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Embryonic stem cells have not cured or successfully treated a single patient. Contrast that with the more than 70 conditions that are treatable using non-embryonic stem cell therapies. One of the hottest debates in bioethics today surrounds research using stem cells taken from either in vitro fertilization or cloned human embryos. From state legislatures and the halls of Congress to the United Nation, the controversy over whether to ban (or fund) such research rages. Human cloning for embryonic stem cell research creates human embryos virtually identical to a patient’s genetic composition. The embryo’s stem cells are then harvested — a...

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel DALLAS - Heart attack patients who were treated with their own stem cells a few days after being hospitalized had significantly improved heart pumping ability, according to the largest, most rigorous clinical trial to date of the controversial therapy. The improvement seen with stem cells was better than with the best drugs now available and it appears the therapy actually repaired damage done during heart attacks, said lead author Volker Schachinger, a cardiologist at J.W. Goethe University and the Third Medical Clinic of Cardiology in Frankfurt, Germany. "It opens up a completely new way of treating heart...

Adult Stem Cells Provide New Life for Livers By Michael Fumento Scripps Howard News Service, October 20, 2005 Copyright 2005 Scripps Howard News Service I have frequently written on the gulf between the "PROMISE" of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the REALITY of therapy from adult stem cells (ASCs) – those already in our bodies and umbilical cord blood. ESCs get publicity; ASCs get results. The latest example: ASCs are now rebuilding human livers.  This is a healthy liver . . .   Until now, the only hope for persons with irreversible liver failure from such diseases as cirrhosis, which...

ERUSALEM - After 61 years of pumping blood, Marie Carty's heart was failing her. Months earlier she had given up her two-mile walk on the boardwalk of her New Jersey hometown along the Atlantic Ocean. She could barely make it from the parking lot to the view of the water. Although Carty knew she needed a new heart, she was afraid hers wouldn't last during the long wait for a transplant. Desperate for an alternative, Carty found the Israeli-Thai company Theravitae, which has begun performing an experimental procedure that multiplies stem cells taken from a patient's own blood and injects...

Stem cell injections might someday be used to treat a debilitating cardiovascular condition called peripheral arterial disease (PAD), researchers say. People with PAD have poor blood circulation -- especially in the legs -- and can suffer sores, ulcers and even amputations. PAD is caused by a clogging and hardening of the arteries, and patients may need surgical procedures such as angioplasty or an artery bypass graft to widen narrowed blood vessels. However, as many as 12 percent of PAD patients can't have these surgical procedures. That's why researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis are investigating the...

Legislators who view embryonic stem cell research as human cloning won first-round approval Thursday in the House for a proposal to encourage alternatives in finding cures for diseases. The measure would set up new state funds to finance research with adult stem cells or blood from newborns' umbilical cords, then grant a tax break to Kansans who contribute to either fund. Backers couldn't say how much the tax breaks would cost but hope to attract millions of dollars in contributions. The House voted 71-46 to add the proposal to an unrelated bill. Another voice vote advanced the amended legislation to...

Australian scientists are using stem cells to repair fractures in patients whose bones won't heal. The hope is it will save patients having to undergo many painful operations. Jamie Stevens, 21, fell off his motor bike nine months ago, fracturing his thigh bone. It didn't heal, leaving a five-centimetre gap. The usual treatment would be to graft a new bone from his hip. Instead, he was chosen as the first Australian patient to get an injection of specially treated stem cells. "The benefits outweigh the old procedure which takes a big chunk out of your hip," Jamie Stevens said. "It's...

In a significant advance for regenerative medicine, researchers at Rice University have discovered a new way to culture adult stem cells from bone marrow such that the cells themselves produce a growth matrix that is rich in important biochemical growth factors. The research, which appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is notable not just because of the science – researchers found they could coax bone cells into produce up to 75 times more calcium – but also because the study was conducted by an undergraduate bioengineering senior, Néha Datta. "These results are important,...

Israeli researchers engineered mesenchymal stem cells to repair tendons. Weekend athletes who overexert themselves running or playing basketball may one day reap the benefits of research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that shows that adult stem cells can be used to make new tendon or ligament tissue. Tendon and ligament injuries present a major clinical challenge to orthopedic medicine. In the United States, at least 200,000 patients undergo tendon or ligament repair each year. Moreover, the intervertebral disc, which is composed in part of tendon-like tissue, tends to degenerate with age, leading to the very common phenomenon of low-back...

A couple of weeks ago Wake Forest University physicians described the first human recipients of a laboratory-grown organ. In the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet," Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, detailed a series of patients (children and teenagers) who received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. WHAAAAT? Did somebody say "laboratory organs?!" Yes. Perhaps like you, the first reaction of some who heard the news was, “why would anyone need a new bladder?” Well, many infants are born with congenital birth defects a very serous one is spina bifida (incomplete closure of the spine)....

