StemCell Therapy

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Abused pup receives cutting-edge stem cell therapy | fox5sandiego ... fox5sandiego.com The abused orphan pup "Dwyane" who has severe disfigurements is on the road to recovery due to stem cell therapy. by Vet Stem, out of Poway. Severely abused dog receives stem cell therapy - CBS News 8 - San ...CBS 8 San Diego all 2 news articles »

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A Philadelphia-based company along with an Indian orthopedic surgeon has said it will start a new type of stem cell therapy that claims it can bring people back from the dead.

Bioquark, led by chief executive Ira Pastor, said it will begin conducting trials of the therapy later in the year in an undisclosed country in Latin America, according to a New York Post report.

Pastor and Indian orthopedic surgeon Himanshu Bansal had initially hoped to run tests in India in 2016 but the Indian Council of Medical Research pulled the plug on their plans and asked them to take the trials elsewhere, the Post reported.

Most countries officially declare someone dead when there is irreversible loss of brain function. The Bioquark therapy boasts it can reboot the brain.

The company said it will begin testing on humans, with no plans to experiment on animals.

Scientists plan to examine individuals aged between 15 and 65 who have been declared brain dead from a traumatic brain injury, the report noted, citing a published study.

The three-stage process starts with harvesting stem cells from the patients own blood before injecting them back into their body. Next, the patient is given a dose of peptides injected into their spinal cord. The final step is a 15-day course of laser and median nerve stimulation while monitoring the patient with MRI scans.

Bansal practices in New Delhi.

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Bioquark Hopes to Bring Dead Back to Life Using Stem Cell Therapy - India West

A US company has revealed it will start tests in an unidentified country in Latin America later this year

ATTEMPTS to bring people back from the dead could start in a few months, its been reported.

A US company has revealed it will start new stem cell therapy trials in an unidentified country in Latin America later this year.

Getty Images

In the majority of countries, to be officially declared dead requires an complete and irreversible loss of brain function.

But Bioquark says it has developed a series of injections that can reboot the brain and bring people back to life, according to MailOnline.

CEO Ira Pastor revealed the firm will begin testing itsmethod on humans and have no plans to try it out on animals first.

Pastor and orthopaedic surgeon Himanshu Bansal initially hoped to carry out tests in India last year.

Butthe Indian Council of Medical Research pulled the plug on their plans and asked them to to take the trials elsewhere.

In details published on a clinical trials database, scientists plan to examine individuals aged between 15 and 65 who have been declared brain dead from a traumatic brain injury.

They intend to use MRI scans to look for possible signs of brain death reversal before carrying out the trial, which will happen in three stages.

The first step involves harvesting stem cells from the patients own blood before injecting them back into their body.

Then the patient would be given a dose of peptides injected into their spinal cord.

Getty Images

Lastly they would undergo a 15-day course of laser and median nerve stimulation while monitoring the patient with MRI scans.

Consent is likely to be an issue for the researchers as technically all of the patients will be brain dead.

However the study detail states that it can accept written informed consent from the legally acceptable representative of the patient.

The Bioquark trials are part of a broader project called ReAnima, of which Pastor is on the advisory board.

The project explores the potential of cutting edge biomedical technology for human neuro-regeneration and neuro-reanimation.

Speaking to MailOnline last year, Pastor said: The mission of the ReAnima Project is to focus on clinical research in the state of brain death, or irreversible coma, in subjects who have recently met the Uniform Determination of Death Act criteria, but who are still on cardio-pulmonary or trophic support a classification in many countries around the world known as a living cadaver.

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Scientists set to trial new stem cell therapy to 'reawaken' the brain ... - The Sun

Commentary by Dmitry M. Arbuck, MD, President and Medical Director, Indiana Polyclinic

We are at a truly revolutionary time in health and medicine. The introduction of stem cell technology represents innovation on the same level as the development of antibiotics or the invention of modern imaging (MRIs, etc.). Stem cells are already changing the way medicine is delivered, increasing lifespans and saving countless lives.

Arbuck

Scientists and researchers have been studying the benefits of stem cells for more than 30 years. They have found that these special cells provide great benefits all over the body, from muscles and joints to chronic diseases, to growing new teeth. You may have read about athletes treated with stem cells to speed healing after an injury or about burn victims who use stem cell therapy to minimize scarring.

Stem cells used to be associated with embryos, but this is no longer the case. Today, live cells for treatment are either adult stem cells or umbilical cord blood stem cells. Adult stem cells are most likely extracted from tissue, like bone marrow or fat, which can be a painful and invasive process. Additionally, as we age, so do our stem cells, which become less potent and productive over time. Like every other tissue in our bodies, they are exposed to the toxins, radiation and other pollutants in the environment. Umbilical cord blood stem cells are collected from the donated cord blood and placenta of healthy newborns. The cells are then screened for disease and genetic problems. These umbilical stem cells are vibrant, vital and healthy.

When umbilical cord stem cells are infused, they carry a whole host of immune stabilizing factors throughout the body and work to repair the immune system. This is likely why stem cells are so helpful in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns disease, dermatitis and myasthenia gravis. Other things that may be successfully treated with this therapy include MS, lupus, graft vs. host disease and other immune conditions.

The future is today. For more, visit StemCellsIndy.com.

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Column: Stem Cell Therapy A medical revolution - Current in Carmel

ByNEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

DOCTORS Hospital plans to launch stem cell therapy and enter the primary healthcare market during its current financial year, after profits for the year to end-January 2017 increased five-fold.

The BISX-listed healthcare provider said it planned to launch both initiatives at its Bahamas Medical Centre facility on Blake Road, having received the necessary approvals for one stem cell programme and another in its final stages.

Doctors Hospitals 2017 annual report did not identify the types of stem cell treatment involved, but said: It is envisioned that stem cell therapy will occur at the facility [Bahamas Medical Centre] in fiscal 2018, with one programme already receiving the necessary approvals and the second programme in its final stages of assessment and approval......

We anticipate that in fiscal 2018 we will launch one of our primary care centres at this location, supported by increased specialist services to best serve the neighbouring communities.

Joe Krukowski, Doctors Hospitals chairman, told shareholders via the annual report that the launch of primary care services will be a vital component in the continuum of care we provide.

We will seek to provide our customers with multiple entry points for this level of care, he added.

