LEUVEN, Belgium, Sept. 10, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TiGenix (NYSE Euronext:TIG), a leader in the field of cell therapy, announced today that it has been invited to present the results of its Phase IIa study of Cx611 in refractory rheumatoid arthritis in a plenary session of the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting on October 29. Furthermore, during the second half of 2013, the company will be present at a number of key events in Europe and the U.S. geared at investor, industry, and academic audiences to highlight the commercial potential of ChondroCelect(R), the first approved cell therapy in Europe, and of the company's proprietary allogeneic stem cell programs. TiGenix's lead product Cx601 is currently in Phase III for perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. TiGenix NV (NYSE Euronext Brussels:TIG) is a leading European cell therapy company with a marketed product for cartilage repair, ChondroCelect(R), and a strong pipeline with clinical stage allogeneic adult stem cell programs for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. TiGenix is based out of Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain), and Sittard-Geleen (the Netherlands). For more information please visit http://www.tigenix.com. This document may contain forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the … Continue reading →

Experts working on treatments based on the use of stem cells have issued strong warnings about the risks if patients use unproven therapies People continue to pay large sums for phoney stem cell medical treatments despite the fact they have no proven value and may be dangerous. Many are bought by vulnerable people with incurable degenerative diseases who will try anything, according to medical experts. These dodgy treatments do not come cheap, costing anything up to well above 100,000, to Dr Massimo Dominici, president elect of the International Society for Cellular Therapy. He and other experts working on treatments based on the use of stem cells have issued strong warnings about the risks if patients sign up for these unproven and sometimes dangerous therapies. Festival of ScienceThey were addressing a session yesterday at the British Science Associations annual Festival of Science in Newcastle. The scammers often claim to make use of something known as mesenchymal stem cells. These look set to deliver valuable treatments in many conditions, including osteoarthritis and certain bone diseases, but these are still a long way off, said Prof Bruno Peault, professor of vascular regeneration at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of California, … Continue reading →

CHERTSEY, England, September 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr Steffen Hartleif and Dr Ekkehard Sturm win $150,000 grant to support their research 'Safety and Tolerability of Immunomodulating Therapy with Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Paediatric Living-Donor Liver Transplantation' The Astellas European Foundation is delighted to announce that a research team led by Dr Steffen Hartleif and Dr Ekkehard Sturm from the University Children's Hospital Tbingen, Germany, has been selected as the recipient of the 2013 Transplantation Grant. The US$150,000 award will support their work to demonstrate safety and tolerability of donor-specific Mesenchymal stem cells in children with chronic liver failure treated with living-donor liver transplantation. The fourth Transplantation Grant to be made since the establishment of the Astellas European Foundation in 2005, it also marks the beginning of a new period, since the award will now be made annually, rather than every two years as previously. Open to research units and institutions anywhere in the world, the Transplantation Grant has previously been awarded to teams in Spain (2007, Dr Nuria Lloberas, Hospital Universitarie de Bellvitge, Barcelona), Belgium (Dr Lidia Ghisdal, Hpital Erasme) and Switzerland (Dr Christian Toso, University of Geneva). This year it attracted 63 applications from across the European region. Dr … Continue reading →

Study finds that stem cells donated by older people are less effective than cells from younger donors. As stem cell clinical trials for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients become more common, it is crucial for researchers to understand the biologic changes and therapeutic effects of older donor stem cells. A new study appearing in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine is the first to demonstrate that, in fact, adipose-derived stem cells donated by older people are less effective than cells from their younger counterparts. MS is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by inflammation and scar-like lesions throughout the central nervous system (CNS). There is no cure and no treatment eases the severe forms of MS. But previous studies on animals have shown that transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) holds promise as a therapy for all forms of MS. The MSCs migrate to areas of damage, release trophic (cell growth) factors and exert neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects to inhibit T cell proliferation. MS-related clinical trials have all confirmed the safety of autologous MSC therapy. However what is unclear is whether MSCs derived from older donors have the same therapeutic potential as those from younger ones. Aging is known to have … Continue reading →