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 →