Doctors Hospitals stem cell initiatives, in particular, represent a potential boost to the Bahamas national effort to make greater inroads into the medical tourism market while also exploiting legislation passed by the former Christie administration.

The healthcare providers move into primary care will effectively create a fully-integrated model, combining with its core business in secondary and tertiary care provision to potentially make Doctors Hospital almost a one-stop shop for all medical needs.

The expansion comes after Doctors Hospital saw total comprehensive income for the year to end-January 2017 grow by 409 per cent or more than five-fold, from $702,790 to $3.578 million year-over-year.

The growth was driven entirely by the companys main Collins Avenue facility, where profits more than doubled, increasing by 157.4 per cent to $4.778 million compared to $1.856 million the year before. The Bahamas Medical Centres net loss increased slightly compared to the prior year, rising from $1.153 million to $1.2 million.

An improved top-line drove Doctors Hospitals improved profitability, with patient services revenue up $3.65 million or 7.4 per cent at $52.713 million.

Patient days increased by 6 per cent from the previous year, the annual report said of the main Collins Avenue hospital. Increases in the Intensive and Intermediary Care Units accounted for 37per centof the change, and the balance in medical surgical and maternity.

Total admissions to the facility were 4,114 in fiscal 2017 compared to 4,063 in fiscal 2016. The continued flat admission numbers and increased patient days are indicative of the trend toward a rising severity of illness. The average daily census increased to 33 patients per day from 31.2 in the previous year.

Doctors Hospitals total expenses grew by $818,452 or 1.7 per cent year-over-year, with salaries and benefits rising by $1.176 million or 5.6 per cent to $23.209 million. Due to the top-line growth, these fell as a percentage of patient net revenue from 44.3 per cent to 43.5 per cent.

At Bahamas Medical Centre, revenues rose by $28,015 or 1.9 per cent to $1.462 million. This slightly outpaced the increase in expenses, which jumped by 1.5 per cent or $43,479 to $2.819 million as a result of rising medical supplies costs.

Doctors Hospital is budgeting $7 million for capital spending projects in its financial year to end-January 2018, a sum more than double the prior years $3.1 million, as it bids to upgrade facilities and replace equipment.

Bad debt expense, as a percentage of patient service revenues, decreased to 2.6per centfor the year ended January 31, 2017, compared to 3.4per centthe previous year, Doctors Hospital said.This represented a decrease of $316,808, or 18.8per cent. This decrease is a result of a write-off of third-party receivables.

The number of days revenue in accounts receivable at year-end (AR Days) for fiscal 2017 stand at 51 compared with fiscal 2016 at 43 days, and net receivables as a percentage of net patient revenue increased to 14.1per centfrom 11.8per cent. These increases area result of high activity in the months of December and January, and payments not received until after year-end.

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Doctors Targets Stem Cell Therapy Launch - Bahamas Tribune

A promising new method for regenerating bones using the body's own stem cells may possibly eliminate the need for bone grafts.

When a fracture will not heal, people are typically left with two options.

One is bone grafting, the other is surgery.

A new treatment that uses gene and stem cell therapies could promise success with a less-invasive procedure.

Researchers led by a team from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, tested the therapy on laboratory animals and found that it triggered bones to regrow their own tissue.

If it is found safe in humans, the process could replace bone grafting as the gold standard treatment.

We are just at the beginning of a revolution in orthopedics, Dan Gazit, co-director of the Skeletal Regeneration and Stem Cell Therapy Program in the Department of Surgery and the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, said in a statement.

The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Bone grafts can result in gaps between fracture edges, and often require surgery to relocate bone from other places in the body to fill in the spaces.

Bone can come from the patient or a cadaver.

But healthy bone isnt always available, and surgeries can lead to other complications.

Read more: First aid for broken bones

The new method involves implanting a collagen matrix made up of bone-inducing genes into stem cells.

It is inserted into the gap over a two-week span. An ultrasound pulse and microbubbles help the matrix get into the cells.

Our method relies on the bodys own repair cells [stem cells], Gadi Pelled, senior author, and an assistant professor of surgery at Cedars-Sinai, told Healthline. We recruit them to the injury site and then activate them to regenerate bone in an efficient way.

The uniqueness of our method is that it is injectable and minimally invasive, Pelled said.

Researchers found that the fractures were healed eight weeks after the procedure. The bone that grew into the empty space was as strong as surgical bone grafts.

We showed that our method was equivalent, in terms of fracture healing, to the use of an autograft [bone graft obtained from the patients own body], which is the gold standard today, Gazit said. Our method does not require the harvest of bone, which often leads to prolonged pain and hospitalization and risk of infection, and that is our advantage.

Read more: Get the facts on broken bones

Because the process uses stem cells from the patients body without external manipulation, it may not face many of the hurdles that other stem cell treatments come up against.

But obviously we will need to show that our method is not toxic and is safe to use in people before it is approved for use in the clinic, added Zulma Gazit, PhD, co-director of the Skeletal Regeneration and Stem Cell Therapy Program in the Department of Surgery and the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Read more: Stem cell research advancing rapidly

In cases where there are large gaps or fractures unable to heal, the method can be repeated to grow more bone.

Thats something that will need to be reproduced in additional studies, but the latest study is the first to show that this ultrasound-mediated gene delivery can be used to treat nonhealing bone fractures, Pelled added.

David Forsh, an assistant professor of orthopedics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and chief of orthopedic trauma at Mount Sinai St. Lukes, said the breakthrough needs to be reproduced before it goes mainstream.

Similar research has been conducted in the past, but the way this was done is something new, according to his knowledge.

It sounds good, Forsh told Healthline. Its very promising that they were able to achieve this.

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Using Stem Cells to Heal Broken Bones - Healthline

by Michael Locklear, News 4 San Antonio

Stefanie Cowley of Helotes testified in favor of the bill. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007, was told she was a no-option patient in 2011 and in 2014, she began the therapy that required her to travel to Mexico. (Photo: Sinclair Broadcast Group)

SAN ANTONIO Some terminally and chronically ill patients are eagerly awaiting the governors signature on a bill they believe will help thousands of Texans.

HB 810, known as Charlies Law, would allow access to adult stem cell therapy for certain sick people.

Stefanie Cowley of Helotes testified in favor of the bill. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007, was told she was a no-option patient in 2011 and in 2014, she began the therapy that required her to travel to Mexico.