Rush cardiologists are hoping that transplanted stem cells can regenerate damaged heart muscle in those who experience a first heart attack. The study involves an intravenous infusion of adult mesenchymal stem cells from healthy donor bone marrow that might possibly reverse damage to heart tissue. A unique benefit of the stem cell product is that it is given to patients through a standard IV line. Other therapies require delivery to the site of the disease through catheterization or open surgical procedures, but this one is very simple and easy for the patient. “A person who has had a single, severe...

Animal study shows promise for treatment of Alport syndrome BOSTON -- The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the findings are described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which appears on-line the week of April 24, 2006. Symptoms of Alport syndrome,...

Some Twin Cities doctors are using stem cells to give relief to people who suffer from chronic pain in their knees. More than one million Americans will have a knee procedure this year to ease chronic pain, but any complications can have a painful cost. One week after minimally invasive surgery, Andrew Gantman's knee is looking good and nearly pain-free. But his orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Joel Boyd said Andrew has a 90 percent chance of developing arthritis in that knee at some point. "You may have patients who go onto arthritis within two to three years versus patients who go...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A specialist in stem cell biology at the University at Buffalo has received a $1.98 million grant from National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of bone marrow-derived adult stem cells to treat the serious heart malfunction known as hibernating myocardium. Hibernating myocardium is a condition in which heart cells that have experienced reduced blood flow over an extended period of time due to narrowed coronary arteries adapt to this deprivation by down-regulating metabolism while remaining functionally viable. Previous work in UB's Center for Cardiovascular Research employing the center's novel swine model of hibernating myocardium has...

UF finding could lead to approaches to treat macular degeneration GAINESVILLE, Fla. - University of Florida scientists conducting experiments with mice have found evidence that the body naturally replenishes small amounts of cells in the eye essential for healthy vision. The finding may shatter the belief that a cell layer vital for eyesight called the retinal pigment epithelium, or RPE, is a nonrenewable resource, say researchers writing in a recent issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. RPE plays a vital role in our visual health by forming the outer barrier of the retina and supporting the function of cells...

The results of a study published in the April issue of Stem Cells and Development suggest that human stem cells derived from bone marrow are predisposed to develop into a variety of nerve cell types, supporting the promise of developing stem cell-based therapies to treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Stem Cells and Development is a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com  ). The paper, entitled "Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Express Neural Genes, Suggesting a Neural Predisposition," is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/scd.  These surprising results lend a new perspective to stem cell...

NEW DELHI: Age-related degeneration of vision has been a common problem, which so far has no cure. However, an ongoing stem cell study at AIIMS might just provide a solution. For about six months now, Dr Rajender Prasad Centre for Opthalmic Sciences at AIIMS has been studying the effect of stem cells in patients who suffer from degenerative vision disorders — the patients taken in the Phase I of study can’t see beyond 3 metre and according to the WHO classification are termed ‘blind’. The study is being conducted on patients who have age-related vision loss or are affected by...

Two new studies suggest that use of cells derived from bone marrow, as well as a seaweed-derived product called hydrogel, may prompt stem cells to repair nerve damage caused by stroke or spinal cord injury. Both studies were expected to be presented Friday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in San Diego. In one study, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, examined bone marrow-derived multi-potent progenitor cells, which have the ability to develop into different kinds of cells, including nervous system cells. Both human and rat bone marrow cells were transplanted into rats with induced strokes....

Researchers say they've lessened the effects of stroke in rats by transplanting stem cells into the rodents' brains. The treatment also seemed to help rats fight a condition similar to human cerebral palsy.  There's no indication yet that the treatment will work in humans, and the lead researcher cautioned that the strategy is no "magic bullet." However, tests in people could begin as early as next year, said Cesario V. Borlongan, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Will not be a total cure The treatment is "not something that will totally cure stroke...

Adult Stem Cells Improve Cardiac Function and Blood Flow in Patients With Heart Disease, New Study Finds NOGA(R) Cardiac Navigation System from Biologics Delivery Systems Group, Cordis Corporation, Helped Researchers Deliver Stem Cells to the Heart ATLANTA, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Bone marrow-derived adult stem cells administered within the heart (intramyocardial) and coronary artery (intracoronary) tissues of heart disease patients improved patients' heart function and blood flow, according to a pilot study presented during a poster session at the 2006 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session. The study also found that patients who received more stem cells experienced a higher...

