StemCell Therapy

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, believe they have discovered stem cells that play a decisive role in new blood vessel growth. If researchers learn to isolate and efficiently produce these stem cells found in blood vessel walls, the cells offer new opportunities in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and many other diseases.

The study will be published Oct. 16, 2012 in the online journal PLOS Biology.

The growth of new blood vessels, also known as angiogenesis, is needed in adults when repairing damaged tissue or organs. Unfortunately, malignant tumours are also capable of growing new blood vessels to receive oxygen and nutrients. In other words, the treatment of diseases would benefit from two types of methods: ones that help launch the process of angiogenesis and ones that make it possible to prevent the process. Medications that prevent the growth of new blood vessels have already been introduced, but their effectiveness and long-term efficacy leave much to be desired.

For more than a decade, Adjunct Professor Petri Salvn from the University of Helsinki has studied the mechanisms of angiogenesis to discover how blood vessel growth could be prevented or accelerated effectively. He has examined the birth and origin of endothelial cells, which form the thin layer that lines the interior surface of blood vessels. Endothelial cells are necessary for new blood vessel growth. Where do these highly diversified cells come from? Can their production be prevented or increased?

For a long time, it was assumed that new cells in the blood vessel walls of an adult originate in the bone marrow. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2008, Salvn's research team showed that such stem cells were not found in bone marrow.

Now Salvn is ready to reveal where these mysterious stem cells originate. His team's new study will be published in the PLOS Biology journal on 16 October 2012.

"We succeeded in isolating endothelial cells with a high rate of division in the blood vessel walls of mice. We found these same cells in human blood vessels and blood vessels growing in malignant tumours in humans. These cells are known as vascular endothelial stem cells, abbreviated as VESC. In a cell culture, one such cell is able to produce tens of millions of new blood vessel wall cells," Salvn explains.

"Our study shows that these important stem cells can be found as single cells among ordinary endothelial cells in blood vessel walls. When the process of angiogenesis is launched, these cells begin to produce new blood vessel wall cells."

The effects of new endothelial stem cells have also been tested in mice. The results show that the growth of new blood vessels weakens and the growth of malignant tumours slows if the amount of these cells in the organism is below normal. Correspondingly, a high number of new blood vessels quickly emerge where new stem cells are implanted.

Identifying stem cells among other blood vessel wall cells is challenging and time-consuming. Salvn and his team managed to identify a few molecular surface structures that make it easier to trace these stem cells. However, the efficiency of the identification process needs to be enhanced.

Excerpt from:
New blood-vessel-generating cell with therapeutic potential discovered

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012

Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka has been awash with admiration, receiving offers of financial support for his research on induced pluripotent stem cells, and now he may get an unlikely gift from members of the government.

Science and education minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday she has proposed that Cabinet ministers present Yamanaka with a new washing machine.

The offer comes after it was learned that Yamanaka, a 50-year-old professor at Kyoto University, was in the middle of repairing his washing machine when he got the phone call on Oct. 8 to tell him that he had won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

"I suggested that we split the cost (of a new washing machine) among Cabinet ministers," Tanaka revealed at a news conference.

Tanaka said a contribution of 5,000 to 10,000 each from the 19 Cabinet members would probably be enough to buy a new washer.

No one objected to her proposal, according to Tanaka.

Still, she noted, before making such an offer, the ministers need to check whether there are any legal issues involved.

JIJI

Shinzo Abe, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, denied having any deep ties with a man linked to a yakuza syndicate.

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Ministers may split cost of new washing machine for Yamanaka: Tanaka

An important issue pushed into the background.

Stem cell issues: still important issues. Photograph: Getty Images

In a US election year dominated by economic issues, research using human embryonic stem cells (hESC) has received far less attention in 2012 than in previous election years just another social debate pushed into the background, despite its ethical controversy and the fact that it could have major implications for the treatment of conditions as serious and widespread as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Although stem cell research isn't exactly on top of this year's election agenda, the result when America goes to the polls on 6 November could have a major impact on hESC research in the US. The main issue at hand is not whether embryonic stem cell research should be banned both Obama and Romney agree that this research is legal but whether it should be federally funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

President Obama has effectively made his position clear during his time in office. In 2009, he reversed a directive from his predecessor George W Bush that denied federal funding to research on any stem cells created after 2001, limiting researchers to the 21 stem cell lines (a family of constantly dividing cells) that had been derived from embryos up to that point. Obama's legislation re-opened the 1,000 or more stem cell lines that have been created since then to federally-funded research, a move welcomed by the scientific community and condemned by pro-life campaigners and conservative Republicans.

In reality, despite Obama's 2009 legislation, under the Dickey-Wicker amendment introduced in 1996 it is still illegal in the US to pursue any research that involves the creation, destruction or discarding of human embryos, meaning that although American scientists can conduct research on stem cell lines derived from embryos, they are barred from using embryos to create their own lines. The Dickey-Wicker amendment remains an obstacle to embryonic stem cell research in the US and it's unclear if the president would have the clout to do away with it if re-elected.

Romney's personal view on hESC seems to broadly follow the pro-life stance of his party; he supports stem cell research in general, but opposes the destruction of embryos for the purpose. In a Republican presidential candidates' debate for the last election in 2007, Romney stated that he wouldn't use federal funds to finance hESC research. This would essentially take the US back to the same situation as under George W Bush, and there's no reason to think that Romney has changed his position between 2007 and now.

