Category Archives: Stem Cell Human Trials

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2014, 12:00 PM THURSDAY, May 15, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Mice disabled by a multiple sclerosis-like condition were able to walk again a few weeks after receiving human neural stem cell transplants, a new study shows. While research in mice often fails to pan out in humans, the researchers believe the finding hints at new ways to treat people with MS. The mice with the MS-like condition had to be fed by hand because they could not stand long enough to eat and drink on their own. But within 10 to 14 days of receiving the human neural stem cells, the rodents regained the ability to walk, along with other motor skills. This improvement was still evident six months later, the researchers said. The study authors said they were surprised by the results of what they believed was to be a routine experiment. They had expected that the transplanted cells would be rejected by the mice. "My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Lu Chen came to me and said, 'The mice are walking.' I didn't believe her," study co-senior author Tom Lane, a professor of pathology at the University of Utah, said in a university news release. The … Continue reading →

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014 and highlighted recent corporate accomplishments. BioTimes efforts in the first quarter of 2014 were focused on advancing near-term products through clinical trials while also preparing certain novel stem cell-based therapeutics for clinical trials later this year. Enrollment in three diagnostic clinical studies has remained rapid, with completion expected later in 2014. Following the successful safety trial of ReneviaTM, we have made rapid progress in preparing for the pivotal ReneviaTM trial during the second half of the year, said Michael D. West, Ph.D., BioTimes Chief Executive Officer. At our subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, we have been preparing to initiate a new Phase 1/2a clinical trial of OPC1 for the treatment of spinal cord injury in 2014, pending clearance from the FDA, and also preparing our VAC2 cancer vaccine for a potential clinical trial. Also in the quarter, BioTimes subsidiary Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. advanced preclinical development of OpRegen for a planned IND filing in 2014 for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. We have continued to develop our subsidiaries businesses, commented Dr. West. Shares of the Series A common stock of our subsidiary … Continue reading →

Researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) have shown that injections of a protein dubbed GDF11, when administered to older mice, appear to cause a reversal of many signs of aging. Analysis showed that every major organ system tested displayed signs of improvement, with the protein even appearing to reverse some of the DNA damage which is synonymous with the aging process itself. The protein GDF11 is found in humans as well as mice, and is now being considered for possible human testing due to its surprising and apparently regenerative properties. A previous study had focused on examining the hearts of mice the equivalent of 70 human years old. The mice were regularly exposed to the blood of younger mice whose blood carried a higher concentration of GDF11. Ordinarily the hearts of older mice are enlarged and weakened, however results from the previous study displayed that, thanks to the GDF11 protein present in the blood of the younger mice, the hearts of the elderly mice reduced in size, making them appear younger and healthier. The changes were not purely aesthetic however, with the mice displaying an increased ability to exercise for prolonged periods of time. The most recent set … Continue reading →

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists who used human embryonic stem cells to regenerate damaged heart muscle in monkeys say this technique could be ready for human clinical trials within four years. If the research proves successful, it could provide a way to restore normal function in failing hearts, according to the researchers. Before this study, it wasn't known if it would be "possible to produce sufficient numbers of these cells and successfully use them to remuscularize damaged hearts in a large animal whose heart size and physiology is similar to that of the human heart," team leader Dr. Charles Murry, professor of pathology and bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a university news release. Murry and his colleagues triggered heart attacks in anesthetized macaque monkeys and two weeks later injected 1 billion heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells into the damaged areas of the heart. That amount of cells was 10 times greater than what the researchers had previously been able to create. The monkeys received immune system-suppressing drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted human cells. Within a few weeks, the new heart muscle cells matured and began to … Continue reading →

Originally published April 30, 2014 at 10:01 AM | Page modified April 30, 2014 at 8:32 PM For nearly two decades, Dr. Chuck Murry, a University of Washington cardiovascular biology researcher, has been intent on transforming powerful human stem cells into heart-muscle cells that can repair damaged hearts. He and his colleagues have worked through myriad setbacks and complications in studies on mice, rats and guinea pigs, piling up successes as their animal models got larger and physiologically closer to humans. Now, in a bold step toward ultimately being able to stem the tide of heart failure in humans with damaged hearts, they have successfully regenerated heart muscle in monkeys, Murry, Dr. Michael Laflamme and his UW colleagues reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday. As before, researchers at the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine transformed human stem cells into heart-muscle cells this time injecting them into the damaged hearts of monkeys. There, the cells assembled themselves into muscle fibers, began beating in the hearts rhythm, and ultimately were nurtured by the monkeys arteries and veins, which grew into the new heart tissue. On average, the transplanted cells regenerated 40 percent of the damaged areas. This is … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-May-2014 Contact: Stephanie Desmon sdesmon1@jhmi.edu 410-955-8665 Johns Hopkins Medicine Johns Hopkins researchers say they have successfully used stem cells derived from human body fat to deliver biological treatments directly to the brains of mice with the most common and aggressive form of brain tumor, significantly extending their lives. The experiments advance the possibility, the researchers say, that the technique could work in people after surgical removal of brain cancers called glioblastomas to find and destroy any remaining cancer cells in difficult-to-reach areas of the brain. Glioblastoma cells are particularly nimble; they are able to migrate across the entire brain, hide out and establish new tumors. Cure rates for the tumor are notoriously low as a result. In the mouse experiments, the Johns Hopkins investigators used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which have an unexplained ability to seek out cancer and other damaged cells that they harvested from human fat tissue. They modified the MSCs to secrete bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), a small protein involved in regulating embryonic development and known to have some tumor suppression function. The researchers, who had already given a group of mice glioblastoma cells several weeks earlier, injected stem cells armed with BMP4 … Continue reading →