Attaching a recently discovered cytokine to neural stem cells derived from bone marrow, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have developed a tool to track and kill malignant brain tumor cells and provide long-term protection against their return. Results of an animal study are published in the March 1, 2006 issue of Cancer Research, and the researchers are now applying to regulatory agencies to translate their work into human clinical trials. Gliomas are highly invasive tumors with poorly defined borders that intermingle with healthy brain tissue, making complete surgical removal nearly impossible. Furthermore, cells separate from the...

Researchers report the discovery that cells used in bone marrow transplantation can develop into new cells lining the gut, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study showed that bone marrow derived cells can differentiate into functional gastrointestinal epithelial cells after bone marrow transplantation. Research was from the laboratory of Diane Krause, M.D., professor of Laboratory Medicine and senior author of the study, in collaboration with Marie Egan, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, respiratory medicine, and cellular and molecular physiology. "We demonstrated that the cells were functional by...

MONTREAL, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers said Friday they have uncovered a natural defense mechanism to Alzheimer's disease. Not surprisingly, it involves stem cells -- those derived from bone marrow. In Alzheimer's patients, plaque forms in the brain, but the brain's resident immune cells, called microglia, can't fight off the substance. The plaque can then kill off the brain's neurons, or nerve cells. However, microglia harvested from bone marrow stem cells do appear capable of defeating the plague, said researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and the research centre at Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec, Canada....

U.S. MARINE CORPS FORCES, PACIFIC, CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii (Jan. 25, 2006) -- As the War on Terrorism continues, the increased threat of nuclear, biological and chemical warfare attacks continue. The Department of Defense, in preparation, has devised countermeasures to be ready for such an attack. The DoD is sponsoring world-wide bone marrow drives on military installations that will help treat victims of nuclear, biological or chemical attacks. “If a servicemember is attacked by a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon, it takes three days for their bone marrow to deteriorate,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrea Miles, the C.W....

Stem cells next weapon against AIDS Nearly 10 years after the development of antiviral drugs to treat HIV and AIDS, scientists are poised to attack the deadly virus with a new weapon: stem cells. Researchers at UCLA are working on ways to arm blood stem cells in the bone marrow against the HIV virus. Though the strategy doesn't amount to a cure, it might be more effective than current antiviral treatments and some day might have the potential to immunize people against the virus. The HIV virus attacks several different types of blood cells that are part of the immune...

(BETHESDA, MD) – Left ventricular function and exercise capacity increased, while the area of heart muscle damage shrank, in 18 patients given infusions of their own bone marrow stem cells up to eight years after a heart attack, according to a new study in the Nov. 1, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "This new therapy is able to treat until now irreversible heart complaints and function disturbances in patients with chronic coronary artery disease after myocardial infarction, even many years after heart attack. Therefore there is hope for this large amount of patients with...

Brave brother Eric makes history as he gives lifesaving bone marrow aged just 11 months MEET the littlest lifesaver in the land—and the baby sister he rescued from the deadly grip of cancer.Today Eric and Evie Prince toddle happily around the garden hand in hand without a care in the world under the loving gaze of mum Shaura and dad Simon. But a year ago, both children stood on the brink of death as Eric became Britain's youngest-ever bone marrow donor at only 11 months old in a last desperate gamble to save six-week-old Evie. She was one of the...

For Dorinda Gilbert, a nasty headache and a few days of missed work were a small price to pay to try to save someone's life. Gilbert, of Billings, donated bone marrow last fall through the Montana Marrow Program, a division of Inland Northwest Blood Center in Spokane, Wash. "It's something you wish you would never have to do because it means somebody is in desperate need," Gilbert said. "You're attempting to save someone's life. I think a little pain is worth that. ... I think everyone should sign up." The Montana Marrow Program will hold a bone marrow donor drive...

TO: THOMAS. YOU ARE THE BEST LITTLE BROTHER! I -- On a sign posted in Thomas Tatem's hospital room. DURHAM, N.C. When a nurse finally delivered the bag of deep-red liquid to Lisa Tatem, she cradled it like the most fragile piece of glass. She stood motionless in the hospital hallway and stared. "My God," Tatem whispered. "That's really it." Inside the pouch decorated with a "Finding Nemo" sticker were cells from her daughter's bone marrow, the soft tissue that makes blood cells needed to fight disease. Those cells, invisible to the eye, could heal her two other children -...

LOMA LINDA, Calif. (AP) - A Marine who received a liver transplant because of a near-fatal infection that developed after his return from Iraq may now need a bone marrow transplant. Lance Cpl. Christopher LeBleu, 22, has a "high probability" of needing the transplant because he has developed aplastic anemia, which has caused his bone marrow to stop producing enough red blood cells to keep him alive, Loma Linda University Medical Center officials said Wednesday. The hospital appealed for blood donors with Type O blood to join a registry of potential bone marrow donors so doctors can find a potential...