The Republican candidate has consistently extolled the benefits of adult and umbilical cord stem cells, which, he asserts, provide the benefits of creating pluripotent cells without the "moral shortcut" of destroying an embryo in the process. Alternatives to embryonic stem cell research are Romney's perfect political solution, allowing him to appear to support stem cell research without losing the religious right by excusing the destruction of embryos.

From a scientific standpoint, his position is less tenable. Researchers have said that the development of non-embryonic stem cell types is actually dependent on embryonic stem cell research as a complementary process. So by plugging adult stem cell research alternatives as the exclusive answer to the field's ethical issues, Romney may be unwittingly damaging their development by depriving researchers of important side-by-side embryonic research.

Whatever the outcome of the elections on 6 November, the US is unlikely to live up to its stem cell research potential when compared to world leaders in the field. If Obama wins, there will at least be federal funding to study existing embryonic stem cells, but the Dickey-Wicker amendment will maintain the ban on creating new stem cell lines. If Romney turns the tide and emerges on top, American stem cell researchers will likely have to suffer through four more years in the unfunded wilderness.

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Stem cells: this election's neglected child

By Charles Choi, LiveScience contributor

Death will come for us all one day, but life will not fade from our bodies all at once. After our lungs stop breathing, our hearts stop beating, our minds stop racing, our bodies cool, and long after our vital signs cease, little pockets of cells can live for days, even weeks. Now scientists have harvested such cells from the scalps and brain linings of human corpses and reprogrammed them into stem cells.

In other words, dead people can yield living cells that can be converted into any cell or tissue in the body.

As such, this work could help lead to novel stem cell therapies and shed light on a variety of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder, which may stem from problems with development, researchers say.

Making stem cells Mature cells can be made or induced to become immature cells, known as pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to become any tissue in the body and potentially can replace cells destroyed by disease or injury. This discovery was honored last week with the Nobel Prize.

Past research showed this same process could be carried out with so-called fibroblasts taken from the skin of human cadavers. Fibroblasts are the most common cells of connective tissue in animals, and they synthesize the extracellular matrix, the complex scaffolding between cells. [ Science of Death: 10 Tales from the Crypt ]

Cadaver-collected fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells using chemicals known as growth factors that are linked with stem cell activity. Reprogrammed cells could then develop into a multitude of cell types, including the neurons found in the brain and spinal cord. However, bacteria and fungi on the skin can wreak havoc on the culturing processes used to grow cells in labs, making the process tricky to successfully carry out.

Now scientists have taken fibroblasts from the scalps and the brain linings of 146 human brain donors and grown induced pluripotent stem cells from them as well.

"We were able to culture living cells from deceased individuals on a larger scale than ever done before," researcher Thomas Hyde, a neuroscientist, neurologist and chief operating officer at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, told LiveScience. Previous studies had only grown fibroblasts from a total of about a half-dozen cadavers.

The bodies had been dead up to nearly two days before scientists collected tissues from them. The corpses had been kept cool in the morgue, but not frozen.

Read the original here:
New life for the dead: Stem cells from corpse scalp

Death will come for us all one day, but life will not fade from our bodies all at once. After our lungs stop breathing, our hearts stop beating, our minds stop racing, our bodies cool, and long after our vital signs cease, little pockets of cells can live for days, even weeks. Now scientists have harvested such cells from the scalps and brain linings of human corpses and reprogrammed them into stem cells.

In other words, dead people can yield living cells that can be converted into any cell or tissue in the body.

As such, this work could help lead to novel stem cell therapies and shed light on a variety of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder, which may stem from problems with development, researchers say.

Making stem cells

Mature cells can be made or induced to become immature cells, known as pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to become any tissue in the body and potentially can replace cells destroyed by disease or injury. This discovery was honored last week with the Nobel Prize.

Past research showed this same process could be carried out with so-called fibroblasts taken from the skin of human cadavers. Fibroblasts are the most common cells of connective tissue in animals, and they synthesize the extracellular matrix, the complex scaffolding between cells. [Science of Death: 10 Tales from the Crypt]

Cadaver-collected fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells using chemicals known as growth factors that are linked with stem cell activity. Reprogrammed cells could then develop into a multitude of cell types, including the neurons found in the brain and spinal cord. However, bacteria and fungi on the skin can wreak havoc on the culturing processes used to grow cells in labs, making the process tricky to successfully carry out.

Now scientists have taken fibroblasts from the scalps and the brain linings of 146 human brain donors and grown induced pluripotent stem cells from them as well.

"We were able to culture living cells from deceased individuals on a larger scale than ever done before," researcher Thomas Hyde, a neuroscientist, neurologist and chief operating officer at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, told LiveScience. Previous studies had only grown fibroblasts from a total of about a half-dozen cadavers.

The bodies had been dead up to nearly two days before scientists collected tissues from them. The corpses had been kept cool in the morgue, but not frozen.

Read the original:
Human Cadaver Brains May Provide New Stem Cells

The Grekos hearing is scheduled to resume today. The location is the Collier County Courthouse in room 4-D, according to a case filing Monday.

The hearing before J. Lawrence Johnson, an administrative law judge from Tallahassee, is scheduled to last four days. The Collier County Courthouse is located at 3315 U.S. 41 E.