Cowley said a Houston company, Celltex Therapeutics, does a mini-liposuction, extracting a few tablespoons of her fat, then prepares the hundreds of millions of stem cells. She then travels to Cancun so a private hospital there can set up an hour-long IV to return the stem cells to her body.

These are your healing cells, she said. These are if you cut yourself, they're your healing cells that go towards that spot to repair.

That took my pain levels down from 8-9-10 daily to 2-3-4, Cowley said.

Charlies Law would presumably allow her to access the treatment entirely within Texas, which could become the first state in the country to do so.

Cowley said other conditions such as Parkinsons, Alzheimers and even autism could benefit from the treatment, although stem cell researchers caution that large-scale successes have not yet been reported.

David Eller, CEO and Chairman of Celltex Therapeutics, released the following statement:

@MichaelLocklear | mlocklear@sbgtv.com

Visit link:
MS patients await governor's signature on bill allowing adult stem ... - WOAI

Stem Cell Therapy is poised to change the face of medicine.

Thousands of published studies and or testimonialscan be wrong! Regeneration or Regenerative Medicine has the ability to change almost all facets of medicine.

Doctors are using them on themselves to help with problems and or provide with a better quality of life, in-fact one doctor sais in a recent stem cell seminar that he would be doing them every year just for preventative maintenance.

Stem Cells have been studied for decades however in the past few years a real breakthrough in using Human UmbilicalCell Tissue (HUCT) being harvested from healthy mommy / healthy baby umbilical cords.

Studies have proved that the older you get the fewer stem cells in the body, ruling out the effectiveness of stem cells extracted from your aging body or your fat.

Statin drugs have been proven to diminishstem cells

Using Concentrated Umbilical-Cord Potentcy Stem Cells (CUP STEM CELLS) give you cell counts in the millions ffrom a newborn tht may allow stem cells to duplicate every 28 hours, over 65 or so cucles making CUP STEM CELLS very favorable to all the other options available in the past.

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Stem Cell Therapy - Checkbiotech.org (press release)

"At StemGenex, we are committed to helping people achieve optimum health and better quality of life through the healing benefits of their own stem cells," said Alexander. "Specifically, we use adipose-derived adult stem cell therapy for patients battling conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, COPD, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. We are also committed to the science of stem cell therapy and sponsor five clinical outcome studiesregistered with theNational Institute of Health (NIH) for these diseases."

"What I personally witnessed before the start of StemGenex were patients who had exhausted conventional medical treatments but wanted to try alternative therapies. I was one of them, suffering from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. Ihad only three options; I could seek a clinical trial, travel to outside of the U.S. to try alternative therapies such as stem cell treatment or petition the FDA for access to drugs under the agency's "expanded access," or "compassionate use" program. Now, new state laws, built on model legislation from the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, will potentially allow doctors and patients to make their own informed decisions on treatments that have cleared the safety phase of FDA testing."

Last year, in a move that was seen by some as a response to Right to Try laws, the 21st Century Cures Act, a landmark piece of legislation focused on medical innovation and medical research, was signed into law by President Obama. This Act provides the FDA with the flexibility to accelerate how it evaluates regenerative medicine treatments, such as stem cell therapies, while maintaining its high standards of safety and efficacy.

"We're on the cusp of a major change on how patients can access stem cell therapy," saidAlexander. "Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by a wide range of autoimmune and degenerative illnesses," she said. "StemGenex Medical Group is proud to offer the highest quality of care and to potentially help those with unmet clinical needs improve their quality of life."

ABOUT StemGenex Medical Group StemGenex Medical Group is committed to helping people achieve optimum health and better quality of life through the healing benefits of their own stem cells. StemGenex provides stem cell therapy options for individuals suffering with inflammatory and degenerative illnesses. Committed to the science and innovation of stem cell treatment,StemGenex sponsors five clinical outcome studiesregistered with theNational Institutes of Health ("NIH") for Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ("COPD") and Osteoarthritis. These have been established to formally document and evaluate the quality of life changes in individuals following adipose-derived stem cell treatment.

Contact: Jamie Schubert, Director of Media & Community Relations jschubert@StemGenex.com, (858) 242-4243

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/patient-centered-stem-cell-therapy-bill-passed-by-texas-legislature-300465987.html

SOURCE StemGenex Medical Group

https://stemgenex.com/

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Patient-Centered Stem Cell Therapy Bill Passed by Texas Legislature - PR Newswire (press release)

Twiga, a 14-year-old female giraffe with advanced arthritis and osteoporosis in her feet, was fitted with custom shoes. (Photo courtesy of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.)

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo appears to have made medical history with its innovative giraffe treatments.

Mahali, a 14-year-old male giraffe who suffered from chronic lameness, is believed to be the first in the world to be injected with stem cells grown from giraffe blood, according to a news release from the zoo.

Stem cell therapy was chosen in the treatments led by Dr. Liza Dadone, the zoo's head veterinarian, because it has proven to repair damaged tissue. Staff at Colorado State University's James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Fort Collins helped with the treatment.

Nearly a month after the procedure, when Mahali was injected with about 100 million stem cells, thermographic images of the giraffe's front legs show "a considerable decline" in inflammation in his front left leg, the leg that had been giving him trouble, the zoo said.

"This is meaningful to us not only because it is the first time a giraffe has been treated with stem cells, but especially because it is bringing Mahali some arthritis relief and could help other giraffes in the near future," Dadone said in a written statement.

Dadone said it's not clear whether the successful results are due only to the stem cell treatment or a combination of treatments.

"Prior to the procedure, he was favoring his left front leg and would lift that foot off the ground almost once per minute," she said in the statement. "During the immobilization, we did multiple treatments that included hoof trims, stem cell therapy and other medications. "Since then, Mahali is no longer constantly lifting his left front leg off the ground and has resumed cooperating for hoof care. A few weeks ago, he returned to life with his herd, including yard access. On the thermogram, the marked inflammation up the leg has mostly resolved."

Twiga, a 14-year-old female giraffe with advanced arthritis and osteoporosis in her feet, was fitted with custom shoes with the help of farriers Steve Foxworth and Chris Niclas of the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization.