HARTFORD — Besides being an incredibly selfless act, donating your kidney or bone marrow to help another can be very expensive. Two local lawmakers hope to provide some relief in the form of a tax credit. Their proposal would provide a tax credit of up to $10,000 for a taxpayer who donates an organ or partial organ, such as a kidney, pancreas, intestine, lung or bone marrow. The credit would apply to surgery-related transportation, lodging and lost wages. The bill only applies to living organ donors. The bill is being co-sponsored by state Rep. Mary Ann Carson, R-New Fairfield, and...

Beginning of the End for Embryonic Stem Cell Research? By Michael Fumento Tech Central Station, February 11, 2005Copyright 2005 Tech Central Station Supporters of expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research were disappointed by President Bush's State of the Union Address, which indicated no softening of restrictions. Instead, he said he’d work to “ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation.” But those who truly believe ESC research will bring medical breakthroughs have naught to fear. For there’s a far more promising approach, likelier to produce more benefits and much sooner.We're being flooded with exciting new developments from...

Researchers in Boston have isolated a kind of cell from human bone marrow that they say has all the medical potential of human embryonic stem cells -- a claim that, if verified, could shake up the debate over human embryo research that has divided the country for the past six years. But not all scientists are convinced the cells are as versatile as they appear to be. Tufts University researchers used specialized cell-sorting machines to pluck the peculiar cells from samples of bone marrow obtained from three different donors. Tests suggested the cells are capable of morphing into many, and...

What Is a Bone Marrow Transplant? Replaces unhealthy cells with healthy ones  Related Resources • Minority Marrow Matches Fewer • Articles and links on bone marrow transplants • Articles and links on leukemia    From Other Guides • Breast Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplants • Transplants in Children    Elsewhere on the Web • National Marrow Donor Program • American Bone Marrow Donor Registry   Mary Kugler, MSN, RN,BC Guide to Rare/Orphan DiseasesWhat is a bone marrow transplant? A bone marrow transplant is when special cells (called stem cells) that are normally found in the bone marrow are taken out, filtered, and given back either to...

On the day a priest came to her hospital bed and prayed over her withered body, Diana Abad would not have believed good fortune awaited. Or seemed to be, until one day her back started to ache and another day her legs swelled. She had her blood tested and learned her white-cell count was absurdly high. Leukemia, her doctor said. Without a bone-marrow transplant, she would be dead in nine months. David Mason would not have believed in 1990 that by checking a box on a Navy form he would set in motion the chain of events that led him...

Cord Blood Transplant OK for Adult LeukemiaStudies: Cord Blood Transplants Realistic Option for Adult Leukemia Treatment By Jennifer Warner WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Nov. 24, 2004 -- Umbilical cord blood transplants may be a viable treatment option for adults with leukemia when a matching bone marrow donor isn't available, according to two major new studies. Umbilical cord blood transplants are already successful in treating children with leukemia, but until now the safety and effectiveness of the treatment in adults with leukemia has not been examined. A common treatment for adult leukemia...

Doctors Grow New Jaw Bone in Man's Back 6 minutes ago By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer LONDON - A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years — a bratwurst sandwich — after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth in what experts call an "ambitious" experiment. AP Photo Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health? Find answers here. According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth chemical...

Seattle, Wash. -- Seven-year-old Mason Bridges says it wasn't hard for him to accept the pain of donating bone marrow. He says he knew he had to do it because "she's my mom, and she's really important to me." The boy underwent the painful extraction process yesterday at Children's Hospital in Seattle to try to help save the life of his mother, Kris Bridges. She was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a type of blood cancer, in December. Bridges says the family decided to come from South Carolina so the procedure could be done by doctors from the Seattle Cancer...

I heard a presentation today from Jeffrey Chell, MD, chief executive of the National Marrow Donor Program, who explained that certain kinds of leukemia, blood, immune system and genetic disorders are treatable and curable with bone marrow or blood stem-cell transplants. If you're between 18 and 60, and in good health, you're eligible to donate. Marrow collection is from the pelvic bone, which is done under anesthesia in the hospital. Marrow replenshises in four to six weeks. Blood stem-cell collection involves taking a drug to increase stem-cells in the blood. The donor's blood is drawn from one arm, passed through...

Stem cells could be used to treat diabetes, scientists suggest. Research has already indicated stem cells could be used to treat conditions including brain damage, multiple sclerosis and sickle cell anaemia. This latest study found stem cells from bone marrow could be converted into insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas to replace those damaged by diabetes. The hormone insulin is needed by the body to regulate blood sugar levels. There is a lot of work to be done before this procedure could be used in practice Dr Eleanor Kennedy, Diabetes UK People with type-1 diabetes have lost the ability to...