Image Caption: This image shows an implanted graft of cardiac cells derived from human stem cells (green) meshed and beat with primates' heart cells (red). Credit: Murry Lab/University of Washington April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online When a heart attack occurs, the oxygen-rich blood that normally flows through is interrupted by the blockage in an artery. The longer that blood flow is restricted or cut off, the more tissue and muscle in the area dies or is scarred. The eventual result can be heart failure, especially if one heart attack is followed by another. In 2013, Harvard Health Publications released a report taking a look at the state of stem cell research into the problem of regenerating heart tissue, and the results were mixed. A new study from the University of Washington, however, reveals improvement in those results. The findings, published online in Nature, demonstrate that damaged heart muscles in monkeys have been restored by the use of heart cells created from human embryonic stem cells. The exciting implication, according to the research team, is that their approach should also be feasible in humans. Before this study, it was not known if it is possible to produce sufficient numbers … Continue reading →

by Karen Weintraub, Special for USA TODAY KING5.com Posted on April 30, 2014 at 3:48 PM Two new studies out today show both the incredible promise of stem cell research and its current limitations. In one, published in the journal Nature, researchers showed that they could repair damaged hearts by injecting these versatile stem cells into macaque monkeys. Heart disease is the leading cause of death, and if the same process can work in people, it could benefit hundreds of thousands a year. In the other study, published in Science Translational Medicine, five men were able to regrow leg muscles destroyed by accidents or military service. The researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh, inserted into the men's muscles a "scaffold" of muscle tissue from a pig. Through aggressive physical therapy right after the surgery, the men's own stem cells were encouraged to populate the scaffold and substantially rebuild their leg muscles. Nothing had been able to help these men before, including multiple surgeries and years of physical therapy, said Stephen Badylak, the study's senior author. "Frankly, most of these patients have been through hell," he said at a Tuesday news conference. David Scadden, a physician and co-director of the Harvard … Continue reading →

Scientists said that although the cell precursors were insufficient to support conception, the breakthrough suggests that in future, the same method could be used to grow productive sperm from infertile men. Infertility affects at least 10 per cent of couples, and in at least one third of cases, relates to male fertility problems, which are often genetic. The most common defect is missing regions of male Y chromosomes, which is associated with the production of few or zero sperm. The trials by Stanford University involved three men suffering from such defects. When their tissue samples were genetically engineered, and then implanted into the testes of mice, cells were successfully generated. The findings, published in the journal Cell Reports, indicate that Y chromosome infertility occurs relatively late in the maturing process of sperm cells, Lead researcher Dr Reijo Pera, from the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine said: Our results are the first to offer an experimental model to study sperm development. It might even be possible to transplant stem-cell-derived germ cells directly into the testes of men with problems producing sperm. Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in reproduction and developmental medicine at the University of Sheffield, said: "The … Continue reading →

Cell lines made by two separate teams could boost the prospects of patient-specific therapies This colony of embryonic stem cells, created from a type 1 diabetes patient, is one of the first to be cloned from an adult human. Credit:Bjarki Johannesson, NYSCF Two research groups have independently produced human embryonic stem-cell lines from embryos cloned from adult cells. Their success could reinvigorate efforts to use such cells to make patient-specific replacement tissues for degenerative diseases, for example to replace pancreatic cells in patients with type 1 diabetes. But further studies will be needed before such cells can be tested as therapies. The first stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos were reported in May last year by a team led by reproductive biology specialist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton (see 'Human stem cells created by cloning'). Those cells carried genomes taken from fetal cells or from cells of an eight-month-old baby, and it was unclear whether this would be possible using cells from older individuals. (Errors were found in Mitalipov's paper, but were not deemed to affect the validity of its results.) Now two teams have independently announced success. On 17 April, researchers led by … Continue reading →