Photo by Allie Garza

Zannos Grekos

EAST NAPLES The patient was friends with the mother of Dr. Zannos Grekos, a Bonita Springs cardiologist who performed stem cell therapy on people with debilitating illnesses.

Chemotherapy for breast cancer several years earlier had left the 69-year-old patient, Domenica Fitzgerald, with numbness in her legs. She was unable to walk for more than 10 minutes. She hoped Grekos and his stem cell treatment could help.

"She was looking for a cure. She wanted to get well," her husband, John "Jack" Fitzgerald, testified Tuesday.

A four-day administrative hearing started Tuesday in a Collier County courtroom for a state Department of Health complaint against Grekos. The state says he committed medical malpractice and violated other standards of care when he performed a stem cell treatment on the patient on March 24, 2010. The patient suffered brain damage.

The state is only identifying the patient in its complaint by her initials, D.F. The Daily News learned of her identity by a public records request to the Collier County Medical Examiner's Office of all people who died on April 4, 2010, in the county. That was the day that Fitzgerald died after being taken off life support.

The state last year restricted Grekos' license after her death and ordered him not to do anything with stem cells with other patients. His license was fully suspended earlier this year when the state said he violated the order by treating another patient who also died.

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Husband testifies wife 'was looking for a cure' and found Bonita stem-cell doctor

LONDON (ShareCast) - ReNeuron has reported further progress in the clinical trial of its ReN001 stem cell therapy for disabled stroke patients, known as the PISCES study.

The third and penultimate batch of three patients have all been successfully treated with ReN001 and discharged from hospital with no acute safety issues arising. This follows approval last month by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the study to proceed to completion of dosing of this batch of patients.

The PISCES study continues to run to plan, with no cell-related serious adverse events reported in any of the patients treated to date, the clinical-stage stem cell specialist reported. The remaining three, high-dose cohort patients to be treated in the PISCES study have been identified and evaluated as potentially eligible for treatment, with patient enquiries continuing to come into the Glasgow clinical site and a number of patients consequently identified as reserve candidates for the study. Subject to DSMB approval, these final three patients are scheduled to be treated in January and March 2013.

In June of this year, interim data from the PISCES study from the first five patients treated was presented by the Glasgow clinical team at the 10th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) in Yokohama, Japan (EUREX: FMJP.EX - news) . Reductions in neurological impairment and spasticity were observed in all five patients compared with their stable pre-treatment baseline performance and these improvements were sustained in longer term follow-up.

Based on the above progress, the company announced last month that, ahead of plan, it had submitted an application to the UK regulatory authority to commence a multi-site Phase II clinical trial to examine the efficacy of ReN001 in patients disabled by an ischaemic stroke.

This trial is designed to recruit from a well-defined population of patients between two and four months after their stroke, which the company and its clinical collaborators currently believe will be the optimum treatment window for the therapy. Subject to continuing positive progress with the PISCES study, and subject to regulatory and ethical approvals, the company hopes to be able to commence the Phase II stroke study in mid-2013. The proposed study is expected to take up to 18 months to complete.

ReNeuron's ReN001 stem cell therapy is being administered in ascending doses to a total of 12 stroke patients who have been left disabled by an ischaemic stroke, the most common form of the condition.

This news should also have positive read-across for Aim-listed Angel Biotechnology (Berlin: A3G.BE - news) , which supplies the stem cells used in the study.

CM

More:
ReNeuron progresses stroke clinical trial

With all the publicity about the miraculous effects of stem cell therapy, the Department of Health (DOH) should prepare itself for the possibility that the new procedure would be performed by unqualified, and completely clueless, people.

I passed a beauty parlor recently and saw a huge poster on its door announcing the arrival of stem cell therapy. I was instantly reminded of botched breast enhancement and nose jobs performed by salon personnel who seemed to think it was as easy to learn complicated surgical procedures as it was to train to cut hair or do manicures and pedicures.

The DOH should start warning the public not to fall for these special offers just because they are available at giveaway rates.

Modern lifestyle problem

Experts have repeatedly talked about problems brought about by modern lifestyles. Changing diets and stress are two of the best known. Dr. Jaime G. Ignacio, section chief of gastroenterology at Veterans Hospital and head of the Digestive Malignancy Council of the Philippine Society of Gastroenterology, said constipation could be one of the consequences of the combination of these two factors.

Speaking at an event hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim, maker of Dulcolax (generic name Bisacodyl), a formulation for constipation relief, Ignacio, who, as a gastroenterologist is a specialist in digestive system disorders, defined the problem as having fewer than three bowel movements in a week (normal ranges from three times a week to three times a day).

He said constipation itself was not a disease but it could sometimes be a symptom of something serious, like colorectal cancer. But he said about 95 percent of cases were acuteoccurring suddenly and lasting for only a short periodresulting from some sudden lifestyle or hormonal changes, the taking of medication, lack of exercise, etc.

Ignacio said acute was easy to treat, with products like Dulcolax to solve the problem. But, if left unattended, acute constipation could lead to a chronic or long-term condition, which was the more worrisome, and would need medical attention.

He said constipation should be treated as soon as the problem had lasted for four or more days.

Constipation is part of modern living. [Like other diseases] prevention is the key. Safe and effective treatment is available [if needed], Ignacio stressed.