"We've had Twiga on medicine to help reverse her osteoporosis, but we wanted to do more to protect her feet. So with the help of the farriers, we gave her 'giraffe sneakers' to help give her some extra cushion," Dadone said in a written statement.

The giraffe's behavior was immediately changed - "Twiga instantly shifted her weight off of her right foot, indicating she was comfortable and her pain had considerably lessened" - but she will likely wear the shoes for about six more weeks, the zoo said.

Giraffes' size can make them more susceptible to issues like arthritis and osteoporosis. "Like all animals, these issues are exacerbated as they age," according to the zoo news release.

The zoo has a herd of 17 giraffes, including a newborn in April. The calf, a girl, was the 199th to be born in the 63-year history of the zoo's breeding program.

Giraffes' status was recently changed from "least concern" to "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because the population in the wild has decreased by 40 percent in the last 30 years, the zoo said.

-

Contact Ellie Mulder: 636-0198

Twitter: @lemarie

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Cheyenne Mountain Zoo makes medical history with 'giraffe sneakers,' stem cell treatments - Colorado Springs Gazette

May 25, 2017 by Kristin Samuelson Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

A first-of-a-kind neural stem cell therapy that works with a common cold virus to seek out and attack a lethal and aggressive brain cancer is being tested at Northwestern Medicine in a Phase I clinical trial for patients newly diagnosed with malignant glioma.

The novel drug to treat malignant glioma, notorious for recurring after typical bouts of standard cancer treatment, was developed by a Northwestern scientist and has been approved as an investigational drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is only the second time the University has supported and filed an investigational new drug as a sponsor.

"We have discovered that combining stem cells with a virus causes the new drug to react like a cancer-seeking missile targeting cancerous cells in the brain" said principal investigator, Dr. Maciej Lesniak, the Michael J. Marchese Professor and chair of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a neuro-oncologist at Northwestern Medicine. "If it works in humans, it could be a powerful weapon against brain cancer and an option that our patients are desperate for."

One reason malignant glioma recurs so often is because a small subpopulation of cancer cells, often deep in the brain tissue, is highly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation.

The pre-clinical work done by Lesniak and his team has shown that the approach being tested at Northwestern Medicine can target this population of therapy resistant cells, further delaying and sometimes even preventing tumor recurrence.

The stem cells used in the research came from a collaboration of researchers from City of Hope.

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"We haven't seen significant progress in the last decade for patients with a brain tumor, and that is why it's crucial to do everything we can to find a better treatment for brain tumors," said Dr. Roger Stupp, a co-investigator who is working alongside Lesniak on this clinical trial. "Combining novel therapy with medical expertise, we are able to get one step closer to eradicating this lethal disease."

Stupp, a world-renowned neuro-oncologist, recently joined Northwestern Medicine as director of neuro-oncology and associate director for strategic initiatives at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He is best known for developing temozolomide in combination with radiation as the standard-of-care chemotherapy for patients with glioblastoma.

Lesniak and his team of scientists are starting to test the safety and dosage of the treatment in patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Lesniak began the research more than a decade ago while at the University of Chicago and completed it when he moved to Northwestern in 2015.

This investigational new drug contains neural stem cells to deliver a potent virus responsible for the common cold, oncolyotic adenovirus, which is engineered to kill brain cancer cells. The novel treatment works synergistically with chemotherapy and radiation to enhance the standard cancer treatments effectiveness.

Malignant gliomas are the most aggressive forms of cancer and are predicted to affect nearly 20,000 new patients this year, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Sometimes called the "grow-and-go" tumors, gliomas can make their own blood supply, which fuels the tumors' rapid growth and helps them hatch satellite tumors. Each tumor sends out tentacles that infiltrate and dig deep into normal brain tissue, making complete removal of cancerous cells impossible. Any cancerous cells in the brain left over from standard of care can cause the tumor to recur.

Lesniak plans to enroll up to 36 newly diagnosed patients with glioma. These patients will be divided into two groups: those with tumors that can be removed and those where the tumors are not removable by surgery.

Next step, Northwestern Memorial will extend this research to the collaborating partners at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California.

Explore further: Neuroscientists pinpoint key gene controlling tumor growth in brain cancers

Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified a stem cell-regulating gene that affects tumor growth in patients with brain cancer and can strongly influence survival rates of patients. The findings, published in the online edition ...

Northwestern Medicine scientists have found a molecule that stops the growth of an aggressive pediatric brain tumor. The tumor is always fatal and primarily strikes children under 10 years old.

Chicago...Using state-of-the-art gene editing technology, scientists from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago have discovered a promising target to treat atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) - a highly ...

Japanese researchers identify process to improve fluorescence detection of cancer stem cells, which are primarily responsible for brain tumor progression and recurrence after treatment

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Marc Symons, PhD, professor in The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research's Karches Center for Oncology Research, is examining if a common medication administered to treat pinworms, could replace the current treatment used ...

A first-of-a-kind neural stem cell therapy that works with a common cold virus to seek out and attack a lethal and aggressive brain cancer is being tested at Northwestern Medicine in a Phase I clinical trial for patients ...

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Cold virus, stem cells tested to destroy deadly brain cancer - Medical Xpress

Twiga, a 14-year-old female giraffe with advanced arthritis and osteoporosis in her feet, was fitted with custom shoes. (Photo courtesy of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.)

Two medical breakthroughs have helped heal two giraffes at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in recent weeks, the zoo announced Wednesday.

Mahali, a 14-year-old male giraffe who suffered from chronic lameness and had not been moving well, is believed to be the first in the world to be injected with stem cells grown from giraffe blood, according to a news release from the zoo.

Stem cell therapy was chosen in the efforts led by Dr. Liza Dadone, the zoo's head veterinarian, because it has proven to repair damaged tissue. Staff at Colorado State University's James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Fort Collins helped with the treatment.

Nearly a month after the procedure, when Mahali was injected with about 100 million stem cells, thermographic images of the giraffe's front legs show "a considerable decline" in inflammation in his front left leg, the leg that had been giving him trouble, the zoo said.

"This is meaningful to us not only because it is the first time a giraffe has been treated with stem cells, but especially because it is bringing Mahali some arthritis relief and could help other giraffes in the near future," Dadone said in a written statement.

Dadone said it's not clear whether the successful results are due only to the stem cell treatment or a combination of treatments.

