Glendale, Arizona (PRWEB) January 24, 2014

Floppy, a nine year old Dachshund, struggled to get up from a laying position before his recent stem cell therapy at Happy Valley Animal Hospital. The pain from arthritis was so bad he was reluctant to move much at all, even when encouraged by his family. This holiday season Floppys owners gifted him with quality of life. Now hes bringing in the New Year with less pain and more ability to run and play again.

Floppy had been suffering from osteoarthritis in his hips and knees long enough that it was affecting other joints in his hind end. He had difficulty getting up after sitting, limped, and exhibited stiffness. Happy Valley Animal Hospitals Dr. Victor Saltzman determined Floppy was a great candidate for stem cell therapy using Vet-Stem services, and in early December scheduled Floppy for a small fat tissue collection to start the process. Floppys fat was overnighted to Vet-Stems lab in San Diego, California where it was processed into injectable doses of Floppys own stem cells. In 48 hours Dr. Saltzman received the doses back and had started Floppy on his way to recovery.

We are extremely pleased with the results. The level of pain and stiffness has decreased dramatically. Its almost like hes a puppy again! There is a night and day difference in his ability to move around and perform everyday tasks. He will occasionally get sore after a long day of activity, but its 1000% better than before his stem cell therapy, the Sobols.

Just two weeks after the stem cell injections Dr. Saltzman and the team at Happy Valley Animal Hospital received a video of Floppy running happily around the backyard, enjoying his recovered range of motion and obvious lack of pain. Although results can vary, the first peer reviewed double-blinded multicenter study for adipose-derived (fat originating) stem cell therapy use in osteoarthritis of the hip in dogs showed positive results for lameness, pain, and range of motion. Similar results have been obtained for elbows and stifles in dogs, of which stifles were a secondary area of arthritis and pain for Floppy.

Stem cells decrease pain and inflammation. Stem cells are multi-potent and can differentiate into tendon, ligament, bone, cartilage, and other tissue. The hope is that Floppys stem cells will also regenerate tissues in the joints that are causing him pain.

Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com.

About Happy Valley Animal Hospital The goal of the team at Happy Valley Animal Hospital is to provide compassionate, preventive, and top quality medical and surgical veterinary care. With the most up-to-date equipment, the team at Happy Valley Animal Hospital can provide clients and their pets in the local community with the best healthcare and service possible. By offering and maintaining these goals, the team at Happy Valley Animal Hospital hopes to enhance the lives of their clients by allowing their pets to live long, happy lives. As a team, Happy Valley Animal Hospital always considers the client perspective and tries to put themselves in their shoes or paws.

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PROFESSOR MIODRAG STOJKOVIC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Advanced Cell Technology is running the only US trials of embryonic-stem-cell therapies.

Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a biotechnology company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, has long flirted with fame and bankruptcy.

The company is running the only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved clinical trials of embryonic stem (ES)-cell therapies. Later this month, ACT plans to report preliminary results from three trials to test the safety of its treatment for two different forms of vision loss. If all goes well, it could be the first clinical demonstration of the safety and perhaps also the therapeutic potential of ES cells.

Yet a series of financial missteps could cost ACT the opportunity to see that potential become reality. On 22 January, the firm announced that its chief executive, Gary Rabin, was stepping down. The news came a month after ACT which had US$5.5 million in cash on-hand as of 30 September 2013 announced that it would pay $4 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charge alleging that the company had illegally sold billions of shares of stock.

Thats a big hit for any biotechnology company, says Gregory Bonfiglio, a venture capitalist with Proteus Venture Partners in Portola Valley, California. This is a very painful time for them.

ACT is accustomed to the pain: it has been running on fumes for years and has repeatedly skirted bankruptcy. The company announced this week that it aims to begin the next round of its clinical trials in the second half of 2014. But its last quarterly statement, which covered the period ending 30 September, revealed that the company had only enough funds to last into the second half of 2014. ACT spokesman David Schull says that the firm is exploring all financing options and plans to expand its clinical operations to accommodate the upcoming trials.

That financing may have to carry ACT through additional legal charges. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission was just one of a string of cases ACT has handled over the past few years as it dealt with the legacy left by the fundraising schemes of its previous chief executive, William Caldwell. One such case is still pending, and the SEC has launched a separate investigation of Rabin for distributing stock without reporting it to the SEC in a timely fashion.

More recently, on 2 January, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) sued ACT for breach of contract. WARF, which handles patents and licensing for the University of Wisconsin, holds a number of key ES-cell patents, and ACT struck a licensing deal with the foundation in 2007. The case has been sealed, and lawyers representing WARF did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

ACT may soon have company in the clinic. The London Project to Cure Blindness has been developing an ES cellderived therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration, a leading form of vision loss in people aged 50 and older.

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