Excerpt from:
Beauty salon ‘offers’ stem cell therapy

Public release date: 15-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Veronika Sexl veronika.sexl@vetmeduni.ac.at 43-125-077-2910 University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna

So-called Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) is even less attractive in real life than it is on paper. It is a highly aggressive type of lymphoma that generally occurs in children and young adults and that has to date proven extremely difficult to treat. It has long been known that ALCL patients frequently show a genetic alteration (a translocation) that causes expression of nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (NPM-ALK), a gene known to be capable of giving rise to cancer. But how the NPM-ALK gene works has to date remained largely a matter of conjecture.

Working in a mouse model for lymphoma, Karoline Kollmann in Veronika Sexl's group at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and colleagues in the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research and the Medical University of Vienna were able to show that the development of lymphoma is absolutely dependent on the "Platelet derived growth factor receptor B" (PDGFRB), a protein already associated with the growth of other types of tumour. They demonstrated that the effect was direct, with NPM-ALK stimulating the production of the transcription factors JUN and JUNB, which bind to and activate the PDGFRB promoter. And importantly they were able to show that inhibition of PDGFRB with the drug imatinib was able to extend dramatically the survival of mice with this kind of lymphoma.

In human patients, ALCL is traditionally treated with crizotinib, a drug that directly inhibits the NPM-ALK protein. The major problem is that the patients tend to relapse and their chances of survival are extremely poor. Based on the results from the imatinib tests in mice it seemed conceivable that the use of this drug might improve the prognosis of patients who do not or no longer respond to crizotinib therapy. The scientists obtained ethical approval and informed consent to attempt imatinib treatment of an ALCL patient who had not responded to conventional chemotherapy and had relapsed after transplantation of stem cells. Remarkably, the patient improved immediately upon imatinib treatment: after ten days he was in complete remission and he is still alive and again working 22 months later.

The idea of inhibiting PDGFRB in ALCL is novel and potentially of great therapeutic importance. Kollmann is naturally extremely excited by the implications of the results. "The patient had essentially run out of options and would have died a long time ago. But thanks to the indications from our mouse work that inhibiting PDGFRB could prevent growth of this type of tumour he is still alive. This new type of therapy could significantly prolong patient survival."

Intriguingly, the researchers have also found that PDGRFB is also present in ALCL patients without the translocation that leads to NPM-ALK expression. Whether the PDGRFB protein is required for the development of tumours in such patients is not yet clear but it is possible that a combined crizotinib / imatinib therapy might be more widely applicable, providing hope for patients suffering from other types of lymphoma.

The paper "Identification of PDGFR blockade as a rational and highly effective therapy for NPM-ALK driven lymphomas" by Daniela Laimer, Helmut Dolznig, Karoline Kollmann, Paul W. Vesely, Michaela Schlederer, Olaf Merkel, Ana-Iris Schiefer, Melanie R. Hassler, Susi Heider, Lena Amenitsch, Christiane Thallinger, Philipp B. Staber, Ingrid Simonitsch-Klupp, Matthias Artaker, Sabine Lagger, Stefano Pileri, Pier Paolo Piccaluga, Peter Valent, Katia Messana, Indira Landra, Thomas Weichhart, Sylvia Knapp, Medhat Shehata, Maria Todaro, Veronika Sexl, Gerald Hfler, Roberto Piva, Enzo Medico, Bruce A. Riggeri, Mangeng Cheng, Robert Eferl, Gerda Egger, Josef M. Penninger, Ulrich Jaeger, Richard Moriggl, Giorgio Inghirami and Lukas Kenner is published in the current issue of "Nature Medicine". The first four authors contributed equally to the work.

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Abstract of the scientific article online (full text for a fee or with a subscription): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.2966

Original post:
Of mice and men

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) A new method of using adult stem cells as a model for the hereditary condition Gaucher disease could help accelerate the discovery of new, more effective therapies for this and other conditions such as Parkinson's, according to new research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine reprogrammed stem cells to develop into cells that are genetically similar to and react to drugs in a similar way as cells from patients with Gaucher disease. The stem cells will allow the scientists to test potential new therapies in a dish, accelerating the process toward drug discovery, according to the paper published online in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Oct. 15.

"We have created a model for all three types of Gaucher disease, and used stem cell-based tests to evaluate the effectiveness of therapies," says senior author Ricardo Feldman, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and a research scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. "We are confident that this will allow us to test more drugs faster, more accurately and more safely, bringing us closer to new treatments for patients suffering from Gaucher disease. Our findings have potential to help patients with other neurodegenerative diseases as well. For example, about 10 percent of Parkinson's disease patients carry mutations in the recessive gene for Gaucher disease, making our research possibly significant for Parkinson's disease as well."

Gaucher disease is the most frequent lipid-storage disease. It affects 1 in 50,000 people in the general population. It is most common in Ashkenazi Jews, affecting 1 in 1,000 among that specific population. The disease occurs in three subtypes -- Type 1 is the mildest and most common form of the disease, causing symptoms such as enlarged livers and spleens, anemia and bone disease. Type 2 causes very serious brain abnormalities and is usually fatal before the age of two, while Type 3 affects children and adolescents.