"Prior to the procedure, he was favoring his left front leg and would lift that foot off the ground almost once per minute," she said in the statement. "During the immobilization, we did multiple treatments that included hoof trims, stem cell therapy and other medications. Since then, Mahali is no longer constantly lifting his left front leg off the ground and has resumed cooperating for hoof care. A few weeks ago, he returned to life with his herd, including yard access. On the thermogram, the marked inflammation up the leg has mostly resolved."

Twiga, a 14-year-old female giraffe with advanced arthritis and osteoporosis in her feet, was fitted with custom shoes with the help of farriers Steve Foxworth and Chris Niclas of the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization.

"We've had Twiga on medicine to help reverse her osteoporosis, but we wanted to do more to protect her feet. So with the help of the farriers, we gave her 'giraffe sneakers' to help give her some extra cushion," Dadone said in a written statement.

The giraffe's behavior was immediately changed - "Twiga instantly shifted her weight off of her right foot, indicating she was comfortable and her pain had considerably lessened" - but she will likely wear the shoes for about six more weeks, the zoo said.

Giraffes' size can make them more susceptible to issues like arthritis and osteoporosis. "Like all animals, these issues are exacerbated as they age," according to the zoo news release.

The zoo has a herd of 17 giraffes, including a newborn in April. The calf, a girl, was the 199th to be born in the 63-year history of the zoo's breeding program.

Giraffes' status was recently changed from "least concern" to "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because the population in the wild has decreased by 40 percent in the last 30 years, the zoo said.

-

Contact Ellie Mulder: 636-0198

Twitter: @lemarie

More here:
'Sneakers,' stem cells help heal Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's giraffes - Colorado Springs Gazette

NC

Yet today the 59-year-old father of two is planning a dream family trip to South Africa, something that would have been unthinkable a mere nine months ago.

The reason for this remarkable transformation is that last September Gordon, who suffered from severe heart failure after a series of heart attacks, underwent revolutionary stem cell therapy to repair the diseased muscle tissue in his heart.

I couldnt walk up the stairs without having stabbing pains in my heart and burning in my lungs. Sometimes I had to crawl for the last few steps.

I felt so low and helpless, says Gordon, who is married to Joanne, 50, and lives in Thorneholme, East Yorkshire.

Within a week of the operation I could climb the stairs again. Small things like that have made a huge difference to my life.

More than a million people in the UK suffer from heart disease. The general term for heart disease is cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the walls of the heart chambers have become stretched, thickened or stiff.

GETTY-STOCK

This affects the hearts ability to pump blood around the body. Some types of cardiomyopathy are inherited and it can affect children and younger people.

I couldnt walk up the stairs without having stabbing pains

Gordon Foster

In others, lifestyle factors such as smoking, an unhealthy diet or a sedentary lifestyle can be to blame. There is no cure and although it can be treated with drugs such as ACE inhibitors, they often have side effects and arent a permanent solution.

In Gordons case his condition was the result of a series of heart attacks, the first of which struck when he was 30.

I woke up one morning feeling horribly sick so I ran to the bathroom. I was banging my head on the floor to try to get rid of the pain in my chest, he recalls. Everybody thought I was a goner because it was such a massive heart attack.

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10 Step plan to eliminate your risk of heart disease

Joanne and I got married two months later because she was worried I might not live until our wedding date.

However he did survive and he and Joanne went on to have two children, James, now 26, and Rebekah, 24. Then when James was just a year old Gordon had another heart attack and three years later, aged 37, he suffered a third.

He was diagnosed as suffering from heart failure which most commonly occurs following a heart attack when the heart muscle suffers irreparable damage.

Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling. In severe cases people with heart failure are left unable to perform ordinary, day-to-day activities such as walking upstairs or are left breathless even when resting.

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By 2012 Gordons heart was functioning at just 17 per cent and he had been forced to retire on heart attack and three years later, aged 37, he suffered a third. from heart failure which most commonly occurs following a heart attack when the heart muscle suffers irreparable damage.

Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling. failure are left unable to perform ordinary, day-to-day activities such as walking upstairs or are left breathless even when resting.

Functioning at just 17 per cent and he had been forced to retire on medical grounds from his job overseeing welding and fabricating sites.

For severely affected patients a heart transplant can be the only option but the chances of failure are high. Around 10 per cent of transplant patients die within a year of the operation and 25 per cent die within five years.

The need for treatment in this field has never been greater, says Professor Anthony Mathur, consultant cardiologist at St Bartholomews Hospital, London.

Now stem cell therapy is offering new hope to desperate patients and their families. The procedure involves extracting stem cells from bone marrow in the spine and injecting them into the heart.

Researchers hope that the stem cells, which are unique because they can grow into any type of body tissue, will grow into healthy heart cells and take over the work of the diseased or damaged ones.

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The procedure takes about 20 minutes and patients can usually go home the following day. Gordon became the first man in the UK to be offered the operation under the Compassionate Treatment Programme funded by the Heart Cells Foundation charity at St Bartholomews Hospital after his doctor put him forward to take part in a trial.

The charity has so far raised more than 6.5million to fund the Stem Cell Research Programme and is campaigning to raise further cash to treat thousands more patients.

Stem cell therapy is still in the development and research stage and the Compassionate Treatment Programme is funded purely by the Heart Cells Foundation charity, says its chairman Jenifer Rosenberg.

To treat one person costs 10,000 so we need the continued support of our donors to save lives.

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Queen Elizabeth II visits a ward during a tour of Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children, 23rd July 1952

The treatment is currently in the second phase of clinical trials and phase three will start once funding is secured. If this is successful it is hoped that the treatment could eventually be offered on the NHS.

Gordon says he and his family will be forever thankful to the Heart Cells Foundation and his medical team at St Bartholemews for saving his life.

Without them, I believe I wouldnt be here today, he says. Im now able to lead a near-normal life and Im enjoying every moment I spend with my wife and children. I now live every day with hope.

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How a revolutionary stem cell treatment could save your heart - Express.co.uk

May 24, 2017

An innovative method for treating type 1 diabetes based on the transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells taken from the patient's own bone marrow began undergoing testing in Brazil 13 years ago. The results were highly variable. While some of the volunteers were able to stop self-injecting insulin for more than a decade, others had to resume use of the medication only a few months after receiving the experimental treatment.

