New research provides further evidence of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis, after finding the procedure halted disease progression for 5 years in almost half of patients. Lead study author Dr. Paolo Muraro, of the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, and colleagues recently reported their findings in JAMA Neurology. The results come just a fortnight after another study revealed the success of a similar treatment in a small group of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). However, Dr. Muraro and team warn that further trials are needed to determine the efficacy and safety of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT), after a small number of patients died within 100 days of treatment. In AHSCT, a patient's own stem cells are harvested. The patient is then subject to high-dose chemotherapy to eliminate any diseased cells. Next, the harvested stem cells are returned to the patient's bloodstream, with the aim of restarting normal blood cell production. In simple terms, AHSCT "resets" the immune system. "We previously knew this treatment reboots or resets the immune system - and that it carried risks - but we didn't know how long the benefits … Continue reading →

TEMPE, Ariz. On the day he hoped would save his elbow, Garrett Richards laid face down on a table with his back exposed. A doctor guided a needle into the iliac crest of his pelvic bone and began to extract bone marrow. Richards was wide awake, the blessing of local anesthesia saving him from physical pain but not the anxiety that crept into his head: Is this really going to work? Within a few minutes, the harvested marrow was hurried to a centrifuge, spun to separate the good stuff, mixed into a slurry of platelet-rich plasma and readied to inject into Richards damaged right elbow. Rather than the standard tear across his ulnar collateral ligament, Richards ran lengthwise along the middle of his UCL, a rare manifestation of an increasingly commonplace injury that almost always ends with Tommy John surgery. Not in this case. While he could have chosen that route, he wanted to explore first the efficacy of the aforementioned good stuff: stem cells. Today, Garrett Richards is darting 98-mph fastballs again. I feel as good as I ever have throwing a baseball, he said Monday from Tempe Diablo Stadium, where the Los Angeles Angels, perhaps the most Tommy … Continue reading →

Stem cell research holds untold potential towards new cures and treatments for numerous diseases that have no remedies today. However, scientific pursuits will continue to suffer from high levels of irreproducible research without a systemic change to the industry. San Diego, CA (PRWEB) February 21, 2017 The medical potential of stem cells is both extensive and astounding, and there are exciting prospects for their use, in multiple areas of medicine, due to their differentiating characteristics. Stem cells are unique as the have the potential to renew themselves through cellular division, and they have the ability to be induced to become tissue or organic-specific cells with special functions. Stem cell therapy in the form of bone marrow transplantation has already been utilised for decades, however research is now heavily focussed on alternative ways in which stem cells can be utilized, and they are now being consideration for applications including; in combination with gene therapy, for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, to remove unwanted cancer cells, and for use on scaffolds, with the capability of forming three-dimensional structures. Although the possibilities within regenerative medicine are endless; the associated challenges are still a hindering factor. The properties of stem cells are still incompletely … Continue reading →