The condition is a recessive genetic disorder, meaning that both parents must be carriers for a child to suffer from Gaucher. However, said Dr. Feldman, studies have found that people with only one copy of a mutated Gaucher gene -- those known as carriers -- are at an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

"This science is a reflection of the mission of the University of Maryland School of Medicine -- to take new treatments from bench to bedside, from the laboratory to patients, as quickly as possible," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland and John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We are excited to see where this research goes next, bringing new hope to Gaucher patients and their families."

Dr. Feldman and his colleagues used the new reprogramming technology developed by Shinja Yamanaka in Japan, who was recognized with this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. Scientists engineered cells taken from the skin of Gaucher patients, creating human induced pluripotent stem cells, known as hiPSC -- stem cells that are theoretically capable of forming any type of cell in the body. Scientists differentiated the cells to form white blood cells known as macrophages and neuronal cells.

A key function of macrophages in the body is to ingest and eliminate damaged or aged red blood cells. In Gaucher disease, the macrophages are unable to do so -- they can't digest a lipid present in the red blood cell membrane. The macrophages become engorged with lipid and cannot completely clear the ingested red blood cells. This results in blockage of membrane transport pathways in the macrophages lodged in the bone marrow, spleen and liver. The macrophages that the scientists created from the reprogrammed stem cells exhibited this characteristic hallmark of the macrophages taken from Gaucher patients.

To further test the stem cells, the scientists administered a recombinant enzyme that is effective in treating Gaucher patients with Type 1 disease. When the cells were treated with the enzyme, the function of the macrophages was restored -- they completely cleared the red blood cells.

"The creation of these stem cell lines is a lovely piece of stem cell research," said Curt Civin, M.D., professor of pediatrics and physiology, associate dean for research and founding director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Dr. Feldman is already using these Gaucher patient-derived macrophages to better understand the disease fundamentals and to find novel medicines for Gaucher disease treatment. A major goal of our Center for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine is to translate our fundamental discoveries into innovative and practical clinical applications that will enhance the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many human diseases. Clinical applications include not only transplantation of stem cells, but also the use of stem cells for drug discovery as Dr. Feldman's studies so beautifully illustrate."

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Stem cell model for hereditary disease developed

St. Louis, MO-- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation announced today that Sigma Life Science, its innovative biological products and services research business, has launched Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium, a novel human pluripotent stem cell culture medium that provides a consistent environment for the long-term maintenance and growth of healthy pluripotent stem cells. The new medium performs equivalently to the industry's leading medium and provides academic and pharmaceutical stem cell research labs with a substantially lower cost alternative to higher priced media. Additional information and sample requests of the Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium are available at http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc .

"The exorbitant cost of media for pluripotent stem cells is a universal complaint from the stem cell research community. Our Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium performs equivalently to the leading medium for maintaining pluripotency and optimal growth rates, and is produced more efficiently than traditional media, resulting in lower costs. For example, a typical academic lab that consumes three 500 mL bottles of media per week could save at least $12,000 annually using our new Stemline medium. A high-throughput pharmaceutical development team that consumes 20 liters of media weekly could save more than $160,000 annually," said John Listello, Market Segment Manager for Regenerative Medicine at Sigma Life Science.

Culturing pluripotent stem cells can be challenging as many media's undefined, heterogenous mixtures can cause inconsistent growth rates and undesired spontaneous differentiation. The Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium is serum-free, composed of fully-defined components and has 80% less basic fibroblast growth factor than the leading pluripotent stem cell culture medium. This provides a consistent environment for long-term maintenance of optimal growth rates, viability and pluripotency. Rigorous characterization of the Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium has demonstrated that cultured pluripotent stem cells display all established pluripotency markers and maintain proper karyotype and the ability to differentiate into each of the three germ layers. The feeder-independent medium also enables culturing with synthetic matricies, thereby eliminating a source of variability that would prohibit later clinical applications.

"Academic and pharmaceutical groups performing toxicology screens, disease-specific stem cell research or studies of the basic mechanisms behind pluripotency and differentiation depend upon a steady supply of consistent, high-performance cell culture medium. This novel Stemline medium extends Sigma's existing position as one of the largest global providers of cell culture media," said Listello.

Existing Stemline stem cell culture media include specialized formulations for expansion of six human adult stem cell and progenitor cell types: hematopoietic, neural, dendritic, mesenchymal, T-cells, and keratinocytes. These six Stemline media are produced under good manufacturing practices (GMP) and have Device Master File certificates from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sigma Life Science's comprehensive stem cell product portfolio includes custom iPS cell CompoZr ZFN-mediated genetic engineering, Stemgent Reprogramming Lentiviruses, the MISSION shRNA Library with the latest content release from The RNAi Consortium, 3D matrices, growth factors, small molecules, other cell culture media and the industry's most validated antibodies. Sigma Life Science acquired a worldwide license to Kyoto University's iPS cell patent portfolio in February, 2012.

For more information and to request pricing, visit http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc .

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "could," "could expect," "can be," "predictive" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

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Sigma® Life Science Launches Novel, Affordable Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) Researchers at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles, ULB have identified multipotent and unipotent stem cells (SCs) that contribute to prostate postnatal development.

One of the key questions in biology is the identification of stem cells responsible for tissue morphogenesis and regeneration.

In a study published in Nature Cell Biology, researchers lead by Cdric Blanpain, MD/PhD, Welbio investigator and Professor at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, identify novel classes of prostate SCs that ensure the development of the different cell lineages of the prostate.

