New research from NUI Galway has found that transplant rejection rates could be reduced to as low as 10% by administering a stem cell grown from the bone marrow of adult donors. Although 100,000 people worldwide undergo cornea transplants each year, about 30% are unsuccessful due to rejection by the patients own immune system. An unhealthy cornea affects vision by scattering or distorting light and causing glare and blurred vision. Corneal transplants are the most widely used treatments where the diseased or scarred cornea is replaced with healthy tissue from an organ donor. Researchers from NUI Galways Regenerative Medicine Institute previously found that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) release chemicals capable of adjusting the immune system balance in the body. The cells can be readily obtained and grown from the bone marrow of adult donors and the finding led them to study their usefulness in combating cornea transplant rejection. The teams lead scientist, … Continue reading →