A possible explanation for this discrepancy in the clinical outcome for the 25 patients included in the study was presented in an article published recently in the journal Frontiers in Immunology. According to the authors, the duration of the therapeutic effect was shorter in the patients whose immune systems had attacked the pancreatic cells more aggressively in the pre-transplantation period.

This research was conducted at the Center for Cell-Based Therapy (CTC) in Brazil. Initially led by immunologist Julio Voltarelli, who died in March 2012, it is proceeding under the coordination of researchers Maria Carolina de Oliveira Rodrigues and Belinda Pinto Simes.

"Because type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, the aim of the treatment is to 'switch off' the immune system temporarily using chemotherapy drugs and 'restart' it by means of the transplantation of autologous hematopoietic stem cells, which can differentiate into every kind of blood cell," Rodrigues explained.

By the time the symptoms of type 1 diabetes appear, she added, around 80 percent of the patient's pancreatic islets have already been damaged. If the autoimmune aggression is interrupted at this point, and the remaining cells are protected, the patient can produce an amount of insulin that is small but nevertheless important.

"Studies with animals and diabetic humans suggest the percentage of insulin-producing cells declines sharply, reaching almost zero between six and eight weeks after diagnosis. Our center has therefore set a six-week limit for patients to start the transplantation process," Rodrigues said.

Twenty-five volunteers aged between 12 and 35 were initially included in the study. The therapeutic effect has lasted an average of 42 months (3.5 years) but ranges overall from six months to 12 years, the longest follow-up period so far. Three patients remain completely insulin-free. One has been insulin-free for ten years, another for 11, and the third for 12.

"In this more recent study, we compared the profiles of the volunteers who remained insulin-free for less than and more than 42 months, which was our cutoff point," Rodrigues said.

The variables considered included age, time between diagnosis and transplantation, pre-treatment insulin dose, and post-transplant recovery of defense cells.

"We observed no significant differences between the groups for any of these factors," Rodrigues said. "The only exception was the degree of pancreatic inflammation before the transplant, which did vary significantly."

This discovery was made possible by collaboration with Dutch researcher Bart Roep at the Leiden University Medical Center. Roep's analysis of blood samples taken from all 25 patients before treatment and once per year after the transplant enabled him to quantify their autoreactive T-lymphocytes, white cells that recognize and specifically attack proteins secreted by pancreatic islets.

"This method enabled us to evaluate the extent to which the immune system was attacking the pancreas," Rodrigues said. "We observed a clear association between a larger number of autoreactive lymphocytes before transplantation and a worse response to treatment."

In the group of patients who responded well, Rodrigues went on, stem cell therapy rebalanced the immune system thanks to an increase in the proportion of regulatory T-cells (Tregs), a type of white cell with immunosuppressive action that helps combat autoimmunity.

"In patients with more autoreactive lymphocytes before transplantation, this balance didn't occur," she said. "Despite the increase in the number of Tregs due to the treatment, they were still outnumbered by autoreactive lymphocytes. What we don't yet know is whether these were new cells that differentiated from transplanted stem cells or were a remnant of the autoreactive lymphocytes that weren't destroyed by chemotherapy and resumed multiplication."

Data from the scientific literature show that the latter hypothesis is more plausible, so the group at CTC has begun a second study in which patients are being subjected to more aggressive chemotherapy with the aim of ensuring that no vestiges of autoreactive T-lymphocytes remain.

Explore further: Novel tissue-engineered islet transplant achieves insulin independence in type 1 diabetes

More information: Kelen C. R. Malmegrim et al. Immunological Balance Is Associated with Clinical Outcome after Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Type 1 Diabetes, Frontiers in Immunology (2017). DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00167

Scientists from the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have produced the first clinical results demonstrating that pancreatic islet cells transplanted within a tissue-engineered ...

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A team of researchers, led by investigators at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, have identified a new class of antigens that may be a contributing factor to type 1 diabetes, according to an article published ...

A Yale-led research team identified how insulin-producing cells that are typically destroyed in type 1 diabetes can change in order to survive immune attack. The finding may lead to strategies for recovering these cells in ...

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients who have developed low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) as a complication of insulin treatments over time are able to regain normal internal recognition of the condition after receiving pancreatic ...

A study carried out in India examining the safety and efficacy of self-donated (autologous), transplanted bone marrow stem cells in patients with type 2 diabetes (TD2M), has found that patients receiving the transplants, ...

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Success of stem cell therapy for diabetes depends on pre-transplant immune condition - Medical Xpress

"At StemGenex, we are committed to helping people achieve optimum health and better quality of life through the healing benefits of their own stem cells," said Alexander. "Specifically, we use adipose-derived adult stem cell therapy for patients battling conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, COPD, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. We are also committed to the science of stem cell therapy and sponsor five clinical outcome studiesregistered with theNational Institute of Health (NIH) for these diseases."

"What I personally witnessed before the start of StemGenex were patients who had exhausted conventional medical treatments but wanted to try alternative therapies. I was one of them, suffering from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. Ihad only three options; I could seek a clinical trial, travel to outside of the U.S. to try alternative therapies such as stem cell treatment or petition the FDA for access to drugs under the agency's "expanded access," or "compassionate use" program. Now, new state laws, built on model legislation from the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, will potentially allow doctors and patients to make their own informed decisions on treatments that have cleared the safety phase of FDA testing."

Last year, in a move that was seen by some as a response to "Right to Try" laws, the 21st Century Cures Act, a landmark piece of legislation focused on medical innovation and medical research, was signed into law by President Obama. This Act provides the FDA with the flexibility to accelerate how it evaluates regenerative medicine treatments, such as stem cell therapies, while maintaining its high standards of safety and efficacy.

"We're on the cusp of a major change on how patients can access stem cell therapy," saidAlexander. "Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by a wide range of autoimmune and degenerative illnesses," said Alexander. "StemGenex Medical Group is proud to offer the highest quality of care and to potentially help those with unmet clinical needs improve their quality of life."

ABOUT StemGenex Medical Group StemGenex Medical Group is committed to helping people achieve optimum health and better quality of life through the healing benefits of their own stem cells. StemGenex provides stem cell therapy options for individuals suffering with inflammatory and degenerative illnesses. Committed to the science and innovation of stem cell treatment,StemGenex sponsors five clinical outcome studiesregistered with theNational Institutes of Health ("NIH") for Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ("COPD") and Osteoarthritis. These have been established to formally document and evaluate the quality of life changes in individuals following adipose-derived stem cell treatment.