The prostate is a secretory gland surrounding the urethra at the base of the bladder producing the seminal fluid providing nutrients, ions and enzymes necessary for the survival of the spermatozoids during their journey through the female reproductive tract. The adult prostate is composed of three cell lineages: the basal cells, the luminal cells and the neuroendocrine cells.

To precisely define the cellular hierarchy of the prostate during the development under physiological conditions, Marielle Ousset and colleagues used state of the art genetic lineage tracing approach to fluorescently mark the different cell types of the prostate and follow the fate of marked cells overtime. The researchers found that multipotent and unipotent SCs contribute to prostate postnatal development.

"We were very surprised and excited when we discovered that multipotent SCs ensure the major epithelial expansion, giving rise to unipotent progenitors and to neuroendocrine cells. Indeed, these results contrast to the situation we have recently found in the mammary gland, which develops through the presence of unipotent stem cells" said Marielle Ousset, PhD and co-first author of this study.

"These new findings establish a new paradigm for the mode of development of glandular epithelia and will be extremely important for those studying development, stem cells and prostate but also open new avenues to uncover the cells at the origin of the prostate cancer, a very important question, not yet completely solved" said Cdric Blanpain, the senior and corresponding author of the Nature Cell Biology paper.

In conclusion, this new study, published in the online early edition of Nature Cell Biology, identifies a new multipotent stem cell population in the prostate tissue that ensure its postnatal development.

This work was supported by the FNRS, TELEVIE, the program d'excellence CIBLES of the Wallonia Region, a research grant from the Fondation Contre le Cancer, the ULB Fondation, the Fond Gaston Ithier. Cdric Blanpain is an investigator of Welbio and is supported by a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) and the EMBO Young Investigator Program

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Identification of stem cells that contribute to prostate development

12-10-2012 15:11 This information session will focus on a very hot topic - stem cell ethics. Marleen Eijkholt, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Core for Neuroethics at UBC. There are many ethical issues surrounding the use of stem cell procedures for spinal cord injuries. We all need to understand and be concerned about what is right and what is wrong, what is good science and bad science and most important - how it affect us all. Many individuals are asking about unproven treatments in other countries and others are going abroad to receive treatments. No matter what your views are it's important to educate yourselves on this topic. Marlene will share her knowledge on many issues on the ethics of stem cell research but also share her knowledge and concerns surrounding stem cell tourism.

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Marleen Eijkholt: Stem Cell Ethics relating to Stem Cell Tourism - Video

Researchers in Germany have made a Petri dish coated with nanocrystalline diamond. The new type of dish appears to be ideal for in vitro experiments and more biocompatible than traditional Petri dishes that are made of polystyrene.

The Petri dish has been around for more than a century and is a fundamental piece of equipment for biology experiments. The first Petri dishes were made of glass but are now more likely to be made of transparent polystyrene. These dishes, which have existed for more than 50 years and which have remained largely unchanged during this time, are supposed to be biodurable that is, unaffected by biological cultures and solutions. However, Andrei Sommer and colleagues of the University of Ulm have now found that this is not true on the nanoscale.

The researchers came to their conclusion by employing a nanoindenter a device that measures hardness variations on the surface of a material. They found that the surface at the bottom of the polystyrene dish becomes significantly softer when in contact with an aqueous solution. This leads to the production of a nanoscopic layer of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can weaken biological cells, says Sommer.

ROS are reactive intermediates derived from oxygen and can be molecules (such as hydrogen peroxide, for example), radicals or ions. ROS can oxidize lipids and inactivate enzymes, resulting in cell damage.

A Petri dish made of quartz glass coated with a layer of transparent, biocompatible nanodiamond would overcome this problem because it does not encourage the formation of a nanoscopic layer of ROS, he adds.

Most in vitro fertilization (IVF) is performed in polystyrene Petri dishes, so cell damage during such a procedure would be very serious indeed, continues Sommer. ROS is thought to play an important role during IVF in which egg and sperm cells are incubated in a Petri dish. ROS damage may be even more significant during a particular process known as intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection, in which egg cells are stripped of their cumulus cells a ROS-protective cell layer before a sperm cell is injected into them. Scientists believe that ROS during IVF come from cell metabolism itself, from breakdown products when cells die and the microenvironment in which the cells are placed.

Preliminary tests using mouse embryonic carcinoma and primary cells show that diamond-coated dishes could be ideal platforms for in vitro experiments. However, there is one important drawback in that quartz glass Petri dishes coated with nanodiamond are expensive to make.

Our new results expose the shortcomings of traditional polystyrene Petri dishes and so might serve as a model to eventually inspire a cheaper and more disposable solution based on plastic, Sommer told nanotechweb.org. For the moment, and to cut costs, we recommend coating existing polystyrene dishes with a suitable nanolayer to seal the plastic, thereby preventing it from softening. The result could be a hybrid material Petri dish with unrivalled biocompatibility.

Richard Rawlins of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was not involved in this work, agrees. The negative impact of ROS on human in vitro fertilization procedures has been known for many years, he explained. To counteract this problem, the culture medium used in IVF typically contains ROS scavengers to negate ROS impact. Sommer and colleagues discovery, which highlights that ROS are still active at the nanoscale, is important. Coating either plasticware or glassware to prevent ROS formation may significantly improve the viability and quality of embryos produced in vitro, and may even benefit other procedures in medicine, such as in vitro production of stem cell lines.

