Stem cell therapy future of medicine? Everyone is talking about stem cell therapy. But scammers and swindlers are also taking advantage of the fad, prompting the Health Department to step in. Bue... By: Rappler … Continue reading →

Epigenetics researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge UK have identified the biological process that leads to global loss of the genomes methylation memory when cells are reprogrammed at fertilisation to the so-called ground-state development. Epigenetics is revolutionising our understanding of genetic inheritance and also helping to explain how our genes can be influenced by the environment. Genomic methylation, which does not alter DNA sequence but essentially marks it in a stable lifelong manner, is accumulated during development and plays a vital role in committing cells to specialised roles in the body. These methylation marks must be erased at the start of each new generation, to restore the ability of a newly fertilised egg to develop into a new organism. Understanding this mechanism of wiping the slate clean is important to appreciate how the developmental capacity of cells is reset and also provides insights that will guide the use of stem cells for therapeutic purposes, which also requires remodelling of genomic methylation. It is known that when adult cells are reprogrammed to stem cell-like cells, they do not completely erase their memory. This unfortunately limits their use in stem cell therapy since these cells will have the tendency to develop … Continue reading →

Thor, an athletic 7-year-old Catahoula leopard hound, lay on a table at the Animal Clinic of Billings, panting lightly while staffers put small bags over his feet and temperature-controlled packs on his chest before the anesthesia kicked in. Not long after he went under, those same staff members carried Thor to an operating table where his owner, Dr. Bobbi Jo Massic, who is also a veterinarian at the clinic, made a small incision in his abdomen, the first step in a cutting-edge process designed to help the alleviate the dogs hip dysplasia and arthritis. By the end of Tuesday, Thor became the very first patient in the clinics brand new animal stem cell therapy program. This is a very exciting day, said Dr. Bryna Felchle, another vet at the clinic who will help spearhead the program. Were launching our very first stem cell therapy right here. The process is widespread across the United States, but Felchle is just the second vet in Montana certified to perform the procedure and the only one in the eastern half of the state. Generally, it involves removing fatty tissue from an animal, separating the stem cells from that tissue, activating the cells and then … Continue reading →

Durham, NC (PRWEB) July 12, 2013 A new protocol for reprogramming induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into mature blood cells, using just a small amount of the patients own blood and a readily available cell type, is reported on in the current issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. This novel method skips the generally accepted process of mixing iPSCs with either mouse or human stromal cells during the differentiation process and, in essence, ensures no outside and potentially harmful DNA is introduced into the reprogrammed cells. As such, it could lead to a purer, safer therapeutic grade of stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. The discovery of iPSCs holds great promise for regenerative medicine since it is possible to produce patient-specific iPSCs from the individual for potential autologous treatment that is, treatment using the patients own cells. This avoids the possibility of rejection and numerous other harmful side effects. CD34+ cells are a type of blood stem cell that has been linked to proliferation. However, collecting enough CD34+ cells from a patient to produce an adequate amount of blood usually requires a large volume of blood to be taken from the patient. But scientists found a way around this, … Continue reading →