Contact: Jamie Schubert, Director of Media & Community Relations jschubert@StemGenex.com, (858) 242-4243

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stem-cell-therapy-is-one-step-closer-to-becoming-law-in-texas-300461859.html

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http://www.stemgenex.com

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Stem Cell Therapy is One Step Closer to Becoming Law in Texas - PR Newswire (press release)

Animation of stem cell therapy attacking malignant glioma. (Northwestern Medicine)

CHICAGO - A first-of-a-kind neural stem cell therapy that works with a common cold virus to seek out and attack a lethal and aggressive brain cancer is being tested at Northwestern Medicine in a Phase I clinical trial for patients newly diagnosed with malignant glioma.

The novel drug to treat malignant glioma, notorious for recurring after typical bouts of standard cancer treatment, was developed by a Northwestern scientist and has been approved as an investigational drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is only the second time the University has supported and filed an investigational new drug as a sponsor.

We have discovered that combining stem cells with a virus causes the new drug to react like a cancer-seeking missile targeting cancerous cells in the brain said principal investigator, Dr. Maciej Lesniak, the Michael J. Marchese Professor and chair of neurological surgery atNorthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicineand a neuro-oncologist at Northwestern Medicine. If it works in humans, it could be a powerful weapon against brain cancer and an option that our patients are desperate for.

One reason malignant glioma recurs so often is because a small subpopulation of cancer cells, often deep in the brain tissue, is highly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation.

We havent seen significant progress in the last decade for patients with a brain tumor, and that is why its crucial to do everything we can to find a better treatment for brain tumors.

The pre-clinical work done by Lesniak and his team has shown that the approach being tested at Northwestern Medicine can target this population of therapy resistant cells, further delaying and sometimes even preventing tumor recurrence.

The stem cells used in the research came from a collaboration of researchers from City of Hope.

We havent seen significant progress in the last decade for patients with a brain tumor, and that is why its crucial to do everything we can to find a better treatment for brain tumors, said Dr. Roger Stupp, a co-investigator who is working alongside Lesniak on this clinical trial. Combining novel therapy with medical expertise, we are able to get one step closer to eradicating this lethal disease.

Stupp, a world-renowned neuro-oncologist, recently joined Northwestern Medicine as director of neuro-oncology and associate director for strategic initiatives at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He is best known for developing temozolomide in combination with radiation as the standard-of-care chemotherapy for patients with glioblastoma.

Lesniak and his team of scientists are starting to test the safety and dosage of the treatment in patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Lesniak began the research more than a decade ago while at the University of Chicago and completed it when he moved to Northwestern in 2015.

This investigational new drug contains neural stem cells to deliver a potent virus responsible for the common cold, oncolyotic adenovirus, which is engineered to kill brain cancer cells. The novel treatment works synergistically with chemotherapy and radiation to enhance the standard cancer treatments effectiveness.

Malignant gliomas are the most aggressive forms of cancer and are predicted to affect nearly 20,000 new patients this year, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Sometimes called the grow-and-go tumors, gliomas can make their own blood supply, which fuels the tumors rapid growth and helps them hatch satellite tumors. Each tumor sends out tentacles that infiltrate and dig deep into normal brain tissue, making complete removal of cancerous cells impossible. Any cancerous cells in the brain left over from standard of care can cause the tumor to recur.

Lesniak plans to enroll up to 36 newly diagnosed patients with glioma. These patients will be divided into two groups: those with tumors that can be removed and those where the tumors are not removable by surgery.

Next step, Northwestern Memorial will extend this research to the collaborating partners at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant U01NS069997.

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New investigational drug acts like a cancer-seeking missile in brain - Northwestern University NewsCenter

Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early ... Science Daily Now that we know that egg-making stem cells exist in adults and that these cells can be transplanted into mice with premature ovarian failure to produce ... and more »

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Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early ... - Science Daily

NEW ORLEANS, LADespite new data showing that stem cell therapy has the potential to improve exercise time and reduce mortality in patients with refractory angina, researchers said at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2017 Scientific Sessions last week that the option is all but dead due to withdrawal of financial support, resulting in patients being denied access to a promising treatment.

Presenting a summation of all the data that have been collected over the last decade on the use of autologous CD34+ cells to treat patients with class III or IV angina despite optimal medical therapy, Thomas Povsic, MD, PhD (Duke Clinical Research Institute, Chapel Hill, NC), said this group of patients is in dire need of new treatment options, and maintained that it is imperative to explore methods to bring this therapy to patients.

He and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis from the only three trials of CD34+ therapy in refractory angina patients: a phase I study (n = 24); ACT-34 CMI and its 24-month extension study (n = 168); and the RENEW study (n = 112). All three were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. However, RENEW was terminated early by the sponsor due to financial reasons.

Taken together, the trials showed that among the 187 patients who received the therapy, total exercise time improved by 90.5 seconds at 12 months compared with an improvement of just 39.5 seconds in those who received a placebo.

Additionally, patients who received CD34+ treatment had more than a fourfold lower rate of mortality by 24 months (2.6% vs 11.8%; P = 0.003) and fewer instances of MACE (29.8% vs 40.0%; P = 0.08).

A Cloudy Future

Povsic said the CD34+ trials are extremely expensive to run, resulting in the only sponsor, Baxter Healthcare, divesting itself of all further research in this area.

I personally believe that this therapy has more data associated with it for efficacy and safety than any other cell therapy thats been investigated in the cardiovascular disease space, he observed. The passage of the 21st Century Cures Act may hold some hope for the future, Povsic added, since it allows for a therapy that fulfills a specific medical need to undergo expedited approval.

Its challenging because this patient population has no options, Povsics co-author Timothy Henry, MD (Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA), said in a press briefing prior to the presentation. This is by far the strongest data for any therapy for refractory angina. Its also the . . . strongest data for cell therapy, and its a shame that its not available to patients.

Henry added that hes hopeful the data from the meta-analysis may be well received by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Povsic noted that although other companies have expressed interest in the therapy, its future is cloudy. Referencing the termination of RENEW for financial reasons, he added that it shows the ramifications that early cessation of a clinical trial can have, because its truly a disservice to the patients that were enrolled in the trial, the investigators that invested time, and the fact that this therapy . . . seemed so close to the finish line, but [now] the path forward is unclear.