The work is detailed in the Journal of Bionic Engineering.

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Nanodiamond coating for a better Petri dish

Cryo-Cell International, Inc. (OTC:QB Markets Group Symbol: CCEL), the company that in 1992, became the first to separate and store stem cells, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended August 31, 2012.

Oldsmar, Florida (PRWEB) October 15, 2012

For the quarter ended August 31, 2012, the Company reported a net loss of $547,000, or $0.05 per basic common share, compared to a net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.20 per basic common share, for the three months ended August 31, 2011 and a net loss of $3.2 million, or $0.28 per basic common share, for the quarter ended May 31, 2012. The decrease in net loss for the August 2012 quarter resulted primarily from a decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses of $1.9 million, or 38%, to $3.0 million for the quarter ended August 31, 2012 from $4.9 million for the quarter ended August 31, 2011. Additionally, total revenue increased marginally to $4.5 million for the 2012 quarter compared to $4.4 million of total revenue for the 2011 quarter.

David Portnoy, Cryo-Cells Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer commented, We believe that Cryo-Cells fiscal third quarter 2012 results are an indication that the board of directors is successfully repositioning the Company for sustainable, profitable future growth. Operating income for the 2012 fiscal third quarter was $38,000 versus an operating loss of $1.1 million for the immediately preceding quarter.

Mark Portnoy, Cryo-Cells Co-Chief Executive Officer, added, We are pleased to see the improvement in the results from continuing operations from the prior period. We believe that the investment we have made in our new sales and marketing strategy is beginning to pay off. Although we expect some variability going forward, we are encouraged by the trend of increasing revenues and operating income over the last several months.

Financial Results

Revenue

For the quarter ended August 31, 2012, total revenues increased $134,000, or 3%, to $4.5 million from $4.4 million for the quarter ended August 31, 2011. The 2012 quarterly revenue consisted of $4.2 million in processing and storage fee revenue and $356,000 in licensee income, compared to $4.1 million in processing and storage fee revenue and $335,000 in licensee income for the 2011 quarter. Licensee income for the three months ended August 31, 2012 consisted primarily of $326,000 in royalty income earned on the processing and storage of cord blood stem cell specimens in geographic areas where the Company has license agreements and $30,000 related to installment payments of non-refundable up-front license fees from the licensees of the Companys umbilical cord blood program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Licensee income for the three months ended August 31, 2011 consisted primarily of $319,000 in royalty income earned on the processing and storage of cord blood stem cell specimens in geographic areas where the Company has license agreements and $16,000 related to installment payments of non-refundable up-front license fees from the licensees of the Companys umbilical cord blood program in Costa Rica.

Net Loss

For the quarter ended August 31, 2012, the Company reported a net loss of $547,000, or $0.05 per basic common share, compared to a net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.20 per basic common share, for the three months ended August 31, 2011. The decrease in the net loss for the three months ended August 31, 2012 was due primarily to a decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses.

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Cryo-Cell Reports Fiscal Third Quarter Financial Results

Chennai, Oct 16 (IBNS)

Cordlife, Asias largest and the most experienced network of stem cell banks in the Asia Pacific region, has announced the commencement of 49th collection centre in Chennai.

With its new centre coming up in Chennai, Cordlife has strengthened its foothold in South India with the presence in Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.

The addition of this new collection centre would further consolidate its presence as a leading player in the overall stem cell banking market.

The field of stemcell research is ever-growing as new diseases are coming under the purview of stemcell therapy.

The recent Nobel Prize win in physiology/medicine for work on stem cell has opened a new wave in the medical world.

The discoveries have showed that the body's mature, specialized cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments without destroying human embryos.

Scientists want to harness the reprogramming to create replacement tissues for treating diseases such as Parkinson's, cystic fibrosis and diabetes and for studying the roots of diseases in the laboratory.

Stem cell therapies are being developed for rare genetic disorders and for the treatment of terminal diseases like heart disease, orthopedic complications, breast cancer and other life threatening ailments.

With Cordlifes wide network, more number of individuals can opt for the unique patented technology now for storing their childs umbilical cord.

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Cordlife opens Chennai collection centre

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL) today announced that Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs, an initiative of Sigma Life Science, and Ekam Imaging, Inc. have partnered to develop a suite of preclinical services based on the advanced translational power of genetically engineered rat models from SAGE Labs and Ekam's expertise in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. For more information on SAGE Labs, visit http://www.sageresearchmodels.com.

Unlike the fMRI studies currently performed in drug development that require anesthetized, unconscious animals, Ekam Imaging's fMRI translational technology produces detailed maps of a conscious animal's brain activity, a state that much better represents the human condition.

"The rat models created by SAGE Labs have been genetically modified to reflect patient-relevant mutations and exhibit highly relevant, robust phenotypes. The combination of these rats with Ekam's imaging platform presents a transformative opportunity for translational neuroscience programs. Ultimately, these types of studies will lead to better drugs targeting neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases," said Edward Weinstein, Ph.D., Director of SAGE Labs.

"Probing the brain functions of a conscious animal, specifically in rats which are prized by the neuroscience community for intelligence and complex social behaviors, produces data that is much more representative of a potential therapy's effects on human processes," said Mark Nedelman, MS, MBA, President and CEO of Ekam Imaging.

