TEETH STEM CELLS HOPES FOR STROKES VICTIMS
Posted Tue Dec 8, 2009. (ABC News).
An Adelaide doctor says his research shows that stem cells from human teeth could be used to repair the brains of stroke victims.
Simon Koblar is a neurologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a neuroscientist at Adelaide University's Centre for Stem Cell Research.
He will present his findings from eight years of research to a public lecture at Adelaide University.
Associate Professor Koblar says the treatment has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for stroke victims.
"Often people even in their 70s with good hygiene still have teeth, so it would be plausible to consider that if we find the benefit with these types of stem cells that you could even take people's teeth and grow their own stem cells which would be a major advantage," he said.
"Just a small increase in function can mean the difference between someone being employed or unemployed on disability so, because we're starting at such a poor base that we can do so little, a small increment of improvement would be absolutely fantastic."
Professor Koblar says human trials are still needed.

ADULT STEM CELLS CAN REPAIR DAMAGED HEART 
FRIDAY Dec. 4, 2009 (HealthDay News)
Adult stem cells appear to help repair heart attack damage, a new study shows.
The phase 1 study of 53 patients found that stem cells from donor bone marrow promoted the growth of new blood vessels in heart tissue damaged by heart attack.
The patients received the stem cell injections within 10 days of having a heart attack. During follow-up, they were compared to patients who had received a placebo injection.
After six months, those who got the stem cells were four times more likely to be better off overall, pumped more blood with each heartbeat, and had one-quarter as many irregular heartbeats, when compared to the placebo group. There also were no serious side effects with the stem cell treatment, according to the report published in the Dec. 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
This is the strongest evidence so far that adult stem cells can repair heart attack damage, the Rush University Medical Center researchers said. It had been believed that only embryonic stem cells could turn into heart or other organ cells.
"The results point to a promising new treatment for heart attack patients that could reduce (death) and lessen the need for heart transplants," Dr. Gary Schaer, head of the Rush Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, said in a news release from the university.

STEM CELLS MAY IMPROVE HEART BYPASS RESULTS 
TUESDAY Nov. 17, 2009 (Yahoo!/HealthDay News)
Patients who received bone marrow stem cell transplants during coronary bypass surgery (CABG) experienced "excellent long-term safety and survival," say German researchers, who also noted the first promising results for stem cell transplantation during mitral valve repair.
The study included 35 patients who received CD133+ bone marrow stem cell transplantation during CABG, 20 patients who received only CABG surgery and 10 patients who received stem cell transplantation after mitral valve repair.
Long-term survival among patients in the stem cell transplant/CAGB group was up to five years. Three patients in the stem cell/mitral valve repair group died six months to a year after surgery, including two who developed progressive heart failure, the researchers noted.
The University of Rostock researchers found no sustained or adverse tissue changes in the patients who received stem cell transplants. Two years after the procedure, improved heart function was seen in the stem cell/mitral valve repair patients.
Blood flow scores increased significantly for CABG and mitral valve repair patients who received stem cell transplants, the study authors noted.
The study was to be presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

CANCER STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGH FOR MATER MEDICAL RESEARCH
In a world first breakthrough, Queensland researchers have discovered how to protect vital stem cells from damage during cancer treatment.
October 25, 2009 (The Courier-Mail. Australia)
Mater Medical Research Institute scientists have been lauded internationally for their discovery, which will reduce the need for blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants and improve recovery times.
The breakthrough research –which involves putting stem cells to sleep to protect them from chemotherapy treatment– has been selected for presentation at the American Society of Haematology in December.
"When sleeping, these stem cells are protected from chemotherapy and can later wake up to make new blood and immune cells. This is good news as the loss of immune cells after chemotherapy means that patients are very susceptible to infections” research fellow Dr Ingrid Winkler said.
"For patients this would mean less additional support following chemotherapy such as transfusions or bone marrow transplantation."
The Queensland researchers discovered a molecule that, when removed, puts active blood stem cells to sleep.
"If we can work out a way to control blood stem cells, then we can work out how other stem cells make other decisions in the body.
"Cancer cells follow the same decision-making process, so by understanding the stem cells, we will be able to start manipulating cancer cells."
Stem Cells Being Tested to Fight Pancreatic Cancer
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- New research is moving scientists closer to their goal of treating pancreatic cancer by killing tumors without hurting healthy tissue.
The researchers, who were scheduled to report their findings at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, Oct. 11-15 in Chicago, have created a bioengineered "construct" that uses stem cells derived from bone marrow and a genetic product that stops tumor growth.
Pancreatic cancer requires stem cells in order to grow. The "Trojan horse" created by the researchers essentially confuses cancer cells and makes them produce a toxic product.
"The prognosis of advanced pancreatic cancer is so devastating that even a small effect on prolongation and quality of life would be a tremendous outcome for the patient," study author Dr. Claudius Conrad of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a news release from the American College of Surgeons.
One currently available treatment is chemotherapy, but it can make healthy cells become sick and can cause a variety of side effects, including bowel damage, diarrhea and nausea.
To date, the research is still in preliminary stages and has been tested only in animals.

SKIN CELLS MORPH TO LIVER CELLS
October 9, 2009 (By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel).
Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have turned the cells in human skin into those in the liver, work that opens new avenues for treating diseases of the liver without relying on organ transplants.
Professor and stem cell researcher Stephen A. Duncan and other scientists in his lab reported this week in the journal Hepatology that they have created reprogrammed human liver cells and were able to integrate and grow alongside those in a mouse liver.
Duncan and his fellow researchers also showed that human liver cells made through reprogramming are virtually the same as those grown from embryonic stem cells, though both appear to differ from adult liver cells in one respect: fewer of the enzymes that fulfill the liver's function of filtering out toxins than adult liver cells that have developed in the body.
They also showed a reliable and efficient method of turning primitive cells into liver cells, which could offer pharmaceutical companies opportunities to test drugs and provide researchers with a window that will allow them to observe liver diseases progress at the cellular level.
It may still be five to 10 years before liver cells made using reprogramming are approved for use in people. The researchers, however, envision the possibility that liver cells made in the lab can be injected into an unhealthy liver and replace damaged cells.

JAW BONE CREATED FROM STEM CELLS
OCTOBER 10, 2009 (BBC NEWS)
Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells.
It is hoped the technique could be used not only to treat disorders of the specific joint, but more widely to correct problems with other bones too.
The Columbia University study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The bone which has been created in the lab is known as the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The joint has a complex structure which makes it difficult to repair by using grafts from bones elsewhere in the body.
This study used human stem cells taken from bone marrow, these were seeded into a tissue scaffold, formed into the precise shape of the human jaw bone by using digital images from a patient.
The cells were then cultured using a specially-designed bioreactor which was able to infuse the growing tissue with exactly the level of nutrients found during natural bone development.
Big potential.
Lead researcher Dr Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic said: "The availability of personalized bone grafts engineered from the patient's own stem cells would revolutionize the way we currently treat these defects."
Dr Vunjak-Novakovic said the new technique could also be applied to other bones in the head and neck, including skull bones and cheek bones, which are similarly difficult to graft.
She stressed that the joint created in the lab was bone only, and did not include other tissue, such as cartilage. However, the Columbia team is working on a new method for engineering hybrid grafts including bone and cartilage.
Another major challenge for scientists will be to find a way to engineer bone with a blood supply that can be easily connected to the blood supply of the host.
Professor Anthony Hollander, a tissue engineering expert from the University of Bristol who helped produce an artificial windpipe last year, said there was still a lot of work to be done before the new bone could be used on patients.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8290138.stm