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Access Denied: Stem Cell Therapy Shows Some Promise in Refractory Angina, but Patients Can't Get It - TCTMD

May 18, 2017

Now that we know that egg-making stem cells exist in adult rodents and humans and that these cells can be transplanted into mice with premature ovarian failure to produce offspring, the next question is to assess whether the offspring from the egg-making stem cells of a single adult mouse are biologically normal compared to natural births. On May 18 in the journal Molecular Therapy, researchers in China show that female mice with early menopause that receive egg-making stem cells from another mouse are capable of producing healthy pups 2 months later with no observable genetic malfunctions.

"One of our aims is to cure the disease of premature ovarian failure using female germline stem cells," says senior author Ji Wu, a reproductive biologist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "Before this treatment can be applied to humans, we need to know the mechanism of female germline stem cell development and safety after transplantation of single mouse female germline stem cells."

Premature ovarian failure, also called early menopause, is the loss of normal ovarian function, and thereby the release of eggs, before the age of 40. The condition is rare, affecting 200,000 women in the United States per year, and is incurable, although it can be treated with hormone supplements. Multiple groups are now looking at whether stimulating tissue regeneration or using stem cell transplants could help.

In the Molecular Therapy study, Wu and her colleagues isolated and characterized female germline stem cells from a single transgenic mouse with cells that show green fluorescence when activated by a blue laser. This allowed the researchers to observe and analyze the development of the transplanted stem cells, which were introduced to the ovaries of other mice using a fine glass needle.

Wu and colleagues found that the transplanted egg-producing stem cells exhibited a homing ability and began to differentiate into early-stage oocytes when they reached the edge of the ovary. The oocytes spent a few weeks maturing and yielded offspring within 2 months. The researchers then demonstrated that the developmental mechanisms of eggs derived from transplanted germline stem cells were similar to that of normal eggs.

"The results are exciting because it's not easy to get offspring from female germline stem cells derived from a single mouse," Wu says.

Wu's lab is also working to establish female egg-producing stem cell lines from scarce ovarian tissues derived from follicular aspiratesthe leftover cells gathered when a clinician searches a patient for oocytesthat are produced and discarded in in vitro fertilization centers worldwide. These aspirates can yield stem cells that differentiate into eggs in the lab, with the potential to be transplanted. The study not only provides a new approach to obtain human female germline stem cells for medical treatment, but also opens several avenues to investigate human oogenesis in vitro.

Explore further: Making sperm from stem cells in a dish

More information: Molecular Therapy, Wu et al.: "Tracing and characterizing the development of transplanted female germline stem cells in vivo" http://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(17)30180-6 , DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2017.04.019

Journal reference: Molecular Therapy

Provided by: Cell Press

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Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early menopause - Medical Xpress

May 17, 2017 This illustration shows the bone-tissue engineering technique developed by Cedars-Sinai investigators. 'Endogenous MSCs' refers to stem cells from a patient's bone. The 'BMP gene' is a gene that promotes bone repair. Credit: Gazit Group/Cedars-Sinai

A Cedars-Sinai-led team of investigators has successfully repaired severe limb fractures in laboratory animals with an innovative technique that cues bone to regrow its own tissue. If found to be safe and effective in humans, the pioneering method of combining ultrasound, stem cell and gene therapies could eventually replace grafting as a way to mend severely broken bones.

"We are just at the beginning of a revolution in orthopedics," said Dan Gazit, PhD, DMD, co-director of the Skeletal Regeneration and Stem Cell Therapy Program in the Department of Surgery and the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. "We're combining an engineering approach with a biological approach to advance regenerative engineering, which we believe is the future of medicine."

Gazit was the principal investigator and co-senior author of the research study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

More than 2 million bone grafts, frequently necessitated by severe injuries involving traffic accidents, war or tumor removal, are performed worldwide each year. Such injuries can create gaps between the edges of a fracture that are too large for the bone to bridge on its own. The grafts require implanting pieces from either the patient's or a donor's bone into the gap.

"Unfortunately, bone grafts carry disadvantages," said Gazit, a professor of surgery at Cedars-Sinai. "There are huge unmet needs in skeleton repair."

One problem is that enough healthy bone is not always available for repairs. Surgeries to remove a bone piece, typically from the pelvis, and implant it can lead to prolonged pain and expensive, lengthy hospitalizations. Further, grafts from donors may not integrate or grow properly, causing the repair to fail.

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The new technique developed by the Cedars-Sinai-led team could provide a much-needed alternative to bone grafts.

In their experiment, the investigators constructed a matrix of collagen, a protein the body uses to build bones, and implanted it in the gap between the two sides of a fractured leg bone in laboratory animals. This matrix recruited the fractured leg's own stem cells into the gap over a period of two weeks. To initiate the bone repair process, the team delivered a bone-inducing gene directly into the stem cells, using an ultrasound pulse and microbubbles that facilitated the entry of the gene into the cells.

Eight weeks after the surgery, the bone gap was closed and the leg fracture was healed in all the laboratory animals that received the treatment. Tests showed that the bone grown in the gap was as strong as that produced by surgical bone grafts, said Gadi Pelled, PhD, DMD, assistant professor of surgery at Cedars-Sinai and the study's co-senior author.

"This study is the first to demonstrate that ultrasound-mediated gene delivery to an animal's own stem cells can effectively be used to treat nonhealing bone fractures," Pelled said. "It addresses a major orthopedic unmet need and offers new possibilities for clinical translation."

The study involved six departments at Cedars-Sinai, plus investigators from Hebrew University in Jerusalem; the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York; and the University of California, Davis.

"Our project demonstrates how scientists from diverse disciplines can combine forces to find solutions to today's medical challenges and help develop treatments for the patients of tomorrow," said Bruce Gewertz, MD, surgeon-in-chief and chair of the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai.

Explore further: Combining adult stem cells with hormone may speed bone fracture healing

More information: DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aal3128 "In situ bone tissue engineering via ultrasound-mediated gene delivery to endogenous progenitor cells in mini-pigs," Science Translational Medicine (2017). http://stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aal3128

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Injured bones reconstructed by gene and stem cell therapies - Medical Xpress