Nedelman's company is currently producing a detailed map of neural activity in SAGE Lab's Pink1 gene knockout rat, which SAGE Labs generated for The Michael J. Fox Foundation to model Parkinson's disease. The Pink1 gene knockout rat exhibits delayed-onset motor deficits, a key phenotype of Parkinson's disease in humans.

Sigma and Ekam plan to publicly launch services specific to SAGE Labs' neuroscience rat models in early 2013.

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "more precise," "unambiguously," "curtail," "rapidly" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that preclincal imaging assays or related services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with preclinical imaging assays or related services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,100 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co, LLC registered in the US and other countries. SAGE is a registered trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.

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SAGE® Labs, Ekam Imaging, Inc. Partner to Develop Preclinical Imaging Assays to Screen Therapies of Neurodegenerative ...

Washington, Oct 16 (IANS) US scientists have discovered a link between expanding waistlines and certain cancers, saying that excess fat is a key factor in the progression of the disease.

Although diet is an important factor, the direct effect of excess fat tissue on tumours has to be considered, said Mikhail Kolonin, senior study author and associate professor of Regenerative Medicine at the Brown Foundation Institute, University of Texas.

"For the first time, we have demonstrated that excess fat is a key factor in cancer progression regardless of the diet contributing to the extra weight," Kolonin said, the journal Cancer Research reports.

The World Health Organisation reports that in 2008 there were more than 1.4 billion obese adults worldwide, with 7.6 million succumbing to cancer that year, according to a Texas statement.

Tumours emit a signal that attracts progenitor cells from white adipose (fat) tissue in mouse models of cancer. These cells in turn support the network of blood vessels that nourish tumours - a process called tumour angiogenesis.

Like a stem cell, a progenitor cell can differentiate into a specific type of cell. Stem cells can replicate indefinitely, but progenitor cells can divide only a limited number of times.

"Our experiments show that fat progenitors are recruited by tumours, where they incorporate into blood vessels and become fat cells," said Yan Zhang, who led the study as research scientist at the UT Health Medical School.

"The next step in this research would be to inactivate fat progenitor cells in an effort to slow cancer progression," said Kolonin.

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'Expanding waistlines linked with cancers'

Public release date: 15-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kat Snodgrass 202-962-4090 Society for Neuroscience

NEW ORLEANS New animal studies provide additional support for investigating stem cell treatments for Parkinson's disease, head trauma, and dangerous heart problems that accompany spinal cord injury, according to research findings released today. The work, presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health, shows scientists making progress toward using stem cell therapies to repair neurological damage.

The studies focused on using stem cells to produce neurons essential, message-carrying cells in the brain and spinal cord. The loss of neurons and the connections they make for controlling critical bodily functions are the chief hallmarks of brain and spinal cord injuries and of neurodegenerative afflictions such as Parkinson's disease and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Today's new findings show that:

Other recent findings discussed show that:

"As the fields of developmental and regenerative neuroscience mature, important progress is being made to begin to translate the promise of stem cell therapy into meaningful treatments for a range of well-defined neurological problems," said press conference moderator Jeffrey Macklis, MD, of Harvard University and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, an expert on development and regeneration of the mammalian central nervous system. "Solid, rigorous, and well-defined pre-clinical work in animals can set the stage toward human clinical trials and effective future therapies."

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This research was supported by national funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, as well as private and philanthropic organizations.

Todd Bentsen, (202) 962-4086

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Realizing the potential of stem cell therapy

With all the publicity about the miraculous effects of stem cell therapy, the Department of Health (DOH) should prepare itself for the possibility that the new procedure would be performed by unqualified, and completely clueless, people.

I passed a beauty parlor recently and saw a huge poster on its door announcing the arrival of stem cell therapy. I was instantly reminded of botched breast enhancement and nose jobs performed by salon personnel who seemed to think it was as easy to learn complicated surgical procedures as it was to train to cut hair or do manicures and pedicures.

The DOH should start warning the public not to fall for these special offers just because they are available at giveaway rates.

Modern lifestyle problem

Experts have repeatedly talked about problems brought about by modern lifestyles. Changing diets and stress are two of the best known. Dr. Jaime G. Ignacio, section chief of gastroenterology at Veterans Hospital and head of the Digestive Malignancy Council of the Philippine Society of Gastroenterology, said constipation could be one of the consequences of the combination of these two factors.

Speaking at an event hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim, maker of Dulcolax (generic name Bisacodyl), a formulation for constipation relief, Ignacio, who, as a gastroenterologist is a specialist in digestive system disorders, defined the problem as having fewer than three bowel movements in a week (normal ranges from three times a week to three times a day).

He said constipation itself was not a disease but it could sometimes be a symptom of something serious, like colorectal cancer. But he said about 95 percent of cases were acuteoccurring suddenly and lasting for only a short periodresulting from some sudden lifestyle or hormonal changes, the taking of medication, lack of exercise, etc.

Ignacio said acute was easy to treat, with products like Dulcolax to solve the problem. But, if left unattended, acute constipation could lead to a chronic or long-term condition, which was the more worrisome, and would need medical attention.

He said constipation should be treated as soon as the problem had lasted for four or more days.

Constipation is part of modern living. [Like other diseases] prevention is the key. Safe and effective treatment is available [if needed], Ignacio stressed.

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Beauty salon ‘offers’ stem cell therapy